Tag Archives: Hope

Praise, Glory, and Honor

Praise, Glory, and Honor
June 13, 2004 Sermon by DRW Passage 1 Peter 1.3-9

Many, if not all, of us have read or are aware of the Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren. As you know, it presents forty days of readings, questioning, and studies to encourage us toward the habit of living out the five purposes God has for our life. The purposes are worship, evangelism, fellowship, discipleship, and ministry. There is now even a CHAT Bible study that covers, so far, the first seven days of the book. CHAT is an acronym standing for Check-up, Hear the Word, Act on it, Talk to others about it. All this is exciting and beneficial for the individual and the church. Today, what I would like to do is remind us of the why. Why did God present us with all things? Why did God give us His Son? Why did God give us His Word? Why did God . . . ? The questions are endless; the answer is always the same: He gives us all things for His praise, His glory, and His honor. Thus, the title for today’s message.

If you have your Bible, turn with me to 1 Peter 1. We will be looking at verses 3-9. We will be looking at three causes of joy in our lives. We will look at our inheritance, our Savior, and our challenges or trials.

Let’s pray:

Father, thank You so much for Your Word. Thank You for the opportunity given to each one of us to open this life changing book and seeing Your work in our lives. Today was ask as we open the Words that bring life, that our relationship with You would grow, our reason for living would be altered, that we would be changed people. Speak to each of us today for Your glory, honor, and praise. Amen.

1.  Rejoice in Our Inheritance

3    Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has cause us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

Our inheritance as we see from verse 3 is the most life changing experience anyone will encounter. It is our salvation. Through Jesus Christ we are born again, we become part of God’s family. If you haven’t experienced this wonderful relationship with Jesus Christ, and you would like to talk about it, see one of the church leaders or you can e-mail me if you would like to do that. My wife will have that information for you if you would like to talk with her after the service.

a.  Hope

Salvation brings to us a hope that is not known apart from God. The word hope doesn’t mean wishful thinking, that someday this might happen. In the Bible it means the assurance that it will come to pass. Such as the hope mentioned in Hebrews 11.1: faith is the assurance (proof if you would) of things hoped for, the conviction that things unseen will come to pass. This tells us that what we read in God’s Word, the Bible, will come to pass. All the promises of God are going to be fulfilled. We can see the marvelous examples of His Word being fulfilled throughout the Bible, from a coming Savior in Genesis 3 to the very day that Savior will enter Jerusalem in Daniel 9 to the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. The most telling evidence of the promises of God being fulfilled is in our own lives. I remember when I was in Junior High School. I was small and an easy target for gangs to take their troubles out on. I would go to school every day in the seventh grade only to go home with a little less money or a project that I had worked on so hard in shop classes taken away from me. All this happened to by the hand of the black gangs called the Crips and the Bloods. I was a white guy walking through the dividing line of both gangs. I had become a Christian in 1972 in Germany. I walked into a church on a Sunday evening, tired from a long walk, not even knowing it was a church because I had never been in one before. The pastor was giving the salvation message. I went forward to receive Christ as my Savior. The pastor there didn’t tell me to go home and read the Bible or to go to church. He just welcomed me into God’s family. Shortly after this, we moved to California when all this turmoil at school began. I dropped out of Junior High School. When it came time for High School, we had moved. I went to a safer school, graduated with high honors. The reason I bring this story up is what God did in that time. Remember, I still loved God, but didn’t know anything about Him. I didn’t pray regularly. But God was doing a work in my life that I would begin to see evidence of in High School but come to fully realize later in life. When I read Galatians 5.24-25, I can’t help but praise God for fulfilling His promises in my life. My family is from Iowa and North Carolina. Their beliefs about people who are not white are less than godly. When my family heard what was happening to me in school, they were angry at black people. When they hear my story, they are amazed that I have pastored Taiwanese churches all my life, over 22 years now. They marvel that my best friends are black, Filipino, Chinese, Taiwanese, Hispanic, and the list goes on. They wonder how it could be so when my Junior High years were so tumultuous. This is why I marvel at Galatians 5.24-25. You see, God promises that His Holy Spirit will work in our lives producing love, not bitterness, joy, not anger, peace, not turmoil, patience, not frustration, kindness, not vengeance, goodness, not hatred, and so the list goes on. God was doing what He promised in my life without me realizing it was happening. The hope that is within me, is that God will accomplish His work in me and through me. We all have this hope. God is at work in the world, we just need to see it.

Let’s read verse 4:

4      to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you,

b.      Eternal Life

As we read through these verses, we see that inheritance, that salvation, provides us with something imperishable, pure, and eternal. This lets me know that my salvation is never going to be taken away from me. This fantastic gift, this inheritance, is mine because of the new birth that has caused me to become God’s child. This is my faith, my hope. If you want to read on your inheritance, read through Ephesians 1-3. You will marvel at all that God has done for us and will do through us.

Let’s read verse 5:

5      who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

c.  Protection

The third aspect of our inheritance is protection. We have a hope, we have eternal life, and we have protection during this life. It is God’s work to protect you and to bring you through this life.

Let’s look at the second cause for our rejoicing and that is our Savior.

2.  Rejoice in Our Savior

6      In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials,

7      so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ;

8      and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory,

9      obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls.

I would like to read verse 8 at this point

8      and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory,

When we come to a greater realization of what God has done for us in Christ, we cannot help but rejoice. Peter was talking to people who were close to Christ’s era but were not alive when Christ walked the earth. Peter did. They didn’t. I figure the argument he was hearing went like this: “It is easy for you to believe that God will help you through this life. You used to walk with Him and talk with Him. We never did. How can we have such faith?” His response: “You don’t need to see Him to love Him. You don’t need to see Him to believe in Him. You have the opportunity to experience what I had experience and it will produce great joy in your life. That opportunity comes through the work of the Holy Spirit in your life as He reveals Jesus Christ to you.”

For the sake of time, let us look at the third point for today:

3.  Rejoice in Our Challenges

To this point, I have been talking about good things: salvation, inheritance, hope, eternal life, Jesus. What about the hard things in this life. More and more, we are seeing that life is difficult and not always bringing us into circumstances in which it is easy to rejoice. In order for us to understand that joy doesn’t come in circumstances but in our Savior, even through trials, I would like to closely examine verses 6-9. Please walk with me through a dissection of verses 6-9.

6      In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials,

7      so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ;

8      and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory,

9      obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls.

What does all this mean? Our lives are to bring glory to God by the way we live our lives, even in the dark times. We are to bring praise to God in our lives, as often as possible, despite the circumstances we find ourselves in because of His promises and His Son. We are to bring other people to praise God because of our lives too. We are to honor God in our daily decisions based upon the promises of His Word and the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.


©2012 Teach for God Ministries. Used by Permission.

Permissions: You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that you do not alter the wording in any way and do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction. For web posting, a link to this document on our website is preferred. Any exceptions to the above must be approved by Teach for God Ministries.

Please include the following statement on any distributed copy: By David R Williamson. ©2012 Teach for God Ministries. Website: www.teach4god.com

I am a Child of the King

I am a Child of the King
Who Am I
June 16, 2002 Sermon by DRW Passage Matthew 7.24-27

The people in South Central L.A. are having an identity crisis. They have based their hopes on a King, named Rodney. Their whole history was culminated in this one man. They based 27 years of tension, 130 years of frustration and over 400 years of hopelessness in this country in one man, a King. He, through the faulty verdict, proved to be a false hope for them. Their identity as humans and citizens on equal footing with others was literally beaten and the world saw this, and the verdict affirms this, and now they “know” this. What followed was a re-action which the stereotype of these people predicted: they lived up, or down (depending upon your perspective), to what others thought of them. They re-acted as “hoodlums.” The world around them, namely the US and specifically LA, considers most blacks to be gang-bangers: they acted as “gang-bangers.”

Allow me to illustrate this point. I grew up in Carson, home of the Crips and Pyroos. As most know, I was mugged on a daily basis for money and durable goods. My attitude towards blacks has been coloured. Yet, now, my best friend is black. This shows me that my attitude toward blacks have changed. But an interesting incident occurred this past Thursday (30 April 1992) that showed me that I, too, agreed with the stereo-type. One of the people from EFCSB was driving in South Central on Wednesday night, after the riots began. He was one of the many who was injured in the rioting. He was shot in the chest. After Dan bribed a local family, they took him to Martin Luther King Hospital in Compton. On Thursday, Dan and I decided to visit him and present the Gospel to him. Such noble and grandiose plans fell victim to stereo-type. We were heading up Wilmington Blvd. and ran into the locals looting a liquor store. We passed them with great expediency, then came the test. A rather large gentleman was crossing the street with his hand in the air displaying the Crip hand signal (a “C” in sign language). I notice this real quick and told Dan, who was driving the church van. He immediately rabbited out of the area. With much fear and stupidity we did leave the area but not after having objects thrown at the church van. We never did get to see Jean to present the Gospel to him.

We all hold to some stereo-type and we do expect people to re-act to that stereo-type, in one way or another. The people of South Central LA, with sinful re-actions to their false identity, will cry out the truth of the poem in the bulletin.

Lend me your hope for awhile,

I seem to have mislaid mine.

Lost and hopeless feelings accompany me daily,

pain and confusion are my companions.

I know not where to turn;

looking ahead to future times does not bring forth images of renewed hope.

I see troubled times, pain filled days, and more tragedy.

 

Lend me your hope for awhile,

I seem to have mislaid mine.

Hold my hand and hug me;

listen to all my ramblings, recovery seems so far distant.

The road to healing seems like a long and lonely one.

 

Lend me your hope for awhile,

I seem to have mislaid mine.

Stand by me, offer me your presence, your heart and your love.

Acknowledge my pain, it is so real and ever present.

I am overwhelmed with sad and conflicting thoughts.

 

Lend me your hope for awhile;

a time will come when I will heal,

and I will share my renewal, hope and love with others.

(author unknown)

Allow me to ask you a question: Who are you?

Picture this dialogue as an answer to that question:

1.  Excuse me, but, who are you? Have you thought about that?

2.  Well…sure. I’m Fred Smith.

1.  No, I mean who are you? Not just your name.

2.  Oh…well, I live in Monrovia, and–

1.  Excuse me. But let’s try again. Who are you?

2.  You know. I’m the guy who drives the red Mitsubishi. I work at Denny in Arcadia. My sister married the son of the owner of Carl’s Jr.

1.  No–you misunderstand me. I’m asking you who you are–way down deep inside. Who are you?

2.  Come on now, this is getting stupid. I’m a member of the human race. What planet did you come from?

1.  Let’s try it again, who are you?

2.  Who am I? I’m a Baptist. Sure am. No–wait–I get you now. I’m a Christian–you know.

1.  Tell me.

2.  Well, he’s a person who has accepted Christ.

1.  But I didn’t ask you what you’ve done. I asked you who you are.

Is who you are determined by what you do, your name, your address, your church, your height and weight; or, is what you do determined by who you are? The people in South Central LA lived up to the stereo-type of who-you-are-is-determined-by-what-you-do syndrome and forgot the what-you-do-is-determined-by-who-you-are truth. We as Christians sometimes forget as-well.

When we think of who we are, we think in terms of what we have done or hope to do. We think in terms of: I’m a student, a businessman, a teacher, a basketball player; I’ll be a father or mother.

What happens though when what you do is taken away?

“I’m a student.” What happens to your identity when you graduate, if you graduate? Then, who are you?

“I’m a businessman.” When the economy goes sour, your place burned down and you are looted, what becomes of your identity? Who are you?

“I’m a singer.” What happens when your voice goes, who are you then?

“I’m a mother.” What happens when the children leave or die? Who are you then?

“A cross-country runner.” What happens when you are kicked off the team or incur an injury, who are you then?

This was my goal, my way of being somebody in high school. While there I was classified as a “nerd”. I had above average intelligence (sometimes I wonder if I still have it). One thing I was not and that was popular. In my senior year I tried for popularity. If I could run far and fast I would finally be somebody, popular.

Believe it or not, I became somebody during those first few months of my senior year. I wasn’t the fastest but I was exciting to watch. I knew how to play the cross-country crowd. I was six-feet tall and weighed 150 pounds–grace in action. I would run the first two-and-one-half miles at a decent pace, with the crowd–even to where I fell behind: 14 minutes. That last half-a-mile was mine. This is where I stood out. I was a fast 200 meter runner and a good half-miler. As we said back then, I booked in that last leg. I ran as hard as I could and as fast as I could. Passing everyone. Hearing the wild cheers of the by-standers (usually cheerleaders). Then with the keen sense of victory in my grasp, I would cross the finish line and tumble to the ground appearing dead tired but soaking the popularity. One thing, it didn’t even matter that I was running with the Junior Varsity.

I was somebody: the number three JV runner at Narbonne High School in Harbor City. Until, when we count on things and people for our identity there is always an “until”, that fateful day. That day when I lost the league championship for our school. They finally brought me up to the big leagues–Varsity. It was the CIF finals. We were to run a course we had never seen before. The course was easy but unfamiliar. Well, as my usual I stayed with the pack, toward the back. I thought the course was longer. All I needed to do was finish sixth and we had victory. I thought the course was longer. “After this corner,” I thought, “after this corner I will speed to victory and steal it from the clutches of the ‘enemies.'” Well, that corner, that lousy corner, was 100 feet from the finish line–no glory only frowns and jeers. I was no longer somebody.

Anthony Campolo once said, quoting from psychologists and sociologists, that we tend to react and think according to what we think the most important person in our life or a large group of people thinks of us. That is, our identity, who we are, is determined by those we uphold as most important or influential in our lives.

He says, if everybody I think is important or a large group thinks that I am brilliant, I will be brilliant; if they think I will be stupid, then I will be stupid. How long, he continues, do you think it would take for me to think I was the best looking person in the entire world, if I was in a room full of people who considered fat white guys to be handsome? It would take no time at all. That room full of people would affirm me.

We will falter if our parents are the most important people in our world. We will falter, like South Central LA, if we place others opinions as our most important influence. We will falter if we hold ourselves to be the most important in the world. Each of these, and others, will fail us, give us wrongs ideas and hopes, will destroy our feelings of self-worth, at one time or another in our lives.

We will not falter if we hold God as the most important person in our life. As Christians, if we believed that God was the most important person in our life, our life would change. Because what He thinks and knows of us is far greater and magnificent than any society or person, including self, could ever be–He calls us His children, we are children of the True King.

Who we are is far more important than what we do or what others may think us to be.

Scripture: 1 John 3.1-3

1 John 3:1-3 tells use something exciting. Lets read those words together. I don’t want you to miss the excitement that John must have had as he was writing. Lets look again at those verses. He said in verse 1, “See how great God’s love is for us, for we are called the children of God.” He must have been really excited as he wrote those words. What follows is an exciting exclamation. “For this is what we truly are!”

Have you ever thought about that? If I were to repeat the question, “who are you?” This should be your answer: “I am a child of God.” When you don’t understand the doctrinal truths pertaining to your position in Christ, you have no ground for success in the practical arena” (Anderson, 2000, 54).

If you remember three weeks ago we talked about who we are. Linus, you remember that sermon, it was called “Butterflies and Kings.” In that we learned that we are not called sinners but saints. We do God an injustice when we call ourselves sinners for He calls us saints.

We need to realize that a Christian is not simply a person who gets forgiveness, who gets to go to heaven, who gets the Holy Spirit, who gets a new nature. Remember this a Christian is a person who has become someone he was not before. He becomes a saint. Isn’t this the truth that Jesus spoke of in John 3 to Nicademus? He told him, “You must be born again.” He said to him, “Unless you are born again, you will not see the Kingdom of God.”

What does Jesus mean by being born again? He says, “That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” He makes this new birth analogous with physical birth. Let us consider the similarities. When we are born or conceived we are not being added to something. Being born physically is becoming something that was not there before. Therefore, being born spiritually is to become something that was not there before. It is not getting something added on. In other words, when we received the Holy Spirit, He was not an addition but He caused a transformation. He did not make us to be sinners going to Heaven (Heaven would be the addition). Instead, He transformed us like the caterpillar becoming the butterfly: we once were sinners but now we are saints.     I realize that this concept is easy to understand. But the truths of it we seem to miss. We are like the bird who was mysteriously hatched into a family of rabbits. He never knew he was a bird. Oh, he realized he didn’t look like the rest, but they accepted him. He thought he was a rabbit. He hopped with them, ate with them, slept with them. One day another bird came up to him, he said, “Why are you hopping, don’t you know you can fly?” The little bird thought about this. “Sure, I guess if I hopped high enough it would look like I was flying.” But the bigger bird showed him his wings and said, “No, with these you can really fly.”

This is where we are right now. We have just learned an exciting truth. What we do with that truth is of utmost importance. We can either continue thinking we are rabbits or we can start flapping our wings and fly away. Whichever choice we make, the truth will remain the same, we are birds or in this case, saints.

We most remember, who we are is more important than what we do. We must understand who we are. When we understand who we are then we can do the right things. “A productive Christian behaviour system is the by-product of a solid Christian belief system, not the other way around” (Anderson, 2000, 53).

For example, many times in the past few months people have asked me how to get along with people. “… getting right with each other begins with getting right with God. And getting right with God always begins with settling once and for all the issue that God is your loving Father and you are His accepted child” (Anderson, 2000, 56). Therefore, we need to know who we are before we know what to do.

This is seen in Paul’s writings where he writes to the believers who they are before he tells them what to do. Too often we jump ahead to see what we should do instead of waiting to see who we are. We desire to know how to be in right relationship with people. So we jump to Eph 4-6. We forget to read Eph 1-3 which tells us who we are in Christ and the basis for those right relationship. When we skip the first three chapters and try to practice the last three chapters we will fail. Romans 12.1 shows us this in a simple fashion. Paul writes “Therefore”. A rather trite saying concerning this is, “What is the therefore there for?” Paul is saying by that “therefore”, everything that you’ve learned about who you are to God and in God by Christ is now to be applied to your life. In other words, if you don’t know chapters 1-11 of Romans don’t even think you can do what he asks in the rest of the book of Romans.

Can you see how easy it is to understand this and yet how hard it is to practice. The reason why is it’s too great a truth for us to understand. Eph 2.10 tells us that we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ. And yet we don’t believe it. We think we’re still a rabbit, nothing but a sinner saved by grace. Yet He says we are his workmanship. Is God’s masterpiece created by simply adding something spiritual onto sinful clay? 2 Co 5.17 tells us that if anyone is in Christ he is a brand new creation; the old is gone, everything is brand new.

At the beginning of the message I talked about being somebody. The only way we can be somebody is to be in Christ. If we are a teacher one day we will no longer able to teach. If we are a parent someday we won’t be. If we are an athlete one day we will be old, fat, and injured; we are no longer an athlete.

Jesus said all things will pass away. This includes jobs, childhood, parenthood, and activities. But he also said in that same breath, I will never pass away. When our identity is in Christ that identity is forever.

The people in Christianity are having an identity crisis. They have based their hopes on a King, named Jesus. Their whole history was culminated in this one man. They base their lives filled with tension, frustration and hopelessness in one man, a King. He, through the faulty verdict, proved to be a false hope. Our identity as humans was literally beaten, crucified and buried while the world watched, and the verdict upon Him affirmed this, until He rose from the dead. What should follow is a re-action of our true identity in this risen King. Do we live up to what God has stereo-typed us to be or do we live down to what others think of us? Do we re-act as “saints” or “hoodlums”?

Today is a simple message of the truth we find in God, a truth tha will never change. Have you ever thought of yourself as something lower than what God does? Some people think that we are more noble than angels yet lower than the worm. This is not so for God calls us His child–now we are His children. Praise Him.

Anderson, N. T. (2000). Victory over the darkness. Ventura, CA: Regal.


©2012 Teach for God Ministries. Used by Permission.

Permissions: You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that you do not alter the wording in any way and do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction. For web posting, a link to this document on our website is preferred. Any exceptions to the above must be approved by Teach for God Ministries.

Please include the following statement on any distributed copy: By David R Williamson. ©2012 Teach for God Ministries. Website: www.teach4god.com

Why?

Why?
March 12, 1995 Sermon by DRW Passage Matthew 28.18-20

We have all heard messages on missions. Every year at this time we hear the same type of message. A passage like ours, from Matthew 28.18-20, is chosen and we learn to go into the mission field or to support through prayers or finances a missionary. It really isn’t that complicated a thought: Jesus said “Go!” so we should go. Pastor Chen, Vincent, Yasa, and myself have all heard Jesus tell us to “Go!” and we have gone. Pastor Chen to overseas missions and as a pastor; Vincent, Yasa, and myself have gone into a ministry with EFCA. Most of us in this room have heard a similar call into the mission field. This call could either be to actually go, to help someone with finances and/or to pray for someone daily. All these are noble calls. None of them is more nobler than the other. If God calls you to pray, pray; to go, go; to give, give:

Romans 12.4 Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. 7 If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; 8 if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.

Whatever God has called you to do, do. This is common sense. However, I see too many of us not willing to do what God has called us to do. We feel that another more qualified will take care of it. We feel that God doesn’t want to use us. This is what we say. We feel that we don’t have to do it. We don’t see the need to go, to pray, to give. If we did the world would be a more Christian community or would reflect more of the values of Christ. The world doesn’t because we don’t go out. We don’t believe the message for us to go out is really for us or there isn’t that great a need to go out (after all someone else will do it). Have we too quickly forgotten:

Matthew 28.18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 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, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Acts 1.8 “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

These verses are not talking to someone else, they are talking to me and you. This is God telling us to go, to pray, to give.

Allow me to digress. I have read stories in the newspaper that make me wonder what our world is coming to. Not too many years ago a women went for a drive with her kids. She, for some reason, decided to kill them and then commit suicide herself. Her plan was to drive her car into a lake, with the doors locked and drown with her kids. As she approached the lake she had second thoughts. But, instead of stopping the car, she drove the car into the lake and left her car. She didn’t take the kids with her. Her two kids drowned as she stayed in safety. Why? She was hopeless in her world. She felt she couldn’t carry on and didn’t want her kids to go through this torture. But she was also a coward and, after killing her children, she couldn’t kill herself. Bizarre? Not really. Strange? Not really. Rarity? Not really.

I can remember a businessman in Washington, after a hard day at work, coming home and eating dinner. After dinner, in a rather matter-of-fact manner, pulled a gun out and killed his entire family and then killed himself. Why? He was at his end, an end with no hope. He had nothing to help him make it through tomorrow. It was too much for him to bear.

I can remember a wealthy lawyer in Texas who wrote a note to his wife. He told her it was nothing personal but that he was tired and wanted to sleep. He then turned his car on and asphyxiated himself. Why? He couldn’t find rest, no peace; for him life was too busy and there was nothing for his soul.

I can remember a woman who had just gotten married, just purchased a new house, just received a promotion in the Army. Her newlywed husband came home one night to find his wife with a bullet in her head: she shot herself. Why? All her trials and pains of life weighed too heavily upon her. In order to be accepted by her peers she had to do things that made her feel bad. She didn’t feel accepted.

I can remember a man in Torrance that woke up one day just after a bitter divorce and decided that life was too hard for him. He, also, put a bullet through his head. His son found him. The note said: I can’t do it any more. Life is not worth it. Why? He didn’t believe in a loving Creator God but was an evolutionist. Life without God is worthless.

There are countless other stories like this and I would like to include one more. It is the story of two young school girls who gave a note to one of their mutual friends. They told her not to open the note until after school. After giving the girl the note the two left school and went to the desert and killed themselves. That afternoon their friend opened the letter that explained what they were to do but it was too late by then for they were already dead. Why? The note explained: We have given up hope and cannot go on living anymore.

This is why we need to go. There are people in the world without hope, without reason to live; without Jesus. This is why we need to go, give and pray. Jesus said the world is full of people like this:

John 4.31 Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.” 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.” 33 Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?” 34 “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. 35 Do you not say, ‘Four months more and then the harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. 36 Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. 37 Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. 38 I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”

There is a need for us to give people a hope to live today. You see a Christian is not simply a person who gets forgiveness, who gets to go to heaven, who gets the Holy Spirit, who gets a new nature. A Christian, in terms of his deepest identity, is a saint, a child born of God, a divine masterpiece, a child of light, a citizen of heaven. Being a Christian is not just getting something; it is being someone. Being born is becoming someone who was not there before. What you have isn’t the point. It’s who you are. And who we are gives hope to a hopeless world. It gives people who are not accepted, acceptance. It gives people who are worthless, worth. We need to give people ourselves whether through going, giving, or praying for the mission field. We are not allowed not to participate in God’s work in this world. As His children we are called to do what He has called us to do. This is why we go, pray, and give.

I would like to challenge each one here to consider God’s work in this world. Is there a place you can minister in this world, a ministry you can pray for in this world, an organization you can give to in this world? If there is then go, give, pray. And people there are places we can go as missionaries whether short term or long term. There are ministries like World Vision we can give to. There are organizations and people in the mission field we can pray for. The question for us is: Will we? We know we should go and we know why we should go, but will we.

©2012 Teach for God Ministries. Used by Permission.

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Please include the following statement on any distributed copy: By David R Williamson. ©2012 Teach for God Ministries. Website: www.teach4god.com