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Paul Cites a
Mission Minded Church
By
Rev. Todd
W. Allen
Villa Rica 10/19/03
1 Thess. 1:6-8 (NASB)6You also
became imitators of us and of the Lord,
having received the word in much
tribulation with the joy of the Holy
Spirit, 7so that you became an
example to all the believers in Macedonia
and in Achaia. 8For the word of
the Lord has sounded forth from you, not
only in
Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every
place your faith toward God has gone
forth, so that we have no need to say
anything.
The
mission emphasis we make at least twice a
year is intended to stir us and challenge
us to be actively involved in Christ’s
command to take the gospel to the entire
world, to every people group in every part
of the world. We find a mission imperative
in both the Old Testament and the New
Testament. God told Abraham that in him
all the nations of the earth would be
blessed: his faith would be imitated and
followed by more people than the stars of
heaven and the sand by the seashore.
In Isaiah
11:9 we read:
9
They will not hurt or destroy in all My
holy mountain, For the earth will be full
of the knowledge of the LORD As the waters
cover the sea. Isa. 11:9
The
fulfillment of the Word of God of the
knowledge of the Lord covering the earth
as the waters cover the sea will only
occur as the mission enterprise is carried
out. Not only is it the means by which the
gospel will get into the minds and hearts
of unsaved people gathering them into the
merciful and forgiving arms of God, it is
the only hope we have for a peaceful and
stable world. But it is not an easy task.
It was not easy for the apostles and early
disciples and it is not easy for the
church today.
When
someone asked a missionary if he liked his
work in Africa, he replied: "Do
I like this work? No, my wife and I do not
like dirt. We have reasonably refined
sensibilities. We do not like crawling
into vile huts through goat refuse. We do
not like association with ignorant,
filthy, brutish people. But is a man to do
nothing for Christ he does not 1ike? God
pity him, if not. Liking or disliking has
nothing to do with it. We have orders to
go, and we go.”
Think
about this:
ü
Every book
in the New Testament was written by a
missionary.
ü
Every
letter in the New Testament that was
written to a church was written to a
mission minded church.
ü
Every
letter in the New Testament written to an
individual was written to a convert of a
foreign missionary.
ü
The
disciples were first called Christians in
a foreign missionary community.
ü
Of the
twelve apostles chosen by Jesus, every
apostle except one became a missionary and
the one who failed to become a missionary
became a traitor.
ü
The
problems that arose in the early church
were largely questions of missionary
procedure.
ü
According
to the apostles, missionary service is the
highest expression of Christian life.
Are you committed to the task
of world missions? Are you not willing to
be committed? Make it your decision today
to do all you can by every means you can
to help carry out the last command of our
Savior and Lord.
19“Go
therefore and make disciples of all the
nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,
20teaching them to observe all
that I commanded you; and lo, I am with
you always, even to the end of the age.”
Matt. 28:19-20
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The paper and sermon manuscripts from
Pastor
Todd W. Allen
are made freely available for review and
distribution. We only request that proper
web page attribution be provided if
distributed for any reason. Please be
gracious to forgive typos and errors of
expression. These notes are faithful
approximations of what has been preached.
May God be glorified in the preaching of
His Word. |