THE HEAD, THE HEART, AND THE HAND IN REGARDS TO MISSIONS
Text: Philippians 2:7-15 ;John 3:16 W. Max Alderman
INTRODUCTION: I am going to consider the total man when I consider Missions with you tonight. I will show you how the head, the heart, and the hands must be involved in missions. If you get this simple principle involving missions your attitude towards missions will never again be the same. I trust that we may all be helped.
MISSIONS: First, may I just chat with you for a few minutes in regards to the philosophy of missions. Every last one of you believes something about missions. Your belief is based on what you have been taught and what you accepted after being taught. We will explore this further in our message.
The greatest mission endeavor was expressed when Christ Jesus came to planet earth in what we refer to theologically as the kenosis. The emphasis here is on the fact that Christ humbled Himself to come where I am and where you are. As the song says, “He came to me!” In no way were we His equal. For that reason He took on the form of a man and became obedient to the cross, even to the death of the cross. His mission was to get us back to heaven.
The great story of missions as it involves man is shown in the Book of Acts. Acts 1:8 describes the way that man is both commissioned and empowered to carry out his mission.
But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. (Acts 1:8)
It was God’s purpose for man to scatter over the earth with the Gospel. Man did not willingly do that at first and God then had to scatter man through chastisement in the form of persecution as shown us in Acts 8:1-4.
Act 8:1 And Saul was consenting unto his death. And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria, except the apostles.
Act 8:2 And devout men carried Stephen [to his burial], and made great lamentation over him.
Act 8:3 As for Saul, he made havock of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women committed [them] to prison.
Act 8:4 Therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word.
The church was enjoying old time religion but was not going beyond their city walls with the Gospel. Someone said that the Church at Jerusalem had (1) The Masses or people (2) It had the Miracles (3) It had the Message, but that it did not have MISSIONS. For that reason the Lord had to scatter the church to get it to do what He wanted it to do. For a church to be greatly blessed of God it needs to have Missions as a number one priority. Nothing means more to the Lord than reaching precious souls. May we now consider how the head, heart and the hand must be working together for there to be MISSIONS.
I. MISSSIONS MUST START IN THE HEAD
The head is where the brain or the mind is. That is where your cognizance is. That is where your thinking takes place. For you to believe old time religion you must take it into your mind. The mission’s conference serves the purpose of educating you to what the Bible has to say about missions. The bottom line is this: What I believe is not important unless it is what God’s Word teaches. That in and of itself is what makes belief important. Is it Bible? Will I allow myself to be conformed to His image by the transforming of my mind? Romans 12:2 illustrates how this should happen. “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”
A. You Must Recognize the Truth
If you realize that Truth never changes then you must know what the Truth is. The King James Bible does not only contain the Word of God; it is the Word of God. As simple as it may sound, the menu for this mission’s conference is the Word of God. The Word of God is a lamp to your path insuring that you walk in His ways. David knew this when he said, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” (Psalm 119:105).
B. You Must Respond to Truth
For this mission’s conference to accomplish what is needed there must be a teachable spirit. If you are unwilling to let the Word of God fall on good ground and respond favorable to it, this conference will not achieve its purpose. Your attitude this week should be, “God has something to say and I will listen to what is being said.”
C. You Must Receive the Truth
Once you recognize Truth and respond to it accordingly, it is time to receive it. You may pray as David, “Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.” (Psalm 119:18) or as David also prayed, “Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law; yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart.” (Psalm 119:34). This verse introduces my next thought. Once you have the mind to receive it, then may it go to your heart…
II. MISSIONS MUST GO TO THE HEART
The heart is the seed bed for the emotions. It is where you begin to feel and anticipate what you believe. It is where the Word of God has begun to do its faith work. Remembering that “…faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Some will have you to believe that faith is so sterile and that there is only a mechanical application of Truth. I have been saved too long to believe that. For Faith will affect how you feel, but how you feel should not affect your faith; there is a great difference.
A. There Must Be A Passion For Missions
As you study the Word of God in regards to missions, you should develop strong feelings or might I say convictions about the importance of missions, or literally the planned program of going after souls according to the teachings of what we call the great commission. The definition for passion is, intense, driving, or overmastering feeling or conviction.
As we learn more of what God’s word says about missions, we should become even more passionate. Matthew 28:19,20 says, “Go ye therefore, 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: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world, Amen.”
B. There Will Be A Compassion In Missions
When a person has strong feelings about something, he then has the potential for compassion. Compassion means, having a sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress together with a desire to alleviate it.
Illustration: Mother and Father’s love for missionaries! They certainly showed compassion during their lifetime right up until both of their deaths. (Give Illustration).
III. MISSIONS MUST CONTINUE WITH THE HANDS
The hands symbolize action. There are very few things that we do without our hands. We work with our hands, we talk with our hands, and we minister with our hands. We even fight with our hands. We use our hands to sign contracts, to adjust the microscope or play the piano. We use our hand to show joy or disgust. I can see my mother in my mind now dropping her hands in disgust after me bringing her disappointment.
Your hands will reveal something about you… Dish pan hands, the carpenter’s hands, the blacksmith’s hands. They all say something about you. Someone also said that, the position of the hands is symbolic of the position of the heart.
I wish to return to the thought that, “The hands symbolize action”. When the head is right about missions, and the heart is right about missions, then the hands need to be right. There needs to be something going on. I was talking to a dear missionary friend of mine while I was working on this message. I told him that I had three thoughts that involved the head, the heart and the mind. He said, “You now need something to represent going to the field”. That is when I told him that I did.
I remember while in the army, the sergeant would ask for volunteers. He asked the volunteers to raise their hands. When they did so they were admitting that they understood what was asked of them. They also admitted that they had feelings about it, so much so that they were willing to raise their hands and volunteer. That is what this mission’s conference will be looking for. It will be looking for volunteers!
A. There Must Be Hands of Surrender
There may be those of you now who have your own mindset and it doesn’t involve missions. Your will is over riding God’s will. You are holding on to something that you must drop. If you continue to hold on to whatever it is, it may weigh your hands down and keep you from raising them in surrender. Moses had to turn lose the staff. He had to drop the crutch that he may have been holding on to. Are you holding on to something that may keep you from serving God? It may be….(fill in the blanks).
B. There Must Be Hands of Service
Proverbs 6:4 tells us, He becometh poor that dealeth [with] a slack hand: but the hand of the diligent maketh rich. The implication in this verse is that the lazy person will not prosper nor will the person who refuses to do the work.
CONCLUSION: At the end of this conference you will be called on to respond in someway. If you have truly learned what God’s will is about missions, you will have a passion or conviction to do something about it. You will either be going if you already or not, or be helping with your prayer and finances to help those who are going. I have only considered one small aspect of the big picture of missions. I have preached with the desire of preparing your hearts to be totally committed to God’s concept of missions. May God bless as you serve Him
