Until recently the church always sang about heaven. As a child and as young pastor, I remember so many songs about heaven. It you wanted to work up a good shout, just sing about heaven. Not so much any more! Why? Heaven is the reward for every follower of Christ, and we will spend all of eternity in the holy heaven created by God. You would think believers would be getting with the eternal travel agent and requesting brochures about heaven to see what is going to be like. You would be of the opinion that all the followers of Christ would be talking about heaven, their eternal destination. But you never hear them standing around talking about going to heaven; for some reason, heaven is rarely discussed. We need to fix this!
Before you can be effective as a church and ministry, you must first understand your mission. You do not get to decide what your mission is––God does. Therefore, you have to thoroughly comprehend what God has called, and anointed you to do. You hear a lot in popular preaching, and teaching about the church being missional. Hasn’t the New Testament church always been called to be missional?
Once you acknowledge and accept God’s primary mission of reaching the lost, (from last week sermon) you have to know, understand, and have a relationship with the originator of the mission; Jehovah God, the I Am that I Am. To be effective in ministering the Good News of Jesus Christ and His love to those that are hurting, requires more than just belief. It requires a growing, thriving, and passionate relationship with God the Father, through Jesus Christ the Lord. Those who are hurting are much more interested in what moves you to act, and reach out to them, rather than just what you believe about your God.
You cannot deny the existence of evil and say that humanity is basically good. It constricts the Sacred Scriptures. It is impossible not to see and experience the darkness and the sin of evil hearts everywhere. Ravi Zacharias said, “The denial of the existence of sin is human trafficking.” People ask, “If there is a God why would a good God allow evil in the world? How can a loving God send people to hell? Why does God seem harsh in the Old Testament, but kind in the New Testament? What happened? Sin happened and placed humanity in s state of total depravity.
With Adam and Eve’s failure in the garden that brought total depravity upon all humanity, God had a plan to redeem humanity that He had created. God can never be defeated. God’s plan cannot be derailed. In His wisdom, God took extraordinary steps to carry out His original plan of imparting His eternal life into us, so we could share His life. The subject of soteriology is a comprehensive theological discussion. Because of our limited time, I will reduce it to God’s three step plan to redeem lost humanity.
To function in the spiritual dimension requires and demands faith. God provides each follower of Christ a measure of faith to begin the journey of their spiritual life. Without a new spiritual birth, you are incapable of ascertaining the things of God. The New Birth becomes your birthright to know and understand what is happening in the spiritual realm––Which necessitates faith. Faith is the essential component that allows you the opportunity to live your life to please God.
Until recently the church always sang about heaven. As a child and as young pastor, I remember so many songs about heaven. It you wanted to work up a good shout, just sing about heaven. Not so much any more! Why? Heaven is the reward for every follower of Christ, and we will spend all of eternity in the holy heaven created by God. You would think believers would be getting with the eternal travel agent and requesting brochures about heaven to see what is going to be like. You would be of the opinion that all the followers of Christ would be talking about heaven, their eternal destination. But you never hear them standing around talking about going to heaven; for some reason, heaven is rarely discussed. We need to fix this!
The success of the present preaching series Good News: Sharing Christ in a Hurting World is predicated upon the followers of Christ being faithful and obedient to God’s mission of sharing the complete message of His love that has been manifested through Jesus Christ the Savior/Redeemer. Practically, everything in life is connected to some type of reward system. Serving God works somewhat the same way, with one exception, and that is in relation to your salvation. But after your salvation, the process is somewhat similar; you are rewarded and fulfilled by what you do. My point is, it cost you nothing to enter the Kingdom of God, but it cost you everything to remain in the kingdom. Once salvation is obtained though Jesus Christ, your will and your life are no longer your own––You are God’s!