Mission Sunday

PASTOR PHILLIPS' SERMON

Sunday, February 6, 2005

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Please pray with me. Heavenly Father, you have called us to be here today to hear your Word, to worship you, to serve you, to be guided by your Holy Spirit. Bless us today to be equipped to do these tasks. Fill us with your Holy Spirit and excitement about the Great Commission, about reaching the lost for you. Bless us in Jesus' name. Amen.

What is it that compels a person to give of themself for the good of others? What is behind the selfless sacrifices of people like Mother Theresa and others? Well, I have some theories about this, and I also have some experience. What is it that compels a person? The hymn we just sang, the two verses of Hark, the Voice of Jesus Calling , was a hymn that God used to reach my heart and to call me into the ministry. Now I'd had a conversation with my pastor, and he encouraged me to follow that course. But it wasn't until I was sitting in church one Sunday morning, just like you, and we sang that hymn. And it felt to me like that hymn was written for me. And when we came to the part where it said, “Who will answer gladly saying ‘Here am I. Send me. Send me.'” I felt as though my heart was going to leap out of my chest. I couldn't wait to respond to God and say, “I'll go. Send me.” And here we are. After four years of college and four years of seminary and sixteen years in the ministry, here we are. God has called me into the ministry.

I believe in the Great Commission. Jesus was speaking to His disciples and saying, “Go and make disciples of all nations.” But you and I today, while we weren't sitting there listening to those words, we are the heirs of the disciples, the descendants of the disciples, and now Jesus speaks those words to us. “Go and make disciples of all nations.”

We marvel at the dedication of those who serve the Lord, those who are missionaries and aid workers in far-flung places around the world. Whether it's a sacrifice that parents make on behalf of their children or a soldier laying down his life for his country, the compulsion to give comes from the heart. And I believe that comes from the heart of Jesus.

You think about Jesus and why He came to this world. John 3:16 points it out. He says, “God so loved the world that He sent His Son.” It was love for us that motivated God. That was what compelled God to send His Son. Well, what was it that compelled Jesus to willingly offer Himself up as a sacrifice? Wasn't it that same love, that agape love that we hear about, that unconditional love? God loved the whole world so much that He sent His Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life. Jesus' love. What a great picture. What a great model. What a great experience when you feel the love of God for you, when you know your sins have been taken away by the blood of Jesus shed on the cross, you can't help but love God in return and want to do something, sing His praise, serve Him, obey Him.

There's a passage in the scripture that really clearly frames the heart of Jesus. Matthew 9:35-38, the gospel of Matthew where Jesus is going from town to town and He's doing three things, three things I think are included in the Great Commission. First, He's teaching. He's going around and teaching God's Word so people might know the truth. And then He's preaching. He's proclaiming it powerfully to large groups of people, and then He's healing. He went from town to town doing those three things, teaching in the synagogues, preaching God's Word wherever people would gather, and healing all who were afflicted with illnesses and diseases.

Imagine what it would have been like at that time. Very little medical assistance was available, almost none. And almost every family was touched by illness, whether they lost a child at an early age or had crippled relatives, or people who had contracted various illnesses through life, and there was nothing to help them. But then one day they heard there was this incredible teacher who can heal people, blind people see, lame people walk, people with leprosy are cleansed. And the whole, it seems, goes out to Him to find Him, to hear Him speak, to have Him touch them and heal them.

Jesus looked out at the multitude, an uncountable multitude. You know, we keep statistics, how many people were in church, how many of this and how many of that. You can't even count the people who were going out to Jesus. So many people were coming, and He just saw this vast multitude and He looked at them. And you know Jesus, He knows all things, He can see what's in a person's heart. He knows their daily struggle. He knows the things they're up against and what they need most. And it says that Jesus saw the multitude, and they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. You could imagine people with all those struggles and no real hope would go anywhere they thought hope was. “Oh, there's a guy doing magic tricks. Oh, there's a guy teaching. Oh, there's this and that.” And they were easily swayed by the wind, but when they heard about Jesus, they'd found the right person. They'd found the truth. So as Jesus was looking at them and He saw their needs and their hearts, He was moved with compassion. That's what it says. Jesus was moved with compassion. And He said to the disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.”

We know all about harvest here in Iowa . We had a record harvest this year. I talked to a lot of farmers, and they told me their land yielded more this past year than it ever had, a record harvest. Can you imagine if we had that harvest out there in the field and just left it? Can't imagine doing that. Jesus says, “An even more important and precious harvest is plentiful, people who need Jesus, people who are harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd.” And so His heart goes out to them, and He said, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest to send workers out into the harvest fields.”

Today we're celebrating and remembering missions, and we have a variety of experiences as a congregation of missions and missionaries that we're involved with and supporting and that's really exciting. But my dream and my vision isn't simply to send 20 people to Kentucky or 30 people to Mexico or 20 people to Honduras . My dream is to take the 2,000+ members of Gloria Dei and unite them in a wonderful mission organization sending people, equipping people, praying for people, and going themselves on mission trips to be workers in the harvest field of the Lord.

I want to tell you a story that happened to me in Honduras , and this was about a woman who came through our clinic. Now the way we do things in Honduras , we set up a clinic in a local church and we do medical, dental, and optical relief. We also do children's ministry, and we dispense medicine free of charge. After a person goes through the clinic, they sit down one on one and hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. So we're not just dealing with the physical or the temporary, but we're giving them the eternal truth of the gospel that gives them forgiveness and eternal life in heaven.

This woman came through the clinic, and I had the privilege to share Jesus with her. And she wasn't young, and she wasn't attractive in any particular way, but she was honest. And so we had our talk, and I began this way. “Would you mind if I took a few minutes to tell you how much God loves you?” And after you've helped somebody with dental help or given them glasses or free medicine or taken care of their child, they're willing to let you have a few minutes of your time. So I began like this, “God loves you so much that, in the beginning, He created people in His image. He created us in His image so He could have a wonderful, intimate relationship with us.” And then I talked about creation and how beautiful it was and how perfect it was. And then I talked about the fall into sin, the bad news, when Adam and Eve committed the first sin and how that sin was passed from generation to generation and how all we have to do is look around us and we see evidence of that sin. Even just looking in the mirror gives us evidence of sin because we, in our heart of hearts, know our sins and are humble about that. And I said, “The bible says the wages of sin is death and not just death, because for some that might seem like a way out, but hell, eternal suffering, and I asked her, “Do you know what hell is?” She said, “Um, not really.” I said, “Well, just think of it this way. Think of the worst moment of your life and imagine that moment lasting forever. That's kind of what hell is like, but I'm sure it's much worse than that. But God loves you, and He doesn't want you to go to hell. He doesn't want anybody to go to hell, so He sent His Son, Jesus.” And I asked her, “Do you know who Jesus is?” “He's the Son of God,” she said. “That's right. He's the Son of God. Do you know what He did for you?” She wasn't sure. “Do you remember He died on the cross. Why did He do that?” She wasn't sure. “He died on the cross as a sacrifice for our sins.” And she kind of recognized that thought. I said, “So God has made a way for us to go to heaven and not go to hell.” I said, “Do you know what heaven is like?” She said, “Not really.” I said, “Well, imagine the best day of your life, the best moment of your life, the greatest joy you ever felt and imagine that lasting for eternity. That's what heaven is like. Now which would you choose? If you could choose, which one would you choose?” She said, “Heaven.” Everybody does. I mean nobody wants to choose hell. They may have reasons for not giving in, but nobody wants hell. And she definitely wanted heaven. So I said, “Would you like to know for sure that, if you died, you would go to heaven?” She said, “Sure, but. . .” and this is where it got sticky, she said, “The people in my community that are Christians told me I can't be a Christian, I can't have Jesus unless I close up my store.” She had a little store on the roadside, what you'd call a convenience store in Honduras , what you'd call a shack here. But she sold all kinds of things there, things to drink, things like candy and stuff like that, but she also sold cigarettes and the Christians in her community told her if she sold cigarettes, she couldn't be a Christian and she couldn't imagine surviving if she had to close up her store. I said, “Well, you know what? It doesn't say that in the bible. It doesn't say you can't sell these things. It doesn't say you have to close up your store. Now wouldn't you like to know for sure you'd go to heaven?” She said, “Yes.” I said, “Well, this is how we do it. We confess our sins to God, and we confess our faith in Jesus. That's it. The bible says, ‘He who believes and is baptized will be saved.' That's a guarantee. It's not complicated at all.” So we prayed together and talked more and she left that day knowing she would go to heaven.

That's what it's like to be in the mission field. Now you don't have to be a gifted speaker to tell the story about Jesus. Everybody knows it, right? We've all been to Sunday School and bible class and things like that. That's all it took.

I want to talk about now our strategy, a strategy for becoming a wonderful mission organization even more than we've been in the past. I know we've done wonderful things in the past, but I have a little strategy I want to share with you. It comes in the form of a pyramid. Now don't worry, this is not some marketing scheme or anything like that. But I want to tell you the foundation for mission work is prayer and the Word of God. We pray about the things the missionaries might need. We pray about the work they might be doing. We pray for the people that they're going to be working with, that God would open their hearts and prepare them to trust in Christ as their Savior. So this is the foundation. And if you think about it, in our congregation, if we have over 2,000 members, we could have over

2,000 people involved in the foundation of our mission support.

The second layer, the second level of our support pyramid has to do with gathering items. For instance, when we do evangelism, after we've talked to somebody about Christ, we give them a Christmas card for them to remember what happened that day. And they love the beautiful Christmas cards that we here in America have so abundantly. And what you do to prepare those cards to be given away is you cut off the second page of it. You have the front cover with the beautiful picture, and on the back you glue a piece of paper that has printed out John 3:15 in Spanish. So they take this beautiful picture of Jesus in the manger and they turn it around and they see “God so loved the world.” So that's one of the things we gather as we go to places like Honduras . You know when the Mexico trip happened last year, they gathered all kinds of sporting goods supplies. I think I remember seeing all kinds of stuff out there that you had brought in and contributed. So this gathering level of our support pyramid can be huge also. Hundreds of people could participate in that. It's a way for you to support what's going on, what God is doing on these mission efforts.

The third area is one that cannot be ignored is finances. Now to go to Kentucky costs $400 a person. To go to Mexico is around $800 a person. To go to someplace like Honduras is over $1,200 a person. So you can see, this can be a challenge to some people in their budgets and their income levels and things like that. So we, as a congregation, need to pool our financial resources to help people that are feeling God calling them to go, to enable them to go on these trips. And you might say, “Well, I don't know if I've done that before.” But have you bought any of the bagels they were selling outside the church? Did you know that went to the youth missions, the proceeds went to the church missions? Did you dance last night at the Midwinter Ball? Did you know that the proceeds from that go on to the missions of our congregation? I believe the Craft Fair also does the same thing and other organizations within our congregation support missions. So if you've participated in any of those activities, you've actually supported those things. I know God has gifted us in different ways. Some He's given a bold faith to go on these trips. Some He's given resources to support those going on these trips. Some He's given a fervent and diligent desire to pray for those going on these trips. Whatever your gift, your resources, your calling, let God guide you to be part of His mission work in and through the members of Gloria Dei because it's not just 20 people who like missions, going somewhere. It's you and I sending them, supporting them, and equipping them to go. It's a total team effort. It's the heart of Jesus in each one of us responding to give of ourselves for the good of others. Amen? Amen.

Copyright 2005 Gloria Dei Lutheran Church