One Mind Church

“Renew the Blessing of Missions” (Acts 13:1-3)                                                                 April 15, 2012

Today is the first Missions Service of this year.  Take this time to look back and give thanks for how much we and the church received blessings thus far, and renew the blessings of the missions that we carry on.  For a person of God who has received salvation, the start of the restoring the correct blessings of missions is the start to restoring all blessings.

1.   As the title states, hold onto the fact that missions is a blessing.

1)  Originally, missions is going to those in a region of different ethnicity, culture, and language and delivering God’s plan, love, and blessings.  Is this possible without having first experienced God’s plan, love, and blessings for me personally? This is difficult even among people of the same ethnicity, culture and language.

a. When I can do missions, or pray and aid for missions and missionaries, that is God’s heart and the heart that He gave.  “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son” (Jn 3:16).  His only son came to “give his life as a ransom for many” (Mk 10:45).  That is God’s heart.

b. The world is full of people suffering from idolatry, poverty, curse, and conflict.  When you are able to see, feel, and have the heart to help, it is because God’s heart is in it.  That is the blessing. 

Those who have felt hatred are those that hate, and those who have felt love are those that can love.  If you have the heart of missions to really help people and have pity, you, indeed are one who is loved by God.

2)  Matthew 24:14 reads, “And this gospel (God’s plan, love, and blessing through Christ) will be preached to all nations, and then the end will come.”  What does this mean?  Why hasn’t God placed judgment on this world yet?  There are people yet to be saved.  Going out to the world to find these people that are to be saved is missions.

a. When God’s love has reached the entire world, the end will come.  When will this world come to an end?  It will come to an end when the gospel has been proclaimed to the ends of the earth.  That is why God is centered on evangelism and missions to move this world.

b. That is why in every age, those persons, families, and nations that God utilized are were all connected to missions.  What was the last thing Joseph, who had the gospel, did?  He was a missionary who provided evidence to all of Egypt and its people that God was alive.  What prayer did David have in his heart amidst his suffering?  Ps 57:9-11 is a representative prayer.  He wanted the salvation of God, even God’s mercy and glory to be exalted above all nations and people and the world.  In today’s passage, the Antioch church was raised by people who were persecuted and exiled.  They proclaimed the gospel that Jesus is the Christ from the start and did missions to the Greeks.  God had no choice but to bless them.  Their church matched their direction to God’s direction.

c. This is also the reason why God had no choice but to bless the UK and America in the 19^th and 20^th century.  Even now, American is responsible for over 85% of all world missions.

3)  God is blessing and opening the doors of missions in three ways for our church.  First is the multiethnic ministry, second is world missions, and third is military missions.  The stepping stone has now been made, so we must begin full scale.

a. In today’s passage, there were multiethnic ministers raised within the Antioch church.  Paul and Barnabas were trained and dispatched as world missionaries.  This is a model church that God blessed.

b. There are multiethnic pastors and elders being raised at our church.  There are many military missionaries being raised also.  Missionary David Lopes will be appointed today and is a representation of this.  He is a model to military, lay person, and regional missionaries.  That fact that we are continually raising these workers at our church is a blessing.

2.  Know that missions is a privilege given only to the people of God with the gospel.

1)  Jesus resurrected and promised complete victory and blessed something- that is missions.  Mt 28:18-20, Mk 16:16-18, Lk24:46-19 repeatedly emphasizes this- to go to all nations and its people. That is why He will be with us til the end with all authority on heaven and on earth, and with all power.  What kind of works will arise when all authority of heaven and earth and power is upon us and our lives, family, children, and business fields?  On the contrary, if this doesn’t happen, then our lives, family, children, and business fields will be filled with a continuation of problems.  Why is that?

2)  In this world, when those that have this privilege do not utilize it correctly to do His work, they are becoming the target of blame.  This is why Israel of the Old Testament ultimately failed.  There was a promise from the time of Abraham.  “Because of you and your offspring, all nations on earth and all nations shall be blessed.”  However, this did not happen.  Jonah was unique in that he went.  Because the people did not go, the prophet was looked upon to hopefully realize and go.  After much struggle and barely making it, works still arose.  If Jonah did proper missions, what would have occurred?  It is not just to extent of personal blessings.  The fate of that nation could have been altered.  Because of Jonah not wanting to go to the land of Nineveh, Israel fell (Because of Korea’s first missionary, Thomas, and his martyrdom does Korea exist today). 

3.  When we evangelize and do missions, all spiritual authority and blessings continue.

1) After Jesus resurrected and spoke of missions, authority and power were emphasized for this reason. 

In Mk 16:17-18, we were given this covenant, “And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; ¹⁸ they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.”  When were we given this?  When we were told to go out to all nations and all people to spread the gospel.  Realistically in mission fields, sights of miracles and power are inevitable.  This is because of the language barrier, too many religions of idolatry, and its darkness that we must fight against.

2) That is why when we are within evangelism and missions, spiritual authority is constantly restored and God’s power continually appears.  We will be having a short term medical missions trip.  When we do missions using our skills and occupations, God has no choice but to work with His spirit.  We can utilize skills like beauty, construction, and all others.

3) When we send soldiers to war, what do we need to do for them?  From the taxes we pay, we can arm, feed, and clothe them in support for their efforts.  In our terms, that is missions offering and supporting prayer (personal prayer, team prayer).

Conclusion – Truly renew the blessing of missions today.  All spiritual authority, blessings, and answers have no choice but to continue when we, our families, and businesses match the direction of evangelism and missions.  “What can I do this with?”  I encourage you to live moment by moment with God centered thoughts and concern.

If you have any inquiries or feedback concerning this message, please contact:

One Mind Church of Washington

(703) 491-3797 <onemindchurch.org>