"Power Shifts" is a sermon series that explores the reasons behind the church's failure to fulfill the Great Commission, and offers strategies for personal transformation to help multiply the global Christian harvest.
Mission work is at the heart of God. God wants every people group and person to hear about a heavenly Father who loves them and sent His son to die for them. The church is God’s agent to accomplish this goal. The only way this can happen is for the church and individuals to obey the Great Commission. But why are we going backwards? Why is there a “waiting world” of 41% of the global population who have not heard? Power Shifts is a theme we will be covering throughout this series. You will learn how to make personal “power shifts” in your life to help multiply the harvest. These shifts are attitude, actions, alignment, abundance and anointing.
Jesus gave us two foundational mandates to answer this question. First, the Great Commandment: Matt. 22:36-40 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” Loving God and loving all human beings is the main focus of our existence and purpose in life. Second, the Great Commission: Matt: 28:19-20 “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” The Great Commandment is LOVE – who we become and who we are. The Great Commission is what we DO because we love.
The Great Commandment is LOVE – who we become and who we are. The Great Commission is what we DO because we love.
As we begin our series today, I’d encourage you to please think deeply about the following statistics: “Each year, about 17 million die and go into eternity without hearing about a Heavenly Father who loves them and sent His Son to purchase their salvation! That’s equal to 46,575 people per day, 1,940 per hour, 32 per minute, and about one every two seconds!” For most of us, these are shocking statistics. They scream, “EMERGENCY!” This is the worst human crisis on earth. Many of these people have never even met a Christian. Yet, the very last words of Jesus in Acts 1:8 promise the exact opposite! Ministry must shift into new harvesting strategies. The “emergency” statistics just quoted represent the unevangelized. These are 3.14 billion people who live in over 7,000 unreached people groups (UPGs) around the world. UPG definition: “A people group that is less than or equal to 2% Evangelical Christians, which there is no indigenous community of believing Christians with adequate numbers and resources to evangelize this people group without outside assistance.” The statistics cited, represent the greatest humanitarian need and social justice issue confronting the church today.
The world’s current spiritual environment demands that we account for the mission's “status quo.” Despite our earnest efforts, statisticians say that over 41% of our global population of 7.6 billion people have yet to hear about the gospel! Jesus told His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” (Mt. 8:37–38) The word translated “send out” in the original language actually means “to eject, cast out, drive out, or expel.” That means we are to intercede on behalf of the nations. Believers need to get out of their comfort zones and into service and ministry to others. By faith and prayer we need to apply the Parable of the Sower and soils, found in Matthew 13:1-23 and Mark 4:8. This gives us hope for multiplied spiritual harvest, 30, 60, and 100-fold.
In biblical days, people farmed by sheer muscle and willpower ... View this full sermon with PRO Premium
Sermon Central