Back To Square One: Rediscovering The Mission Of Jesus The Savior

BACK TO SQUARE ONE #1:

REDISCOVERING THE MISSION OF JESUS THE SAVIOUR

INTRO TO TOPIC: Why do we exist as a church? Why is it that after we became Christians, God didn’t take us to Heaven right away? What is it He has left us on the Earth to do?

CHALLENGE: Woke up at 5 am with a sense of urgency of God’s call to wake up! (dream)

“14 And where your light shines, it will expose their evil deeds. This is why it is said, "Awake, O sleeper, rise up from the dead, and Christ will give you light." 15 So be careful how you live, not as fools but as those who are wise. 16 Make the most of every opportunity for doing good in these evil days.” (Eph. 5:14-16, NLT).

• QUOTE: “One of the great uses of Twitter and Facebook will be to prove at the Last Day that prayerlessness was not from lack of time.” (John Piper). – Explain.

• David Plett said, “When we rise up as the church of Jesus Christ and give ourselves urgently, sacrificially, and radically to taking the gospel of the kingdom to all those people groups, we can expect to be met with the might of hell. There will be divisions within us, distractions around us, diversions in front of us, deceptions tempting us, and disease and death threatening us. It will not be easy.” (Radical Together).

• The enemy is trying to divide us, distract us, and keep us from our mission.

OPENING TEXT: (Luke 19:10, NKJV).

Jesus said, “for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

• Preach the awesome love of Jesus who gave up everything to seek and save the lost!

THE BIG IDEA: God is calling us back to square one: rediscovering the mission of Jesus the Saviour, who came to seek and save the lost. This is our mission!

• Foursquare Gospel: Jesus the Saviour, Healer, Baptiser in the Holy Spirit, Coming King.

• BCC Mission Statement: “We exist to REACH people with the love of God, to CONNECT them in loving relationships with other Christians, to help them to GROW in their faith through God’s Word, to challenge them to DISCOVER their gifts, and to GLORIFY God with their lives.” First - reach people with the love of God = evangelism.

QUOTE: “We as individual Christians and collective churches need to recalibrate our sights on the target God has gen us: spiritually lost people. If people matter to God, then they’d better matter to us, too... Deep in every true Christian, there is an awareness that we are on this planet for purposes greater than having a career, paying the bills, loving our families, and fulfilling our role as upstanding citizens... God wants us to become contagious Christians - His agents, who will first catch His love and then urgently and infectiously offer it to all who are willing to consider it.” (Becoming a Contagious Christian by Bill Hybels).

BIBLE STORY:

“1 Tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach. 2 This made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain that he was associating with such despicable people -- even eating with them! 3 So Jesus used this illustration: 4 "If you had one hundred sheep, and one of them strayed away and was lost in the wilderness, wouldn’t you leave the ninety-nine others to go and search for the lost one until you found it? 5 And then you would joyfully carry it home on your shoulders. 6 When you arrived, you would call together your friends and neighbors to rejoice with you because your lost sheep was found. 7 In the same way, heaven will be happier over one lost sinner who returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away!” (Luke 15:1-7, NLT).

• This story is a beautiful picture of Jesus the good shepherd who looks for lost sheep!

• Are you lost, hurting and broken today? Jesus is looking for YOU. Jesus loves YOU!

• When one sinner is saved, there is GREAT JOY in Heaven!

8 "Or suppose a woman has ten valuable silver coins and loses one. Won’t she light a lamp and look in every corner of the house and sweep every nook and cranny until she finds it? 9 And when she finds it, she will call in her friends and neighbors to rejoice with her because she has found her lost coin. 10 In the same way, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels when even one sinner repents.” (Luke 15:8-10, NLT).

• Light a Lamp: It will cost you resources to look for the lost. Oil was a precious asset.