Be a Faithful Missionary
By: Ed Smith
Background Scripture Text: Matthew 28:16-20
A young man who had been raised as an atheist was training to be an Olympic diver. The only religious influence in his life came from one outspoken Christian friend. The young diver never really paid much attention to his friend’s sermons, although he had heard them often.
One night the diver went to the indoor pool at the college where he attended. All of the lights were off, but the pool had big skylights overhead and the moon was bright, so there was plenty of light to practice by. The young man climbed up to the highest diving board and as he turned his back to the pool on the edge of the board and extended his arms out, he saw his shadow on the wall. The shadow of his body formed the shape of a cross. Instead of diving, he stopped right there, knelt down and asked God to come into his life. As the young man stood, a maintenance man walked in and turned the lights on. The pool had been drained for repairs….and if he’d gone through with his planned dive, he most certainly would have died.
Very truly, this was his last opportunity to accept Christ!
Have you ever prayed this prayer: “God break my heart for what breaks yours”? Well, let me tell you something, God’s heart breaks for those who are lost and hurting. His heart hurts for the ones that don’t know Him, and have no one to tell them the glorious truth. Jesus once said, “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.” (Matthew 25:40)
The “least of these” mentioned in our Scripture Text today are those who are alone; the ones that no one wants to be around. The ones that are still out there waiting for you to come and be their friend.
Have you considered the things that are wrong with the world? About the hurt, the pain, the disturbing bad trends the world is adopting that drag mankind further away from the Messiah? Many of these things, when we think about it, will give you a sick feeling in your stomach.
Then ask question, probably one that we have all asked at one point in our lives: “God why don’t you do something?” The response from God when He says, “I did… I created YOU.”
There is a lot of hurt in this world, and we can’t go on believing that someone else will fix it; especially when God created you to be able to do amazing things. Each and every one of us as Christians are missionaries! It’s an act of laying down our lives so that the Lord can work in us and through us.
— John 15:13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
When we think of Missionaries, we think of people who serve across a culture, in another country or even around on the other side of the Globe. There, they meet with people who, very often have not ever heard of the name of Jesus Christ and His plan of Salvation.
But, let me ask you to think about this. Where do you think Missionaries are needed the most? The Christian Church in the West is shrinking at an alarming rate!
Local missionaries need to be equipped, prepared and supported! And, they are most of all needed RIGHT NOW.
Our neighbors are dying without Christ. Our country is running off the skids with rampant sin, normal things are now abnormal and abnormal, once-taboo things are accepted as completely normal and acceptable behavior. Divorce has skyrocketed, people living together unmarried has become acceptable, adultery and fornication are expected norms today, pornography is being viewed regularly by nearly 70% of all adult Christian men and almost as many women and we wonder why God has stopped blessing our nation?
We need REAL, God-sent Missionaries. And, we need them now!
To be a missionary, we don’t need to join an organization! Here are three things that the Messiah did:
1. Jesus was personally involved with people. Luke 19:10 says, “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” So if he was so personally involved, so should we. He told us what to do in Matthew 28:18 which says, “Go therefore, and teach all nations.”
2. Jesus had zeal and passion for the lost and those Christians who needed to be energized and filled with God’s Spirit.
John 14:12 says, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.” Let your prayer be that you have the same zeal that Jesus had.
3. Jesus went to an unreached area. He needed to go through Samaria in John 4:4. It was quite dangerous, but He went anyway because there was a need there. When you walk through tough neighborhoods to do his work in your city and town, remember that got God, Grace, Mercy, and The Holy Spirit is always with you.
Conclusion:
satan called a worldwide convention.
In his opening address to his evil demons, he said, “we can’t keep Christians from going to church.
we can’t keep them from reading their Bibles and knowing the truth.
we can’t even keep them from their own conservative values.
But there is something we we can do.
We can keep them from forming an intimate, abiding relationship with in Christ. We can drive a wedge between them and God. We can bring doubt and pain, we can bring temptation beyond their wildest imagination. We can offer alternatives to serving God that will turn their heads our way. We can attack their loved ones and make them weaker.
You see, my fellow demons, if Christians ever gain that connection with Jesus, our power over them is broken. So let them go to church, let them have their conservative lifestyles, but steal their time, steal their joy. Steal everything you can possibly steal from them so that they will always be down. That way, they will never acquire that experience of being truly close to Christ.
This is what i want you to do, fellow demons.
Never let them alone. Never stop harassing them. Blackmail them, cheat them, lie to them. Never let them learn the truth.
Say, is this what you’re feeling? If so, the Lord, Jesus Christ is always there, awaiting you to come and get close to Him. NEVER let the devil win!