[0:00] I'm sure you can hear my accent. I tell people, we live in Bristol, UK, and so they think we should have a West Country accent. I tell them it is a West Country accent, but it's a lot further west, near that westernmost outpost of Irish civilization called San Francisco.
[0:20] That's where we're from. So I don't think my accent is difficult to understand in any event. But my wife and I, we work for Africa Inland Mission. I'm the international director, and our international office is in Bristol, so that's why we're there.
[0:37] But we worked for about 20 years in Africa, 10 years in a little place called Comoro Islands down by Madagascar, five years in another country called Djibouti.
[0:48] And probably most of you have never heard of Djibouti, but you can look it up and find it. It really is there. And then another few years in another country in the Horn of Africa that I don't like to say out loud just for security issues.
[1:02] But we were actually kicked out of that country after a few years, and since then we've been in Bristol with our organization. We have two grown-up daughters and one grandson.
[1:14] I didn't have an option of showing pictures, but I would show you a whole bunch of pictures of him, but that gets kind of irritating after a while, doesn't it? I was in South Korea not long ago, and I offered to show pictures of my grandson to some Korean people, and they said, oh, in Korea you have to pay people to show pictures of your grandchildren, so I didn't want to do that.
[1:37] I'm going to talk with you about sending and what it means and the privilege of sending missionaries.
[1:52] I understand sometimes we don't like to use the word missionary anymore. In the U.K., that's not a popular word because it just brings up all these colonial notions and, you know, these old guys in their pith helmets marching through the jungle.
[2:07] So people almost have abandoned that word. I still use it, but if you prefer another word, they call them global partners in the U.K. or international workers or this and that, but I still stick with the old term.
[2:21] So, missionaries is what I'm going to talk about and the particular aspect of sending missionaries. My text is John chapter 20, starting in verse 19.
[2:37] It's only four or five verses I'll read, 19 through 23. On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of Jesus, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, Peace be with you.
[3:11] And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them, Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I'm sending you.
[3:25] And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they're forgiven them. If you will withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.
[3:37] Serving as senders. That is a particular privilege and prerogative of a local church like yours.
[3:52] Serving as sending. Serving as senders. Usually when I preach in the UK or the United States, there's these apocryphal stories of people supporting their missionaries in Africa by sending them used tea bags.
[4:09] And that might seem like a funny story. You might think that's one of these Christian legends that goes around the churches. But I've actually met at least two missionaries who used to receive used tea bags that were sent to them in Africa.
[4:22] So that apocryphal story is really true. But that's not what I'm going to talk about today. I'm not going to talk about what you might think are the usual themes of sending, sending and supporting, how we need to pray for our missionaries, how we need to financially support them, how we need to visit them, welcome them, emotionally support them, send them used tea bags or your old worn-out clothes or whatever.
[4:47] You know all these things. And you don't need me to stand here and say that you should pray for and financially support and encourage any missionaries that you know. I think that's pretty obvious and you know it.
[4:59] The thing that I want to talk about today is the privilege of sending. Before I do, let's stop just a minute and dwell on the wonder of this passage.
[5:16] We read through this. We're probably pretty used to it. We read through these resurrection stories. But let's just stop for a minute. These are the disciples. It's Sunday.
[5:28] It's the day Jesus has risen from the dead. A couple of them have apparently seen Him already. But they're in this room. The door's locked. They're still confused.
[5:39] They're still very scared. And all of a sudden, Jesus comes and stands among them. I just stopped for a minute and thought about that this morning as I was preparing.
[5:49] It's like, Jesus is there standing among them. This man they've seen crucified three days before is now standing among them. Think about how amazing that would have been for the people in that room.
[6:06] All of a sudden, Jesus is there. Jesus is truly risen from the dead and Jesus is standing here among us. Think how amazing it would be if Jesus was standing here among us.
[6:17] And I know He is here by the Holy Spirit. But what if Jesus was physically standing here among us? That would blow our minds, wouldn't it? And think of these disciples who'd seen Him killed three days before, who don't have the benefits that we have.
[6:31] And all of a sudden, Jesus is there. Jesus is risen from the dead. Jesus is with us. What an amazing moment that must have been for those disciples.
[6:45] Jesus stood among them. He rose from the dead. And He pronounced peace. Not just once, twice to their troubled souls. And I know, we get used to this again. Peace be upon you. Be a shalom in the Arabs.
[6:57] Salam alaikum. Whatever you want to say. But Jesus speaking peace. Peace. Jesus still speaks peace to troubled souls.
[7:12] He showed them the ultimate proof of His grace and love. He says, look at my hands. Look at my side. What greater proof could they have?
[7:23] And what greater proof could we have of the grace and love of Jesus Christ? He died for me. He died for me. He breathes on them.
[7:36] He says, receive the Holy Spirit. He talks about forgiveness of sins. And somehow gives them even power and authority to forgive sins.
[7:51] Think of the comfort, peace, and the grace the disciples would have received at that moment. And that very same comfort, grace, and peace is available to us.
[8:08] Jesus is present with His people. Offering forgiveness. Offering proof of His love. Offering peace.
[8:18] Offering power of the Holy Spirit. Offering peace. Yeah. Yeah. Today, just as much as He was there in that upper room. If we're talking about mission sending, I need to say something that you all know, but it seems like it needs to be said anyway.
[8:46] Your country for years has been a destination for missionaries, not a country that was sending missionaries. And there are still, I met a number of missionaries that are here helping in your church planting efforts in this country.
[9:03] But at the same time, you are now the ones bringing the gospel to Ireland and beyond Ireland. Your country was a destination for missionaries.
[9:15] Now your country is starting to become a sender of missionaries. And can we just stop and appreciate what an amazing thing that is?
[9:27] What an amazing thing that the Lord is doing in this country. I think of, in just looking out at you and thinking of the people I met this last weekend of the multicultural nature of Ireland now.
[9:47] And that's another thing that God has done, how God has blessed Ireland by bringing in believers from other nations. Same thing in the UK.
[10:00] You know this. The biggest churches in London, they're all African churches. Incredible thing. I was at a conference a couple months ago, and the man who was standing up in front, he said, he was a British man, he said, we prayed for revival, and we didn't recognize it when it came, because its face was black.
[10:21] Wow. That was quite a statement. The Lord is using Africans, Latin Americans, Asians, to bring renewal and revival to our churches.
[10:36] Ireland was a valley of dry bones, not so many years ago, as far as the gospel was concerned. And the Lord is breathing life into this country.
[10:49] You may be small, but you are here. You know the gospel, you know the territory, you know the people, you know the language, you know the culture, you have the word of God, you have the Holy Spirit, you have the church, everything is here in you, in your churches, to bring the gospel to Caragalline, to Cork, to Ireland, to Europe, to North Africa, to the ends of the earth.
[11:13] Everything is here in your churches already. I use the word missionaries, and let me just define that term before I go any further.
[11:26] There are a lot of ways, again, to define this, but here's what I'm talking about when I talk about a missionary. With few exceptions, missionaries are people who are sent.
[11:39] They're sent ones. It's the Latin derivation of the Greek word apostolos, from which we get apostle. An apostle is a sent one. Okay, literally that's what it means.
[11:52] Okay, so missionary in the same sense. Missionaries are people who were sent, usually cross-culturally, to perform or support apostolic ministry of preaching, teaching, building the church of Jesus Christ.
[12:08] Okay, that's what we consider missionaries to be. There are a great variety of ways to do this. And people who are in support roles, not front-line preaching and teaching, they're critical to this effort.
[12:23] But fundamentally, that's what mission and missionaries are. People who were sent to advance the kingdom of God, bringing the gospel to people in places where there is no gospel.
[12:37] Okay, just so you know when I'm talking about missions, what I'm talking about. Okay, let's go back to the text for just a minute. John 20, 19 through 23.
[12:48] What I want to emphasize is the importance and privilege of sending. What happened on that first Easter?
[12:59] Who did Jesus see? As far as I can piece together the events, or who saw Jesus more likely? First of all, it was Mary Magdalene, as far as I can tell. And then there were some other women.
[13:12] Okay, so Mary, the women, and then Peter. He met Peter. And then the two on the Emmaus Road. Those are the ones that are listed.
[13:23] And then these 12. So, this is the day he rose from the dead. One of the first meetings, the first meeting he has with all the disciples together. What does he say?
[13:34] He says, Peace be upon you. Then he says, Peace be upon you. He says that twice. And then, what's the very next thing out of his mouth? As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.
[13:50] Think about the things he could have said after those initial greetings of peace. Peace be upon you. Think about the things he could have said. He could have said, Why weren't you there with the women? Why weren't you there at the tomb?
[14:02] Why didn't you believe what I said? There's all kinds of things he could have said. He didn't say those things. He said, The Father has sent me, so I am sending you.
[14:13] Think of the importance of sending. That that's almost the first thing that comes out of Jesus' mouth the first time he sees his disciples.
[14:24] Sending is a big deal. God sent Noah. God sent Abraham. God sent Moses. God sent the prophets. Finally, God sent Jesus. It's a huge priority for our God that he sends.
[14:38] Third thing he says to them, I am risen. Peace be upon you. Let's get going. And the sending that started that day continues until this day.
[14:50] Don't believe that was exclusively for the disciples. It comes down to us. As the Father has sent me, so I send you. Sending is a joint enterprise of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, and the church.
[15:08] Think about that for a minute. Our little churches, and even if it's some huge American mega church, it's still really very small compared to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
[15:20] Our little churches, we have the privilege of partnering with the Holy Trinity in sending missionaries. It is a high privilege that the Lord gives to his church.
[15:36] Who is sent? I believe that all of us are sent. Acts 1.8, You receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.
[15:49] You be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the ends of the earth. We'll talk about that a little bit later. How does he send? As the Father has sent me, so I'm sending you.
[16:02] Okay, what exactly does that mean? I like it. It's one of these little preacher tricks because there's some alliteration. There's three M's in there. Okay, there's the means.
[16:13] He sends by the power of the Holy Spirit. He breathes on them, says receive the Holy Spirit. There's the message, forgiveness of sins. Again, Luke 24, Luke 24, 47, repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations beginning from Jerusalem.
[16:30] By the way, there's a great commission in all four Gospels and in the book of Acts. Right? It's not just in Matthew. We're talking about John's commission here, but there's one in each of the Gospels. Yeah.
[16:42] And, okay, the means, the message, and finally, the method, as the Father has sent me, so I send you. Now, with those first two, the means, meaning the Holy Spirit, the message, forgiveness of sins, there's some little difficult things to understand in this text about when did they actually receive the Holy Spirit.
[17:06] Was it there? Was it the day of Pentecost? What does it mean that the disciples have the authority to forgive sins or retain sins? I'm not going to go into those. I'm going to let your capable pastor talk about those with you another day.
[17:19] That's the privilege of a visiting speaker. He gets to jump over the difficult things and leave it for the pastor. He doesn't have that privilege. I want to focus on the method. The method, as the Father has sent me, so I send you.
[17:35] So, if we want to know how Jesus sends the disciples, we need to look at how the Father sent Jesus. So, how did the Father send Jesus? Again, I don't believe this is just for foreign missionaries like myself.
[17:48] I believe this is for all of us. First of all, he sent Jesus as the sacrifice. We know that. He does not send us to be a sacrifice for sins.
[18:03] The sacrifice of Christ was done once for all. But he does send us to lay down our lives for the advance of the kingdom of God. Paul says in Philippians 2.7, he says, even if I'm being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with you all.
[18:23] Paul said, I'm willing to be poured out like that wine they used to pour on the sacrifices in the Old Testament. Paul said, that's what I'm willing to be poured out for the church and for the gospel.
[18:34] That's the way the Father sent Jesus. That's the way Jesus sends us. He sends, the Father sent Jesus to serve. Matthew 20, 26 through 28, Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve.
[18:52] Give his life as a ransom for many. Again, our call is not to give our lives as a ransom. No, done once and for all. But our call certainly is to follow the leading of our Master and not to want to be served but to serve.
[19:08] He came as a sacrifice. He came as a servant. He also came to suffer. And we know that Jesus was sent for the purpose of the cross. And as the Father sent Jesus, so Jesus sends us.
[19:22] Paul said this in Colossians 1, 24, I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake and in my flesh I'm filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions.
[19:33] Now that's a difficult verse as well and it certainly doesn't mean that Paul is adding something to the atonement. No. Once for all, but Paul is willing to suffer to bring the message of that atonement to the Colossians and to other communities in the Mediterranean.
[19:52] So, sacrifice, suffering, service are the ways the Father sent the Son. They're ways the Son sends the disciples. Christ was sent in humility.
[20:06] Philippians chapter 2, you know these verses. He was in the form of God. He did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped but emptied himself taking the form of a servant born in the likeness of men found in human form.
[20:18] He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. We keep coming back to these same things, these same themes. They're all linked together but if the Lord is sending us out, it must be as the Father sent the Son in humility.
[20:36] There's no place for arrogance in the people that the Lord sends out. Whether to a local community here, in Ireland, whether to the ends of the earth, we go out in humility following the example of our Lord.
[20:55] Incarnationally, the Father sent the Son incarnationally. That's one of those big theological words. Incarnation, it means He became flesh. Okay?
[21:05] He became one of us. Stop for a minute and think about that. that God the Father sent His Son. What an amazing thing that God the Father sent His own Son.
[21:25] He sent a person. He didn't just send a message. He sent a person. And now, He continues to send people.
[21:39] We send money to missions? That's a good thing. Please keep doing that. We do media ministries. I'm involved in an online ministry, sharing my faith with people in different countries.
[21:50] That's wonderful. Keep doing that. We do short-term things. Send for two weeks. That's great. Okay? But the model that we're trying to follow is this incarnational model.
[22:02] As the Father sent the Son, so the Son sends us. We become incarnate among the peoples that we're trying to reach out to. Okay? That involves learning their language.
[22:13] That involves understanding their culture. That involves living together with them, sharing life with them as much as we can. And that's true in Ireland as well as is true in Djibouti and the Comorra Islands.
[22:24] Okay? It's true for all of us. We are incarnational ministers as Jesus was incarnated to us. There's probably other things, but those are some ideas about how the Father sent Jesus.
[22:41] Now let's look at a little bit more about how Jesus sends us. That's how the Father sent. How does Jesus send? First of all, it's Jesus who sends.
[22:53] And that's an... I know I keep saying obvious things to you, but sometimes these obvious things are good to repeat. Jesus sends people. He may use individuals who hear His call.
[23:07] He may use churches who confirm that call, but it's Jesus who sends. Better, it's the Trinity that sends, especially the Holy Spirit.
[23:19] But the Holy Trinity, the Holy Spirit, sends through the church. Okay? The church called to listen to the voice of God, identify people that the Lord is calling, commission, and send, and train those people.
[23:41] people. In AIM, we are a mission-sending agency. We send missionaries, but we do not send anybody by ourselves.
[23:53] We only send people that the church has identified, that have received their call through the church, and that the church has sent to us. We send them together. We don't want people who self-call.
[24:05] We want people whose call is confirmed by the church. We talk a lot in AIM about the missionary call.
[24:16] What does that mean? Somebody's called to be a missionary. And there's mystery here in the Scripture, but there's only a couple things that are really clear.
[24:26] One is that the missionary call comes from the Holy Spirit, and the second is that it comes through the church, or it's confirmed and acted upon by the local church.
[24:40] So, I'm referring to Acts chapter 13 here, where the Holy Spirit says to the church, set apart Saul and Barnabas for the work that I have called them to.
[24:52] And that is by far the clearest teaching we have anywhere in the Scripture about a missionary call. You can see the critical role that the local church plays in that.
[25:02] The call comes from the Spirit, but it comes through the church, and it's confirmed and acted upon by the church. I believe every church needs to take this very seriously.
[25:15] And we take it seriously in AIM too. We do not want people whose churches will not confirm their call to missions. Okay. Jesus sends into all the world, again, Acts 1.8, Be my witnesses, Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the end of the earth.
[25:32] What does that mean for us? Okay. I don't think it's too hard. Jerusalem is here. This is your Jerusalem. Judea, same culture, different location.
[25:43] So, a village that's not far away, a village in Ireland, same culture, needs the gospel, you send people to there. That's your Judea. Okay.
[25:53] Same culture, a little bit further away. Samaria, now we're talking cross-cultural, but similar location. So, now we're talking about reaching out to Muslim people of Ireland, Pakistanis, Indians, Somali people.
[26:09] Okay. Nearby location, cross-cultural, Samaria. Ends of the earth, still the ends of the earth. Okay. Anywhere beyond there.
[26:20] Okay. I think this is relevant to us today, not just to the disciples, Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth. And everybody needs to ask, where's the Lord sending me?
[26:32] I believe we're all sent. Okay. Where is the Lord sending you? Most of us, He's sending us to our friends and neighbors and family.
[26:44] But for some of us, there's another call to go further on than that. But all of us are sent and all of us should be asking the Lord, where are you sending me for the sake of the gospel?
[26:54] Who do you want me to be sharing the gospel with? Jesus sends as salt and light. Okay. Jesus talks about you're the salt of the earth.
[27:05] You're the light of the world. It's not always easy to understand what He's talking about there. I believe He's talking about our physical presence and the Christian lifestyle that we live in terms of salt and light.
[27:17] We do good works in the name of Jesus. We are the salt of the earth. We're the light of the world. Okay. He sends us His salt and light, but He also sends us as witnesses.
[27:29] Okay. You'll be my witnesses, Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the ends of the earth. A witness has to talk, right? If you're called into court as a witness for something and you just sit there, smile at people, be really nice to people, I don't think that's going to work, right?
[27:45] You have to say something if you're a witness. My American friends, they love this quote that's attributed to St. Francis of Assisi who supposedly said, preach the gospel at all times.
[28:01] When necessary, use words. Very clever quote, right? And Americans, my American friends really like that because that kind of gets them off the hook of actually saying something.
[28:11] They feel like just their good works and their love and this and that, that's a sufficient witness. The problem with that is there's absolutely no proof that the good saint ever said that and it's entirely inconsistent with his life as well.
[28:26] Whatever you think about Francis of Assisi, he ended his life in Egypt trying to share the gospel with Muslims down there. Okay. So it's not consistent with his life or anything he did and it's not biblical either.
[28:39] We do need to live good and honorable lives among non-believers and show them the truth through our good works. We also need to be witnesses. He sends in the power of the Holy Spirit.
[28:54] He doesn't send us alone. Behold, I'm with you always even to the end of the age. You'll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. He sends, but he goes with his people. Finally, he sends us his sheep among wolves.
[29:07] And I don't think that needs much definition. Sheep among wolves is not in a particularly secure or safe position, but still he sends.
[29:19] And it's striking to me to think that he sends us his sheep among wolves knowing that we're sheep and knowing that we're going to wolves. But still he sends. How do the Father and Jesus not send?
[29:34] We could come up with a big list of these. But they don't send us with promises of comfort, security, peace, and easy results. It's quite the opposite.
[29:47] He says, you'll be sheep among wolves. He said, you'll be hated by all men for my sake. And that's true in Ireland or in the ends of the earth. Just a few comments about the role of the church as well.
[30:04] What is the role of a local church in this mission sending? First of all, the church needs to mobilize. Okay?
[30:15] The church needs to mobilize her people. Yeah. Need to mobilize the whole church for outreach, especially local outreach in a place like Ireland where you have only a very small percentage of the population being Bible-believing Christians.
[30:33] I think that's still got to be a very high priority for a church here in Ireland. Yeah. Mobilize for local ministry and outreach. In a sense, you're still living in the midst of a mission field here.
[30:47] It's an obvious priority for the church. All are sent, but not all are sent to the ends of the earth. If the whole church shows up in Africa someday and says, here we are, I expect that will create some problems for us, so please don't do that.
[31:02] But at the same time, everybody can be involved in local outreach and a few people to go to Judea, Samaria, the ends of the earth.
[31:16] The ends of the earth is not for everybody. And in AIM, we want some of your best people. Think about Saul and Barnabas sent out from the church of Antioch.
[31:28] There were five leaders listed there among whom were Saul and Barnabas. and the Holy Spirit said, take these two. Maybe your best two guys set them apart for the work I've called you to.
[31:40] Very difficult for small local churches to do that. But I believe that's what the Lord would have. The ends of the earth is not for everybody. Church needs to define what mission is.
[31:57] the Lord has a particular call for different churches. Okay? And the church needs to think in advance what is the Lord calling us to do and what are the kinds of people we want to send and where do we want to send them to?
[32:15] Okay? It's good for the church to identify those priorities in advance. Otherwise, when someone comes and says, I feel like God's calling me to do this or this, then if the church hasn't defined those things in advance, then they're going to be in a difficult situation.
[32:32] Okay? If the church has defined, for instance, that we believe that the kind of missionaries we want to send are to unreached people groups, Muslim people groups, people in places where there is no gospel, then when someone comes along and says that, I feel like I need to be a missionary to Australia to save the coral reefs of Australia, then the church can say, that's a nice thing.
[32:55] And go ahead, bless you, but we're not going to get involved with that. You know, I said exactly those words in our church in Bristol, and one of the elders came up to me afterwards, and he said, there is someone in our church whose idea of mission is close enough to what you said that they will think that we put you up to saying that.
[33:16] It's like, really? But, yeah, I mean, people have different notions about mission. So then I changed it, and I started talking about save the koalas of Australia or something like that, but I don't know, koalas are cute.
[33:29] Maybe someone would want to do that. It defined in advance what mission is. Church needs to pray, and I believed, or Jesus told us, pray to the Lord of harvest to send workers into his harvest field.
[33:42] I think the church needs to ask the Lord, Lord, send workers to your harvest field, send Irish people into the harvest field, and send people from this church. I think that's a prayer that tremendously honors the Lord, and I believe the Lord will answer that prayer.
[33:59] Lord, send people from this church, from this community of churches, and Lord, send some of our best people. That's a scary prayer, maybe.
[34:12] I think it's a prayer that honors the Lord, and he's likely to answer. And then the church needs to listen to the Lord, and under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, identify those people who have that call of the Lord in their lives, just like the church in Acts was able to do.
[34:31] Church needs to prepare and train missionaries. Okay. We have all kinds, there's all kinds of specialized missionary training programs we can refer you to, and that's a good thing.
[34:42] But the most important skills of mission are disciple making, following Christ as a disciple and making other disciples, serving, bringing the gospel to people outside the church, learning the Word of God, learning to teach the Word of God, learning to pray.
[35:02] Those are all things that can and should be taught right here in this church. You don't have to send someone to a specialized missionary training program to learn those kind of things. And those are the kind of people who have learned those things in their local churches, who've learned to serve in their local churches, who've learned to share the gospel out in their own community.
[35:20] Those are the kind of people that we want to send to Africa. Last thing, church needs to build up the base.
[35:32] Acts 20, 28, be on guard for yourselves and all the flock. Okay. Good statement that Paul makes to the Ephesian elders. Yeah, guard the flock. Savage wolves are coming.
[35:43] They'll ravage the flock. But he says, first be on guard for yourselves. Before we can shepherd others, we need to shepherd ourselves. And before we can effectively send missionaries, we need to build up, or so I shouldn't say before, but as we think about sending missionaries, we need to watch our own churches.
[36:09] In particular, I think there's two things that churches need to do. And especially in this modern era when the truth is facing challenges from every side.
[36:22] The church needs, first of all, to maintain true doctrine. And again, I'm saying obvious things to you. But I think there's three things, especially, as far as missions is concerned, the church needs to hold on to with all its might.
[36:36] One is the authority of the Word of God. The second is the eternal destiny, whether saved or lost, of every man and woman.
[36:49] And the third is the uniqueness of salvation through Jesus Christ. Authority of the Word of God, eternal destiny of every man and woman, uniqueness of salvation in Jesus Christ.
[37:01] If you lose any one of those things, then why would anyone bother being a missionary? If we lose the authority of the Word of God, if we stop believing that every man and woman is either going to go to heaven or hell, and that the only way to go to heaven is through Jesus Christ, if we stop believing any one of those three things, then why are we going to do mission?
[37:25] And why are we even going to reach out to our neighbors? Why even bother? Church needs to hold on to those things with all her might. And then the last thing is just promoting evangelism here in your own community.
[37:41] Don't make any distinction between local outreach and international or global outreach. A church that has a heart for reaching out to its neighbors will also have a heart to send its people to North Africa, bring the gospel to those people.
[37:54] A church that has a heart for North Africa, by God's grace, will have a heart for reaching out to local people. So in promoting local outreach, church is promoting mission as well.
[38:09] Local church plays a crucial role in the kingdom of God. You are God's chosen instrument. Even a little bitty church like you. Sorry, you might think, who's this American guy telling us we're a little bitty church?
[38:23] But God's grace, you're here. It's wonderful. You're God's chosen instrument to establish the kingdom here in this country and abroad.
[38:37] What a responsibility. What an honor it is for the church. What a blessing for the church and what rewards God will give to the church that's faithful in this.
[38:52] Amen. You might say, well, do we have to do this? No.
[39:04] You don't have to do it. You don't have to send anybody. Your salvation doesn't depend on it. You don't have to do it. But I read something written by a man named Robertson McQuilkin a few years ago.
[39:19] He was a seminary professor, or he was the head of a seminary in the United States. And his wife was ill with advanced Alzheimer's disease and kept getting worse and worse and finally he realized he was going to need just to step down from his position and take care of his wife.
[39:36] So he did. And he took care of her for five years. And when she died, then he came back to leading the seminary. But he wrote a little short pamphlet called Living by Vows and talked about the journey that he went through in caring for his wife, stepping down from his position in order to care for his wife.
[40:00] And he said this, he said that a lot of people come to me and they say, oh, I'm so sorry that you have to do this. McQuilkin always said, he said, I don't have to.
[40:12] I get to. I get to. And it's the same for the church. We don't have to do this. You really don't.
[40:23] But we get to do it. Sending is a privilege the Lord gives to a local church. Let's pray. Thank you, Father, for your goodness.
[40:38] Thank you for the privilege you give to your church. Thank you for this great plan that you have accomplished in building your church. Jesus Christ built this church, each local manifestation of it.
[40:49] Thank you for these brothers and sisters that are here. Thank you for your church in this area of Ireland. We praise you, Lord. You are building your church here. And I pray for the brothers and sisters here that you would encourage them.
[41:05] You would encourage them that you would send them out into the community and into other communities cross-culturally here in Ireland and you would send a few of these people to the ends of the earth.
[41:18] Lord, that you would identify who those people are. We know you have your people everywhere. Please make that clear to the church leaders here. And let us all, wherever we are, embrace this privilege of sending.
[41:35] We're thankful for Jesus Christ. We're thankful that he sends us. We're thankful for the peace that he speaks to us. We're thankful for the grace that you give us in Jesus Christ. And we pray in his name.
[41:46] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.