You want ME to do WHAT???!!
EXCUSES, EXCUSES - Are yours amoung them?
1. I DON'T THINK I AM CALLED TO BE A MISSIONARY:
The great commision: amoung the last of Jesus' words to his disciples on earth.
"Go ye into all the world to preach the gospel to every creature." Mark 16:15
"Go ye therefore and teach all the nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whasoever I have commanded you: and,lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world." Matthew 28:19
2. GOD IS SOVREIGN. IF HE WANTS TO SAVE SOMEONE, HE WILL BRING SOMEONE ELSE INTO THEIR LIVES
A: Romans 10:14 "How then shall they call on Him in whome they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom tehy have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?"
God's sovereignty should never be an excuse for us to shrug off our evangelistic duty. Jesus has commanded us to go out into the world, and like any other command, it must be obeyed. Yes, God has an elect, but they still need to hear and receive the gospel.
2 Timothy 2:10 "Therefore I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory."
3. BUT I CAN REACH PEOPLE RIGHT HERE THROUGH MY SILENT TESTIMONY.
A: I heard of a Christian woman (call her Leslie) who was friends with an non Christian woman (call her Amy) for about 20 years. Leslie never once had opened her mouth about the fact that Christ was in her life, assuming that her friend would know it just by the way she was different and the way she lived here life. Twenty years later, Amy came to Leslie and told her that she had recently become a Christian. Upon hearing this news, Leslie admitted her joy and the fact that she too was a Christian. Amy's reply? "You, Leslie, were the #1 person who kept me from Christ for so long." Leslie was shocked, but Amy continued I saw the way you lived your life, and I figured that if you were able to live such a wonderful life and didn't need Christ to do it, I should be able to get a hold on my life in the same way." A silent testimony can be no testimony at all
"But he who will not admit before man, I know Him, the Son of man will not admit before the Father in heaven that he knows him."
"Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God." (Romans 10:17) Never assume that you are fulfilling the great commision simply through your lifestyle.
4. BUT DO I HAVE TO LEAVE MY COUNTRY TO BE A MISSIONARY?
No. You don't. We are told to evangelize first to Jerusalem, then Samaria and then to the uttermost parts. People are needed to stay, send and pray. But perhaps too many of us are staying when in fact, we should be going.
There are thousands of people in remote tribal areas, and in parts of the 10-40 window who have never heard the gospel EVEN ONCE. Many of these people don't even have the gospel in their own language. In America, the people are spoiled. Anyone who desires to hear the Word and be saved need only take a ten minute walk or drive to find a multitude of churches, street preachers, and countless libraries where the Bible may be found. America has the bible pouring out of their ears and most have hardened hearts and are sick of hearing. In other parts of the world, lost souls are crying and pleading: "Send someone who will teach us the 'God talk'." "If you do not send a missionary, our people will die. If you believe that God wants us to die and to not hear the 'God talk' then don't send anyone to us. We hear that other tribes have heard from you of God's son and have heard the God talk. We want to hear the God talk. Tell them to come quickly" - (translated from a lettre sent with a missionay, written by a the chief of a tribe in Angola.
Keith Green in his paper: Why You Should Go to the Mission Field says: "No man has the right to hear the gospel twice, when there are people who have yet to hear it once." The apostle Paul also believed in moving on and preaching to those who had not yet heard. Romans 15:20 "It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else's foundation"
You can stay if God is calling you to stay. (Ephesians 4:11 It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers") There is a harvest left in America, yes. But nowhere are the crops fuller and the fields more bare then they are in places where the gospel has never been brought and where no Christian has yet to trample.
This thought could be illustrated with a crowd of people desperately trying to pick the few ripe strawberries left in a thorn filled row of trampled, rotten, dry fruit; at the same time, half a field away there are countless untouched rows of the brighest, ripest strawberries imaginable. The harvesters in that large, ripe field are few and far between; strawberries are ripenning and falling faster than they can be gatherered. *
Christians are carrying a pole. Most people stand together at the front of the pole while one or two men are left struggling at the tail, to carry a work too heavy for so few.
5. BUT I HAVE FAMILY HERE! I HAVE A CARREER! I DON'T THINK I CAN LIVE WITHOUT THIS LIFE THAT I AM USED TO.
"If any man come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. For whosoever will will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's the same shall save it."Mark8:35&36
"He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake, shall find it." Matthew 11:39 (Luke 9:24)
"Lay not up for yourself treasures on earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt and where theives break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where theives do not break through and steal: For where you treasure is, there will your heart be also." Matthew 6:19-21
6. I MIGHT GET SICK OVERSEAS! THEY MIGHT NOT HAVE GOOD DOCTORS! - I MIGHT DIE! AND MABEY THEY WON'T LIKE ME IN THEIR TRIBE - THEY MIGHT KILL ME!
"Whosoever tries to save His life shall lose it. But whosoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's, shall save it."Mark 8:36
"Matthew 6:27 "Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?"
Philippians 1:21 "But for me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain."
"Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righeosness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when all men insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you." Matthew 5:9-12
"And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved...Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." Luke 12:4&5
7. WHO AM I? I DON'T HAVE THE ABILITY TO BE A SPEAKER. Yup. Very popular excuse. That's the one Moses tried too: "And Moses said unto God, Who am I that I should go... And He said, certainly I will be with thee" Exodus 3:11&12a
"And Moses said unto the Lord, O my Lord, I am not eloquent...but I am slow of speech, and slow of toungue. And the Lord said unto him, Who hath made man's mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? is it not I, the Lord? Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say. Exodus 4: 10-12
"(Jesus speaking)"Behold I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves. But beware of men: for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues; and ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake...but when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak. For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you. Matthew 10:16-21 (also Mark 13:10&11)
7. BUT MY PARENTS ARE OLD AND I WANT TO BE THERE FOR THEM.
"Another of His disciples said unto Him, Lord, suffer me fist to go and bury my father. But Jesus said unto Him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead. Matthew 8:21
"Matthew 10:37 "He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me." (Luke 14:26&27)
Mark 10:30 "Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brothers, or sisters, or father or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel's; but he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brothers, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come, eternal life. But many that are first shall be last; and the last first.
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