You Have Just Entered The Missions Zone Series

Note: I had to make many cuts as I preached this sermon. I normally preach for half an hour, but if I used all this material, I think I would have to preach 50 minutes or more. Hope you find something here helpful.

Thanks,

Ed

You Have Just Entered the Missions Zone

(Romans 15:14-33)

1. Many of you remember growing up watching the Twilight Zone.

2. Jerry Santen were talking about that show last week.

3. Many of the big stars played roles on that show, before they became famous.

4. Some of those stories were scary. Kids all over America were afraid to go to bed after watching the Zone. As a matter of fact, so were many adults!

5. When you entered the Twilight Zone, you entered another dimension.

6. The truth is that when a man, woman, teen, or child accepts Jesus Christ as Savior, he or she enters another dimension: a spiritual dimension, known as the Kingdom of God. The believer battles spiritual enemies: the devil and his demons, the resident traitor within – our sin nature, and the world.

7. Positively, he seeks to aid and strengthen other soldiers of the King and draft recruits to join the warfare. This drafting of recruits is a combination of evangelism (local recruits) and missions (recruits from different cultures or lands).

8. So if you know Christ, you have entered the “Missions Zone.”

9. Most Christians are not called to be missionaries, and thousands testify to the foolishness of entering full time ministry without a sense of calling.

10. But every Bible oriented church needs to be connected to missions. At HPC, about 20 per cent of our tithes and offerings go to Missions. We take this seriously. Three families from our church are on the mission field: the Moores, Aldridges, and Dawsons. Since the average American evangelical church sends out .11 missionaries or missionary families per congregation, we are 27 times higher than most…sovereignty of God

11. Paul already alluded to that in chapter 10, where he argued that to be saved, one must call upon Jesus Christ. To do this, one must know about Christ. To find out about Christ, others must communicate the message. For them to preach, they must be sent.

Main idea: A church is many things, including the Kingdom of God in action. A church is to propagate itself, multiply itself, and deepen its impact. This means a church must boldly enter the Missions Zone.

TS----There are three portals we must enter if we are to grasp this special dimension of God’s Kingdom work.

I. Training Believers to GROW (14)

A Christianity worth reproducing…

A. These verses describe how trained believers LOOK

1. character: filled with GOODNESS (agathosyne) kindness

One day, a church was having its normal 11 service. It was a good attendance day; there was not an empty seat in the whole church. Around 11:05 a young guy barefoot with a tie die shirt came in, looked around did not find a seat, so he wondered up about ¾ of the way and sat down in the isle. This was one of those churches where everyone dressed properly and say up straight in their pew

The head elder of the Church was always clean cut, well groomed, well dressed, and was a man of great dignity. He saw the kid sitting in the Isle, he got out of his seat and started heading down the isle, by this time the whole congregation was watching and wondering what was going to happen

As he slowly made his way down the isle, he got to the kid, everybody was watching, he lowered his body and sat down right beside the young kid

We need the kindness of that Elder, we need to be reaching people who need to here the good news (source: Dan Borchert, Sermon Central)

2. complete in KNOWLEDGE (educated)

One of my favorite books was written by Os Guiness titled, “Fit Bodies, Fat Minds.” He bemoans the reality that many evangelical Christians do not develop their minds, and they look down upon those who do as unspiritual…”I’m not into doctrine; just loving God from the heart.” They completely ignore Rom. 12:2

3. competent to TRAIN OTHERS

Once someone has character and knowledge, he needs practical direction. One thing to know the Bible, another to teach it….one thing to know the principles of resolving conflict, another to mediate…

Three steps to training:

• You watch what I do

• You help me do it

• You do it while I supervise you

B. The church gathers for TRAINING, a key element in edification

--we learn from one another; we do not always need official “programs”

--getting into the lifelong habit of learning from others is crucial

--I learn from people all the time; actually, if I look at our board of elders, each of those guys have taught me something…