INTRO TO ELIM & ELIM MISSIONS
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Today is Elim Missions Sunday. It’s a day Elim sets apart for two main reasons:
The first is to remember the great Sacrifice of our Missionaries in the Vumba Massacre of 1978.
The second is to speak about the importance of supporting the work of Mission’s today - supporting our Missionaries both in prayer and also financially.
Mission is a response of the command Jesus gave His disciples in Matthew 28:18-19 Jesus told His disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Why are we to go? Because Jesus told us to go!
Where are we to go?
Into all nations, all the world, all our communities, to all our neighbours, to all our friends,
even into our own homes!
Who are we to share the Good News of Jesus with?
Everyone!
Perhaps it would be helpful if I gave you a quick history lesson on THE ELIM PENTECOSTAL CHURCH and it’s Missionary work.
The Elim Pentecostal Church was founded in 1915 by a Welshman in Monaghan Ireland.
George Jeffreys was an outstanding evangelist and church planter. He came from a Welsh Congregational Church background and was strongly influenced by the Welsh Revival of 1904. Our name ‘Elim’ is taken from the book of Exodus where the Israelites, exhausted from their escape from Egypt, arrived at an oasis in the desert called Elim, where there were twelve wells of water and seventy palm trees. Exodus 15.27.
While many traditional churches and denominations were shrinking, The Elim Movement grew rapidly, it really was a place of spiritual refreshment.
So what about Missions work?
Between 1915 and 1934, George Jeffreys was involved in some amazing evangelistic missions.
This unknown preacher would commence a mission with a mere handful of people, and by the end of the week, thousands would queue for a seat.
Amazing miracles of healing were taking place. And after the missions, large churches were planted.
The Elim Movement continued to grow and today there are just over 600 churches in the UK and we Elim is active in nearly 50 countries around the world.
ELIM INTERNATIONAL MISSIONS was birthed in the spirit of evangelism and church planting.
As early as 1922, Missionaries were sent out to Africa. In 1929, The Elim Missionary Society was founded.
After the Second World War ended in 1945, missionaries went out to many countries in Africa, South America and Asia.
We are committed never to forget the sacrifice that our missionaries made in the Vumba Massacre on the 23rd June 1978.
Catherine Picken from Southend Elim Church was one of the Elim Missionaries who was killed in the Vumba Massacre.
It was a sad day but as you heard in the video, more people signed up to be missionaries following that massacre than in the previous 5 years added together.
The devil will never be able to restrict the work of God. The memory of those who gave their lives, those who were martyred for their belief in Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, they are an inspiration for us to keep going into all the world with the Gospel.
How often do we pray for our missionaries?
Maybe not often enough.
Do you personally support any of our missionaries financially?
Without prayer and finance our missionaries would be unable to share the Gospel in the way that they do.
Our missionaries face different situations in different countries, but all of them have the same aim - to reach people with the good news of Jesus Christ.
We can be participants in the Mission Jesus has given to His Church, to go into all the world with the Gospel, the Good News, that Jesus Christ is the only way of Salvation.
Let’s take a moment to pray together for the work of Elim Missions.
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SERMON: Dynamic Disciples on a mission for God
This year our theme is Dynamic Disciples and our focus this month has been on prayer.
This morning I want us to consider together the power of prayer and praise and what it means to be a Dynamic Disciple on a mission for God
Prayer is simply speaking to God. We can pray and talk to God wherever we are.
There are many things we can pray about.
When we pray sometimes it can feel like we are just bringing a shopping list before our Lord.
We can pray for those who are unwell.
We can pray for our families, our friends.
We can pray for missionaries.
We can pray for those who as yet do not know Jesus as their personal Lord and Saviour.
We can pray for our church.
We can pray for ourselves.
But if our prayers are only on ourselves then our focus is only on our wants, our needs and our desires not God’s purposes and plans.
1 Peter 5:7 says We are to cast our cares upon God because God cares for us.
When we pray we enter into God’s presence and we can experience His power at work in our lives.
Prayer can elevate us into God’s presence as we lift our voices, our thoughts to our Heavenly in Prayer and in Praise.
The Bible says in Psalm 22:3 That God inhabits the praises of His people.
Prayer and praise brings us into the presence and power of God.
Here is the question: What is praise? Since it’s so important to praise the Lord, we should know what it is.
Praise means “to commend, to applaud or magnify.”
Praise to God is an expression of worship, lifting-up and glorifying the Lord.
Praise transports us into the realm of the supernatural and into the power of God.
Real praise, is more than just going through the motions.
When we praise God, we can sense His presence and power in our midst.
John 4:23 says But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way.
Praise is not something that only happens when we are in church.
Praise should be a part of a our daily lives, part of our daily prayer life, at work, in the car, at home in bed or anywhere we go we can bring our praise to our Lord and our God.
In Psalm 34:1 King David wrote: I will praise the Lord at all times. I will constantly speak His praises.
I wonder if those words could be used to describe our everyday lives?
Are we daily bringing praise to our Lord?
Is there evidence of us expressing our faith in our Saviour and redeemer?
Do we constantly declare that God is with us and is in control of the outcome of all our circumstances?
When we seek God and praise Him with all our hearts, we can expect God to pour out His presence and power.
As I was preparing the message for this morning, I felt it was important for us to look at a passage where Mission and prayer and praise and miracles appear.
I also felt it was important for us to consider a passage where there was a response to the truth of the Gospel.
5 things from one passage of Scripture, sounds impossible, but God is the God of the impossible and He led me to Acts Chapter 16.
The Apostle Paul is on his second missionary journey.
Paul visits Derbe and then Lystra, where he meets a young disciple called Timothy.
Timothy’s mother was a Jewish believer, but his father was a Greek.
Timothy was well thought of by the believers in both Lystra and Iconium and Paul wanted Timothy to join the disciples on their missionary journey.
Because of the Jews in the areas they would be visiting, Paul had to arrange for something to happen to Timothy before he could accompany the disciples.
Because everyone knew that Timothy’s dad was Greek, before they left Timothy had to be circumcised. Thankfully that’s not a requirement for mission trips today!
But Timothy was willing to do whatever was necessary to go on that Mission trip.
So then they set out and went from town to town, instructing the believers to follow the decisions made by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem.
Luke, the author of the book of Acts reports the churches were strengthened in their faith by these visits and grew larger every day.
God blessed those local churches, the people grew stronger in their faith as the disciples taught them and shared with them.
It was a busy mission trip for the disciples. They were determined to spread the truth of Jesus as Lord and Saviour throughout the area.
Paul and Silas traveled through the area of Phrygia and Galatia, then the borders of Mysia, and headed north towards the province of Bithynia, then they went through Mysia to the seaport of Troas.
That night The Apostle Paul had a vision: A man from Macedonia in northern Greece was standing and pleading with him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us!”
The disciples decided to leave for Macedonia straight away because they concluded that God was calling then to preach the Good News of the Gospel there.
They boarded a boat at Troas and sailed to the island of Samothrace, and the next day they landed at Neapolis.
Then they travelled to Philippi, a large city of Macedonia and a Roman colony where they stayed for several days.
On the Sabbath they went outside the city to a riverbank, where they thought people would be meeting for prayer, and they sat down to speak to some women who had gathered there on the riverbank.
One of the women was Lydia from Thyatira, she was a merchant of expensive purple cloth, who worshiped God.
Luke reports that as Lydia listened to the disciples, the Lord opened her heart, and she accepted what Paul was saying.
Both her and her household were baptized in the river and then she asked the disciples to stay as her guests.
Lydia told them “If you agree that I am a true believer in the Lord, come and stay at my home.”
Lydia was persistent and the disciples agreed to stay.
Then one day as the disciples were walking to the place of prayer, they met a slave girl who had an evil spirit within her that enabled her to tell the future.
The slave girl earned a lot of money for her owners by telling fortunes.
The girl followed Paul and the other disciples around, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, and they have come to tell you how to be saved.”
It’s an important message isn’t it, to know how we can be saved. How we can be set free from Sin, how we can be assured of peace with God and a place in Heaven.
Day after day the girl followed the disciples, shouting out, maybe she caused too much distraction, maybe her shouting prevented people from hearing the words of the disciples. Maybe people were scared to get too close to the girl.
Whatever the reason, Paul stopped turned to the girl and said to the demon within her, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.”
And instantly the evil spirit left her.
At that point perhaps Paul and the other disciples were thinking, peace at last. Now we can talk about Jesus without trying to make ourselves heard over the shouting of the slave girl.
But, here is where it gets a little difficult for the disciples.
Because the owners of the slave girls hopes of earning money from her fortune telling were over.
Their thought of wealth were shattered, and they grabbed Paul and Silas and dragged them before the authorities in the marketplace.
The owners shouted to the city officials. “The whole city is in an uproar because of these Jews! They are teaching customs that are illegal for us Romans to practice.”
Then it got worse.
A mob quickly formed against Paul and Silas, and the city officials ordered them stripped and beaten with wooden rods.
They were severely beaten, and then they were thrown into prison.
The jailer had been ordered to make sure they didn’t escape. So the jailer put them into the inner dungeon and clamped their feet in the stocks.
That doesn’t exactly seem to be the best result of a mission trip does it?
Not exactly a reason for bringing prayer and praise to God for a good end to the day.
Or is it. Listen to Acts 16:25
Around midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening.
Praying... in their situation you would expect that, but singing? Really?
Stripped, beaten, dragged off to prison, feet clamped into the stocks, and they are singing!
How often when we have had a bad day do we feel like singing and praising God?
I got up late! (Thank God for another day)
I got to work late! (Thank you Lord I have a job)
I only had a sandwich for lunch (Thank you God for my daily bread!)
The chilli sauce on my kebab last night was too strong
(Thank you God for providing me with food)
I did not sleep well last night I just could not get comfortable in my bed. (Thank you Lord I have a roof over my head and I am not homeless).
They were Singing hymns to God.
In the midst of everything they had endured that day they were still able to praise their God.
Wow!
Somehow they were content to be exactly where they were and even praise God through it all.
Then, suddenly, there was a massive earthquake, and the prison was shaken to its foundations.
Had the day just got worse than it was already? NO!
All the prison doors flew open, and the chains of every prisoner fell off!
The jailer wakes up and sees the prison doors wide open. He assumed the prisoners had escaped, so he pulls out his sword to kill himself.
Then the jailer hears Paul shout “Stop! Don’t kill yourself! We are all here!”
The jailer called for lights and runs into the dungeon and falls down trembling before Paul and Silas.
Then he brings them outside and asks, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
I bet humanly speaking that made their day.
Everything they had endured was for a God given opportunity to answer this man’s question.
What must I do to be saved?
Paul and Silas told Him. “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, along with everyone in your household.”
Then the disciples shared the word of the Lord with the jailer and everyone who lived in his house.
Now it was the early hours of the morning and the jailer had cared for the disciples and washed their wounds. And then an opportunity for even more praise to God came.
The jailer and everyone in his household were baptized.
Then the jailer took the disciples into his house and set a meal before them, and he and his entire household rejoiced because they all believed in God.
Is mission worthwhile? Yes!
Is praying to the Lord worthwhile? Yes!
Is praising God in every circumstance worthwhile? Yes!
They disciples had been led by the Holy Spirit.
They had gone where God told them to go.
They had preached the Gospel.
They had taught the word of God.
They saw real miracles.
They had rebuked the evil spirit that had possessed the slave girl.
They had been stripped and beaten and thrown in prison.
They had survived an earthquake.
And in and through it all they had prayed and praised
then the jailer and his whole household was saved.
What a wonderful example of Mission, Prayer, Praise and miracles.
I will close with this:When we are willing to allow God to lead us, when we pray and praise Him in spirit and truth, God can use each of us in a miraculous way.
May I encourage each of us, myself included to be a person of prayer and a person of praise.
May we all be willing to go into the world and share the Good News that Jesus Christ is Lord and Saviour.
