Don’t Miss Your Mission!

DON’T MISS YOUR MISSION

Exodus 3:7-8

INTRODUCTION

A. HUMOR CRAZY NEW YEARS TRADITIONS FROM AROUND THE WORLD

1. BREAK OLD PLATES. In Denmark they save all of their unused dishes and plates until the 31st of December when they affectionately shatter them against the doors of all their friends and family.

2. STUFF 12 GRAPES. In Spain, if you can manage to stuff 12 grapes in your mouth at midnight you’ve achieved good luck for the next year.

3. RING A BELL 108 TIMES. In Japan they ring all of their bells 108 times.

4. FIST FIGHT. Every year at the end of December people in the small Peruvian village of Takanakuy fist fight to settle their differences. They then start the year off on a clean slate.

5. BURN SCARECROWS. In Ecuador they celebrate the New Year by burning paper filled scarecrows at midnight. They also burn photographs from the last year. All in the name of good fortune.

6. DROP ICE CREAM. In Switzerland they celebrate the New Year by dropping ice cream on the floor.

7. Water Buckets. In some parts of Puerto Rico they throw pails of water out of their windows to drive away evil spirits.

8. BLESSING THE COWS. In Belgium the farmers wish their cows a happy new year!

9. COINS IN SWEETS. In Bolivia coins are baked into sweets and whoever finds the coins has good luck for the next year.

10. SUITCASES. In Colombia they carry their suitcases around with them all day in hopes of having a travel filled year.

11. HIGH JUMP. In Denmark people climb on top of chairs and literally “jump” into the New Year to bring good luck.

12. BREAD POWER. In Ireland they hit the walls with bread to get rid of evil spirits.

13. FURNITURE DISPOSAL. In some parts of South Africa they throw furniture out the window.

14. FROZEN TRUNKS. Just as you might expect, in Siberia they jump into frozen lakes carrying tree trunks.

15. EAT 7X. In Estonia people eat seven times on new years day to ensure abundance in the new year.

16. REAL SECRET TO A BLESSED 2017: Make a new commitment to Jesus Christ and live for Him every day!

B. TITLE

1. The title of this message is “Don’t Miss Your Mission.”

I. IMPORTANCE OF RESCUE MISSIONS

A. ILLUS. OF THE SOUTH POLE RESCUE

1. When you work at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, it's understood there will be no physical link to the outside world for you between February and October.

2. You are 840 miles from the nearest populated site and you're facing average winter temperatures of eighty below zero.

3. Now, imagine being Jerri Lin Nielsen, a woman

stationed there and discovering a lump that indicated she had breast cancer.

4. Distant medical authorities determined that Jerri must receive emergency medical supplies. Getting those supplies, though, is easier said than done.

5. A U.S. Air Force plane took on the mission, flying in driving snow and limited visibility, with just enough fuel to get back, searching in that dark polar winter for a C-shaped chain of burning barrels somewhere down there in the snow.

6. Those barrels marked the drop point. Once the life-giving supplies were dropped, the ground people had just seven minutes to collect those bundles before the cold weather damaged or destroyed their contents.

7. It was an incredible true adventure, and it worked. The pilot for this amazing mercy mission said it was his most difficult mission. I guess! He said, "The whole thing is a loss if we don't put it where they can get it."

B. THE SIMILAR SPIRITUAL RESCUE MISSION

1. When you're bringing a delivery that can mean life-or-death, you do whatever it takes to get it there and you put it where they can reach it.

2. If you know Jesus, and if you know someone who doesn't, God has assigned you to a life-or-death mission.

3. God says: "He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life." (1 John 5:12).

People without the Savior who died for them, are dying people according to God.

4. Clearly the command to you and me is "Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter" (Proverbs 24:11).

5. God sent His Son on the ultimate rescue mission - to give His life for people you know - so they can live forever. But "the whole thing is a loss if we don't put it where they can get it."

II. GOD’S RESCUE OF THE ISRAELITES

A. TEXT

7 The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. Exodus 3:7-8.