My heart has been so blessed by our mission conference at church this past weekend.
I love missions. I think our life is absolutely considered missions. We should always be living like missionaries. I believe that The Lord has placed us where we are, right now, for a reason. I truly believe that. For some--it's in a school, a hospital, their own home, in Africa, in a cubicle, in Russia, at a park, with their kids, with their parents, with their friends, with their attitudes, there's so many different "faces" to missions--and, so many missions.
From my time in Haiti with Joni & Friends Disability Ministry (you can read all about my trip here)
I love missions. I think our life is absolutely considered missions. We should always be living like missionaries. I believe that The Lord has placed us where we are, right now, for a reason. I truly believe that. For some--it's in a school, a hospital, their own home, in Africa, in a cubicle, in Russia, at a park, with their kids, with their parents, with their friends, with their attitudes, there's so many different "faces" to missions--and, so many missions.
Friday evening, to kick off the Missions Conference, we headed to the church to hear Richie Session's preach. This man, he can preach! That's all I can say.
We read from Luke 5:12-16 and talked about "The Missional Heart of Jesus"
(as always, sharing my notes)
"12 While he was in one of the cities, there came a man full of leprosy.[a] And when he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and begged him, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” 13 And Jesus[b] stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately the leprosy left him. 14 And he charged him to tell no one, but “go and show yourself to the priest, and make an offering for your cleansing, as Moses commanded, for a proof to them.” 15 But now even more the report about him went abroad, and great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities. 16 But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray."
If we don't get Jesus’ missional heart, then we won't have a heart for missions.
The missional life is not just a conference--it has to start with your heart being warmed with the mission of Jesus is your own life.
If you aren't a missionary, then you're the mission field.
In this passage, we see three things:
1. Desperation--the best word to describe a leper. They were the lowest caste of the population--"The Untouchables"
This man was FULL of leprosy; his was a long-term condition.
"Living death" is what leprosy used to be called.
Now days, we don't know what it's like to have leprosy---but, we do know what shame is and what that feels like.
When he saw Jesus (vs. 12) he fell on his face and begged Jesus.
Jesus had people like this constantly around Him--people that were desperate for healing, cleansing and peace is a glimpse into the heart of Jesus.
Desperation is the only thing that will bring us to Jesus. Our need is the only thing that will bring us to Jesus.
In our generation, our time, we hide it all. We try to appear "together" and keep it all inside but we. are. broken.
Need brings us to Jesus.
2. Compassion--Jesus stretched out His hand and touched the man. He has gut wrenching pity on him--He has compassion on him.
Am I desperate? Have I fallen on my face before God? How will Jesus respond to me? He has pity on me. He has gut wrenching compassion on me--that's WHY He came to this earth! He came so low so that any "untouchable" could come to Him. He came TO me.
He doesn't just touch the leper, He grabs him. He grabs him before He even heals the man--can you imagine? No one has touched this man for years...and Jesus touches his filth.
What Jesus is saying by touching this man is--I am prepared to become what you are to show you and give you what I have and what I am--and He does the same for us.
I will become dirty so that you can/will become clean.
ALL authority is MINE--everything--and He has come to touch us.
Jesus hates what sin has done to His creating and He's come to renovate it--healing the leper--changing the untouchables.
Have I tasted the compassion of Jesus Christ in me? It WILL change you.
People miss Jesus because they don't want to go down to Jesus--they don't want to be needy.
3. Fellowship--He's going to bring us back together. After He heals this man, Jesus sends him back into the community--to family, to church, etc.
Ultimately, He is bringing us HOME--into fellowship of joy into The family of God--that's what missionaries are for.
Richie then spoke about the story of Mary of Magdalene and Jesus and their relationship. She was a woman who was possessed by seven demons--she would have been a terror and Jesus went to this tiny town of Magdalene to free her, to deliver her and after that, she followed Him through it ALL. All the way to His tomb (John 20:1-18) where she was the first one to arrive the day after He was put in there. She went there to care for Him, even after death. But lo, she sees that the body isn't there and through her emotions towards the situation, she doesn't even realize that Jesus is the very one talking to her, asking her why she's weeping. Then finally, all He does is say her name and she realizes that it's Him. Mary was the FIRST person that Jesus appeared to after His resurrection--there were a ton of people who would have been considered "better" choices--but He chose Mary.
He did not come so that we could "make it some day"--He came to the broken, to the needy, to renovate, and to captivate us.
This is FOR ME--experience the JOY of His salvation.
That is the missional heart of our King Jesus.
Even rereading my notes now for this post, my heart is pounding.
WHAT A GOD we serve! Wow.
We sang this song Sunday morning during the worship service and it doesn't matter how many times I've sung it--I tear up.
"Come People of The Risen King"
Come, people of the Risen King,
Who delight to bring Him praise;
Come all and tune your hearts to sing
To the Morning Star of grace.
From the shifting shadows of the earth
We will lift our eyes to Him,
Where steady arms of mercy reach
To gather children in.
Rejoice, Rejoice! Let every tongue rejoice!
One heart, one voice; O Church of Christ, rejoice!
Come, those whose joy is morning sun,
And those weeping through the night;
Come, those who tell of battles won,
And those struggling in the fight.
For His perfect love will never change,
And His mercies never cease,
But follow us through all our days
With the certain hope of peace.
Rejoice, Rejoice! Let every tongue rejoice!
One heart, one voice; O Church of Christ, rejoice!
Come, young and old from every land -
Men and women of the faith;
Come, those with full or empty hands -
Find the riches of His grace.
Over all the world, His people sing -
Shore to shore we hear them call
The Truth that cries through every age:
“Our God is all in all”!
Rejoice, Rejoice! Let every tongue rejoice!
One heart, one voice; O Church of Christ, rejoice!
I've got to end with Richie's sermon from Sunday morning because it...it blew. me. away.
That's why I love the Bible. That's why I love that Jesus calls people to preach His word and blesses them with the words to say to His children. I've heard of Peter as long as I can remember and this sermon just brings a whole other aspect to just how rich Jesus’ love for those He loves truly is.
We read from Luke 5:1-11 and talked about "How God Makes Missionaries: The Calling of Peter"
"On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, 2 and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. 3 Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon's, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat. 4 And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” 5 And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” 6 And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. 7 They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. 8 But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” 9 For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken, 10 and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.”[a] 11 And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him."
Once the biggest failures experience forgiveness, they make the best missionaries.
Peter was a fisherman. His domain was the sea. He was not only a fisherman, he was THE master fisherman. In this passage, we see that Jesus was preaching from Peter's boat and then He asks the "master fisherman" to take him fishing.... in this passage, Peter is about to get caught.
Jesus pursues us.
He has left heaven to pursue us.
The place that He pursues us is the place where we are most confident because that's the very place that we are hiding. We hide behind what we are good at & Jesus comes there, where we're hiding (even though we don't know we're hiding--self deceiving). He knows where we're hiding and how to catch us.
What am I hiding behind? Some talent, some strength, some gift...in every culture, in every land, we are hiding.
This goes all the way back to Genesis 3--where we see that the very first response to sin was to hide from God...but, He pursues those who are hiding...He asks Adam & Eve, "Where are you?" Do we really think that God didn't know where they were? NO! He wanted them to know He was looking for them; He wanted them, even still.
Jesus exposes us.
He exposes Peter with His sovereign, shocking power.
"God has authority over all the fish in the sea"--and here we see all the fish coming into the boat--more fish than these men can actually handle and Peter realizes that the one who's with him, sees his soul, and he is exposed.
He came into Peter's turf--He came in a way that Peter would understand and He exposes him in a way that will mean the most.
We find later in Isaiah 6:5 that Peter says: "I am a man of unclean lips" that here we have this marvelous preacher that's spreading the good news of the gospel and he knows that even this "best" part of him, is filthy.
A deconstruction of self is to experience the plague of our hearts.
This is what happens when we are exposed.
Jesus sees it all, and more. He exposes it to us.
The more you sense your need of Jesus, the closer you are to Him.
"True knowledge of self brings true knowledge of God which brings true knowledge of self."
In John 4, we have the story of The Woman at the well and as we read and see where Jesus exposes her, she says: "Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?”
If we don't become exposed to Jesus, we will have no part of Him.
Jesus frees us.
"Don't be afraid" is what He tells Peter.
He knows us, so that He may forgive us.
He exposes us, so that He may heal us, so that He may free us.
Peter tells Jesus to depart from Him and we can relate to that! We don't want to be who Jesus exposes us to be--we can't handle who we truly are!
We become more and more in touch with our sinfulness and we weep and weep and yet He STILL meets us there--He will never let us go.
Jesus already knows all that we have done and will do and He chooses to continue to love us still.
In John 21, when we find Jesus back in Peter's boat, Peter doesn't push Him away this time--he jumps in the water and swims to Him because, he knows that he is freed in Jesus.
Those who know the depth of their sin and know how good the gospel is, those who are amazed by grace are the ones who make the best missionaries.
John Newton once said: "There is no greater joy to me than to comfort one of God's precious children"--the writer of Amazing Grace, who was once a slave trader with many stories to go alongside his career choice, was a great sinner who tasted forgiveness and made a wonderful missionary.
Jesus pursues, exposes, and frees us over and over and over again.
Amen & amen.
We read from Luke 5:12-16 and talked about "The Missional Heart of Jesus"
(as always, sharing my notes)
"12 While he was in one of the cities, there came a man full of leprosy.[a] And when he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and begged him, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” 13 And Jesus[b] stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately the leprosy left him. 14 And he charged him to tell no one, but “go and show yourself to the priest, and make an offering for your cleansing, as Moses commanded, for a proof to them.” 15 But now even more the report about him went abroad, and great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities. 16 But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray."
If we don't get Jesus’ missional heart, then we won't have a heart for missions.
The missional life is not just a conference--it has to start with your heart being warmed with the mission of Jesus is your own life.
If you aren't a missionary, then you're the mission field.
In this passage, we see three things:
1. Desperation--the best word to describe a leper. They were the lowest caste of the population--"The Untouchables"
This man was FULL of leprosy; his was a long-term condition.
"Living death" is what leprosy used to be called.
Now days, we don't know what it's like to have leprosy---but, we do know what shame is and what that feels like.
When he saw Jesus (vs. 12) he fell on his face and begged Jesus.
Jesus had people like this constantly around Him--people that were desperate for healing, cleansing and peace is a glimpse into the heart of Jesus.
Desperation is the only thing that will bring us to Jesus. Our need is the only thing that will bring us to Jesus.
In our generation, our time, we hide it all. We try to appear "together" and keep it all inside but we. are. broken.
Need brings us to Jesus.
2. Compassion--Jesus stretched out His hand and touched the man. He has gut wrenching pity on him--He has compassion on him.
Am I desperate? Have I fallen on my face before God? How will Jesus respond to me? He has pity on me. He has gut wrenching compassion on me--that's WHY He came to this earth! He came so low so that any "untouchable" could come to Him. He came TO me.
He doesn't just touch the leper, He grabs him. He grabs him before He even heals the man--can you imagine? No one has touched this man for years...and Jesus touches his filth.
What Jesus is saying by touching this man is--I am prepared to become what you are to show you and give you what I have and what I am--and He does the same for us.
I will become dirty so that you can/will become clean.
ALL authority is MINE--everything--and He has come to touch us.
Jesus hates what sin has done to His creating and He's come to renovate it--healing the leper--changing the untouchables.
Have I tasted the compassion of Jesus Christ in me? It WILL change you.
People miss Jesus because they don't want to go down to Jesus--they don't want to be needy.
3. Fellowship--He's going to bring us back together. After He heals this man, Jesus sends him back into the community--to family, to church, etc.
Ultimately, He is bringing us HOME--into fellowship of joy into The family of God--that's what missionaries are for.
Richie then spoke about the story of Mary of Magdalene and Jesus and their relationship. She was a woman who was possessed by seven demons--she would have been a terror and Jesus went to this tiny town of Magdalene to free her, to deliver her and after that, she followed Him through it ALL. All the way to His tomb (John 20:1-18) where she was the first one to arrive the day after He was put in there. She went there to care for Him, even after death. But lo, she sees that the body isn't there and through her emotions towards the situation, she doesn't even realize that Jesus is the very one talking to her, asking her why she's weeping. Then finally, all He does is say her name and she realizes that it's Him. Mary was the FIRST person that Jesus appeared to after His resurrection--there were a ton of people who would have been considered "better" choices--but He chose Mary.
He did not come so that we could "make it some day"--He came to the broken, to the needy, to renovate, and to captivate us.
This is FOR ME--experience the JOY of His salvation.
That is the missional heart of our King Jesus.
Even rereading my notes now for this post, my heart is pounding.
WHAT A GOD we serve! Wow.
We sang this song Sunday morning during the worship service and it doesn't matter how many times I've sung it--I tear up.
"Come People of The Risen King"
Come, people of the Risen King,
Who delight to bring Him praise;
Come all and tune your hearts to sing
To the Morning Star of grace.
From the shifting shadows of the earth
We will lift our eyes to Him,
Where steady arms of mercy reach
To gather children in.
Rejoice, Rejoice! Let every tongue rejoice!
One heart, one voice; O Church of Christ, rejoice!
Come, those whose joy is morning sun,
And those weeping through the night;
Come, those who tell of battles won,
And those struggling in the fight.
For His perfect love will never change,
And His mercies never cease,
But follow us through all our days
With the certain hope of peace.
Rejoice, Rejoice! Let every tongue rejoice!
One heart, one voice; O Church of Christ, rejoice!
Come, young and old from every land -
Men and women of the faith;
Come, those with full or empty hands -
Find the riches of His grace.
Over all the world, His people sing -
Shore to shore we hear them call
The Truth that cries through every age:
“Our God is all in all”!
Rejoice, Rejoice! Let every tongue rejoice!
One heart, one voice; O Church of Christ, rejoice!
I've got to end with Richie's sermon from Sunday morning because it...it blew. me. away.
That's why I love the Bible. That's why I love that Jesus calls people to preach His word and blesses them with the words to say to His children. I've heard of Peter as long as I can remember and this sermon just brings a whole other aspect to just how rich Jesus’ love for those He loves truly is.
We read from Luke 5:1-11 and talked about "How God Makes Missionaries: The Calling of Peter"
"On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, 2 and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. 3 Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon's, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat. 4 And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” 5 And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” 6 And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. 7 They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. 8 But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” 9 For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken, 10 and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.”[a] 11 And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him."
Once the biggest failures experience forgiveness, they make the best missionaries.
Peter was a fisherman. His domain was the sea. He was not only a fisherman, he was THE master fisherman. In this passage, we see that Jesus was preaching from Peter's boat and then He asks the "master fisherman" to take him fishing.... in this passage, Peter is about to get caught.
Jesus pursues us.
He has left heaven to pursue us.
The place that He pursues us is the place where we are most confident because that's the very place that we are hiding. We hide behind what we are good at & Jesus comes there, where we're hiding (even though we don't know we're hiding--self deceiving). He knows where we're hiding and how to catch us.
What am I hiding behind? Some talent, some strength, some gift...in every culture, in every land, we are hiding.
This goes all the way back to Genesis 3--where we see that the very first response to sin was to hide from God...but, He pursues those who are hiding...He asks Adam & Eve, "Where are you?" Do we really think that God didn't know where they were? NO! He wanted them to know He was looking for them; He wanted them, even still.
Jesus exposes us.
He exposes Peter with His sovereign, shocking power.
"God has authority over all the fish in the sea"--and here we see all the fish coming into the boat--more fish than these men can actually handle and Peter realizes that the one who's with him, sees his soul, and he is exposed.
He came into Peter's turf--He came in a way that Peter would understand and He exposes him in a way that will mean the most.
We find later in Isaiah 6:5 that Peter says: "I am a man of unclean lips" that here we have this marvelous preacher that's spreading the good news of the gospel and he knows that even this "best" part of him, is filthy.
A deconstruction of self is to experience the plague of our hearts.
This is what happens when we are exposed.
Jesus sees it all, and more. He exposes it to us.
The more you sense your need of Jesus, the closer you are to Him.
"True knowledge of self brings true knowledge of God which brings true knowledge of self."
In John 4, we have the story of The Woman at the well and as we read and see where Jesus exposes her, she says: "Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?”
If we don't become exposed to Jesus, we will have no part of Him.
Jesus frees us.
"Don't be afraid" is what He tells Peter.
He knows us, so that He may forgive us.
He exposes us, so that He may heal us, so that He may free us.
Peter tells Jesus to depart from Him and we can relate to that! We don't want to be who Jesus exposes us to be--we can't handle who we truly are!
We become more and more in touch with our sinfulness and we weep and weep and yet He STILL meets us there--He will never let us go.
Jesus already knows all that we have done and will do and He chooses to continue to love us still.
In John 21, when we find Jesus back in Peter's boat, Peter doesn't push Him away this time--he jumps in the water and swims to Him because, he knows that he is freed in Jesus.
Those who know the depth of their sin and know how good the gospel is, those who are amazed by grace are the ones who make the best missionaries.
John Newton once said: "There is no greater joy to me than to comfort one of God's precious children"--the writer of Amazing Grace, who was once a slave trader with many stories to go alongside his career choice, was a great sinner who tasted forgiveness and made a wonderful missionary.
Jesus pursues, exposes, and frees us over and over and over again.
Amen & amen.
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