The Forgotten Mission Fields
Ask people to boo the words ‘secular job’.
This conference is all about missions. I am sure that over this weekend many of you will be inspired to see yourself as missionaries. I am sure that many of you will receive prophecies or dreams about what God is going to do in your lives. My message this morning is one of both encouragement and warning. I want each and every one of us to realise that we are called to be missionaries.
I worked as a police officer in Britain before moving here. Last year I heard a quote that was made by the man who started the first police force in Britain.
‘The police are the public and the public are the police; the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen…’
Robert Peel 1829
I was inspired by this quote to look at being a missionary in the same way.
‘Missionaries are Christians and Christians are missionaries; missionaries being only members of the church who are paid to give full time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen of heaven.’
Mark Holdcroft 2006
I believe that every Christian is called to be a missionary, whether you are paid for it or not. I am paid by churches in the United Kingdom, but it doesn’t make me any more of a missionary. I believe that we need to start operating as missionaries in the areas that God has placed us and only then will we start to find destiny and purpose in our lives.
I believe that there are many mission fields that have been forgotten about. We don’t recognise them as mission fields as we are concentrating on being released into the calling that we have on our lives.
Joseph was a man with a dream and he saw the dream come to pass. He had his calling, to be the ruler over his family. Many of you here will experience a calling.
Genesis 37:2-11
2 Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers…
6 He said to them, Listen to this dream I had:
7 We were binding sheaves of corn out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered round mine and bowed down to it.
8 His brothers said to him, Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us? And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said.
9 Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. Listen, he said, I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.
10 When he told his father as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him and said, What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?
11 His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.
He had a big dream, but it was thirteen years later before he was to start to see this dream fulfilled and over twenty years before it actually became a reality.
Pit
The first place that Joseph finds himself in, is in a pit. Why? Well, in part, it is because he has been a bit of a brat. He had a dream and he went around telling everyone about it, ‘I’m the man.’ I’m not surprised his brothers were a little upset with him.
They throw him into pit and sell him as a slave. I wonder what Joseph thought as he was in the pit, or as he was being sold into slavery. I bet it is not how he imagined his calling would begin.
This is Joseph’s first secular job – working as a slave.
How does Joseph react in his situation? Does he hang around doing the minimum necessary knowing that one day God’s got a great calling for him?
Genesis 39:1-5
1 Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. Potiphar, an Egyptian who was one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him there.
2 The LORD was with Joseph and he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master.
3 When his master saw that the LORD was with him and that the LORD gave him success in everything he did,
4 Joseph found favour in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned.
5 From the time he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the LORD blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph. The blessing of the LORD was on everything Potiphar had, both in the house and in the field.
Instead of waiting for God to place him in a place where he can start to fulfil his calling, Joseph recognises that this is his mission field and he simply gets to work. In doing so he brought blessing and he changed the lives of those around him. He caused those around him to acknowledge God.
This was Joseph’s first secular job.
Prison
The second place that Joseph finds himself is in prison. This time not because of anything that he had done wrong, but because he did what was right. He resisted Potiphar’s lustful life, she cried rape and he got thrown into prison.
I wonder if Joseph thought about those dreams he had had. I can imagine that this is not how he had pictured his calling.
This is Joseph’s second secular job – prisoner and prison warder.
It would have been very easy for him to blame God, sit back and do nothing. How does he react? Does he do the minimum and wait for the day God will release him into his calling?
Genesis 39:20-23
20 Joseph’s master took him and put him in prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined. But while Joseph was there in the prison,
21 the LORD was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favour in the eyes of the prison warder.
22 So the warder put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison, and he was made responsible for all that was done there.
23 The warder paid no attention to anything under Joseph’s care, because the LORD was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did.
Joseph recognised that this was his mission field. He worked and he brought blessing. He changed the lives of everybody around him. He caused the people around him to acknowledge God.
This was Joseph’s second secular job.
Prince
The next place that Joseph found himself was as prince of Egypt. It was God given dreams and their interpretations that had originally got him into trouble. This time he was a bit wiser, used the gift in the right way and is placed into the highest position. He has spent 13 years learning to govern, and now he is governing a country.
I wonder what Joseph thought at this point. He was in a great position, but it is still not quite how he imagined his calling would be. It is still not quite what he dreamed about.
This is Joseph’s third secular job – chief governor.
How does he react in this situation, exactly as he has done before?
Genesis 41:46-49
46 Joseph was thirty years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from Pharaoh’s presence and travelled throughout Egypt.
47 During the seven years of abundance the land produced plentifully.
48 Joseph collected all the food produced in those seven years of abundance in Egypt and stored it in the cities. In each city he put the food grown in the fields surrounding it.
49 Joseph stored up huge quantities of grain, like the sand of the sea; it was so much that he stopped keeping records because it was beyond measure.
Joseph again recognised that this was his mission and brought blessing. He not only changed the lives of those around him, but he also affected great nations. He worked as diligently in the good times as he had done in the bad.
This was Josephs third secular Job.
His calling fulfilled.
Joseph had been a missionary into three different situations. None of them were probably anything like what he imagined his calling would be. But he was in the places God wanted him and so he worked. Seven years after being made chief governor he suddenly realised that he has already fulfilled his calling.
Genesis 42:6-9
6 Now Joseph was the governor of the land, the one who sold grain to all its people. So when Joseph’s brothers arrived, they bowed down to him with their faces to the ground.
7 As soon as Joseph saw his brothers, he recognised them, but he pretended to be a stranger and spoke harshly to them. Where do you come from? he asked. From the land of Canaan, they replied, to buy food.
8 Although Joseph recognised his brothers, they did not recognise him.
9 Then he remembered his dreams about them...
Sometimes we can expect to suddenly be released into some form of church ministry and fulfil our calling that way. Joseph recognised that his mission field was wherever he was. He had fulfilled his dreams before had he realised it.
There are hundreds of principals that we can take from Joseph’s life. I just want to look at four that help us not to forget the mission fields that are around us.
His work was Spiritual.
He worked for God.
He worked with integrity.
His calling had many seasons.
His work was Spiritual.
The church likes to split work up into two groups, spiritual work and secular work. Pastors, Missionaries, Priests have spiritual jobs where as plumbers, parents, politicians have secular jobs. I want to tell you this, when you give over you situation to God, then there is no such thing as secular work. The term doesn’t appear in the Bible.
If you read Hebrews chapter 11, you read of men and women who are lifted up as examples through history of being champions of faith. If you look at these people then you start to realise that the vast majority had jobs that you wouldn’t normally recognise as being spiritual. Abraham was a nomadic farmer. Moses was a shepherd and then a political leader (It was his brother who was the priest). Rahab, well, we all know what her job was. It was only the likes of Samuel who had recognisable spiritual position.
The same is true of many of the movers and shakers in the New Testament. Lydia was a dealer of fine linen. Paul, as we have heard, was a tent maker. These were all people who had ordinary jobs and yet by faith changed the world.
To call one job spiritual, and one job secular, is totally unbiblical. If you see your job as secular then you might never realise that it is your mission field. It doesn’t matter whether that job is studying at school, working in Tesco, or pastoring a church. If you are in the place where God has put you, then start seeing it as spiritual.
Joseph entered into his calling without ever doing one job that we would class as spiritual, and yet he changed people’s lives. The idea that one job is spiritual whilst another is secular has caused many people to hold up the work of people who are paid by the church and to devalue the rest. It has caused some people to think that their callings are not being used and to lose the enthusiasm for work.
He worked for God.
Secondly, Joseph did all of his work for God. He had many different employers, but God was his boss. There is another myth that says the work that you do in the church is more important than the work that you do in your employment, for your family, or in school. The myth says that the work you do for the church is for God, where as the work that you do elsewhere is for your employer or family.
I want to tell you that this is another lie that Satan is using to keep the church from being truly effective. Paul tells us in Colossians that whatever work we do, we should do it for God.
Colossians 3:23-24
23 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men,
24 since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.
Paul wasn’t speaking to Pastors when he said that. He wasn’t even talking to workers for the local government or for Osram. He was talking to slaves. The people who had the cruellest, hardest, and most unsafe working conditions.
In church we are under the Pastor, at home we may be under our parents, in work we may be under our supervisor. However, when we realise that God is our boss, we become 24/7 missionaries. We submit to these other authorities, but when we realise it is only God that we have to please, that releases us and brings our lives into balance.
When you realise that, every box that you pack in your workplace; every essay you write in school; and every chair you put away in church is for God; then you will work to a much higher standard. That will then start to speak into the lives of the people around us.
He worked with integrity.
Joseph worked in such a way that nobody could find fault with him. He ran away from sexual temptation. He was completely trustworthy and honest. Working with integrity means being the same people out of church as you are in church. It means that in your home, you neighbourhood, you school, your workplace and your church, you should not let your standards slip.
He didn’t allow his situation to be an excuse for sin.
His calling had many seasons.
Joseph, had many seasons to his life as a missionary. He was at home, working as a slave, a prisoner, a prince and then working back for his family. Every season helped Joseph to prepare for the next, but each season had its own mission. Joseph calling wasn’t a one off event, it was the sum of all that he did.
Sometimes we can lie back and think that there is one thing that God has for us. One ministry that we are going to perform. Once we get to that stage, then that is it, we are there. The truth is if we think like that then we forget about the mission fields that are around us now, because we will be too busy chasing the ultimate goal. Your life, and your mission will have seasons.
Personal Testimony
What I am talking about today is not just theology, it is my own person testimony.
I got saved when I was fifteen years old. I knew then that God was calling me to full time ministry. I knew that God was calling me to be a missionary. What I didn’t know is what being in full time ministry, or being a missionary, actually means.
I began working when I was 16 years old as a lifeguard and continued to work throughout my years at university. When I was 21 I worked as a fitness instructor for a while before joining the British Police Service. In my first few years as a Christian I had failed God. I had fallen into sin. Part of the reason was that I didn’t pray about important decisions in my life and ended up in a job that wasn’t right. I repented and made sure that I wasn’t going to make the same mistake again. There were a number of stages to get into the police and I prayed at each stage that if God didn’t want me in there, then He would shut the door. When I got in I knew that it was God’s will.
I served in the police for just under eight years when God called us to come to Slovakia. During that time I served the church as a lay preacher and as a youth leader. Those eight years were very challenging. There were some real highs and some real lows. Many times I came home wanting to hand in my resignation. It was only the fact that I knew that this was the place where God had put me that prevented me from doing just that. It is quite ironic that it was my last two years of being a police officer, when I was about to leave, that were actually the most enjoyable. I actually enjoyed going to work each day.
The truth is that my work hasn’t got any easier, but God changed my attitude to it. About three years ago, God started to reveal to me that my work was not just a career, but a calling. This was confirmed when I went to the national Christian Police Officers conference and listened to a man by the name of David Oliver. I also read one of his books, ‘Work, prison or place of destiny?’ These were things that I had always known, but had failed to let that knowledge change my attitude.
Without realising it, I had seen work as a prison. It had prevented me from getting to as many meetings as I wanted. It had prevented me from fellowshipping with other Christians as much as I wanted. I was coming home stressed and tired. I felt that it got in the way of the spiritual destiny that God had for me. Gradually that changed as I started to realise that my workplace was my place of destiny.
Once I started to realise that it was my mission field, many opportunities of witness opened up. They didn’t actually open up, they were always there, I just hadn’t recognised them. I had times, like Joseph when I found myself in bad situations because of things I hadn’t done. But when I realised that this was my mission field I worked harder than I ever had done before. God blessed me in more ways than I can tell you about now. But before I left, I was even advising some top police officers in the country on issues affecting Christianity. Last year I had the pleasure of leading one of my colleagues back to Christ.
The same was true when I realised that my home was a mission field. I also had the privilege of leading my grandmother to Christ just before she died.
The truth is that I didn’t enter full time ministry when I came here. I was already in full time ministry. Many of the promises in my life were already fulfilled before I came here, in my workplace, in my church, and in my home. When I came here, I just entered another season.
Conclusion.
Your workplace, your school, your neighbours, your family; they are the mission fields that we often forget about or neglect. I want to finish by telling you about another principal that I heard about when I was in the police.
‘Every contact leaves a trace’
This is the basic rule that governs forensic science. This one rule has helped to solve millions of crimes around the world. It basically states that when A comes into contact with B, then A will leave something on B and B will leave something on A. That could be a fibre from the clothes of a victim, that is later found on the murderer’s clothing, or DNA passed from one person to another.
The rule that ‘every contact leaves a trace’, is not only true physically, it is also true spiritually.
Wherever Joseph went he left a trace. He left a blessing. We carry the good news of Jesus Christ. Everywhere we go we should leave a blessing. I want to ask four questions that will help determine what kind of trace we leave.
Is your church a better place because you go there?
Is your workplace/school a better place because you go there?
Is you neighbourhood a better place because you live there?
Is you home a better place because you are a part of it?
I want to remind you, whatever God calls you to this weekend, or in the future, don’t forget these forgotten mission fields.
