YOU WERE MADE FOR A MISSION

Ken Jones

The Purpose Driven Life – Part 6

Exodus 4:1-5

Then Moses said, “What if they will not believe me or listen to what I say?  For they may say, “The LORD has not appeared to you.” The LORD said to him, “What is that in your hand?” And he said, “A staff.”  Then He said, “Throw it on the ground.”  So he threw it on the ground and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from it.  But the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand and grasp it by it’s tail” --- so he stretched out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand ---- “that they may believe that the LORD, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.”

Acts 1:1-8

The first account I composed, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when He was taken up to heaven, after He had by the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom He had chosen. To these He also presented Himself alive after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God. Gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, "Which," He said, "you heard of from Me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now." So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, "Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?" He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth."

Acts 13:1-4

Now there were at Antioch, in the church that was there, prophets and teachers; Barnabas, and Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.  While they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”  Then, when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.  So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia and from there they sailed to Cyprus.

Pray

The Scriptures we have just read are very dramatic scenes taken from the Scriptures.  The first, the story of Moses and his first encounter with the LORD God, some 4,000 years ago.  Fast forward from there to the end of Jesus’ ministry, and His commissioning the eleven disciples, to go forth and continue the ministry He had started, and much further in the world.  Then the next passage out of the book of Acts, several years later, about 5 men, who came to believe upon the Lord, spending time praying and seeking the Lord, the Holy Spirit spoke saying that two of them had a mission that they needed to be sent off to do.  Three Scriptures that we will look at in light of the 5^th week of the 40 Days of Purpose campaign, which is our fifth purpose is to share the Good News, and noted on our key chain tags this week as, EVANGELISM.

We have learned during this campaign, that once we know that God is in control; once we know that God made us to love us, once we know that our lives are not an accident, that we are here because God has a purpose for us, God calls us to share this news with other people.  The word evangelism is a Greek word that has the idea of the spreading of good news.

If you will allow me, I’d like to speak from a personal perspective this morning.  I was raised in a church where the idea of evangelism was the most important focus of the church and denomination.  The church we went to when I was a kid, we had what was known as evangelistic services every Sunday night.  Every Sunday night, the service would include a call to anyone to come to the altar, to give their life to Christ.  The Pastor would give the invitation to come and pray at the altar, and he’d say, don’t you feel the Holy Spirit tugging on your heart; like a rope is around your heart?… tugging… pulling… calling you to come and receive the forgiveness of your sins?… and each time he would say, “don’t you feel Him, tugging, pulling, you down to this altar?”, I felt the pulling and drawing of the Holy Spirit; I responded to that call when I was in 3^rd grade.  I went to a Christian university and seminary, were at was encouraged, and even mandated that we must always seek to share Christ with the rest of the world, and I believe that, however, I had a problem…

By nature I am an introvert; I’m not a chatter bug, as a matter of fact, I’d prefer not to talk at all if I can get away with it. When I do speak, it’s generally only about things that I am really passionate about, and believe in, then I have plenty to say---- so the whole idea for me to start conversations with people that I do not know and do not know me well is very daunting thing.  Or just trying to have a conversation with someone I do know, getting from the “hi, how are you” to “do you know Jesus Christ”, is a huge leap for me.

They say that men on average have a daily verbal bank of about 20,000-30,000 words a day, and then that’s it.  Women on the other hand have a daily verbal bank of about 60,000-70,000 words.  I think my verbal bank is about 10-15,000 tops. It’s not that there is nothing going on up here (and I suppose you can be the judge of that), I’m always thinking, analyzing, sizing up;  which is why I love political talk radio etc., it’s just that what’s going on up here is not something you talk to average Joe on the street about without either having them be totally mystified by what you are saying, or severely ticking people off.

Always a struggle for me, especially since I believe I am called into Christian ministry, and the stereotypical pastor is one who is friendly, always smiling, and ready to talk to anyone, at anytime about anything, especially about spiritual things. Those kinds of things do not come naturally for me, I have to really work at them. 

I said all that to say, that this subject of evangelism, which according to the Scriptures is the mission of the church, to spread the news of Christ dying on behalf of our sins, rising on the 3^rd day, offering eternal life for all who believe upon Him; expressing His love not just in word only but deeds of love and self sacrifice as well---- this is not an easy subject for someone who lives more in the realm of ideas, than social interaction.  However, if we are going to believe the Bible, if we are going to believe that contained in this book, is the Word of God to us, we have to take the spreading of His Word to others as important business; and if we are to believe what is written in here, we know that the time is short—whether it be that Jesus will come back at anytime, or we will die and have to stand before Him to give an account of our deeds on earth.

I understand that for many, this kind of talk makes some feel uncomfortable, but if I understand my job as it is written in here, then giving everyone comfort is only part of the job. This is not from a perspective of guilt, but of reality.  The Word of God is clear, if you believe upon Jesus Christ, He promises eternity for you, yet there will be varying degrees of reward depending upon what we do with our lives while on this earth.  I for one, cannot accept the thought of not taking this issue of spreading His message to heart, by doing my own thing, expecting He will receive me into His dwelling place, for a wonderful eternity, and then having to stand before the One I say I love and worship, and give an account of my life that shows that the majority of my life was for me, and not what is important to Him.

So you have my dilemma… being naturally predisposed to being introverted; yet believing that I am called into full-time ministry; prefer to stay in the realm of ideas, spirituality and prayer rather than having to interact with people; yet knowing what His word says and wanting to please Him when I see Him face to face…  therefore I also present the following to you people of Santa Teresa Hills Presbyterian Church, a church that identifies itself as a church that is a moderate, left of center church, both theologically and in practice--  a church that is a family oriented church;  a church that is very loving and welcoming of people of all kinds;  a church where many of you have stayed here through the years, and your circle of relationships are centered here, among the members here.  I say to both you and I, that we cannot turn a deaf ear to the message of the One Whom we honor here today, Jesus Christ.  We must allow ourselves to be open, and we must seek the Lord, as to how we can best fulfill His purposes for us all, because if we don’t, we are not any different than the Rotarians, Kiwanis, and Lions Club.  Yes we are a family, yes we are to serve each other and be kind to outsiders, but we also have to recognize that we have a mission, and that is to spread the knowledge and good news that we ourselves have discovered in Jesus Christ.

Facing my own dilemma, I have spent a lot of time in prayer, researching the Scriptures, and reading others on this subject of evangelism, and I believe I have come to an understanding of how this is played out for those of us who when faced with the word evangelism, feel like they are facing a 4-letter word.  What I have discovered, I find in the passages of the Scriptures I shared with you today. I’d like to now to take a moment to look at those Scriptures, and then I would like to conclude with a real life story of how these principles have played out.

The first passage we have read, is from Exodus 4:1-5.  In that section of Exodus we read of Moses first face to face encounter with God at the burning bush. There at the burning bush, God tells Moses that God is sending Moses back to Egypt, to have a face to face encounter with the Pharaoh, and then to lead the people of Israel out of slavery.  Moses first reaction was not one overflowing confidence. He standing there, seeing this bush, that is burning, but yet is not burned up, and from it he is hearing the voice of God.  But rather than embracing the call that God puts on him, he tells God basically to go find someone else.  Then Moses comes up with excuses like, hey I’m not one of smooth speech- I’m not slick, they are not going to believe me; how am I going to be able to carry this message from God.  Then God says to him, “what is that in your hand?”.  Moses tells him, it’s a staff.  Moses had a staff, a common stick used by shepherds in order to walk with and to beat off wild animals; nothing special, nothing powerful.  That’s the first key to be used by God to spread His message, let God use what He already has given you.

Moses thought the staff he had was just something he had picked up along the way, yet it was the very vehicle by which God would bring glory to Himself. All you have to do, is be willing to let Him use what He already has given you. It means that God will use whatever creative expression that He has placed on you to get it done.  We are not cookie cutter Christians, and He doesn’t make us follow cookie cutter methods.

The next Scripture we read was from the book of Acts where first of all, Jesus showed His disciples many convincing proofs that He was alive.  That means that we can have very rational, and understandable reasons for our faith.  Biblical Archaeology magazine, shows how there are archaeological discoveries all the time which constantly prove the Bible, not disprove it.  Educate yourself.  IF you have a question, I challenge you to first of all honestly bring it to God in prayer, and open yourself to receive an answer.  The answer will come every time:  His promise is, ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and the door shall be opened to you. 

The second part of that passage in Acts Jesus says go to Jerusalem (the people closest to them), Judea (people further out, but still in their culture and comfort zone); Samaria (people out of their comfort zone that they would not talk to otherwise), and the rest of the world to.  Here’s where I always trip up.  I can handle the Jerusalem thing… I can understand the Judea thing… but when it comes to the Samaria and the world part, I lose it.  I’m having a hard enough time with the first two; I can’t get my mind around that.  Yet, if I look a little closer, I realize first of all He tells me to wait for the Holy Spirit to empower me first.  That is the key to all of this;  the responsibility of getting God’s work done is on God first, we are just to follow where He directs, and He takes care of the rest.

The passage that follows this line of thought is in the second passage we read in Acts today in Acts 13:1-4.  This passage also shows that we are first to wait on the Holy Spirit to direct, call, and empower, then go.  We see 5 guys, who take the idea seriously to really pray and seek God, seek to minister to God in their seeking of God; fasting, praying… and then God’s plan is shown to all them; the same plan which Saul and Barnabas already knew, they were to go out and spread the Good News in other places. Not all 5 went, just two, the two God had already spoken to.  So if you and are going to get serious about sharing the Good News, we need to spend time praying, and seeking the Lord for His direction.  If you look at it that way, reaching the world is not so complicated. We seek God (because we know in His Word that He wants us to carry out His mission), we give Him what He already has given us, He gives us the direction and the power to do what He has already directed to do and promised to accomplish.  Let me conclude with a real life story of the application of what I am talking about.

I knew a Pastor in Kentucky, who was wishing to reach the community; a community that said they and their families were members of such and such Baptist church.  He wanted to see the little church he pastored grow.  Conventional methods had been tried with no results.  So he began to hold a series of prayer meetings, calling on his congregation to begin to seek the Lord, as to how they could reach their community. 

In one of the prayer meetings, the Pastor believed that God began to reveal to him what he and his church should do.  There was a particular place in the small town where most of the younger generation would hang out on Friday and Saturday nights. Of all places, it was the parking lot of a shopping center that had a Wal-Mart in it. This little shopping center would fill up with cars and would be packed, and inevitably it became rowdy and the police would show up… etc…  This Pastor began to have an idea roll around in his head, and it was something that he would not normally do, and from the outside looked and seemed crazy. The next prayer meeting, he shared his plan with the congregation.  He proposed that anyone who could and was willing, would go with him the next Friday night with a 9 foot cross (which had been used in recent Easter play), and carry it around the parking lot 7 times, singing to the Lord, and let happen whatever was going to happen. 

A small group of 12 adults and kids, met at the Wal-Mart parking lot that Friday night, to carry that big cross.  Several of the people expressed reservation, and fear—especially of looking ridiculous carrying this cross around, but they too believed that it should happen.  So they began to walk around this parking lot 7 times, just singing quietly and silently praying.  By the 7^th turn, the whole parking lot was empty. What started as a packed out lot, was literally empty by the 7^th round.  No one really talked to them, some sneered, some asked questions as to why they were doing it, but that was about it. After the 7^th time, they put the cross in the back of a pick-up and they all went to the McDonalds that was at the shopping center and talked about the experience, and all wondered why they believed the Lord had them do it. Was it the Lord, or was it just a crazy idea?  The Pastor secretly was asking those questions to himself as well.

A week or so later, one of the men from the congregation, who carried the cross, came to the church in tears just before an evening service. He was sobbing, but he was excited at the same time.  He told them a story of what had happened to him earlier in the day while at work.  He was a meat manager of a supermarket.  He said that a man came to his store earlier that day, looking for the guy who carried the cross with little group from that small church, at the Wal-Mart parking lot. The meat manager tepidly told him that he was the one he was looking for.  The man wrapped his arms around him, and began sobbing, when he got control of himself, he told the meat manager why he was there. 

The sobbing man happened to be the bother of a bread vendor for that supermarket, one who basically hated Christians, and would regularly come in and ridicule the meat manager for his faith.  This bread guy happened to be at the Wal-Mart parking lot that night when they were walking with the cross.  The bread guy went to a poker game the next night.  While at the poker game, the bread man began to tell the story of these Christian idiots who carried the cross, mocking and making fun.  Present at the poker game was the bread man’s brother.  As the brother sat there listening to the story, he said he became overwhelmed with a sense of his sin and his need for Jesus as his Savior. He went home that night, and knelt beside his bed, and prayed, giving his life to Jesus.  The next day he told his wife what had happened and told her that he wanted he and she, and their kids, to go to church on Sunday.  They all did, and that Sunday, his whole family committed their lives to Christ. 

A few days later, the wife of this guy was informed that her father in Michigan was very ill, and near the point of death.  They flew to Michigan to see her father.  While in the hospital, they shared what they had experienced with her father.  While on his death bed, he gave his life to Christ, and was ready to face death for the first time in his life. Before he died, he told his son in law to go back and find those people from that little church that carried the cross and thank them. He said because they did that, he was ready to die, because he knew he was going to spend eternity with the Lord.  And so, that’s why he was there, sobbing over this meat manager.

What’s amazing about that story, is that the little church didn’t grow numerically as a result of what happened.  As far as they know, no one else was touched with the message of what they had done.  The key here is that they took to heart Jesus’ call to spread the Good News, and were willing to seek the Lord, to get His direction, and then once they had that direction, to go forward and do it. It stretched them, it confronted their personal fears, but most importantly, God performed an amazing miracle as a result of it, and everyone involved grew personally because of it. Crazy story isn’t it, but it is a true story, and do you know how I know that this story is true?  I was the Pastor, I was there.