MISSIONS MATTER
By Wade Martin Hughes, Sr.
Kyfingers@aol.com
TEXT: Luke 16:27 Then he said, I pray thee therefore, Father, that thou would send him to my Father’s house:
28 For I have five brothers, that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment.
I ponder today, Can I make a difference? Can you?
I don’t think I can see I am making a big difference on a daily basis, but I know ---
Jude1: 22, And of some have compassion, making a
difference.
23, --- pulling them out of the fire.
I love 1 Cor. 16:15 --- and that they have addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints.
Are we more addicted to the television than to the
church, the Bible, and prayer?
The pastor depends on you? Jesus depends on you!
Define MISSION?
-the act of going or sending.
-assignment to work
-sent to perform a service.
-entrust
I want to serve Jesus so habitually and obsessively that others may know.
I desire to be so surrendered to the cross that I care and no one will make the poor decision to choose HELL.
What is my mission?
Am I sent?
Do I care?
Am I commissioned?
"Why do missions?"
Am I trying to quicken Christian Faith?
I think one person can make a difference, we must send missionaries.
We must hear our calling.
Perhaps the first question of the Bible is still asked by many:
(Gen. 4:9) ....AM I MY BROTHERS KEEPER?
This question was asked by a man running from God.
Another great question that should be studied ---
WHO IS MY NEIGHBOR?
This second question was asked by a man seeking to
justify himself.
Ask yourself these two questions, and what am I doing about it?
I also ponder, what man had the greatest mission value in the Bible?
Well, many had a concern for the lost and hurting, but if I could only pick one with a concern for missions,
I would go to the book of Luke and find a man
willing to tell the whole world and how he carried a
vision for his lost family.
(Luke 16: 19--31.)
This man prayed a prayer that God would send out
workers for the harvest, and his vision expanded in
minutes from his foolish treasures on earth,
to 5 brothers headed quickly toward the torment in
which he now suffered ...
"lest they also come into this place of torment."
Hell has a cry for missions.
What a differencein his day could this man have made to the local preacher and his five brothers.
This missionary missed his opportunity.
Should we not seek a missions call for Macedonia and the uttermost parts of the lost?
Can we hear the cry for missions?
Come teach us?
Many say, Lord send me, but stay on the couch in front of the helevision.
What if we get a vision too late?
Let me share some alarming facts.(source unknown)
Less than 2.9% of Americans tithe faithfully.
In the USA, more is spent on dog food than given to
missions.
No wonder hell enlarges its borders daily.
The average church member has never witnessed to the
lost.
While the Bible is the most sold book in the world,
the average Christian reads less than three chapters
a week.
I am told that 60% of all pastors have never read
the Bible through from cover to cover.
Less than 10% of all pastors read their Bible though
in a calendar year.
Thousands attend seminars, healing campaigns,
singings and buy tickets, books, tapes and CD’s,
while prayer meetings and Sunday Schools are being
discontinued for the lack of attendance.
I am told that the average board member/deacon never
fast for the pastor, and rarely makes a visit to
ease the load of their pastor.
Many of the church’s official officers serve only in
titular titles, ...
with many offices existing in title only.
Few see their duty and responsibility in the light
of eternity.
Less than 20% of Sunday School teachers study their
lesson and are early to greet their class.
We need a new vision of HELL, that would launch workers into unified prayer and fasting for souls.
This vision must spur us into visitation and going into the highways and byways and compel others to seek Jesus.
Lord of all, or not at all?
This vision for lost souls must start at home, but it must reach into the billfold and saving accounts, to enable others to be a substitute for us, as we hold the rope.
If I cannot go, I can help send! B
ut the greatest need is a real, consistent prayer warrior mentality that will call faithfully on the throne of the most Holy God for the lost and those in the heat of the battle.
We are blessed, we own Bibles and have the ability to read them.
We have Christian television and radio.
We have access to books and tapes, but this is all
worthless, unless we are compelled into the
"MISSION FOR THE LOST."
Is evangelism one of our primary targets? Do we hide behind the security of the church walls?
Let me show you some important facts. (source unknown)
To do this in an easy understandable way, let us
reduce the whole world’s population to 100 people
and keep all the existing ratios for the human race
the same as they currently are.
66 PEOPLE OUT OF 100 WOULD NOT BE CHRISTIANS.
Does this stat break your heart?
2/3 of all the peoples of the world have never heard
about the Savior, Jesus Christ.
70 out of 100 would be nonwhite races, and this
percentage grows more nonwhite annually.
57 would be ASIAN, the largest untouched race for
Jesus in the world.
21 would be Europeans,
14 from the western hemisphere (all North & South
America)
and 8 would be from Africa.
Lord send workers into the HARVEST.
70 out of 100 will be totally illiterate, with no
reading or writing skills.
If we could have the Bible in every language and in
every hand of the readers, still 7/10 could not
understand.
We need someone to tell the Good News.
50 out of 100 will go to bed hungry and malnutrition
would rule.
80 out of 100 would live in substandard housing. Some areas of the world would love to have enough cardboard to cover the children while they sleep.
1 out of 100 would have a college education.
I am so blessed, my dad is a college graduate, I am, and both sons.
I have never said thank you God. Forgive me.
6 out of the 100 would control over 50% of the
world’s wealth.
All 6 would be citizens of the USA.
3 would be near death, without knowing the name
Jesus.
All these statistics are worthless, unless we allow the Holy Spirit to activate the power that is within us to mobilize and share our prayer life, give of our financial blessings, and reach out our hands to the lost and dying humanity.
Ask yourself this question:
What kind of missions church would my church be, if every member was mission-minded just like me?
Can you do a little more?
Could you give a little more?
Could you pray a little harder?
Think when you enter that beautiful city,
and the saved around you appear.
Just think how you will feel,
when you hear it was your effort
that invited me here! (unknown)
If not you, then who?
If not here, then where?
If not now, then when?
The Kingdom is waiting for you!
His servant,
Wade Martin Hughes Sr.
Kyfingers@aol.com
Could you enlarge my hands and pass this to others. Please?
We must reach others for the cross!
