Our fifth purpose is to share the Good News. As we know all the purposes of God, He expects me to share that with other people. The word evangelism is often misunderstood. It means good news.
Where am I supposed to share the good news? Acts 1:8,"You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
When Jesus told this to his followers, they were in Jerusalem. He is saying, first, I want you to start at home. I want you to start with the people closest to you, right there in your own city, your own community. Then, I want you to go to Judea and Samaria, that's like the county next door, and Samaritans happen to be different culturally and different racially. Next, “I want you to go to the ends of the earth. I want you to go reach everybody else.”
What is a witness? A witness is somebody who just tells what they have seen, and what happened to them. God says, “I just want you to tell other people what's happened to you, what's happened in your life.” And He says, “I want you to go all over; the people close to you, the people who are near, but different, and then to everybody else..”
Why does He say this? Because God is building a family of people who love and trust Him, that are going to spend eternity with Him. The whole point of history is God is building a family that's going to live with Him forever and love Him. And so God says I want family members from every nation. One day all believers are going to be gathered together in heaven.And it has been God's plan all along.
In Ephesians 3:11 the Bible says "This was God's plan for all of history which He carried out through Christ Jesus, our Lord." This is the mission that Jesus Christ started when He came to earth, He says, “I want you to finish it.” God puts the future of the world in our hands. Being on mission is the greatest privilege we're ever given.
How do you get on God's agenda and how do you let God use you and bless you so that you can be completing your mission?
First, to complete my God-given mission, I must share with those in my world. That's the starting point. There's a guy who Jesus healed. And after Jesus healed him, he wanted to travel with Jesus and Jesus said, "No, I don't want you to do that." Luke 8, He said this, "Go back home and tell people how much God has done for you.’ So that man went all over town telling how much Jesus had done for him.”
You know where your mission starts? Right at home, starts in your own neighborhood, in your own community. He wants you to go to your friends, your family, your coworkers, your neighbors, anybody who crosses your path.
Why don't we do this? One reason is because we believe the myth that people aren't interested in spiritual issues. Opportunities to share the Good News really are all around you. They are staring you in the face every single day. You just have to be ready for them
The only reason your heart is still beating after you come to Christ is because God wants you to share it with people who haven't heard. If somebody hadn't shared it with you, you'd be lost. So God wants you to pass it on
What does God cares about more than anything else? People, your friends and neighbors and co-workers and loved ones and relatives who don't know Jesus. We have the best news in the world. Let’s to share it, let’s save one more for Jesus.
“You were made for a mission” is the fifth purpose of your life. First, I must share with those in my world. It is not enough to just care about the people who are around you.
Second, I must dare to reach beyond my world. Love demands I move beyond my comfort zone to people with different background, different education, different language, different economics. I must dare to reach beyond my world. I Corinthians 9: "Whatever each person is like, I try to find common ground with him so that he will let me tell him about Christ and let Christ save him.
Christians are called to build bridges, not walls. We're to reach out to others. Galatians 6:2, "Stoop down and reach out to those who were oppressed. Share their burdens, and so complete Christ's law."
Jesus always paid attention to the people that society wanted to ignore; the powerless, the poor, the left behind, the imprisoned, the orphaned, the widowed, the aged, the mentally ill, the social outcasts, sick, the lepers. If Jesus were alive today, what kind of people do you think He would be hanging out with here in Antwerp?
One day we're going to stand before God and He's going to do an audit of our lives, and He's going to judge if we really learned to love or if it was just all talk. Did we ever really do anything that showed love or did we just say we loved? The Bible says one day Jesus is going to separate people into two groups. He's going to say to one group: “I was hungry, and you fed Me. I was thirsty and you gave Me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited Me into your home. I was naked, and you gave Me clothing. I was sick and you cared for Me. I was in prison and you visited Me.” And they will ask, “When did we do that for you, Lord?” And He says, “When you have done it to one of the least of my brothers or sisters, you've done it to Me.” (Matthew 25)
This is what Christianity is all about. It is about healing broken, messed up lives. The whole business of Christianity is healing hurts and helping people. It's love. Now, if you want to get involved in your mission in the world, it will cost you. Mark 10:29: “Jesus replied, ‘Let me assure you that no one has ever given up anything for love of Me and to tell others the Good News” – that's the mission – “who won't be given back” – “a hundred times over.’”
It is not enough to just share with those in my world; it is not even enough to reach beyond my world, to dare to reach beyond it.
If I am going to be like Jesus Christ, I must care about the whole world. We have to care because God cares about the whole world. Mark 16:15: “Jesus said to His followers, ‘Go everywhere in the world and tell the Good News to everyone.’ Was Jesus talking to pastors, or was he talking to missionaries there? No. He's talking to all of us. If you're Jesus follower, he says “go everywhere”, because everybody deserves to hear the Good News.
Everybody needs Jesus. They may mask it. They may pretend and put up barriers, but in your heart, you're empty without God and you know it. But fulfilling your mission is the secret of a fulfilled life.
When you get to heaven, is anybody going to say thank you, thank you for telling me the Good News? You knew it and you didn't keep it a secret. You passed it on. Acts 13:36: “David served God's purposes in his own time." This is my prayer for you, that you will serve God's purpose in your generation, in your time.
Here's the test to know if you have completed your mission or not: If you're still alive, your mission is not completed. You have four possible responses. You can say like Moses, “Who me?” Or you can say like Jonah, "Not me." Or you can say it like Habakkuk, "Why me?" Or you can say like Isaiah, "Send me."
Do you have enough courage to say, "God use my life"? If you do, you are fulfilling your mission!
Let's pray.
Father, I know you're calling all of us to accept our mission from you, and I pray you'll give people the courage to do the right thing and not walk away in disobedience. Thank you for the privilege of being invited to be a part of the greatest cause, the building of your family and to be a history maker. Father, more than anything else, I want to fulfill the purposes you made me for. So today, I accept this fifth purpose, my mission to tell others. I want you to use me any time, any way, any place. I want to bring others to you. I want to serve your purpose in my generation. And I want to be a part of what you're doing in the world. From this day forward, I want to build my life around Your eternal purposes, and I want to help our church do the same. Help me to reach one more for Jesus. In your name I pray. Amen.