Missions Needs To Be A Top Priority - Part 2 - Pursuing Intimacy With God

Missions Needs To Be A Top Priority – Part 2

In Part 1 of this series we looked at what missions is, and why missions needs to be a top priority. Missions come from God’s heart. It is all about His love and desire & passion for all to be saved. God wants all people from every people group and tribe and nation to be saved. He wants a restored personal relationship with everyone.

And God’s desire and passion for this is so strong that He sent His only son Jesus to make it possible for all of us to have a restored relationship with God. And Jesus, driven by His great love and passion, was willing to suffer a horrible and painful death.

Now we will look at some other reasons why missions needs to be a top priority.

Missions Needs To Be A Top Priority

#2 Reason Why Missions Needs To Be A Top Priority

If God’s people, the church, do not love people enough to go and tell as many others about the Gospel and Jesus, then who will ? God’s plan all along was to have the church be His instrument to take the Gospel to all people. And then help them to grow and to make disciples. That includes all people in your city, all people in your region, and all people all over the world.

And God has already provided what we the church need in order to accomplish this task. It is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit provides everything we need to be the fruitful witnesses and missionaries that God called and commanded us to be.

Matthew 4:19 “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

Acts 1:8 “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem (your city), and in all Judea and Samaria (your region), and even to the remotest part of the earth.”

Notice in Acts 1:8 Jesus said “…you shall be My witnesses.” When God fills you with the Holy Spirit, and with His love & passion for lost people, you won’t just do evangelism and missions occasionally. You will BE a “fisher of men” or witness or missionary all the time. You will be filled with God’s love and passion for the lost, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Being a witness or missionary is a lifestyle of love and passion for reaching the lost.

#3 Reason Why Missions Needs To Be A Top Priority

Missions is all about loving people the way God does. And about having the same desire and passion for others to be saved that God has. Missions is also about leaving the comfort and safety of the church and going outside into the community, region, and even to other nations as God leads. That is where sinners are. Very few of the lost people will come to your church. Some will if invited, but most will not.

These days in the US fewer and fewer people want God in their lives. Many people have everything they need here, and the thinking is “Why do I need God ?”Or “I don’t need God.” But in other countries around the world, especially in poor countries, many people are more humble and they know they need God. And their is a great hunger for God. And a great openness to the Gospel. The harvest is truly huge in these areas, such as in Africa and other parts of the world.

We need to go out to where the harvest is truly huge and go tell them about Jesus. And help & train churches in those areas to do God’s mission work also, of sharing the Gospel and making disciples. There is a great harvest and a great need for people to step up and fulfill God’s mission there. We in the US have the resources to do it, but less and less people have the right heart attitude to do it. The “whatever it takes or whatever it costs” attitude to do God’s mission.

Matthew 9:37 “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.”

Missions Needs To Be A Top Priority

#4 Reason Why Missions Needs To Be A Top Priority

It is a great privilege and honor to join God in what He is doing in the world. God is still the all mighty and all powerful God. And He is doing amazing things in the world today. God loves you very much and He wants to give your life great purpose and meaning and value. He does this by inviting you to join Him in His kingdom work and mission.

John 5:17 – “Jesus said to them My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.“

God does not need us in order to accomplish His kingdom work. But He chose to include us in the way He accomplishes His kingdom purposes in the world. He has given us the privilege and also the responsibility to do our part in His work and mission. We the church have the God-given responsibility to take the Gospel to the world and to make disciples.

2 Corinthians 5:18-20 “Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.”

#5 Reason Why Missions Needs To Be A Top Priority

Missions changes us. When we participate with God in His mission work and we see and experience Him doing great things, it changes us. We see God in a whole new way, because we obey His commands to be His witnesses and join Him in His kingdom work. When we see God’s great power and glory up close, it changes us. We grow deeper in our faith and in our walk with God. And we become more and more in awe of God. Like the early church in Act was.

Acts 2:43 – “Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles.“

And visiting poor countries changes our hearts. We have been to a great number of slums and poor places and countries. We have shared the Gospel in many slums around the world. You learn to very much appreciate the things and blessings you have from God. The things you grow accustomed to taking for granted.

Your perspective changes, and you see the things that are truly important. And the things that are not. You step outside of the US and into a poor country, and you begin to see how materialistic we really are in the US. And in other well off countries.

Missions changes us and our hearts. And that is a good thing.

#6 Reason Why Missions Needs To Be A Top Priority

Besides changing us and our hearts, participating in God’s mission helps us to grow and become more mature Christians. Missions has a way of accelerating our spiritual growth. And it helps us to develop a deeper walk with God. Our faith is strengthened when we see God mightily at work. And we know Him in more real and personal ways from then on. Missions gives us the opportunity to see and experience God, and thus to know God much better.

Often times going on mission trips and participating in outreach ministries produces far greater spiritual growth than does going to a Sunday School class or small group. These things are very important to our spiritual growth and making disciples, don’t get me wrong. But nothing can compare to the spiritual growth and changes in us and in our hearts that missions produces.

We want to encourage you to seek God. And pray and seek how God wants you to be involved in His kingdom work and mission. And if possible find a way to be involved in missions in other countries around the world. Now more than ever there is a great need for more workers in the harvest that God has already prepared.

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