Your Mission Comes from God
by Rick Warren
“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." (Matthew 28:19-20 NIV)
You have a mission; we all do. When we become a part of God’s family, our mission is given to us by God himself: to help others join that family, too. Since God loves everyone, there is no one in the entire world he doesn’t want to be in his family.
Jesus said, “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:19-20 NIV).
When Jesus tells the Church to go to “all nations,” he isn’t talking about countries; he’s talking about people groups. He tells us to go to every people group and make disciples.
Today, there are 13,000 people groups in the world; 6,350 of those people groups have churches among them, but less than 2 percent of the population is Christian. Christianity has spread to every major language group in the world.
Yet there are 3,800 people groups that, 2,000 years after Jesus’ death on the cross, still have no church in their language. Why? We simply don’t care enough. We’re too busy with our own lives to care about people who are dying spiritually. Instead of telling those 3,800 people groups about the love of Jesus, we tell them by default to “go to Hell.”
Certainly, it’s a huge task. God’s mission is global. But it’s not mission impossible; it’s mission inevitable. The Great Commission will be fulfilled. It’s a certainty. In fact, the Bible gives us a picture of its fulfillment in Revelation 7:9: “There before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb.”
One day there will be people from every language group in the world standing before the throne of Jesus. The only question for us is, will our generation be the ones to do it? Or will we give up our responsibility and pass it on to someone else? Will another generation be the ones who get the privilege of fulfilling God’s great mission that he created the whole universe for in the first place?
What might keep you from fulfilling your mission? What is God asking you to do this Chrsitmas season to help fulfill the Great Commission?
Dyk-
Wow, that is some heavy, heavy stuff . . . What do you think? Is it Biblical? Is he right? What does that mean for me then . . .
1 comment:
I think he is right. This reminds me of something from the book "23 minutes in Hell". There was a vivid picture of steady streams of people falling down a tunnel into the pits of Hell. That weighs heavy on my heart. How many of these people has crossed my path? How many of them did I miss an opportunity to share with? I am not implying that I am responsible for them going to Hell but maybe I could have let God use me to direct them towards him and ultimately Heaven. I do believe that "we" are God's plan for spreading the truth and showing his light to his people. He doesn't have or need a back up plan. So, yes it is very heavy and we can't make excuses or make light of our responsibility in this mission.
Post a Comment