It Is A Matter Of Life And Death Series

The Question of Missions

Why? – It is a matter of Life and Death!

1 John 5:11-12

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Good Evening/Morning

I can’t believe we are already in November! The year is flying by.

This month we are going to focus on Missions and the mission of the church as a whole and the mission of each one of us.

Tomorrow/Tonight is our Missions Banquet. We will get to learn about the work that is going on around the world for the cause of Christ and we will hear from some of our own missionaries that we support to hear what God is doing through the support of the people of Hickory Creek around the world.

But over the next 3 weeks we are going to get practical in how to fulfill the mission God has laid out for us in his word.

Why do we do it, what do we have to do, and how do we do it?

Those are some of the questions we are going to be asking and I believe it will be beneficial to all of us so that we can be better and best be used in God’s eternal work

So if you have struggled to talk to others because you did not really understand why or you didn’t feel you knew what to say or you didn’t really know how best to go about it, then you will want to make sure you are here these next 3 weeks.

Sermon intro

So today, we are going to start by asking “Why?”

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Why are we doing this?

Why do we try to tell people what they don’t always want to hear?

Shouldn’t we just keep what we believe to ourselves so we can all get along?

Isn’t that what Tolerance of others means?

In our society – the word tolerance – has changed its meaning over the years.

Tolerance used to mean you would be tolerant and respectful of other people’s views and opinions, but that you could discuss them and challenge them and agree to disagree.

Tolerance today seems to mean that you can’t disagree with anyone or if you try to talk to someone about why you believe differently or why you believe they should think differently – you are intolerant or a hater.

The ironic thing is, is that if you hold that view of intolerance, you yourself are intolerant, by your own definition because you don’t agree with a person who holds that view.

And while I would disagree with that view of intolerance, I do believe that no matter what we believe about things, we must always communicate, challenge or disagree in a loving and respectful manner. But we will talk about some of that in 2 weeks when we discuss how.

But I do believe it is imperative that we communicate the gospel message of Jesus Christ to this whole world, because that is what Christ told us to do and

It is a matter of Life and Death!

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1 John 5:11-12 - God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.

He who has the Son has life. He who does not have the Son, does not have life. They have death.

We have been called to a mission to share with people life through Jesus Christ, because without Jesus Christ they will suffer eternal damnation in hell! Those of us who have received Jesus Christ as Savior have the one and only solution for them not to go to hell.

The Bible teaches that there is only 2 possibilities regarding where we spend our eternities after we die and that is either in heaven in the presence of the Lord or in Hell, eternally separated from God.

Those are our only options.

Well, maybe you are here today thinking to yourself, “Well, I understand that you believe that, but that doesn’t make it true. There are a lot of people who think differently than you. What makes you believe that what you’re saying is true?”

That is a good question.

Those are the types of questions we should be asking or prepared to answer. Why do I believe this is true and why should you believe it too? I think too many people just believe stuff without really giving thought to it.

Don’t let that be you.

So Why do I believe our Mission is a matter of life and death?

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Well, for 2 reasons

One is because I believe

The Bible is True

I am not going to go into all of the reasons right now that I believe the Bible is true, but I will encourage you to come to our Back to Basics Seminar in 2 weeks, on Saturday, November 16th from 9am to noon where we talk specifically about why you can believe the Bible is true, why you can know it is God’s word to us.