God's Desire For Us Is Missions
It is very encouraging to me as a believer and to the church when a person has been transformed by the gospel, especially when it occurs from the outworking of intentional missions done by members within the local church. When a child, student, or adult comes to saving faith in Jesus Christ through one of Oakhill's local missional engagements such as Upward, the Food Pantry, or one of the various partnerships we as a church are involved, it invigorates the people of God to share the gospel increasingly more. All through the Scriptures God gives His church commands to evangelize the lost and make disciples. God's desire for us, this side of Heaven, is missional.
The mission of God's people can be heard in the Old Testament with Moses saying "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might" (Deut 6:4). The fact there is but only One God and that we are to love Him over everything else, informs us where the focus of our worship, and the giving of time should be given. Theologically speaking, the work of missions flows from our love of the God of the universe and our knowledge that He has a desire to be worshipped (Is 45:23). This is not just a head knowledge or awareness that God exists, but a real understanding there "is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12) than through Jesus Christ our Lord (Jn 14:6). The Holy Spirit as our guide then leads us to want to tell others about Jesus. The apostle Paul captures the essence of what our aim for missions should be when he said, "My heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved" (Rm 10:1). We need to heavily emphasize the last words where Paul said, "that they may be saved." This same emphasis is our goal brothers and sisters. Once people are saved, the focus of our time, talent, and treasure should then be directed that people will be made disciples and "grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (2 Pet 3:18). As a church on mission, we can help others to lay down the idols of this lost and dying world by pointing to the saving power of God that is offered exclusively by grace, through faith, in Christ Jesus according to the Scriptures, for his glory (Eph 2:8-9, 1 Cor 15:3-4, 1 Cor 10:31).
One of the greatest ways that we can display God's glory within the local church is through missional living. I enjoy the way Jeff Vanderstelt frames what this looks like in his book titled – Saturate: Being Disciples of Jesus in the Everyday Stuff of Life. Missional living occurs when a group of the redeemed becomes centrally focused around one common theme, making Jesus Christ known. This occurs not just on Sunday, but in the everyday, and even mundane things of life. Praise the Lord we have Life Groups here at Oakhill that are very intentional about connecting people for ongoing fellowship and discipleship. These groups are comprised mostly of believers therefore, missional living is necessary to point others to the gospel "that they may be saved" (Rm 10:1). Living all of life missionally points others to the fact that proclaiming Christ and Him crucified is what has a real value this side of heaven. When we are living missionally, considering the fact we too have been saved, are being saved, and will be saved in glory, it becomes infectious and the lost become curious about "the hope that is in us" (1 Pet 3:15). My prayer is that as we are living missionally and people ask about the hope we have in Christ, that we have prepared ourselves to testify about it, and wasting no opportunities to share the gospel as the Lord provides.
Practically speaking, God's mission for God's people, is to live with intentionality on mission for Him. God desires that we make Him known here and among the nations (Acts 1:8). We can see this to be true from the Old Testament through to the New. This requires that people transformed by Christ and His word live missionally in ongoing discipleship with other believers and are prepared to proclaim the name of Christ at every opportunity. Jesus is mighty to save and we need to take His gospel of truth to the ends of the earth (Matt 28:19-20).
