God is on Mission

Blessings to each one this morning in that beautiful name of Jesus. I was thinking about a little bit about a church service this morning and I mentioned in our prayer time and I'd like to extend that here about what it says in 1 Corinthians 14 where he says that, let the prophet speak two or three and let the other judge. And if anything be revealed to another that sits by, let the first hold his peace.

For you may all prophesy one by one and that all may learn and all may be comforted. And the goal here is that we all can learn and we all can be comforted. And it's not just about one man preaching a message, it's about the body living and moving and working together.

And this word for prophecy means one that is inspired to say something. And I want to say, invite you that if you have something you want to say in the midst of this message, just stand up and speak by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. That's a challenge in itself, isn't it? Let's pray.

Father, we look to you as the one that provides, the one that cares, and the one that loves. You love us. And we look to you this morning for a blessing.

Without you, we can do nothing. But with your blessing, Lord, we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. So, we look to you, Father, and Jesus Christ.

Minister life here this morning, eternal life through Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen.

Some of my thoughts this morning are that this Bible is the word of God. And when I go, when I come to read the Bible, what is my focus or what is my purpose? This is not a self-help book. It's not really about me.

It's about God. And I think that it's pretty easy for us to go, when we go to read the Bible, I want to go and read, I want to get something for me. Are you with me? What is my focus and what is my purpose when I read this book? To know him.

What about when I go to pray? What is my focus? I, I, me, me. The focus so easily is on me. Are you with me? Just a few thoughts.

What does it look like when the focus is on me? Or how do I, one of the things I might say, or what's it sound like? Help me. I need. And we, in a sense, we try to twist God's arm to get me, to get something for me, right? Is that right? What, what, what would it look like if my focus would be on God? Did you hear that? Psalm 28, God is my strength and my shield and so forth.

Very good. Have you ever taken the time to listen to the prayers in a prayer meeting? I, I, me, me, you know? But I was listening this morning and it was very specific. There was one, one brother who was praying.

We met for prayer this morning. It was a very sweet time. One brother was specifically in his prayers was God, you.

It was about you, you, you. You are my strength. You are this.

It's very easy to just kind of have our focus shift to ourselves, right? When you go back, so the first verse in the Bible, it's about God. In the beginning, God. And you can go to the last verse in the Bible where it says, and the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

And everything between those verses, the focus really is about God and what God is doing. God is on, he's on mission. I'd like to write that up here.

God is on mission. And I pondered that a bit because we talk about missions, right? What is a mission? Singular. Okay.

What's an assignment? Good. What else? To show yourself as a representative. Okay, good.

A destination. So God is on mission. What would, what would the difference meaning be if it, if it were to say God is on a mission? It might be more than one.

I'd like to suggest this morning that God is on mission. His eternal purpose from the beginning has been that his name would be glorified and his kingdom be established. His name be glorified, his kingdom be established.

And the third thing is to, that the world would be reconciled to him. My writing. His name be glorified, kingdom be established.

God was on mission when he came to Noah and in a sense established a relationship with him and invited him to join him in his eternal purpose. And at that point in time it was to save the righteous. And through that God asked him, asked Noah to adjust his lifestyle so that he could do what God wanted him to do.

So that God's name would be glorified and God's kingdom would be established and God would ultimately draw all peoples to himself. And God was on mission when he came to Abraham and revealed himself as the Lord, the Almighty, the provider who wants to bless all the peoples of the world through his seed. God was on mission.

God had a purpose and God had a plan. And he invited Abraham to join him in that mission to adjust his lifestyle so he could obey him and walk with him. So that God's name would be made great.

That his kingdom would be established and all the earth would know him and worship him. The same thing when God came to Moses. Inviting Moses to a relationship, speaking to him.

And in that moment, at that moment when God speaks and God calls, there's something else that happens. There's a crisis of belief. And God brought Moses to that place where he had to make a decision to obey and believe God.

And it's still the same today. Through King David, God revealed his seed. God revealed that his seed would rule all nations.

And his kingdom is for all people. And through Jesus, God revealed his love and his purpose to reconcile the world to himself through Christ's incarnation, his crucifixion, his resurrection, and his ascension. God is on mission.

He used the Apostle Paul to reveal the mystery of the ages. That the Jews and Gentiles would be one. And that all people are included in his redemption plan.

And God revealed to John the Revelator. He revealed that some from every nation, tribe, tongue, and people will worship him forever. And you can go to Revelations chapter 5 or is it chapter 7, where there's this picture of multitudes, innumerable numbers of peoples around the throne from every tribe and nation and language and people worshiping God.

That's God's heart and God's mission for his people. He chooses to involve his people with him in his work. He chooses to use men and women working through them to accomplish his purposes and inviting them to join him.

It will cost them. They will have to change their lifestyle to follow in this way. Adjust their living and then walk in obedience and experience God himself in the midst of that.

And through that God's name is glorified. His kingdom is established and eventually the world will be reconciled to him. God's eternal purpose throughout the Old and the New Testament.

God worked in the same ways as he did with Moses. Inviting his people to be on mission with him. What does it mean for us today? In the late 1990s, well let me say this first, when we got saved we wanted to be missionaries but the brother Denny and the ministry team invited me to be the mission board chairman which I took that by God's direction and they gave me that book on the perspectives of world Christian movement.

And I so well remember brother Denny saying I want you Emmanuel to take this book and I want you to read it and I want you to lead the missions here at the church. I didn't know what I was in for but I began to read in that book where it has these men of God short chapters of their perspective of God and of missions. I got so inspired I caught a vision of God and of God's work to be done that has never gone away.

We were doing missions in Ghana at that time and we went into this one village and tried to help them to you know plant their church or build their church and after a year or two things kind of went sour. We created dependency on ourselves and our money brought destruction there and ended up with broken relationships. And so we decided we would go to the next village and try it again.

About two years later the same thing happened they kind of turned against us because we wouldn't supply enough money anymore and the relationships were broken and we failed again. So we went further inland went up there to Wawasi and there we again did the same thing their whole new place we thought surely we can do this right. About two years later we again failed and we stopped and we looked back and we said what are we doing wrong? We've got three failures.

Our heart and goal is to see churches planted. We wanted to plant indigenous churches but we didn't know how and we failed and we failed and we failed and that in a sense brought us to our knees where we looked up and we said God what are you doing and how can we join you in your work? I remember traveling through from Ghana going over through Togo into Benin with brother Ross and Daniel and I think another two other brothers and we headed up through Benin that African country if you had never been there before we spent numerous days doing it and as we traveled about for two weeks we had a set of tapes along by Glenn Schwartz on on creating dependency and how to avoid it. And I remember day after day after day we plugged those tapes in that tape player and we we listened to him and there were times we would stop and we would pull that tape out and we would we would discuss what we just heard and we began and a plan and a purpose began to formulate in our hearts about what we're doing wrong.

We began to understand what we were doing wrong and why we had the results that we had and we simply were not doing it God's way. We were doing it the way we thought we should be doing it but when we really went back and studied the Apostle Paul's life we saw he did it quite differently and through that we opened our hearts to the Lord said Lord what would you have us to do? It was about the year 99 or 2000 and we're seeking we're looking through the list of tribes in Ghana to try to find a tribe that is unreached so that we could go in there and reach that tribe for Jesus. We found the Kankumbas or the Dogumba people I think there was about 500,000 of them there would be like almost no churches and they were an unreached tribe in the north part of Ghana and so we began to focus on them and we we sent missionaries up there I think we had two families up there Mel's were up there I believe maybe Mel could tell the story better than I can but this is the way I get it so the missionaries moved up there in the Dogumba area and they began to have little church services there and they began to have a few Dogumbas coming into the church but things were just really difficult and and the Dogumbas are islamic and they were very hard and they were very difficult and and the church was not really going anywhere but there was a different tribe there the Kankumbas and a Kankumba man began to come in the back of the church on Sunday morning and listen to the service and then leave again week after week and that man's heart was open to the gospel and through that a few other Kankumba people began to come to Christ and this very small move began among the Kankumba people and I want to say this God was on mission in northern Ghana and he knew there's a tribe of people there whose hearts were open they had they had a war with the Dogumba people 10 years earlier and they lost the war their gods were not big enough their gods were not strong enough and so they had a lot of questions and that was the kairos moment for that tribe that was the window of opportunity and God was on mission looking for someone to come and join him in mission there to reach the Kankumba people and he found somebody and he found some missionaries who who were on their knees seeking God God was on mission and those missionaries just simply joined what God was doing there and today there are beautiful results there indigenous churches I don't know how many doesn't really matter dozens of them there's leaders who have risen up in those churches they are leading the churches they're leading their people and the missionaries take a step back and they encourage them to keep going God was on mission and he's in he's inviting people to join him in what he's doing I believe that God was on on mission when he found a brother Mos and a brother Denny there is a window of opportunity a window of time think about brother Denny preaching the godly home series God was on mission there was work to be done there was open-hearted people throughout this nation at that moment in time that needed something and God was on mission to meet that need and he found a man and God used that man not perfectly but God used him God was on mission eight years ago in the refugee crisis there in Greece he saw thousands hundreds of thousands of Muslim people on the move and his mission was that his name would be glorified among them that his kingdom would grow and that these people would be reconciled to God that was his mission that is his mission and he's still looking for men and women today to join him in his mission and he found some willing volunteers to go and be there and to love on them and care for them and there are thousands who have met God because God is on mission God is doing something and missions mission begins with God it's so easy to get off of so easy to get off we have the gospel what is the gospel the angels said to the shepherds we bring you good tidings of great joy which is to all people did you ever see that we bring you glad tidings of great joy which is to all peoples that's the gospel and sometimes we have used bad news of sad things to inspire people to do missions right we paint pictures of how bad it is of how I remember doing a mission conference up there on ebc and they were showing this picture they were doing a display on India and one of the pictures that I can't forget was that this this little boy is sitting there with a bowl of milk in front of him and the rats are drinking the bowl of milk and since their religion teaches that you you know the rat might be your great granddad or your uncle your aunt you can't kill them that's just so much bad news of sad happenings right or we give all these negative pictures of the great need out there not necessarily wrong but the gospel is good news of great joy to all peoples and so we have to keep our focus at the right place God is on mission and he's inviting us into a relationship where we can know him and he speaks to us and invites us to join him on this eternal purpose of taking this glorious gospel this good news to every people tribe tongue and nation we can go on a mission we can go and do missions because the people need Jesus we can go and do missions because the people might need water we can help them with that or we can give clothing all those things we can go to Greece and help these refugees because they need our help and sometimes when we're really down in the nitty-gritties of every day serving them and ministering to them and we kind of it's so easy to get our focus in our eyes on the all these things here and forget to lift them up and recognize and realize it's all about God it's all about Jesus Christ it's all about him I am grateful that some of our brothers down the field in Greece have a very strong emphasis on worship because that's really where it is the purpose the purpose for God on mission is that people can worship him people will will worship him that's his goal we seem to be easily distracted Jesus was on mission with his father John chapter 5 truly I say unto you the son can do nothing but what he sees the father do and the father loves the son and he shows the son everything that he's doing because the father loves him and whatever the father does that the son does also Jesus was on mission with his father to be related to Christ is to be on mission with him you cannot be in relationship with Jesus and not be on mission the father loved the son he took the initiative to come to him and reveal what he the father was doing or was about to do and Jesus keep looking around for his father's activity so that he could unite with his father in mission yes there's thousands of people slipping into eternal hell every day those facts are real and yes there's 34,000 children die daily from malnutrition and preventable illness yes there are still thousands of unreached people groups that don't have a church and Christians are still being killed for their faith today so many things but that's not the gospel we have good news with great joy which is for all peoples every person around so how do we respond to that how do I respond to that what am I talking about when I talk about mission someone help me out plant the seed others better than myself okay go and sacrifice something give it up for the benefit of others okay you want a mic get a mic for him please thank you I looked up in second Corinthians 5 this is the verse that came to my mind regarding this message now all things are of God who has reconciled the world to himself through Jesus Christ and has given us this ministry of reconciliation that is that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself not imputing their trespasses to them and has committed to us the word of reconciliation so I see in this very clearly my first step is be reconciled to God with that position and posture that you were so clearly sharing about it's me joining God not asking him to come join me so when I am reconciled to God in that way I'm joining him that is clear he has forgiven me of my sins then I'm in that place where I can be that ambassador mm-hmm okay what is uh what do you think about when you think of mission my point is did Jesus not adopt us he did okay did Jesus not obey his father he did why shouldn't we obey our father we should am I talking only about foreign missions what what are you hearing that's my question what are we talking about we talk about mission where's the opportunity everywhere okay I just wanted to share I guess you know my mind went back to Ghana when all that was starting with the concumbers and I just really think that things start in a simple way because it could have been totally overlooked this man that came from the other village it was while Daryl and Rebecca and Mel and I were in Gushigu and he would come a little bit maybe simple-minded um often market days and come around the house uh Mr. Yakubu and you know we could have been like just go away you know he came often and I just was blessed just sitting here thinking a whole tribe and not that we would have been the only people but a whole tribe could have been missed by Mel feeling like just go away I'm too tired uh you're here again but he would always go out and greet him respectfully but he was a simple man but he loved the Lord I think in his own way and Mel would pray with him and then he'd come again and then he'd bring a few friends and then they wanted bibles they wanted concumber bibles and sometimes I was I didn't always have the right attitude here come these guys again and uh but Mel faithfully just you know met with them talked with them and got interested in where do they live where are these people that seem so hungry and then Daryl of course him and Mel and some of us went out and we gave bibles out in this back village place and then one time we had a um with the dugumbas that were in our little church in Gusugu we had a Christmas or was it Easter meal and this man said you look I'm going to bring people and there's going to be a lot of them and we were just amazed we had two school rooms and there we couldn't all fit in one school room and that was sort of the the beginning and I was just thinking about how easily not that we were the only people but somebody else probably would have been there because God was on mission but if we would have failed God would have surely brought someone else but I just had to think that we were able to be there and that it was just simply taking a interest in a man that would have seemed like who's he but God used him I think to bring the kumbhas to himself in a way and that was just the start it was a small seed right and and how clearly can you see that God was on mission I hate to be the stick in a stick in the mud first of all we need to define what mission is mission is not as I see it a biblical term the church sent out Paul and Barnabas because Paul because God said sorry God said to send them out to set them aside for the work that he has called them to and we also need to understand the sovereignty of God there is no missed opportunities in God's eyes God uses people and God uses the preaching of the gospel to bring souls to repentance and there needs to be an understanding of what the gospel is what the gospel produces and focusing on the gospel rather than what the gospel produces thank you Justin other thoughts I think it's also necessary to be open to the spirit because there's one instance or maybe several in the act book of acts where at least one where Paul a certain area Paul wanted to go into and the spirit didn't allow it yep yes to be open to be led by the spirit is very key and very essential what what I'm still asking this question what does mission look like to you if God is on mission is that just the missionaries is that just those who leave their home country I'd like to define that one a little bit more to Paul I think it comes back to what you said in the beginning the mission is for God to be glorified and that needs to happen everywhere so what are we doing in our home what are we doing wherever we are uh so the the mission is to for God to get the glory yes and it's our mission sometimes but it also means living our life every day so it's really and I know that we we need to but we need to debunk the idea that I'm just a normal Christian here and missionaries are super people who go out there that's not reality reality is that God is on mission to bring his eternal purpose that all peoples be drawn to him and worship him whether that means in my home in my neighborhood in my city in my town even in my church God is on mission and how am I a part of what God is doing am I willing to join what God is doing go ahead Daniel that that last sentence was what I wanted to say brother that mission is about something God is doing and we have an invitation to participate in that um um last month I had a a startling dream it was a Persian lady dressed in black from from head to foot with her head bowed and suddenly a voice came in the dream that said the people that sat in darkness have seen great light and those that sit in the shadow of death light has sprung up and that's the heart of God and I'm not sure what I can do about it at this point more than pray but I believe there is more but it's something that God wants to do and I believe he's an invitation to participate so something that I've seen through this message um the purpose of mission I somewhat see is the purpose of the cross which is to bring people to relationship with Jesus Christ the way it was back in the Garden of Eden.

Yes that's right and since the fall of man in Genesis 3 we can we can see through the word of God that God is on mission and that mission is to I mean his words to add up to Eve was that there will be enmity between your seed and the serpent's seed you know your seed will step on his head and crush it he will bite his heel and so forth it's a prop it's a prophecy of Christ hand back there what is the mission that here but go ahead I see it as um I would see it as the cry of the desperate um I think God hears any cry and every cry for him and so whoever is going to be available to answer and to hear that cry with God be sensitive to hear it that's the person God will use that is so good thank you so much there it's when we are at the place that we're listening and God that we hear God's call and are able to join him yes I had a question on you wrote there missed opportunity okay what uh can you explain a little more about that I was thinking about what Mel and Barbie was what Barbie was saying there a a wrong attitude we're trying to reach the people he's a cucumber if that would have prevailed it would have been a missed opportunity from my perspective the three failures that you had they weren't necessarily failures because you took initiative to see what what's wrong and in that is in God's mission too he takes us to where he really wants us and if we're open about our failures amen we we learn not to do that again after the third time what does what does it mean what does it look like for you to be on mission with God and maybe there's someone here who senses God is calling them to join him on mission over here of the Titanic and the disaster and I believe it's a Scottish pastor was going to go preach with D.L. Moody named John Harper and when the sinking of the Titanic took place he was telling the people who were going to sink are you saved have you been born again no believe in Lord Jesus Christ and I'll be saved that way Lotham could be saved from the parishes of hell there and that was an opportunity he just happened to be in the right place when the people desperately needed him and I think how God does those things in God you know so when God sees a great need or maybe here he hears a people crying out to him like the children of Israel then he takes a Moses and he brings them together and like you said the man was at a at the right place the right time and that is on mission with God and so the question here is what does it look like for me to be on mission am I continually that place of availability where I'm ready and saying God here I am there's another mic somewhere go ahead Jonathan the story that comes to my mind is the story where Mordecai understood God's mission and when he talked to Esther he said what if this is why you came to the kingdom if you step back God will bring relief and deliverance from another place but what if this was the very reason you are here now and so he understood that God was on mission and here is Esther who has opportunity to step in and be a part of that and her response if I perish I perish she was willing to move in and join God with what he was doing regardless of what it might cost her is there anyone here who God has called you to join him in on mission specifically that you'd like to share about anymore are we afraid to be rejected I've been in sales 40 years I can reject it every day they rejected God they're going to reject us don't be afraid of don't be afraid of rejection thank you very much for being believers don't stop I was so inspired again by going back and reading the biblical perspective of missions in that perspective book this has happened to me several times I go back and I read there and here's men of God who have a specific topic that they're talking about John Piper talks about worship Steve Hawthorne talks about the story of his glory and Henry Blackabee speaks about God is on mission and something begins to turn and change in my heart again and I and my focus comes back it seemed it comes back in alignment where God is everything again it's all about God it's all about worshiping him it's not about me it's not about my I me it's about God I want my focus to be on God John Piper says it this way there will be no passion to draw others into our worship where there is no passion for worship there will be no passion to draw others into worship into our worship where there is no passion for worship this is so important if our worship and worship cannot be dry and dull it's just singing then thank you brother Tim for leading us in worship again and again we were in when we were in Greece handing out bibles we would gather together for worship in the evening like that was like the highlight of our day gathering with the saints to worship and there was people from many different tribes and nations and languages there there was going to be some men from Papua there Jonathan McCrease who is the leader of this organization there of Hellenic Ministries he was a boy he was like maybe eight months old when his family moved to Papua he lived there until he was like 12 or so and during that time his parents were very influential in bringing those tribes to Christ and today there are hundreds of thousands of believers there because his parents joined God in mission and this was going to be the first time in the bible distribution that the men from Papua actually come to Greece to help distribute bibles to the Greek people who actually it was the Greeks who had come and won them to Christ but then they had a death or something like that and they couldn't come I was looking forward to seeing and meeting those Papuan brothers in this work of handing out bibles just to see how the Greeks went there and now they're coming back to help the Greeks so just powerful picture beautiful beautiful picture and those men there in Papua today are on mission with God we gather together for worship there and then on Sunday our last day we were together we were actually at church the people went different places the church went to church there and and the worship leader was so passionate that was so inspirational to me just see how passionate that worship leader was in his worship to God and that inspired me to worship and it drew me into that worship of God himself and that's really what God wants he wants it's not all about how great God's love is for us but really maybe when you turn our focus to how great a love I should be expressing to him so we need both of those things let's pray God oh God our Father and our Savior Jesus Christ oh God you are great you are wonderful you are eternal you have created us for yourself and you long to have us worship with all of our heart and soul and mind and strength and you long to have us be involved on mission with you to make your name great that your kingdom would come in all the earth and that people from every tribe and nation tongue and language would be gathered around your throne an innumerable company of people worshiping turn our hearts to you Lord receive glory and honor from my lips and my life all the days of my life Father blessed be God and may his blessing rest upon each one here today and those who are listening online may God bless you with a heart for God for God himself oh God oh God thank you God thank you Father can we just stand together maybe there's someone here that God is inviting to join him does he not invite each one of us and are we able to hear am I willing to say yes Lord am I willing to change and adjust my life to match his will and his desire so that I can walk in obedience and experience the glories of being on mission with the eternal God is God speaking to you today just open your hearts let's just take some time of quiet reflection I was also thinking of a story of Hudson Taylor came back from the field and he needed a hundred volunteers to go with him he's out there I think it's on Brighton Beach while the rest of the church was in a worship service and he's out there struggling to agree with God that God would be able to do it it brought him to a crisis of belief where he had to choose to trust God and he did and God finally won that battle he yielded himself to God beautiful story but it brought him to a place of crisis would he believe God for what God was calling him to do