World Class Christians Series

World Class Christians

Purpose Driven Life #38

Montreal

June 8, 2004

Have you shared your story, or do you have a story about talking with someone about Jesus in the past two weeks? (Sharing from the congregation).

This is good and represents some beginning, at least, to the process into which we have entered. The Great Commission is your commission. Sometimes people wonder about what they’re supposed to be doing and are looking for God to tell them. In reality, He has already spoken and you and I don’t need much more clarity than He has alredy given. You were saved to serve and you were made for a mission, and I hope you feel some excitement about the privilege of God’s using you- little old you! That’s right!!

I want you to be a world-class Christian. This is someone who has entered into God’s work and is about the task at hand. Many Christians are worldly Christians- only in Christianity for what they can get for themselves- salvation, comfort, blessings, healings, position, and the like. This is not becoming to God or to the professing Christian. God is glorified by our being what he made us to be- and this is to be on mission in the expanding of His family and kingdom. It is becoming to you, too, as you rise to the occasion that God has put before you as you fulfill what you were called to.

The potential for us to be involved in the work of God is so great and, in many ways, so much easier than it used to be. For the first disciples, they had to use just donkeys, feet, and boats, and they couldn’t go very far very fast. Amazingly, they went quite some distance, even in their day. Thomas went to India. John likely went up into France. Those weren’t just airplane flights, in that day. They had to walk a lot of the way. Today, though, we have rapid transportation, and rapid communication means. We can write letters. We can send email and we can ’chat’ with people far away. We can phone people and it doesn’t cost much. (Do you remember when long distance used to cost so much and we had to be really careful? Now we can be on the phone for 2 hours, in Canada, and it costs under $5 for all that time- it’s amazing and it’s not so bad for international calls, either.)

Do you think like a successful world-class Christian, who is fully involved in the work of your father? Does your thinking have to shift a bit in order for this to be true of you?

1. Shift from self-centred thinking to other-centred thinking.

1 Cor.14.20- tells us to think maturely, and we saw, some weeks back, that this has to do with thinking that is expressing concern for others. Naturally, we’re all concerned for and about ourselves. Naturally, we’re all concerned about our jobs, our families, our retirements, our cars, and the like. But we can make this important mental shift through moment-by-moment dependence on God. It might take a lot of internal talk but it’s well worth the effort.

1 Cor.2.12- we don’t think like the world anymore- we must not fall to that level. When you’re with unbelievers, you can ask God to guide you to understand what stands between that person and knowing God through Jesus. You can pray even while you’re talking with the person, and God promised to give you understanding and wisdom. He will help you to comprehend what will be best for the person you are with.

1 Cor.10.33- I don’t think about what would be good for me but about what would be good for many people so that they might be saved.- this is profound and is the approach of the great Paul

2. Shift from local thinking to global thinking.

We are forced into a mold that has us thinking very locally sometimes, or even just about our own country. God, however, has always cared about the entire world. Remember that he loved the whole world so much that he gave Jesus to be everyone’s savior.

Acts 17.26f- God’s concern is with all. In Canada, we tend to think fairly globally, some of the time. We’re much more aware of many aspects of international affairs than some other nations are. However, do we think globally from the perspective of doing God’s work? We’ve done that before in our church and need to not lose that perspective.

What can you do to increase your global thinking? As part of prayer time, you can pray for a particular nation. Perhaps you can bring your globe down from the shelf and simply point to a nation and pray. Or you might pray based on something you hear happening in the news.