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what should i do with my life Mat Adams, Grace Missionary Grace Church, Sunday Worship Various Texts October 23rd, 2011
FOUR BIBLICAL PRINCIPLES DRIVING US TO AFRICA Welcome. Well, some of you must have think skulls, because God is having me preach on the same thing Pastor Daniel preached on last week—your calling. At first I was scared and thought this was going to be super awkward, but since I’ve been praying and writing, God has set my heart at ease and showed me that this message is for you today. Just like it was last week. Today I’m going to share with you some principles that Miranda and I used to make the life-changing decision to go to Africa. We aren’t going because we want a change of pace or we like the weather and want to escape the winter—we could just move to Florida for that. We are making this decision based on certain truths we find in the Word of God. Today I’m going to share with you those truths and show you our response to each one. Please, keep in mind that this is not an exhaustive list and these are principles not rules. So while I give my responses to each point, I urge you to examine your life and let the Holy Spirit reveal how these principles are to play out in your life. If you feel the call to pursue pastoral ministry, then you need to take this many steps further. Scripture makes it clear there is added responsibility and requirements for pastors. It even warns you not to become one unless you really can’t help it. But for other folks here are some principles to help guide your life choices.
1. The Call [You have a calling, and that’s to make disciples.] The first principle driving us to Africa is the fact that God calls everyone to make disciples no matter who we are or what God has handed us in this life. Even though it’s a command, it should naturally flow from a life that is actively following Jesus. Let’s look at this a little deeper. a. Jesus says to you “Follow me.” And because of our pastor Dave, we all know that the call to glorify God by following Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit is our primary calling in life. Let’s look at… Matthew 16:24, here Jesus says, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” On the surface that looks pretty simple, until you learn what Jesus is calling you to do. He’s calling you to take up our cross. We don’t have “Death by Cross” here in America, so we aren’t too familiar with the torture it represented. Here He clearly meant dying to self and sin. He’s called us to die, to the things we want to do. But then he says “Follow Me.” Which really means live the life I call you to. You die to your old life, and live to His. Ok, so what does a follower of Jesus do? Well, there are too many aspects to cover here in one sermon, so we are going to focus on the one that relates to the sermon—loving people. If you love someone, you would tell them that they are going to hell apart from Christ. The call to love someone is a call to disciple people. Surprisingly enough people don’t really catch on to this even though Jesus says it as s clearly as possible. We call it the Great Commission. Matt 28:19 “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Since much of the groundwork has been done for this I’m going to let a much wiser person comment on that verse. Our very own Pastor Dave VanAcker says… “I believe that one of the keys to truly understanding Christianity is in recognizing that the essence of Christianity is still a call to follow Jesus. That is, the chief calling on our lives is still to follow Jesus. When Jesus issued the call, “follow me” during His earthly ministry, He was calling people to become His disciples. Further, one of the primary commands that Jesus gave to His disciples (or those who followed Him) was to make disciples. In Matthew 28:19 Jesus says, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations”. One of Jesus’ expectations of his followers was, and still is, that they would continue, until He returns, calling others to follow Him. Therefore, we have today, through the witness of faithful Christ-followers and the unchanging testimony of God’s Word, the same call on our lives as those who walked with Jesus: follow Jesus!” In other words, Jesus called the original disciples to make disciples. Once those become disciples they now have the same call and so on until it got to you. Now you are a disciple of Christ and you have a call to make disciples. So that’s the call for our life and it’s a part of the foundational call of your life. I think it’s important right here to restate a point Pastor Daniel made last week. There are not different levels of Christianity. It’s not pastors way up on top, then missionaries, then children’s workers, then regular Christians. The Bible makes no distinction and neither can we. We all have the same mandate. So, how does following Jesus end up with us making disciples in Africa? Is everyone called to go be a missionary and why are we going over there and not staying here? I’m glad you asked. Essentially you’re asking… b. Why missions? i. For the sake of the name of Christ. 3 John 6-7 “They have gone out for the sake of the name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles.” This is talking about Jews going out into the Gentiles to spread the Gospel. This is us Americans going out to Africa or Belize or China. They had completely different beliefs and cultures. God wants all peoples to worship Him. He’s a jealous God and desires worshippers. Our chief aim is to spread the name of Jesus to all parts of the world for His glory and fame. It’s up to us and other believers. God has chosen to use his people as the primary means of spreading the name of Jesus. We’re all familiar with this passage in Romans that speaks for itself. Romans 10:14-15 “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?” Here’s a quote from Let the Nations be Glad, which is a book about why we should have foreign missions by Pastor John Piper. “Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exist because worship doesn’t. The Great Commission is first to “delight yourself in the Lord” (Ps. 37:4) and then to declare, “Let the nations be glad and sing for joy” (Ps. 67:4). In this way God will be glorified from beginning to end, and worship will empower the missionary enterprise until the coming of the Lord.” –Piper Piper is saying that we go do missions to cause the nations to worship God. “All of history is moving toward one great goal, the white-hot worship of God and his Son among all the peoples of the earth. Missions is not the goal. It is the means. And for that reason it is the second greatest human activity in the world.” –Piper Missions is one disciple making one disciple across a great cultural barrier. ii. He told us to go to all nations Matt 28:19 “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations” We read that word nations and we think about countries, or physical boundaries determining land ownership. That word “nations” in the Greek is really the word “Ethnos” which is a sociological term used to refer to sociological groups, and while nations are included, so are the many people groups that make them up. A “people group” is simply a grouping of people that have the same culture and language. So, downtown we have many people groups. And God’s heart is for all the people groups of the world. Let’s face the facts. This is a spiritual war. Just imagine if you were doing battle and you just placed soldiers in the main camp and said “this is our battle ground let the enemy come to us.” And every new recruit that joined got stationed at the main camp. You’d lose the battle. The soldiers would get fat and lazy and the enemy would just go around you and conquer your city and take your land. That’s what missions is like. It’s people spreading out over the whole world to take the land for God. We need workers in every people group to win this battle. In America, the city, the country, overseas. Maybe it just means letting the locals work. Maybe it means training the locals so they aren’t spewing heresy. But we need some Christians to bring the Gospel to people groups who have never heard the name of Christ. We call them unreached people groups. And this was Paul’s focus later on in his ministry. Romans 15:17-21 In Christ Jesus, then, I have reason to be proud of my work for God. 18 For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience—by word and deed, 19 by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God—so that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ; 20 and thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else’s foundation, 21 but as it is written, "Those who have never been told of him will see, and those who have never heard will understand." Paul considered his mission accomplished if simply he went and preached to those places. Spreading the name of Jesus is our job, converting the heart to love Him is God’s. We need to send missionaries to all parts of the world, from Iraq to Maui, no matter how dangerous or luxurious it might be. Miranda and I are just two of countless faithful followers of Jesus that we need on the front lines.
2. A Great Need [There is a great need and it’s all around you] The second principle driving us to Africa is the great need they have. Ok so, everywhere you look there’s a need. Yes, people are hungry, homeless and in poverty—and that’s just Minneapolis. But there’s a greater need than “felt-needs” and that’s salvation. The need for a Savior. People are lost without Jesus. Literally, they can’t see, they’re blind and they’re wicked. Here’s how Paul describes them Romans 3:9-18 “What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written: None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.” Wow, that’s heavy. Their throat is an open grave! That’s sick. Just picture for a second what he’s referring to, cause we often read that too quickly. Picture opening the grave of a rotting corpse and taking a whiff. That’s how your tongue sounds to the ears of our pure and righteous heavenly Father. How about no one does good, not one and they have never known peace. This is a picture of someone who has not been born-again. They are hopeless and depraved. To put things very lightly, as we Americans tend to do, they are lost. This is a great need across all borders, races, religions, cultures and languages. They are lost and they need a Savior. a. People need a Savior Why do we need a Savior? Marty Pagano was in our small group Tuesday night and we were discussing sharing your faith. He brought up a really good point I just can’t stop thinking about. He said, instead of asking someone “How did you get saved?” try asking, “Why did you get saved?” I love this concept every time I play it out in my head it leads to the truth about how they see the Gospel. Did you respond positively to a great sales pitch you heard about Jesus? He can make your life better and it only costs you $19.95. Or did you ask Jesus into your heart because you felt guilty about your sin? Guilt mixed with emotion is a great way to pack out an alter call. All I gotta do is play the piano while I talk loudly about how horrible it is to buy a new car and I’ll have people down here repenting all night. But tomorrow the emotion will be gone and so will the guilt. How about this reason, God showed you the weight of your sin towards a holy and righteous God and the fact that you aren’t worthy to take one more breath. In fact, you’re not worthy to even be non-existent. You deserve to be punished for the heinous offenses you’ve committed against an infinitely Holy God. Like Isaiah you said, woe is me. In Isaiah 6:7 1 "I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!" And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: "Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!" Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: "Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for." And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" Then I said, "Here am I! Send me." And he said, "Go If you can’t say those words from the pit of your soul, don’t call yourself a follower of Christ. When people get converted in a muslim village, their old life is over. Literally. Their family will disown them and cast them out or they will be tortured or killed. All around us people are in desperate need of a Savior. All know it, but most pretend they can do it on their own. They are dying and going to hell. They need someone to step out of their comfort zone and share the Savior with them. They need rescuing. b. Lack of Workers The other great need is people to go and tell them about the Savior. If people God like Isaiah saw Him they would be shouting it from the roof tops. But we aren’t running around telling people about Him. Why? We don’t have a big view of God. We don’t have the fear of the Lord inside us. This is not new. Even in Jesus’ day there was a lack of workers. Mat 9:37 - Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” It says here that we are to pray that God would send out workers. Implying it takes two kinds of people, goers and prayers. Be one of those. Here are some statistics for you. Even if these numbers aren’t perfect, we’re talking about millions of people, the principle holds true. [i]The general population of North Africa outnumbers the Christian laborers two million to one. If you applied that ratio to the U.S. and Canada there would only be 120 workers and 7 small churches. Do you realize how lost our world would be. There are over 100 Baptist churches in the Twin Cities and over 400 Baptist churches in the Dallas area where I went to school. I know America needs help, but we could spare a couple more people. Here’s one more for you. According to JoshuaProject.com there are an estimated 2,830,000,000 billion unevangelized persons in the world and other sources say there are anywhere from 400,000 to 700,000 missionaries worlwide. Let’s split it in the middle for the sake of illustration. That’s only 1 worker for every 5,145 unreached people. That’s like you being the only Christian in your town. Unfortunately, most missionaries are working in groups at already reached places. Miranda and I are responding to a great need—the need for people to bring the Gospel where it hasn’t been heard. Romans 10:15 “…As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!’”
3. Your Gifts [You are uniquely gifted to do the work God has called you to] The third element that played a major role in Miranda and I deciding to go to Africa is our gifts and talents. God has given us each unique gifts and put us in life situations to build our talents for His glory. We need to be good stewards of those gifts by sharpening them and then putting them to use. a. We All Have Gifts 1 Peter 4:10 "As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace:" God’s grace varies from person to person. We are called to be stewards of what God has given us. The dictionary definition of a steward is “a person whose responsibility it is to take care of something” We are given something and it’s our job to make sure it gets taken care of. Our gifts and talents. I can’t counsel you the way Pastor Daniel can. Or study they way Dave can. But, I can play guitar and lead people in worshipping our Savior. Romans 12:6-8 "Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness." I want you to notice something about that list. Where did he mention playing the guitar? How about computer programming or building a chair? No where. Those are all learned skills, some are more natural than others, but I want you to see that we all have gifts inside of us that God wants to use and they may not be visible talents. While God made us all in his image and we all equally need a savior, we are not all equally gifted. America tells us we are all equal, but that does not make it true. They say we can be anything we want to be. If that’s true, what do we make of the scrawny 5’3” 100lb kid that wants to be an NFL linebacker or the blind person that wants to join the Airforce. You gotta be able to see or you’re outta luck. They have no shot. They will never be those things and that’s ok. God gave us different gifts for a reason. We don’t need ten people with compassion in one small group or who would bring the snacks? We are all members of one body and the eye can not say to the hand, “I have no need of you.” 1 Cor. 12:20. We don’t pick which part of the body we are. Some people have the brains or the brawn. I didn’t get either. I can play a guitar; I use my passion and ability to worship God and spur others to join me. Get this, I didn’t choose to play the guitar—it just kinda happened. My dad was a guitar player and my brother learned when he was young. My dad tried to get me to learn many times. But I just couldn’t get it. My hands wouldn’t make the shapes I needed to. But pretty soon, I could do it. I had a couple lessons under my belt, but I know that’s a gift from God, so I do my best to give Him glory with it. Look at your abilities. Try and look past the obvious ones or the ones people point out to you. Those may be it, but maybe God hasn’t gifted you with a physical talent. Maybe your gift is mercy, justice, or compassion. Something abstract that people don’t normally put up on a pedestal. Gifts are given to be used for ministry. You could use them to disciple urban youth or middle aged women. Look at Lori Lee. She’s not up here on stage every week, but she is serving the body and discipling women every Monday evening. Another great example of this is Mike and Barb Mueller. When they became Christians they felt a strong conviction to make disciples. The need was all around them. They grew up in it. God placed them in unforeseen situations to sharpen their gifts and strengthen their talents and said, “Here, start a horse ministry.” So they did. They felt the call and they acted on it. If you don’t know your gifts, take a spiritual gifts test. The pastors probably have one or you can go online and do it. The point is, find your gifts and use them. Practice. Learn. Be the best you can. b. My gifts. When trying to decide whether Miranda and I should be missionaries or not I looked back through my life to see what gifts God has given me for that task. Preaching, teaching, discipleship, music, kids ministry skills, compassion, zeal and roughing it. Being a missionary means wearing many hats. You are a senior pastor, children’s pastor, worship leader, discipler, teacher, mediator, and you have to do it all in a foreign country and different language. Many of you don’t know this, but I’ve traveled most of my life with my family on the road doing children’s ministry. My father was a children’s evangelist and pastor. I have been juggling and unicycling since I was 8. So, ministering to the children will come naturally. I also am hoping to be a part of the African worship services as a musician. I was in a Christian band for 10 years and preached at hundreds of venues. I have learned over the years that God has gifted me with the ability to preach and teach—now I’m going to be a teacher in Africa. I’m sure I will deliver many sermons during my time there as well. Then you add in my main hobby, camping. I love roughing it and being in the outdoors, lighting fires in the rain, surviving in tough conditions. I add all those things together and I think God has been preparing me for Africa. To top it off, God gives me a wife who’s ready and willing to doing all that right along side me, while home schooling children.
4. The Passion of our Heart [He’ll put a passion in your heart for what He’s asking you to do] The final principle I want to look at today is broken up into two sections. Desire and Burden. Let me clarify. Marty said Tuesday, “We WANT to go to China. There’s no place on earth I’d rather be.” Miranda and I long to be in Africa. That’s our heart’s desire. It’s not really a burden. A burden is a weight you carry. A heaviness for something. So, they are very different, but I feel that they belong under one banner—passion or zeal. a. The Desire The kind of desire God gives is found in Psalm 37:4 “Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.” Many preachers today twist this verse to mean that God will give you what ever you want. A new car, or house. But think about it logically. If you actually are delighting in the Lord, you want what He wants. And He’s going to show you what that is. Here’s an example. If you are in love with a women and delighting in your new bride. Do you look at her and say, “I love you so much, the desire of my heart is for you to give me a new hunting rifle, or a clean garage, or a million dollars.” No. You look at her and say “I delight in you and the desire of my heart is to give you what ever you wish. I’ll give you the world if you ask for it.” When we delight in the Lord, we are willing to give Him our world. See, our mind works backwards when we read that verse because we are sinful and selfish. But if you delight yourself in the Lord, then the desire of your heart will be to give God your car or house; you’ll want to give him your life so that it can be used for His name’s sake. It’s your desire. b. The Burden Romans 9:1-3 "I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit— that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh." Does the Holy Spirit inform your conscience? If you are a new creation—Yes! He does. We wrestle with this nagging and burning inside that says, “You should tell that person about Jesus.” but we don’t. Pretty soon that nagging gets farther and farther in the background until it’s only a whisper. Sometimes it sticks with us, but most of the time we ignore it completely. Look at Paul’s burden for these people. They are lost and he’s willing to give up his relationship with Christ for their salvation. Talk about a burden. We barely pray for lost souls let alone anguish over them. Logic says, if we believe the Bible is true we should be weeping over the lost. Listen to what Charles Spurgeon said about the lost. "I remember, when I have preached at different times in the country, and sometimes here, that my whole soul has agonized over men, every nerve of my body has been strained and I could have wept my very being out of my eyes and carried my whole frame away in a flood of tears, if I could but win souls." ~Charles Spurgeon This kind of burden cannot come from our flesh. It has to come from the Holy Spirit because of the Gospel. Only because we believe in a real wrath and a real hell do lost souls become a burden on our hearts. Africa is ours - In our case He’s put the people of Africa on our hearts. Not South America, Europe, or Australia. He’s put a strong burden for the African people on our hearts and we can’t get rid of it. We’ve tried. We’ve tested God. We’ve given up the African people and said, God we’ll go or stay, what do you want us to do. Lay it on our hearts and don’t take it away. And he hasn’t. Let God direct the desires of your heart. Is there something that pricks your heart? Like, when you see a homeless man, does your heart go out to him? When you see a biker drive by, do you really see a lost soul? If you got nothing, the place to start is to “delight yourself in the Lord.” and remember the Gospel.
The Conclusion Let me conclude with this story. I used to be a tattoo artist at a shop in St. Paul. The owners were Christians and sometimes we prayed before our day, for our conversations and that people would come to know Christ. The owner’s father-in-law would come in every other day or so. We’ll call him Charles. He was retired and loved to visit us and hang out and talk. Charles was always praying for the customers and for the shop. He was just one of those spiritual types, you know, the kind that says “Amen” and “Praise the Lord” in everyday conversation. So, one day I asked him what he had done for a living, expecting some sort of full-time ministry answer. He told me that when he was young God called him to be a pastor. So, he went to seminary right out of high school. To pay his bills he got an hourly job working for the city. During seminary Charles prayed and prayed for his future church and congregation. He prayed that God would tell him exactly where he was supposed to go and pastor. Four years went by and he and his wife continued to pray for God to show them where to go. In the meantime he had received a couple promotions at his job and they were comfortable. After graduation they kept on praying for God to show them where they were supposed to move. Years passed and God still hadn’t told him exactly where to pastor. He ended up retiring from his job with the city, and never become a pastor. I could feel the regret as he told me that story. I said in my heart, “That will not be me.” 1 Sam. 15:22 “… To obey is better than sacrifice…” God loves it when our heart is right, but if we never follow through with what God has commanded us to do, was our heart really right? James says faith with out actions is dead. It’s easy to stay and offer our money or sacrifices, but God has commanded his disciples to go make disciples of all nations. He desires our obedience more than our sacrifice. He’s not calling all of us to foreign missions, but he is calling us all to a life of disciple making. Let’s recap.
Let’s pray.
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