Spotlight on Missions
Chuck Sligh
March 23, 2014
TEXT: Mark 16:15 – “And He said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.”
INTRODUCTION
When someone leaves this earth, their last words take on added import. You gather around the bedside and bend your head low to listen carefully to that person’s last words and wishes.
Before Jesus left this earth, His last words were the church’s marching orders, which are often referred to as the “Great Commission.” Christ recorded His Great Commission five times between His resurrection and His ascension—once in each Gospel and once in Acts, and each time it’s phrased so differently that it must have been a command repeated on five separate occasions. Jesus wanted to put a spotlight on the mission of the church—which is to take the Gospel to the whole world and reach the lost for Christ.
That’s what I would like to do this morning.
Here at Grace Baptist Church we support our own missionaries. If you want to know who they are and what they’re doing, you can go upstairs and on the wall outside the Fellowship Hall are the prayer letters of the missionaries we support. Having our missionary display board was a good idea, but it illustrates a problem I see. We just couldn’t find a proper place on this floor in our building, so the next best place to put the missions board was upstairs in the hallway.
I wonder sometimes if that’s also how we view missions in general. I wonder if it’s like we know missions is important, but we’re just so busy and well… let’s just put it out of the way in our lives and in our thinking and in our focus.
So today I want to spotlight missions and explain Faith Promise missions giving, which is what we call the way we support missionaries at here Grace Baptist Church. Consider three simple points with me today:
I. FIRST I WANT YOU TO SEE MISSIONS’ MANDATE
I want us to examine WHY we as a church should even have a missions program and ask people to sacrifice three nights out of their busy lives, emphasize missions and exhort you and me to give to missions?
As I said a moment ago, after Jesus died and rose from the dead, FIVE SEPARATE TIMES He repeated some form of what we call, “The Great Commission.”
Our text, Mark 16:15, is the shortest one of the five instances, where Jesus commanded, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.”
Let’s dissect this verse and see just what God’s idea is here for missions:
• First we see “The PERSONNEL.”
Who are the personnel of missions? Who is Jesus talking to? Who is responsible here to carry out this task?
The scripture says “Go YE.” This is real simple: WE are the “YE”—that’s you and me! I feel like Dr. Suess, but let me repeat that: WE are the “YE”—that’s you and me! In other words, it’s OUR responsibility to take the Gospel to the world.
• Second, we see “The PLACE.”
WHERE are we to “go?” – Jesus says: “go ye into all the world.” We’ve been given the task to take the Gospel “into all the world.”
• Third, we see “The PLAN.”
Now you don’t need a theologian to understand this. It’s very clear: the plan is to “preach the gospel to every creature.” To “preach” means to “proclaim.”
This is really basic: Jesus says we’re to proclaim the Gospel to every person. Somehow, some way, God says that your job and my job as believers is to proclaim the Gospel—the message of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus for our sins—to every person, everywhere in the world.
That’s the mandate of the church: to preach the Gospel to EVERYONE in the world.
When you look at the early church in the book of Acts, you see how this is to be done. It’s done through witnessing by everyday believers like each of you where you live and work, and by preachers preaching the Gospel in local churches in local communities and by churches sending missionaries to the rest of the world.
And that’s how they did it in the New Testament—Christians first witnessed in Jerusalem, the cradle of Christianity; then to the outlying regions when the first persecution dispersed believers to Judea and Samaria; then to the larger Middle East; and then it radiated throughout the rest of the world when the first missionaries, Paul and Barnabas were sent in out Acts 13.
There are 26 chapters in the Acts, and the first half is about evangelism at home and in nearby areas and the other half are devoted to the missionary endeavors of Paul.
If the whole book of Acts is about proclaiming the Gospel to every creature, and if half of it about foreign missions, and if Jesus commanded us to go and spread the Gospel FIVE separate times, then MISSIONS IS IMPORTANT! It’s the lifeblood of God’s church; the heartbeat of every LOCAL church.
When a church is focused on the Great Commission both here and abroad, it doesn’t have time for bickering and fighting….
• It’s too busy carrying out the business of the believer.
• It’s too preoccupied with accomplishing the charge of the church.
• It’s too busy carrying out the Mandate of the Master.
If we’re going to do what God has called us to do at Grace Baptist, we’ve got to keep missions at the forefront. It’s okay for the missions display board to be upstairs if that’s the only place to put it, but missions itself must be down in the sanctuary of our hearts. It must be something we all see as an important mission of this church. It must be something we take seriously enough to get involved in personally.
II. NOTE SECONDLY WITH ME: MISSIONS’ INVOLVEMENT
At Grace Baptist Church, we have one of the most exciting methods to accomplish the task of missions I have ever known, what is referred to as “Faith Promise Missions.” It’s based on Paul’s teaching in 2 Corinthians 8-9 where the churches of what are now Turkey and Greece made a commitment to Paul for a specified period of time to give to help the believers in Jerusalem undergoing a famine.
So the first principle is that Faith Promise giving is not to help the local church in any way; it’s a gift for OTHERS.
This morning there was a Faith Promise Commitment card in every bulletin. We’re asking you to pray over and consider giving a “Faith Promise Commitment” over and above your regular tithes and offerings. This money will not be used for anything for this church. We won’t benefit from this in any way whatsoever. One hundred percent of this money will go to missionaries and missions projects.
What is a “Faith Promise Commitment?” – It’s a commitment to give a certain amount of money on a systematic basis (every week or two weeks or month) for a specific time period (in our case until October of this year) solely for the cause of missions.
You have a bulletin insert that explains some of this, but let’s go over to 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, and note Five Important Truths About Faith Promise Giving:
• First, it is A “GRACE” – 2 Corinthians 8:1 – “Moreover, brethren, we do you to wit [that means “we want you to know”] of the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia.”
Paul describes their giving towards this offering as “the grace of God.” Three other times, in verses 6, 7 and 19, Paul calls it a “grace.” In other words, giving a Faith Promise offering on a systematic basis for missions is not some onerous burden; it’s a blessing! It reveals God’s working in your life—GRACE.
• Second, it’s A WAY FOR YOU TO EXPERIENCE GOD’S SUPERNATURAL POWER – 2 Corinthians 8:2-3 – “How that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality. 3 For to their power, I bear record, yea, and beyond their power they were willing of themselves.”
They were in “deep poverty,” but they gave BEYOND their power. Now how in the world do you give “beyond your power” when you’re in great affliction and deep poverty? There’s a reason we call it “Faith” Promise. When you step out by faith to do something for God, THAT’S when He shows Himself powerful.
2 Chronicles 16:9 says, “For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him.”
God is waiting for you to step out by faith and trust Him to show Himself strong to you. Over the years, I’ve heard hundreds of testimonies from people who saw God provide miraculously to provide their Faith Promise.
I’ve heard of people who got unexpected raises—just enough to pay their Faith Promise.
Illus. – My income tax return story.
Praise God, God will do AWESOME things when we step out by faith.
• Third, a Faith Promise commitment is COMPLETELY VOLUNTARY – 2 Corinthians 8:8 – “I speak not by commandment, but by occasion of the forwardness of others, and to prove the sincerity of your love.”
Now the tithe, ten percent of your income, is commanded by God and the minimum obligation for the believer, but a Faith Promise is totally voluntary. Paul says, “I’m not commanding you to do this. This is something you choose to do voluntarily—to prove the sincerity of your love.”
In verse 12 Paul talks about giving this special offering with a “willing mind” and in chapter 9, verse 7, he says you should give this Faith Promise offering “as you purpose in your heart.”
So if you don’t want to get in on what God’s up to, don’t do it…but don’t spoil it for the rest of us who want to prove the sincerity of our love for God. As my pastor used to always say, “Get off of what you’re down on and get in on what God’s up to.”
• Fourth, a faith promise commitment is PRIVATE – 2 Corinthians 9:7 – “Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give…”
You will notice that there’s no place for you to write your name on this commitment card. That’s because this is a heart matter. This is totally between you and your spouse and the Lord.
• Lastly, a faith promise is SYSTEMATIC.
Paul first introduced the Corinthians to this offering in 1 Corinthians 16. He presented the challenge and encouraged them to give weekly and planned to come by and pick up the gifts collected to deliver to Jerusalem.
Here’s how he told them to take this offering in 1 Corinthians 16:1-2 – “Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye. 2 Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come.”
Paul didn’t want them to wait till the last minute and take up an offering at the last moment. They wouldn’t have been able to do it and they would have failed. So he said, “Do it systematically—week by week so we don’t have to take a big gathering [we would say “offering”] when I come to Corinth.” Back then, they received weekly wages, so Paul tells them to give weekly, but the key thing to see is that it is regular and systematic, so a weekly missions gift is fine, or if you get paid monthly, monthly is fine too.
III. LET ME SHARE WITH YOU LASTLY: MISSIONS’ BLESSING.
There are wonderful blessings in being involved in missions giving by making a Faith Promise Commitment.
• First, God promises MATERIAL blessings.
Look over at 1 Corinthians 9 again, at verse 6 – “But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.”
God’s saying—like He says in many other places in the Bible—that if you’re a liberal giver to God’s kingdom, He’ll bless you commensurately. Do you believe God’s Word?—Then why not participate in our missions program by making a Faith Promise commitment…and then watch God BLESS YOU!
• Second, by giving a Faith Promise offering, there are ETERNAL blessings.
Jesus said, Matthew 6:19-20 – “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: 20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal.” Every dollar given to missions adds to your treasure laid up in heaven. How is that?—Through those who will be in heaven because of your giving.
Paul teaches in Philippians that every time someone came to Christ under his ministry, not only did HE get credit for his missionary work to reach that person, but THE PHILIPPIANS, who supported Paul on a systematic basis, just as we support missionaries today, also received credit for in with God.
In Philippians 4:16-17 –“For even in Thessalonica ye sent once and again unto my necessity [that is they supported him regularly]. 17 Not because I desire a gift: but I desire fruit that may abound to YOUR account.”
Illus. – End with Dr. Sisk’s story about the old Papa-sahn. “Thank you so much for bringing me the Gospel...”
OR
Child in Well story (Act out Bill and me saving a child in a well. I go down the rope to save the child and Bill holds the rope and pulls us up. Later a newspaperman comes and asks, “Who saved this child’s life?” Well…who did? I went down into the well…but I couldn’t have done it without Bill.)
CONCLUSION
To close, here’s my challenge to you:
• This week, make every effort to attend every single meeting of the conference. – The meetings and what’s happening that service are in your conference bulletin.
• Second, take the Faith Promise Card that you received in your bulletin and pray every day, “Lord, what do YOU want me to do for missions this year?” – Pray as a couple, if you’re married, because this is a family decision.
• Third, STEP OUT BY FAITH to help get the Gospel around the world by giving a generous, sacrificial offering in a systematic way.
• Finally, be open to God’s leading about what you else you should do for missions—like praying faithfully for missionaries or surrendering yourself to be a missionary.
And if you’re here this morning and you’ve never been saved, then you’re a mission field.
Come to me after the service and let me take God’s Word and show you how to be saved.
