• Next Week, we will recognize those who have volunteered for this next year's service for the Lord in the Church.
• I am asking all of you to bring a covered dish and dessert for the noon meal, and let's make it a great day.
• A great day, of course, includes coconut cream pie.
• There will be some places still open next week, I assume, and it would be a great time to sign up.
• We are signing up for ministry teams. We are going to really use these teams this year.
• If you are on a committee, ministry team, or agreed to work in a ministry, we are praying for you regularly.
• Your name will go into my book and be distributed to our prayer teams with a schedule.
• We will be looking for your monthly reports and will celebrate Christ breaking out in you.
• This is going to be an awesome year. This is your mission field.
• We thank you, and we will thank you again, for your faithful obedience, willingness to serve, love for Christ and example of His sacrificial service.
• Our appreciation is so shallow compared to Christ's recognition planned for you.
• Some of you feel uncertain about your positions and how it will go.
• Just trust God. Relax in faith.
• Even if you feel you may have accepted for the wrong reason, God used the reason to get you here.
• He planned your service. Trust Him. He is that awesome. He is faithful.
• The job you signed up for is one of the most important positions in the World.
• The old Standard Oil Company offered an enormous sum of money to Hudson Taylor, a very successful missionary in China to work for them, to help with the development of Standard Oil in China. Taylor turned them down. So they doubled the salary offer. He turned them down again. They said, "What do you want? We can't give more money than that.: He said, "The money doesn't have anything to do with it. The job is too small."
• Our mission field is as close as our neighborhood and as near as our front door.
• Our mission is here, but our motivation is the same as those who travel to distance shores.
• When Hudson Taylor was director of the China Inland Mission, he often interviewed candidates for the mission field. On one occasion, he met with a group of applicants to determine their motivations for service. "And why do you wish to go as a foreign missionary?" he asked one. "I want to go because Christ has commanded us to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature," was the reply. Another said, "I want to go because millions are perishing without Christ." Others gave different answers. Then Hudson Taylor said, "All of these motives, however good, will fail you in times of testings, trials, tribulations, and possible death. There is but one motive that will sustain you in trial and testing; namely, the love of Christ." Source Unknown.
Mar 6:12 So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent. 13 And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them.
• Prayer.....
• Missions Here, Missions There. Mission Here. Missions here is missions now.
• I guess I can continue that thought adnauseum and say, “Missionary here is missionary you.”
• Jesus prepared His disciples for Missions There by sending them on short mission trips, or Missions Here.
• Today's passage records one of the mission ventures of the disciples.
Mar 6:7 And he called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits.
• Jesus called them together, commissioned them and sent them out.
• They went out two-by-two.
• Funny story, a young preacher asked during one of his sermons, “Why do we send people out on visitation in pairs. There is nothing biblical about going out in pairs.”
• I don't know how many people came to him after the sermon and showed him this passage, but I know I did.
• He said, “Yeah, yeah, so I hear.”
• In the Jewish culture, two people could represent an authority, teacher or leader with full legal weight.
• Jesus gave the disciples authority (exosia), meaning having the power to legally represent him, bearing the weight of his person.
• That is why Jesus told us, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld." John 20:23.
• Let me insert here, God gave us that same authority to seek the redemption of men, women, boys and girls.
• Mat 28:18-20 And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."
• We have the authority and the command to do it. Therefore, missions become our purpose.
Mar 6:8 He charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff--no bread, no bag, no money in their belts-- 9 but to wear sandals and not put on two tunics.
• Interesting notes, the instructions for a mission trip in each book of the gospels differ in what to bring and what not to bring.
• If they portray the same event, they pose what some say is a discrepancy.
• However, there is no indication that these different instructions are for the same event.
• Jesus obviously did more and said more that what is recorded.
• Each writer recorded the specific event, with those instructions, that was relevant to their message and audience.
• Here, Mark emphasizes the need to travel light for a short trip.
• In other words, this was a local mission. Missions Here, missions there. This is missions here.
• They were going to have to walk, so they needed a staff (walking stick) and a good pair of shoes.
• However, they were not supposed to bring extra shoes.
• They were going to trust God for provisions, so they needed to take no bread, traveling bag, or money.
• It would be a short trip so they didn't need to bring a change in under-garments.
Mar 6:10 And he said to them, "Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you depart from there.
Mar 6:11 And if any place will not receive you and they will not listen to you, when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them."
• Where do you start in local missions? With those who receive you.
• They were instructed to find a welcoming home and set up headquarters for the village.
• If they found a village or home that would not receive them, they were supposed to shake the dust off their feet and move on.
• This was to deliver a message to the people.
• The Jews practiced this in their traveling and were well familiar with the practice.
• When they left Gentile territory, they would shake and stomp their feet, to indicate they didn't want a speck of dust from pagan territory traveling with them into God's country.
• Jesus was telling the disciples to demonstrate this to those who rejected the message.
• This was a warning that being a Jew was not enough to satisfy God if they rejected the message of His Son.
• Some later transcripts add that the people of Sodom and Gomorrah would be better than these Jews who reject the message of Jesus Christ.
Mar 6:12 So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent. 13 And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them.
• Here, we see the success of the representatives of Jesus.
• They emphasized repentance. To validate their message, God did works of miracles through them.
• They had authority over demons and, with the application of olive oil, many sick were healed.
• Let's look at some lessons about missions and the mission of our Church from this passage.
1. The power of the ministry.
• In verse 7, Jesus calls His disciples to himself.
• A very fancy Greek word is used that means a formal calling to an assembly.
• To begin their mission, to find their purpose in life, they had to meet with Jesus.
• I am amazed in my discussion with struggling Christians when I ask, “What are you studying now?”
• Most people are lost on what I am asking. Where are you reading in the Bible?
• It amazes me that most Christians today do not meet with Jesus regularly.
• They want to know why their Christian walk is without purpose, power or fruit.
• A ministry cannot be directed by Jesus if He does not send us.
• He does not send us unless we meet with Him, not in a corporate meeting, but individually, in personal devotion.
• Notice when we meet with Him, things change.
• They paired off two-by-two. We find a level of fellowship and friendship, centered upon His calling and purpose, that supplies us with partners for His work.
• It doesn't say, but I seriously doubt Jesus said, “Peter, you go with Nathaniel. Bartholomew, you go with James.”
• I believe He said, “I have put someone on your hearts to work with. Pair up according to my Spirit's calling. If you are unsure, pray, and I will answer.”
• Why would He do this in that manner? Because He builds in our program a dependence upon communication with Him.
• Also noticed He sent them out in the pattern of ministry that He modeled: An emphasis on repentance, with miracles to validate the preaching.
• We don't need miracles and signs to validate the truth today because we have the completed Word of God.
II. The Provisions of the Ministry.
• A good walking stick and good shoes, that will be all you need.
• To be clear, leave your food, your night bag, your money and your extra underwear at home.
• You may need food and money, but God already planned how you would receive it.
• If you need extra garments, He will supply.
• Your job, Go. His job, make it work.
• The greatest thing about the provisions of this trip was that God must be trusted.
• When we start a program, we often begin with a trust in God to be faithful.
• Year after year, we slowly shift from trusting God to trusting the program or the past.
• That is one of the reasons God directs us to change programs so much, to keep our eyes on Him.
• We cannot receive the provisions of God if we are not looking to Him.
• We must be Him-focused in every area of ministry.
III. The Persons of Ministry.
• Who do we go to? Those who we have to convince?
• No, those who are hungry and accept the Word quickly.
• Those who welcome the message and welcome us into their homes.
• That is the beginning of the ministry in a community.
• God has used these welcoming people to build relationships in the community.
• They are typically friendly, accepting and well placed.
• Missionary John Lindsey went to West Africa with this passage burned in his heart.
• He would go to villages and find the welcoming person, stay with them, and reach out to others.
• He said of all the mission methods and schemes he studied and tried, Jesus' plan was the only effective one.
• And the one's who are not open, accepting and welcoming? What do you do?
• Warn them and leave.
• You have served your responsibility and have delivered your message.
• The burden is upon them to respond. It is God's work to bring them to a place of acceptance, and in His time.
• Shake the dust from your feet and do some more walking.
• Complete your short-term mission and report back to home.
IV. The Plan of the Mission.
• The disciples focused upon repentance. That was Jesus' and John's message.
• Physical healing would profit little if the soul was lost and condemned.
• Demon-casting would be temporary unless the Spirit of God sealed their souls from possession.
• Repentance would bring all of God's presence, protection and power into their lives to prevent possession and bring healing and peace.
• Jesus' authority is the power of our ministry.
• His provisions are our supply.
• The harvest is white and people are waiting.
• They must be told the plan of the Mission, the salvation found only in Jesus Christ.
• Our mission gun is loaded. It is aimed. The target is scoped in. The finger of God is on the trigger. Are we ready?
• Last Letter. (read).
• Oh, how sobering it must be to be asked to write that last letter.
• Adam and Suzie Hailes had to write on of those letters. Our prayer is it is never needed.
• What would you write?
• If you were supposed to write your last letter what would you have to deal with first?
• Don't wait! Deal with God today. Listen to His voice, His call.
• Release those things that are keeping you from your Mission here and now.
