Global Missions Emphasis - Part 2

We are midway through our first ever, special missions emphasis. And we are doing this to begin our vision of making missions a cornerstone ministry in our church. Missions, in case you’ve forgotten, is actively supporting the telling of others about Jesus because we can’t help but speak of what we’ve seen and heard.

Our global missions emphasis is based on what Jesus said to the disciples just before he ascended back to heaven…

8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”  Acts 1:8 (ESV)

Acts 1:8 is a model, a strategy for living out what I like to call God’s Witness Projection Program. As we saw last week it’s about sharing Jesus…

Starting where you are

If we can’t help but speak of what we’ve seen and heard, then we must be about sharing our faith with those closest to us and our circle of influence: family, friends, coworkers, the teller at the bank, the lady who cuts our hair, you get it.

Starting were you are with God’s Witness Projection Program can be as basic as inviting someone to church.

It’s about starting where you are and then…

Looking to where you are not

This is mirrored in the GREAT COMMISSION…

19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”  Matthew 28:19–20 (ESV)

The words of Jesus in Acts 1:8 and Matthew 28:19-20 go hand-in-hand. They’re linked.

We saw how to get with the program, how to live out the Acts 1:8 strategy. GET INVOLVED first of all…

Personally. This means we come out of our comfort zones and speak of what we’ve seen and heard to folks in our Jerusalem, our Judea, our Samaria, and even to the remote parts of the earth.

The second is get involved…

Prayerfully – we must pray for the lost not only in our Jerusalem but also further out.

Finally, get involved…

Financially – give to our ONE FUND. Remember we’re combining the Golden Missions Offering, LMCO, AAEO, and more into one big fund with exponential impact. We are asking you to pray right now about giving sacrificially above and beyond your regular tithes and offerings and then turn in your offering by November 22 — NEXT SUNDAY. 

Go online from our one fund page. You can mail it to the church. Or you can use our drop box. There will be special envelopes.

We’ll add all that up and celebrate your generosity on Sunday, November 29. Pray we reach and maybe exceed our goal of $10,000.

Our Jerusalem is our city and county. Our Judea is our wonderful state of Tennessee, home of the Titans and the Tennessee Vols. Our Samaria is the North American Continent. That’s this week’s focus with the North American Mission board of our denomination. Kathy, our LifeView groups and engagement minister, has already told you more about that. Our ends of the earth is missions all over the world. That’s next week.

One more time let me say that the beauty of our Global missions emphasis is that we can actively support missions all the way to the ends of the earth by simply giving to the ONE FUND and hopefully getting involved in missions opportunities one day.

In case you haven’t noticed I’m using repetition to get this drilled down into our minds and hearts. Missions. ONE FUND. Acts 1:8. God’s Witness Projection Plan.

That’s an advertising trick I learned in college. Repetition makes us remember better. I’m not beneath that. Like one pastor I used to know always said, “We’ll do anything short of sin to tell somebody about Jesus.” I’ll do anything short of sin to get folks to support the telling of others about Jesus.

Okay. I think I’ve caught us up. So we can talk about what I want to share with you today for just a few minutes. We saw the connection the link between the Great Commission…

19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”  Matthew 28:19–20 (ESV)

And our global missions emphasis focus verse, Acts 1:8…

8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”  Acts 1:8 (ESV)

(Repetition :)

There’s another connection I want you to see, and it’s found in Mark 12. The Pharisees and Sadducees had been sending their best and brightest to try and trap Jesus with his own words. It backfired. One fellow — a scribe, an expert in Jewish law — was so impressed he asked Jesus a question…

28 And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” 

One commentator explains why he asked this:

“The rabbis had determined that there were 613 commandments contained in the Pentateuch, one for each letter of the Ten Commandments. Of the 613 commandments, 248 were seen as affirmative and 365 as negative. Those laws were also divided into heavy and light categories, with the heavy laws being more binding than the light ones. The scribes and rabbis, however, had been unable to agree on which were heavy and which were light.” 

A contest arose among Rabbis to condense the Law into as small a pill as possible. Jesus did just that in a big way…

29 Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”  Mark 12:28–31 (ESV)

When you do a little digging, you discover Jesus masterfully summarized not just the whole of the law, but specifically the Ten Commandments.

He took the first four of the Ten Commandments and capsuled them into one command dealing with our relationship to God. Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. I like to condense that even further: Love God passionately.

Jesus took the next six commandments and pruned them into one command dealing with our relationship to those around us: love your neighbor as yourself. I like to say that this way, love people radically.

The great commandment, then, is

Love God passionately.

Love people radically.

What does that have to do with Acts 1:8 and the great commission? EVERYTHING!

Loving God passionately is caring about what he cares about. Paul reveals the heart of God in his letter to Pastor Timothy…

4 [God] desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.  1 Timothy 2:4 (ESV)

And what about this? The most famous Bible verse ever…

16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.  John 3:16 (ESV)

Loving people radically is helping those in need, and what greater need is there in this dark world than the light of Jesus? And what better way to love God passionately and people radically than to get engaged in missions?

And what greater opportunity do we have right now than giving to the ONE FUND and actually getting involved in missions opportunities as they arise?

Conclusion: How does this connect to Jesus? It circles back around. Jesus is God in the flesh. If you want to know what God is like, look to Jesus. It’s no surprise Jesus gave us the Acts 1:8 strategy and the great commission. He is God. And God loved us so much he sent his son, Jesus, to save everyone. God desires for all to know him and be a part of his forever family.

This all relates to a verse I share every week…

13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”  Romans 10:13 (ESV)

Next week we focus on the ends of the earth through international missions and we’ll have a surprise guest speaker I can’t wait to introduce to you. Let’s close with another look at the Worthy family, missionaries in Italy who will be with us in person on our November 29 online service!