Introduction
This is the one topic that most Christians just don’t like to hear about, because it’s the one area where we are most likely not being faithful. We’ll come to Sunday School and Morning worship, Discipleship Training, Evening Worship, Wednesday night prayer meeting and Bible Study, A prayer group or study group here or there, and we’ll help out any way you need us to, but we just don’t want to share the gospel. So we feel guilty, or we may get to the point where we don’t feel guilty anymore. So, I want to share with you a few things about our mission as disciples.
1. We are Commanded to Be on God’s Mission
Matthew 28: 19, “Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.”
Acts 1: 8 reminds us that we are to be witnesses for Jesus locally, region/state, country and the world.
Jesus’ life gives us a great example of one who is on God’s mission. When He was twelve years old, left in Jerusalem, and they found Him, He said, “I must be about My Father’s business.” In His prayer for believers in John 17, 18, “As you sent me into the world, I am sending them into the world.” Jesus was sent into the world to make it possible for people to be in a right relationship with God the Father, and He says, “This is the mission for my disciples—to help bring people to God.”
2. What Are We To TELL as We are on God’s Mission
The word, T-E-L-L, cane help us remember the content of our message to the lost.
T-Testimony
A testimony is simply an account of what a person has seen or heard. In Acts 4, Peter and John were told to stop preaching about Jesus as the Messiah, but they said in verse 20, “We cannot stop telling about the wonderful things we have seen and heard.” Jesus said in Acts 1:8, “...You will be my witnesses...” So, we’re either going to be witnesses about how Christ has made a difference in our lives, or we’re going to be silent witnesses about how we disobey and don’t rely on Jesus’ power to help us.
But if we are striving to live for Christ, then our testimony will be sharing things from our own personal experience the difference Jesus has M-A-D-E in our lives.
M-My life before I met Jesus
A-Awareness of my need for Jesus
D-Decision to put faith in Jesus
E-Examples of the difference Jesus makes in my life.
Your basic testimony includes these points, and part of our mission is to share our testimonies.
E-EASTER Story
Well, it’s kind of an obvious thing probably, but people can only believe in Jesus as their Savior and Lord, if they hear or read the truth about Jesus’ dying for our sins and being raised from the dead.
Romans 1: 17a says, “This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight...”
We either have to give them something to read, or we have to tell them ourselves. The basic ministry of the Gideons is to place the Bible in the hands of the lost, so that, they can read it and God’s Holy Spirit can work within them to convict them of their sin. Some people place tracts or Christian literature around for people to pick up and read.
If you are verbally telling someone the gospel message, here’s a little acrostic to remind you of the main points of the gospel message we are to share, which uses the word, EASTER.
E-Easter morning, Jesus…
A-Arose from the dead, after…
S-Sacrificing His life
T-To pay for my sins, so He could give me…
E-Eternal life when I…
R-Repent and surrender my life to Him.
This one sentence includes Jesus’ death as payment for sins, resurrection, the eternal life He offers, and our repentance and submission to His lordship over our lives.
L-Loves, or Godly passions
God is a God of love. And God’s love moves Him to action toward the objects of His love. We can read in John 3: 16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” Because of God’s passion for mankind, He did something for us.
Well, as we get to know God better, we will develop a more Godly love, and He will give us a passion for someone or something that He cares deeply about. Speaking on behalf of that passion and working in that area of passion will become part of our mission.
Last week as I shared about our ministry, I gave a question to help us discover how God made us, so we could find a place of service that fits us better. The question was about our passion; What do I love to do? Our ministry within the body of believers will often include something related to this passion we have. But our Mission can, also, include this passion. For example, When my wife and I were serving in South Dakota, the Dakota Southern Baptist Fellowship had an annual Ministers’ Marriage Retreat. The couple they got to lead that a couple of the years we were there (the Turnbulls, the man had been an actor on Petticoat Junction) wanted to help people have happier and healthier marriages. They loved doing that. Of course, we were all believers in our conference, so it was a Ministry, but you can easily see how it could be used for unbelievers who are going through difficult marriages. Of course, the Turnbulls would share some of the same basic principles, but then, they could use a conference like that to be a witness to how Jesus can make a greater difference in marriage.
Some may do the same kind of thing with money management conferences, or time management conferences, or parenting conferences. God wants us all to have right attitudes toward these things, and He has given people a love for helping people in these special areas of life, which can meet a great need in the lives of unbelievers and be a stepping stone to telling them about Jesus.
L-Lessons God Is Teaching Us
If we are seeking to know God better, God WILL be teaching us some new things. These may be things about God and His work and character, or about relationships with others, problems we may be facing, or temptations. And our attitude needs to be one like David expressed in Psalm 119: 33, “Teach me, O Lord, to follow every one of Your principles.”
Sadly, we often fail to learn what God wants us to learn. Over and over, God rescued the Israelites, but they didn’t learn. They kept on disregarding God, and got into the same trouble time and time again. You probably know people like that.
Someone has said, "It’s a wise thing to learn from our own personal experiences, but it’s an even wiser thing to learn from the experiences of others." This is why part of our mission is to share the lessons that God is teaching us with others; they will sometimes benefit believers, and sometimes benefit unbelievers.
There is this Christian comedian who was sharing his testimony. He came to a point in his life when he was drinking, doing some drugs, had some money issues, his relationship with his wife was falling apart, and he said that he had even beat his small child for crying. When all this was going on, he had the chance to play golf with a fellow comedian. This other comedian was wealthy and just did comedy for fun. So, they were playing golf, and the first comedian brought up the subject of accumulating wealth, because he believed that, if he could get enough money, it would solve some of his problems. The wealthy guy told him some kind of money principle. The comedian asked him where it came from, and the guy said, “The Bible.” The same thing happened a few more times, and each time, the guy gave the comedian a money principle from the Bible. He shared some Godly lessons he had learned that pointed out to this comedian that God has an interest in real life, and God has something to say about real circumstances. Ultimately, over time, the comedian became a believer.
Now that we’ve covered what it is we are to TELL as we are involved in God’s mission, we need to make it a reality in our lives.
3. How God’s Mission becomes a Reality in our Lives
There are several ways in which we can take part in God’s mission for our lives.
Learn
Learning about missionaries and people in other countries, and people in our own country who are not believers helps us to realize the great need there is in the world to tell others about Jesus. We do this in several ways: the handout in our bulletins once per month, missions magazines, missions organizations, missions studies, special programs, missionary speakers, reports from mission trips—all of these are ways to learn what God is doing around the world, AND what more needs to be done to share the gospel with the world. As we LEARN this, God may use what we learn to move us to some action that will help spread the Gospel.
Pray
Every missionary that you ever hear probably without exception, will tell you that the number one, most important thing you can DO for them is to pray—and they will give you some requests that are important for the work they are involved in. In 2 Corinthians 1: 11, Paul is telling about the dangers he and those with him face, and he says, “He [God] will rescue us because you are helping us by praying for us.” There are numerous ways to pray, but some key requests are: the safety of missionaries, discernment as it is needed, and the movement of God’s Spirit among the lost where they serve.
Give
Here at our church, we offer numerous opportunities for you participate in Missions by GIVING. Through just our regular offerings, we give through the our denomination, which is used to help support missionaries around the world. Our special offerings, also, help in that support. We have a variety of projects throughout the year where we collect items to be sent to people who are lost, and a witness is shared when the items are given.
Go
We can’t forget the Great Commission that we started with from Matthew 28: 19, “Therefore, GO and make disciples of ALL the nations...”
As we go on God’s mission, we may participate in a variety of methods of sharing our testimonies, the EASTER (gospel) story, our loves (passion), and our life lessons.
Having recently taken a group to Cleveland, TN on a mission trip, we shared with children through VBS, helped a local ministry by doing some needed clean inside and out, so that a ministry could use its time to meet needs and share the gospel, visited with some nursing home residents, and helped a local church do some outreach through a block party.
But the way YOU can go and be involved might be totally different. A lot of times, the way that God will use you in Missions will be related to how He will use you in Ministry. That will often put you in a position to tell someone else about Jesus.
Conclusion
1. We are Commanded to Be on God’s Mission
2. What We TELL as We are on God’s Mission
T-Testimony-the difference Jesus MADE in your life.
M-My life before I met Jesus
A-Awareness of my need for Jesus
D-Decision to put faith in Jesus
E-Examples of the difference Jesus makes in my life.
E-EASTER Story
L-Loves/Godly passions
L-Lessons
3. How God’s Mission becomes a Reality in our Lives
Learn
Pray
Give
Go
Question: How involved are we going to be in God’s Mission for our lives?
