Last Sunday, February 25, 2018, our church had a Missions Emphasis Day. Brother Mark Sigstad, Missionary to Ghana and Nigeria, taught and preached for us. We praise God for the part we have had through supporting him and his wife for well over 30 years. The Lord used Brother Sigstad to stir and challenge our hearts toward reaching the lost and the stewardship of our lives.
Following are key objectives we emphasized:
- That our hearts would be challenged toward the needs related to missions and to our missionaries. Philippians 4:16 For even in Thessalonica ye sent once and again unto my necessity.
- That we would be encouraged in our personal involvement in our mission field here. Matthew 9:37 Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few;
- That each of us would consider increasing our giving toward missions, increasing the ability of our church to take on more missionaries. Philippians 4:17 Not because I desire a gift: but I desire fruit that may abound to your account.
- That our hearts would be open to the leading of God concerning the call to missions work. Matthew 9:38 Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.
Each of us needs to take the Lord Jesus’ prayer request personally, and in doing so, offer ourselves in answer to the prayer as Isaiah did, saying, “Here am I, send me.”
My prayer as you read this, is that God will encourage you to be more involved through your local church in the spread of the Gospel in the ways mentioned above. God has ordained the local church as the launching base, supporting base and accountability base for missions.
Curtis Hutson once said something like this, “Each generation of Christians is responsible for that generation of lost people.” Certainly the world needs humanitarian help, but the greatest of all human needs is that of personal salvation. Jesus said in Mark 8:36, “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”
Missions Living is Praying, Going, Giving. Missions is ultimately about leading others to a personal saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. John 3:18 “He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
Pastor Jim Whitman
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