“Missions exists because worship doesn’t” writes John Piper. And how true this statement is.
At a time when the American church, often looks more like a launching pad for Entrepreneurial Pastors, a place to set trends, or as competing arenas for filling seats, is it possible we have missed what we find at the very heart of Gods Word?
We can answer this question as simply as we can ask it. And so what is the heart of God?
While we can speak of many things within our Christian faith, such as the prophecies, sacrifices, arrival of Jesus, Ministry of Jesus, The Cross, The Death, The Resurrection, even on into The Holy Spirit and the early church, we must note that all of such things are a means to an end, and that end of course, is God.
We needed a Cross, in which to persecute, for our sins, a coming Savior. We needed prophecies, to speak of His arrival. We needed the blood to purchase us, atoning for us, and we needed a resurrection to prove Jesus really defeated death.
But at the heart of such events, is the fact that God wants His story known, as He lead His children home.
Is it not amazing to you that the first call of Jesus to His Disciples is for them to “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men”?
That Jesus then shows such followers how to do fish for men for three and a half years, then dies, rises, and upon meeting them before He ascends into Heaven tells them “with all authority” the very same message, of going “into all the world” and to “proclaim The Gospel to all creation”. To literally continue following Him, only now “Led By The Spirit” able to do “greater works” than Jesus as believers worldwide continue His Ministry of casting The Gospel net.
You see what is amazing about all that Jesus called us to, is that everything is all emcompassed in The Great Commission. And friend, it is a Co-Mission resulting in both God getting Glory, which is primary, and our walking out our calls which is where we find out identity.
This should cause us to ask ourselves such questions as:
Do we know what The Gospel is?
When was the last time someone shared it with us?
When was the last time we shared it with someone else?
What does repentance mean?
How do I share my faith?
Is every moment a Divine appointment that God is ready to invade?
As a Christian since 2004 I can count on one hand the times anyone has shared Christ with me in the 24 years prior to walking with Him.
Do you, your family, friends, church, even Pastor need to be challenged to get back to the heart of why we are still here?
Ezekiel was Gods Watchman, and The Apostle Paul, in like tone testified that he was “innocent of the blood of all, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.”
What have we been entrusted with? Who is our testimony for? Where are our gifts and talents given for?
I hope this message, challenges, encourages, brings God Glory and sets our nets in hand to through “word and deed” to the dead around us.
God Bless you!
“And he said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”