Campinas Metro Missions

Last time we distilled the first part of embracing your responsibility down to the first thing that needs to happen once you understand what the will of God is: make a decision. Jesus, understanding God’s will for himself, decided to leave his life as Jesus the carpenter, the son of Joseph, to become Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God. He knew that he needed to be baptized by John to make this transition and headed down to the Jordan to fulfill his destiny.

So you understand that God wants you to make disciples, you have made a decision to do this, what do you do now? How can you start your journey and take that first step? Here are some practical suggestions on how to move from the acceptance stage to the action stage.

Pray about it

The first thing you should do is talk to God. Tell him that you realize that you need to be fulfilling this command and that you want to commit yourself to doing it to the best of your abilities. Ask him for strength, guidance, and success.  If you will do this, He has said that,  “…if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.  And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him (1 Jn. 5:14b-15)”.

Write down your goals

You might be thinking “what in the world does this have to do with evangelism?” Writing down your goals is powerful. One famous study from Yale in 1953 said that the 3% of Yale graduates who had written goals had more wealth years later than the other 97% of the class combined. A similar study done by Harvard Business school on the financial status of its students 10 years after graduation and found that only 3% of them were financially independent. The key to their success was they had taken the time to write out their goals and the steps required to achieve them.

What was the common element in these two studies?  Writing down goals.  If you put something to pen and paper, you will be more likely to do it and be successful at it!

Tell someone

Now that you have told God and have written down your goal, you need to tell someone. There are two reasons for this. The first is accountability. If you tell someone you have made a decision about being evangelistic and making disciples, you can ask them to hold you accountable. The second reason is that the person may have been thinking about doing the same thing and now you have a disciple-making partner.

Make a list

The next step is to make a list of the people you want to reach with the gospel. I would suggest making a small list of 1-5 names. As you write down their names, it will make the process more real and is a positive step toward in making it happen.

Pray for open doors

Paul said, “At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison - that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak “ (Col.  4:3-4).  God wants you make disciples which means that God wants to open doors for you.   Paul understood this. He wanted people to pray for open doors because he believed that God could, and would, open those doors for him. It has been my experience that if you pray for God to open doors, He will. The question is “Do you want him to open a door?

Look for opportunities

Now that you have your list, are praying for God to open doors, you need to be on tstart looking. I guarantee God will open the door, but it may not be in quite the way you expect it, so be on the lookout. Jesus promised that if we can keep on asking, seeking, and knocking, that we will get what we request, will find what we are looking for and that the doors will open (Mt. 7:7-8).

Take the leap of faith

Up until now, this has been an easy process.  I know what you’re thinking.  I made a decision to make disciples.  I’ve prayed about it.  I told someone about it.  I made my list and have been looking for open doors.  You haven’t, however, had to do the hard part:  actually asking someone to study the bible with you .   This is where you have take the “leap of faith”.  This is the point where you fully commit yourself to taking action regardless of the outcome.  And it is only here  that you will experience the fulness of God’s blessing and power because God does not bless faith until that faith is fully demonstrated by taking action.   Think a moment about some of the great examples of faith in the Bible.  When was Noah blessed with deliverance from the flood?  When he built the ark.  When was Abraham blessed to become the father of many nations?  When he attempted to sacrifice Isaac.  When were Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego blessed with deliverance from the fiery furnace?  When they refused to bow to down to Nebuchadnezzar’s command to the worship the golden statue.   When did God bless Peter and the Apostles on the day of Pentecost?  When they took a stand and proclaimed Jesus Christ.   Time and time again in the Scripture, God blesses his people when they take action and leap beyond the point of no return.

If you are going to make disciples, you have to teach someone.  You cannot teach someone unless you ask them to study.  You won’t ask them until you can say “I am going to ask you to study with me regardless of what happens”….and then actually do it.   It is at this point that you will start to see God do some exciting things in your  life and in the lives of others!

I’ll see you next time when we look at how Jesus spoke with authority.  Until then, keep fighting the fight!

An Engaging study

Recently, I started to do a study of different missionary, or evangelistic, methods in the New Testament.  I started out looking at the life of Paul in the book of Acts.  It was an interesting study that left me hungry for more.  So I decided to take a look to see what I could learn about Jesus approach to missions in Mark’s Gospel.  I was completely blown away.  Mark’s account is packed with solid, practical information on how to be a successful missionary.

Getting it straight

Before I go any farther, let’s make something crystal clear: we are all missionaries.   The basic definition of a missionary is a person sent on a mission.   Through the Great Commission, Jesus is sending every one us on a mission to make disciples of all the nations.  Which means you are a missionary! It means I am one too!  Every believer is a missionary.   The beautiful thing about our mission is that we can make disciples wherever we live.  We can move to a different city, state, or country.  We can also choose to stay right where we are.  What’s important is not our location, but our vocation. Jesus wants us to be making disciples.  We need to ask ourselves “How do I get started?” Mark provides us with the answer.

The Great Transition

Now, you may be waiting for some great revelation, some earth shattering truth that will rock you to your foundations, but the answer to the question is so simple, it’s profound:  make a decision to embrace your responsibility.  This is what Jesus did.  Mark records this for us in the first chapter of his gospel:

In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens opening and the Spirit descending on him like a dove.And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”  (Mark 1:9-11)

The starting point for Jesus’ ministry was his baptism.  Why?  It marked the transition from his private life as Jesus the carpenter to his public life as Jesus the Messiah.  Think for a moment about your own baptism.  What did it mark?  A transition.   You went from being a sinner to becoming a child of God.  And what does any transition begin with?  A decision. Whether it’s to move to a different place, taking up a different occupation, or making an internal change in your life, it all starts with a decision. Jesus decided that he was going to fulfill God’s plan for his life and take up his mission.  This led him to the Jordan River so he could begin his ministry.

It is often said that the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.  It doesn’t.  It begins with the decision to begin the journey which culminates in taking that first step. This means that if you want to fulfill the Great Commission, you need to make a decision today that you are going to do it.  We’ll cover what you do next in Part Two, so stay tuned.