John 21:21
Faith Promise Missions
Woodlawn Baptist Church
January 20, 2007
Introduction
In John 20:21, Jesus said to His church,
“Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.”
This morning I am going to begin a three-part series of sermons dealing with the subject of missions and mission support. I have asked you and want to ask you again to make every effort to hear each of these three messages. I am excited about what God has in store for us this year as we launch out into a new year in missions and pray that you too will share in the excitement as God works through us to reach our world for Christ. If you are new to Faith Promise or have never participated before, I plead with you to join in and experience the blessings God has in store for you.
According to John’s gospel, God sent Jesus into the world to accomplish His work. Throughout His life, Jesus said that He had come to do His Father’s will, and the Bible bears out that Jesus was absolutely devoted to doing that will, a devotion that you and I are to share today. Each of us has the responsibility of sharing the gospel and making disciples. The supreme reason Jesus established His church and every church since then is to help people know Jesus Christ as both Savior and Lord: “as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.”
But what does that mean and why does it matter? That’s what I’d like to answer for you today by dealing with just a couple of simple questions.
What is Faith Promise Missions?
Before dealing with what Faith Promise missions is, let’s be clear on what missions is. Simply put, missions is our sharing the message of Christ, and a missionary is one who is sent out bearing the mission message. Moses and Samuel and David and Elijah and Elisha and Jonah and Paul and Barnabas and even Jesus were missionaries. They were sent out by God to bear His message to a dark and dying world! A missionary is anyone who will join God in the work of spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ.
“But God hasn’t sent me, so I’m not a missionary.” That’s simply not true! Jesus was speaking to His church when He said, “As the Father hath sent me, even so send I you.” That command is just as true for this church as it was for that church, and you and I are this church! Jesus said that Woodlawn Baptist Church is to go, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.”
He said that we would be witnesses unto Him throughout the world, and the issue is not whether we will be witnesses, but what kind of witnesses we will be. We all bear witness of something in our lives. We all give testimony that our lives are influenced by something or someone. You can look at some people’s lives and know they are influenced by football or politics or their job, but the child of God is to bear witness of the saving power of God in their lives. I love the testimony of Peter when he got in trouble with the Jerusalem authorities. The Bible says…
“And they called them, and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered and said unto them, Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. For we cannot but speak the things we have seen and heard.”
They were so consumed by the life of God they couldn’t help but tell people who had changed their lives. They were missionaries doing mission work – the same mission work God has called us to do. He didn’t command us to pay someone to do it or to call a preacher and let him do it. He didn’t say we needed a seminary education or that we had to attend a special Bible study to do it. Mission work is about you and me sharing the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It’s about you and me being so unmistakably transformed by the gospel of Jesus that the world sits up and takes notice.
The fact of the matter though is that you and I will never reach much of the world. Most of us will never go much farther than our own community, so God has seen fit to bring other men and women into our lives who will go to other parts of the world. God has seen fit to call those men to preach His Word and build churches in places we’d never be able to go. I am thankful today for men like Kevin Clinton who answered the call to reach people in McKinney, or Kabsu Kim who is reaching people in Japan, or David Bostick who will reach people in Ukraine that we may never have the opportunity to meet.
So the key is to think of missions in terms of two aspects: there is the local aspect for which you are responsible, and there is the broader aspect – the aspect where Faith Promise comes into view.
Faith Promise Missions is simply the program of missions giving we have chosen to use to support those men and their families who answer the call of God to go.
It’s the program God has blessed for nearly 30 years as ordinary people like you and I have sacrificially given of our resources so that others can be the shining light those in darkness need.
Faith Promise Missions is a program for everyone because your level of involvement is strictly between you and God. It doesn’t matter how rich or poor you are. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a new Christian or an old one. Those things just don’t matter. What does matter is that…
• you have a heart for the work of God
• you have a willingness to be used of God in spreading the gospel
• you’re ready for God to move through you to reach the heart of another
• you’re ready to grow and be stretched like never before
• you have a desire to worship God on a new level
• you’re willing to trust God in ways you’ve never trusted Him before
• you want to have a greater witness in the world
• you’ll be willing to let God use your gifts, your talents, your finances, and your faith
• you’re tired of offering excuses for why you can’t do more than you’ve already done. Excuses like…
o My little offering won’t do much
o Others can do so much more than me
o This just isn’t a good time
o I don’t know enough
o I don’t have enough
You see, what it all boils down to is whether you’re ready to take the next step in your spiritual journey, whatever that step might be. Perhaps God wants you to give more than you did last year. Maybe he wants you to give something you’ve never given before. God may show you that you’re not ready to give to Faith Promise until you’re being faithful with a tithe. Start there. Will the Lord burden you to pray for missionaries and their work? To visit a mission field? To correspond with a missionary and encourage him or his family? Or maybe even to answer the call of God yourself and be that missionary.
Whatever God might say to you today and in the weeks to come, before you even understand what that might be, you have to be willing to say yes to the Lord. Would you do that this morning, even now? The time to act is now. The time to say yes to God is now. The time to respond to the prompting of the Holy Spirit is now! Don’t worry that you don’t know what He wants you to do – just say “yes, Lord.” You know God has your best interests at heart. You know He cares for you – so trust Him right now and prove that you trust Him with a simple prayer of willingness to do His will.
So that is the What of Faith Promise…now,
Why Faith Promise?
Again, Faith Promise is just the plan of giving we use, so instead of asking, “Why Faith Promise Missions?” let’s ask, “Why missions?” Why be involved in mission work? Why be involved in financially supporting these men? Why bother corresponding with or praying for missionaries?
Because it glorifies God! That’s the whole point of anything we do.
“Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.”
To glorify God is the overriding aim of all we do, including mission work. Why do we pray for missionaries? Because it glorifies God. When we stop praying for ourselves long enough to be concerned for the souls of people around the world we make God happy. Why do we send money to help missionaries? Because it glorifies God. When you give a tithe of your income to the Lord, you’re being obedient to His Word. But when you give an offering over and above that tithe to help support God’s work somewhere that you’ll never see that money working, you demonstrate great love for God and trust in His ability to meet your needs.
Not only does your involvement in mission work glorify God, we ought to get involved in missions because it grows the kingdom of God! I love it when our church grows, but it can grow without ever increasing the kingdom of God. Every time someone is saved out there the kingdom grows and another soul is rescued from eternity in hell. There is nothing so exciting in a church than to see a people grow vibrant in its desire to see the salvation of the lost.
Mission work doesn’t just grow the kingdom of God; it grows our church. It grows our church spiritually. To be involved in mission work, and especially Faith Promise mission work, you grow in faith, in trust, in love, in grace, and in ministry. When you get involved in mission work you snap on your helmet and get in the game, and you mark it down: when God’s people get involved in ministry churches will grow, but when God’s people let someone else do their work churches die.
Now that is the what and why of Faith Promise, so…
How Does Faith Promise Work?
What does a person do that wants to join God at work in the world through missions? There are a lot of ways to get involved, and even if you’ve been part of Faith Promise for a lot of years there are new things you can experience too.
Pray! Pray for missions and missionaries. Pray that God would set their priorities. Pray for their personal health and safety. Pray that they’d make the cultural adjustments they face. Pray for their families and their finances. Pray that they’d build good relationships. Pray that they’d find courage and confidence in the Lord when they get discouraged and lonely. Pray for the growth of their churches, and pray for the nations and cities in which they minister. Whatever you do, if you do nothing else you can be involved in Faith Promise through the simple but powerful act of prayer.
Give! I want to urge you today to commit yourself to giving to Faith Promise Missions. Give over and above your tithe, even a small amount because every dollar will help. If you are new to Faith Promise, then I want you to take one of those commitment cards in your pew, and as you work through that Faith Promise booklet I gave to you seek God’s direction and wisdom. Ask Him how much you ought to give each week or month to support one or more of those men. Ask God if He’d have you adopt one as your personal mission project for this year. Maybe God would have you give $5 / week, or $20 / week, or $50 / week. I know of one retired lady, living on a fixed income who was giving as much as $80 / week because she was convinced that God had led her to give it. Regardless of the amount you give, give!
Giving and praying are the two primary things you can do to get involved, but there are others. When missionaries come to town, instead of us putting them in a hotel, why not let them stay with you? The blessing they’d be to you is worth far more than the inconvenience of having them in your home. You could feed them, send clothes to them, write them letters or cards of encouragement. You could do a number of things. The real challenge is to open your heart up before God on their behalf, to not be concerned for your needs, to love God’s work and His men, make yourself available, and when you do God will let you know how best to get involved.
Conclusion
Will you accept that challenge? Will you make yourself available? Would you allow God to give through you what He wouldn’t normally give to you? Only you can make the decision to be used of God to touch the life of another.
Perhaps today yours is the life God has touched. The Holy Spirit is dealing with you about a thing that you need to respond to. Do you need to be saved? Do you need to be baptized? Has God moved upon you to be a better testimony to those in your life? Only you can really answer those questions. I plead with you to answer them.
Before we sing a song of invitation, I have prepared a missions slide show for you to view. As you watch it, I want you to do two things. First, praise God with me that these are lives God has changed through you as you have given to support the missionaries who reached them. Second, as you watch it seek God’s direction. How will you join God where He is already at work?
