Words I heard

Lord burn me up with Your unquenchable fire
The Spirit of Your heart, Your overwhelming desire
Flooding the world with the Love in Your Word
Until You come back or until all have heard

How many times have we heard people say I'm not called to missions? That tells me a few things:
1. They are not reading their Bible for themselves.
2. They do not have the walk with God that they should
3. They do not value the sacrifice of Jesus Christ enough to go and tell EVERYONE

Matthew 9:37 says:
37 Then He said to His disciples, "The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few.

AND

Matthew 9:38 says:
38 "Therefore pray for the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest."

Ok. let's call it what it really is; some people can't go elsewhere on mission (health, home/ work situations, etc.) and some won't go (usually citing that they're not called to that particular endeavor), but the truth is that there is more to it than just leaving to go and share the Gospel. Let's take a look at some other options:

1. Take care of the children of the ones who can/ will go.
An example of that in my life is my mother. Due to her health, she would virtually be detrimental to the mission team in the field. But her contribution is, when my wife and I partake in a mission, local or foreign, she will take care of our children. This is invaluable to us, as we know that are children are safe while we're gone. In our church there are numerous examples of this. When we send out a mission team, usually there are married couples on the team. This is only possible because there are people that will step up and take care of their children while they're gone. VERY IMPORTANT!!

2. You can financially support the mission team members.
Let's face it, there is nothing free in this world, especially traveling. As most of us have heard, there is such a thing as offering beyond our tithing. This offering can definitely go to support those who will go. If you can't/ won't go to tell everyone that Jesus loved them enough to die for them because there is a heaven to gain and a hell to shun, then support someone who is going to do this.

3. Make your life a mission for God.
All of us, whether we do any sort of organized and/ or corporate type of mission or not, need to make it a point to show the love of God to those around us. What does that entail? Living out your new life in Christ before a watching world is a great place to start! If you think about Jesus' ministry, He demonstrated His love for those around Him at all times! Take for example the time that he fed the 5,000. That is the only one of His miracles recorded in all four of the Gospel's. It starts with Him preaching and sharing God's Word (doing the work of His Father!)with those in attendance which we have known many to do. But then as it got late and He sensed the need that was present in the crowd for food, He switched gears immediately from evangelist to Provider. How many preachers, how many of us in general would have followed the same path as the disciples did? We can't possibly feed them all so we must send them all away. It's not fair if we can help some and not the others, so let's send them all away. But Jesus, making a point to make His entire life a mission for God, decided to seek God's help in showing the entire crowd the true love of God. He never saw it as an impossibility, instead He saw it as an opportunity. So following the example set by Christ, not only do we need to share the Gospel with those around us, but also look to meet their needs when they are made known to us. Just as Christ did, prayer on the subject should be step one. But then ACTION is the next step. There will be people in your life that you can share the Gospel with a thousand and one times and never reach them, but by demonstrating the love of Christ to them, you can tear down walls that would otherwise not come down. For some of the places that our church goes on mission trips, this fact has been proven to us over and over again. From our Alaskan mission team going out on the ice in Alaska to help the natives with their fishing (bait, giving them fish, etc) to our Ukrainian mission team doing eyeglass clinics, we use service to reach some otherwise very unreachable people. Since I have not gone to Alaska yet and I have been to Ukraine to see the eyeglass clinics, I will tell you what I saw there. I saw people that were born into and raised up under communism. People that are so distant and that refuse to open their hearts and minds to the Gospel in any regular situation; but not in this situation. I'll explain "eyeglass clinic" real quick; the missionary (Bruce MacDonald) that we work with there, arranges a location (often times a church) where people get to come in and have a free eye exam and then recieve a free pair of glasses. The eye glasses are donated by different churches and individuals and given to all who come. Now to you and I in America that's not that big of a deal. To those in a place where health care is more of a luxury item, this is priceless. While they wait to see the doctor, we go around and share the Gospel with them. When their exam is complete, we use the New Testament in Russian as their "test" to see if their glasses are working for them. Now because there is a service attached to this message and not just idol words, there is a HUGE response. We are able to have their attention as God's Word is being shared and then we also provide a service as well. We have watched God work some absolute miracles in these settings (remember: it is not us working, instead it is us being available for God to work throught us!) including this past year when we met a medical student there who had been born into the very idolatrous religion of Hinduism. Exodous 20:3 tells us "You shall have no other gods before Me" so we know that it's not right; but it is all consuming religion/ lifestyle so they rarely if ever leave Hinduism. But this young man came to the eyeglass clinic looking to receive an eye exam and a pair of eyeglasse, and he left with a brand new knowledge of Jesus Christ. This man was open to hear what was being shared while at the eyglass clinic and ended up accepting Christ as his personal Savior. That's how service and sharing can go hand in hand. If you need to find people in need, just look ANYWHERE around you. The needs are as varied as the faces you're looking in. Look for opportunities to serve and share; don't wait for opportunity to come and punch you in the face to get your attention! The King of Glory came as a servant to show us how to serve others and share the Gospel with them simultaneously. By doing so we are making our lives a mission for God.

....and I saved the most important for last

4. Pray!
As we see in Matthew 9:38, Jesus Himself is saying for us to pray for more laborers. We also HAVE to pray for the laborers that we have! No man can accomplish God's task on his own. Each and every one of us must rely on the strength that comes from God through prayer and the prayer of others. In James 5:16 it tells us very specifically to pray for one another. When Jesus was in His final hours before going to the cross, where was He? He was praying for the disciples. Intercession is imperative! God is looking for those will step up and take on the burden of praying for all of those who need it! We can all step up and fill that position. Will we? We can pray for God to share His heart with us. But can we?

2 Chronicles 7:14 says
14 "if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

It is the job (mission) of all believers to not just say "woo hoo I'm saved and going to Heaven" and leave it at that. We are to intercede for everyone. We are to intercede constantly. We are to pray without ceasing. Remember, prayer does not have to be a formal thing. You can pray anywhere at any time and He will hear you! You do not have to be in church at the altar to pray and have it heard. Just seek the Father and you will find Him!

Don't think that you're not called to be on mission with God. Christ gave Himself for all of us, now we must give ourselves to Him to get His word out! As we learned Sunday, in Corinthians 12 we find out that the body of Christ is like our own bodies. It's made up of many parts, each with their own function (you can't have an eye that hears or an ear that smells) and even though the functions are different they are all important! The body of Christ has many parts each with our own function; now we must go do our parts!