Latest / Reformed Thinking / Called and Sent: Discerning Divine Missionary Direction Through Word Church and Providence

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Called and Sent: Discerning Divine Missionary Direction Through Word Church and Providence · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome to Reform Thinking. You know, usually when we talk
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  about a medical diagnosis, there is this expectation of total
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  precision. It is like a lot like
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  engineering. You fall off a ladder, you break
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  your arm. You go to the hospital.
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  The technician takes an X-ray, pulls up the image on a glaring
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  screen, and the doctor just points to that jagged white line
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  and says there it is. That is the problem and here is
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  how we fix it. Yeah, it is very binary.
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  The bone is broken or it is not broken.
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  It is a clean break or a compound fracture.
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  And above all else, it is comforting.
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  We really like things to be visible.
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  We like situations to be neatly categorized so we know precisely
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  what to do next. Right, But then you step into
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  the world of theology, specifically, you know, figuring
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  out what God wants you to do with your life, and suddenly
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  that X-ray machine is broken. We look at the landscape of a
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  divine call and honestly, it is murky.
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  People wait for a voice from the sky, a feeling in their chest,
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  or some mystical sign to point them toward their life's work.
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  So today we are taking a deep dive into how God directs His
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  people, specifically regarding foreign missions.
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  We are looking at the rigid, unyielding mechanics of divine
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  Providence, the local church, and Scripture.
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  Rather than those mystical signs.
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  We have two incredibly dense theological sources today.
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  The 1st is called Called and Sent, which focuses heavily on
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  the blueprint found in Acts 13. And the second one is
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  Sovereignly Directed Steps, which breaks down the theology
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  of Proverbs 16.9, but on the material here presents a massive
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  shift from how modern culture operates.
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  Both texts argue that God governs all creatures and
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  actions through exhaustive Providence, and woven or rather
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  tide through all of this theology is a real life case
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  study. Yes, the case study is
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  fascinating. On one side of the globe, you
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  have Caleb Supo, a boy growing up in a pastor's home in
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  Washington state. On the other side, you have
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  Christina, a young girl living in the crumbling Soviet Union.
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  We are going to track how their lives intersect, and not through
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  random chance or a magical feeling, but through calculated
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  sovereign direction. And for you, the listener, this
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  means rethinking how you make decisions.
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  We are going to challenge the way you view planning, the way
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  you view your local congregation, and the way you
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  interpret the events happening in your own life right now.
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  OK, let's unack this. We have to start by tearing down
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  a very popular modern concept about how we figure out what
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  we're supposed to do. Well, the central problem
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  identified right out of the gate in these sources is modern
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  evangelicalism's massive distortion of the call to
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  ministry. People look for ethereal
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  whispers. They seek out ecstatic visions.
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  They wait for a subjective emotional impression at a highly
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  charged conference. Yep, that.
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  Happens a lot. The texts argue that this
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  approach is heavily influenced by modern mysticism and a
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  pragmatic, seeker sensitive culture.
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  It turns divine direction into an emotional guessing game.
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  Which honestly sounds completely exhausting.
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  Why is human nature so addicted to the idea of a secret
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  personalized sign from the sky? It feels like we treat finding a
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  mission like shaking a Magic 8 ball that is a.
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  Great analogy. Right.
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  We want a mystical, localized answer to appear in the blue
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  liquid when the Bible actually functions like a highly
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  detailed, already printed topographical map.
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  We just have to learn how to read the map instead of shaking
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  the toy. That analogy hits the mark
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  perfectly. The texts we are analyzing
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  operate from a strict cessationist view.
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  So break that down for us, sure. That means the Canon of
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  Scripture is closed and sufficient.
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  Second Timothy 3.16 and 17 state that all Scripture is breathed
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  out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for
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  correction, and for training and righteousness, so that the man
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  of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
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  The basis has been laid. God no longer gives new special
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  revelations. OK, I see.
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  He does not speak through extra biblical prophecy or tongues
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  today. Instead, he governs all actions
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  through his exhaustive Providence.
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  This echoes the historic Reformed confessions which
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  declare that God the Great Creator upholds, directs,
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  disposes, and governs all creatures, actions and things,
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  from the greatest even to the least.
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  I mean, if we rely on subjective feelings, we invite chaos.
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  Feelings change based on what we ate for breakfast or how much
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  sleep we got, but relying on the closed Canon of scripture brings
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  absolute assurance. The closed Canon means the rules
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  do not change mid game. Absolutely.
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  Let us look at Christina's background to make this
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  concrete, because the historical context here is staggering.
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  Following the massive collapse of the Iron Curtain, the
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  atheistic empire of the former Soviet Union shattered for
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  decades. Religion was suppressed,
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  churches were driven underground and the state demanded total
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  allegiance. Yeah, it was a completely closed
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  society. Then, seemingly overnight, the
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  regime fell. Western missionaries suddenly
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  rushed into Ukraine. Christina went to a Christian
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  camp, heard the gospel, and responded.
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  What is fascinating here is the sheer scale of the mechanics God
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  uses. And you know, without taking any
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  political stance on historical events, the source material
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  simply points out that God used the monumental geopolitical
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  collapse of the Soviet Union to rescue his elect and draw one
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  young girl to his work. It is wild to think about.
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  Right. We often view history through
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  the lens of human progression or random chance.
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  But from a Reformed theological perspective, history is the
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  unfolding of an eternal decree. God shifted borders, cracked
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  ideologies, and dropped an empire just to bring the gospel
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  to a camp in Ukraine at the precise moment Christina was
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  there. Wait, so if God is orchestrating
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  geopolitics on that scale, shifting entire nations and
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  collapsing regimes just to reach one person, it completely
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  reorients how we view World News.
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  The chaos we see on television is actually highly calculated
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  stage say. But if God uses macro level
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  geopolitics to move people, we should definitely look at how he
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  uses the micro level of the local congregation to deploy
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  them. That brings us to Acts chapter
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  13, which the source is called A Biblical blueprint for Sending
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  laborers. Yes, X13 gives us the Church in
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  Antioch. This was a critical moment in
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  redemptive history. The Gospel was moving beyond
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  Jerusalem's Jewish center. Antioch was a major urban center
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  in the Roman world. It was a place of massive
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  cultural mixture, fierce commerce and rampant Pagan
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  religion. So very busy, very secular city.
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  Very much so and the church there was a taught worshipping,
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  praying diverse body. The leadership included
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  Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Menane and
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  Saul. You had men from Africa, men
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  associated with Herod's household and a former
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  persecutor, all united by grace. The specific sequence in Acts 13
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  is what catches my attention. Verses one through 5 detail that
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  the church was ministering to the Lord and fasting before the
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  Holy Spirit spoke. Their primary orientation was
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  God Word, not World Word. Yeah, that is a huge
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  distinction. Fasting here is highlighted as a
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  sign of bodily humility. It is a confession that man does
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  not live by bread alone. It's absolutely not a hunger
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  strike to force God's hand or manipulate a spiritual result.
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  The order is critical. They were not brainstorming a
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  brand identity or running a demographic marketing analysis
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  of the Roman Empire. The missionary movement in
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  Antioch was born from the worship of God.
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  They humbled themselves. And then what happened?
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  Then the Holy Spirit said, Set apart from me, Barnabas, and
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  Saul, for the work to which I have called them.
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  The church then responded with more fasting and praying, and
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  they laid their hands on them. I want to pause on that phrase.
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  Laid their hands on them. The modern mind hears that and
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  thinks of a mystical transfer of grace, like a wizard passing on
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  magic. But the text is clear that this
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  is not sacramentalism. It is a public identification.
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  It is the fellowship offering support and a massive transfer
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  of accountability. Yes, accountability is key.
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  Missions is ecclesiastical, not individualistic.
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  Which leads me to ask, why is modern culture so allergic to
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  local church authority? We love the idea of the lone
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  Wolf. A modern independent missionary
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  often acts like a rogue vigilante, trying to fight a war
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  alone and entirely off the grid. But Acts 13 describes
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  commissioned officers sent by a commanding base.
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  Well, the culture of individualism strongly resists
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  accountability. People want the status of the
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  calling without the submission to the local body.
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  But Antioch proves that a genuine calling is recognized
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  and confirmed by the Church. Barnabas and Saul did not flee
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  church life. They were sent by it.
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  That makes total sense. The Spirit sent them through the
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  Church's obedient action. The visible action of the Church
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  works hand in hand with the invisible authority of God.
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  Here's where it gets really interesting.
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  When we look at Caleb Suko's life, he did not act as a rogue
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  agent. He did not just buy a plane
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  ticket, land in a foreign country and declare himself a
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  missionary. He submitted to A5 year pastoral
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  internship under his father's eldership in Washington.
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  Five whole years. Yeah, he sat in board meetings.
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  He submitted to the local church.
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  He proved his character day in and day out before he ever
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  packed a bag for Ukraine. That mundane, unglamorous
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  preparation is the Crucible. The source text notes that
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  Antioch was a church that had already sent famine relief to
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  Judea. It had learned to receive grace
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  and extend it. Caleb learned ecclesiology.
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  You know how the church functions by being embedded in
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  it. He was tested.
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  Right, there were no shortcuts. Parrot church organizations and
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  autonomous zealots have no biblical warrant here.
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  The call to foreign labor is discerned, cultivated, and
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  affirmed by the local congregation.
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  But here's a problem with submitting to a local church.
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  Human beings are hardwired to think we know best.
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  Caleb thought he knew best. He had to be broken of his own
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  assumptions. Which actually brings us to this
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  fascinating breakdown of Proverbs 16.9 in the source
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  material. This verse completely dismantles
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  the illusion of human autonomy. Proverbs 16.9 says a man's heart
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  devises his way, but the Lord directs his steps.
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  Solomon wrote this under the Davidic covenant to instruct his
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  son. He was preparing his son to lead
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  a nation, but he needed to establish the reality that human
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  autonomy is a myth. The text uses antithetical
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  parallelism to contrast our finite planning with God's
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  infinite efficacious directing. The sources dig into the
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  original Hebrew here, and the grammar is incredibly
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  aggressive. Let us break down the Hebrew of
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  the first half of the verse. Lova, Miria, Darkov.
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  The love or the heart is the command center of the intellect
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  and will. The verb usharov is a peel
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  imperfect. Wait, So what does peel
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  imperfect mean for those of us who don't read Hebrew?
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  Good question. In Hebrew syntax, the peel stem
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  indicates intensive repeated action.
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  The imperfect aspect shows continuous action.
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  So humans are constantly obsessively calculating,
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  fabricating, and plotting their own routes.
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  We are factories of planning. Our brains simply do not shut
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  off when it comes to plotting our own course.
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  But because of the fall and total depravity, those plans are
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  inherently flawed. Jeremiah 17.9 says the heart is
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  deceitful. Above all things, our intellect
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  is compromised. Caleb and Christina provide the
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  perfect hilarious examples of this.
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  They were absolute factories of planning.
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  Caleb heard a speaker at age 16 and immediately decided he was
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  going to Togo West Africa. Oh, the Togo plan.
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  Yeah. And then he actually lived along
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  the Amazon River in Brazil, completely assuming that cross
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  cultural labor required jungles and monkeys.
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  He was making plans based on limited fleshly understanding.
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  He planned to farm part time. He specifically gave God an
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  ultimatum stating he would never preach.
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  He even prayed to avoid girls while attending Shasta Bible
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  College. I cannot believe he actually
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  prayed for that. Right.
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  Meanwhile, Christina had her mind set on moving to the island
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  of Fiji. Their early lives read like maps
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  drawn by human hands, full of sincere but entirely misguided
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  arrows. I have to laugh at the sheer
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  absurdity of praying to avoid girls only to have God
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  orchestrate a meeting with your future wife shortly after.
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  But if our intellect is totally depraved and our plans are
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  always flawed, should we stop planning all together that?
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  Is the big question. It feels like human planning is
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  like a child building a spaceship out of cardboard
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  boxes. The child is totally The child
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  uses 3 rolls of duct tape and colors the cardboard wings with
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  markers, fully believing in the aerodynamics of a refrigerator
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  box. But that box is incapable of
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  actual flight without massive parental intervention.
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  Spot on. And the peel imperfect Hebrew we
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  just talked about. That is the kid furiously taping
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  more cardboard together, convinced this modification will
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  achieve orbit. We do not stop planning, but we
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  hold our plans loosely, submitting them to the
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  unsearchable decrees of God. The second-half of Proverbs 16.9
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  introduces that parental intervention you mentioned.
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  This is the pivot of the verse, but the Lord directs His steps.
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  The sources highlight a specific Hebrew conjunction right at this
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  pivot. Yes, the conjunction wah is an
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  adversative wah meaning, but it introduces the supreme over
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  ruling of Yahweh. The verb used is Yan, which is a
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  hyphel imperfect. Another Hebrew term.
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  Break that one down. The hyphel stem is causative.
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  God causes the steps to be established.
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  Ancient Near Eastern usage of this route referred to laying an
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  immovable solid foundation for a temple.
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  God is not simply suggesting a path, He is pouring the
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  immovable concrete of Providence under the feet of His elect
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  that. Completely shatters the
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  prosperity gospel, which claims a person decrees their own
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  destiny through positive thinking and speaking things
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  into existence. It also destroys open theism,
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  the idea that God does not know the future and is just reacting
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  to our choices. God is the primary cause.
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  Man operates as a secondary contingent cause.
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  What is fascinating here is a quote from the Puritan
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  theologian John Charnock. He said Providence is God's
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  Lantern revealing his secret decrees.
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  We see this causative direction perfectly in Caleb's life.
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  God overruled all of Caleb's shortcuts.
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  Caleb thought one year of Bible college was enough to head to
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  the field. He possessed the anti
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  intellectual pragmatism so common today, but God mercifully
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  forced him into nine years of rigorous academic and
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  theological preparation. Nine years, he went from wanting
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  a quick exit to the jungle to studying rigorous exegesis and
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  systematic theology, the texts note.
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  He needed this grounding to defend against things like
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  liberalism, critical race theory, and Mormonism.
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  And to be clear, we are just conveying what the original
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  source material states here regarding his academic prep.
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  God did not just change his geography.
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  God rebuilt his entire intellectual base.
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  We can trace the specific Providence's where God poured
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  the concrete for their steps. Caleb's father casually
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  suggested Caleb talk to Christina at a school picnic.
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  That casual suggestion led to their marriage.
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  Wendell Kempton, the president of the Mission Board A/B.
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  WE pointed Caleb away from Togo and directed him toward Ukraine.
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  Caleb, the boy who gave God an ultimatum that he would never
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  preach, ended up becoming the preacher Boy of the Year at his
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  college. So what does this all mean for
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  us? How do we tell the difference
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  between God providentially closing a door and Satan
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  throwing up a temporary roadblock?
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  If the concrete is being poured? How do we know we were standing
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  on the right Rd. when things get difficult?
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  The sources address this by pushing us toward objective
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  confirmation rather than subjective feelings.
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  You evaluate an open or closed door through the lens of
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  Scripture, the counsel of the local church elders, the reality
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  of your own tested character, and actual opportunity.
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  You do not need a sign in the sky if you are submitting to the
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  Word and the church. When Kempton pointed to Ukraine,
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  Caleb sought his father's counsel, evaluated the open door
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  and walked through it. This brings us to the ultimate
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  theological basis of the deep dive.
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  The sources apply a redemptive historical framework to all of
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  this, referencing Luke 24.27, Proverbs 16.9 and Acts 13 are
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  not just historical anecdotes. They are finally about Jesus
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  Christ. Every text of Scripture must be
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  read in light of Christ. Christ is the supreme missionary
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  sent from heaven. His steps were perfectly
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  established by the Father. Unlike fallen Adam, whose heart
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  devised wicked ways, the heart of the Incarnate Son was
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  perfectly aligned with the decree of the Father.
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  Look at Gethsemane. Christ desired the cup to pass,
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  but the governing reality was not as I will, but as thou wilt.
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  The Father directed the Son straight to Golitha.
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  That is a staggering reality to consider.
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  If we connect this to the bigger picture, we realize that without
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  the substitutionary atonement on the cross, God's exhaustive
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  Providence would only secure our damnation.
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  Because of our total depravity, our steps naturally lead to
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  destruction. But because Christ bore the
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  wrath of God on the cross and satisfied divine justice,
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  prominence now secures sanctification.
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  It guides laborers like Caleb and Christina to preach the
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  gospel to the lost. And the method of that preaching
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  is highly specific. Looking back at Acts 13.5, when
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  Barnabas and Saul arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the
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  Word of God did not prioritize social uplift.
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  They did not focus on cultural adaptation or therapeutic
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  slogans. They heralded the Word.
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  A mission that loses the word might retain religious
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  vocabulary, but it has lost Apostolic substance.
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  Liberal theology attempts to create social improvement
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  without substitutionary atonement.
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  The prosperity gospel exports greed, but biblical labor aims
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  at making disciples by preaching Christ, calling sinners to
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  repentance and faith. We see this in Caleb's own
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  conversion. His conversion relied strictly
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  on the Law and the Gospel. His parents used the law to show
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  him he was a Sinner before they ever explained the cross.
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  It was not a pragmatic, emotionally manipulated altar
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  call. It was a confrontation with
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  divine justice. Makes me think of the Gospel as
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  a Trojan horse. How so?
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  Well, it enters a community through very ordinary,
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  unassuming wooden means, a normal conversation.
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  That's a basic sermon, a small church building, but it contains
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  conquering strength inside. The Word does the work.
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  That is a precise way to view the ordinary means of grace.
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  The word. Corporate worship and biblical
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  discipleship seem weak to the world, but they carry divine
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  authority. Christ did not Commission the
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  church to export American culture.
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  He sent His servants to proclaim repentance and forgiveness.
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  If the mission is cruciform, meaning it is shaped like the
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  cross and inherently involves suffering, how should that
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  change our metric for success or failure on the field?
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  We love metrics. We love counting seats and
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  dollars. A cruciform metric evaluates
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  faithfulness to the word, not pragmatic outcomes.
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  Success is defined by obedience to the sovereign Lord, enduring
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  suffering without bitterness, and maintaining sound doctrine.
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  It may include obscurity, language struggles, and
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  financial sacrifice. The Lamb will receive the reward
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  of his suffering. Our role is to faithfully herald
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  the message, knowing God establishes the results.
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  That takes the crushing weight of performance off our
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  shoulders. Discerning direction is not
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  about geography. It is about lordship.
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  God uses ordinary local congregations, rigorous
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  theological preparation, and unyielding Providence to put His
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  people where He wants them. The overarching lesson here is a
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  violent rejection of self-reliance.
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  You are called to rest entirely in the sovereignty of God.
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  Submit your ambitions to Christ's purpose, seek the
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  counsel of your elders, prepare diligently, and hold your plans
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  with open hands. I want to challenge you, the
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  listener. Challenge yourself to submit to
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  your local congregation. Do not be a road agent.
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  Study the scriptures rigorously, digging into the theology and
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  rest in the comfort that the Almighty is actively causing
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  your steps to be established. That is a solid challenge.
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  Look at the Sukko story. We noted how God used the total
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  collapse of the Soviet empire to reach one girl in Ukraine.
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  He used the massive Roman infrastructure to spread Paul's
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  letters across the ancient world.
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  Look at the headlines today, The shifting borders, the economic
• 19:37
  crises, the political unrest. What if the global chaos
• 19:41
  terrifying the world right now is simply the sovereign stage
• 19:44
  setting for the next massive advancement of the gospel?
• 19:47
  What if God is laying down the concrete for a road we cannot
• 19:50
  even see yet? Think about that X-ray machine
• 19:52
  we started with. You might not see the clean
• 19:54
  white line of a plan in your own life right now, but the Great
• 19:57
  Physician has already drawn the map.