MISSIONS SUNDAY

It is awesome to see how much our congregation is involved in spreading the Gospel and serving right here in our own community ... feeding the hungry ... providing coats to those without ... giving Thanksgiving baskets to people in need ... Adopt-a-Block ministry ... giving school backpacks to children who don't have any ... Operation Christmas Child, where gifts are given to children whose parents are incarcerated ... and more. So great.

Here are some more thoughts to help us think about this whole subject of reaching out ...

On a regular day, do you or your family have a savings account of any kind?
Does your family have two cars in any condition?
Do you have a variety of clothing to choose from?
Does your family own a house (or paying the bank toward owning one)?
If you answered “YES” to those questions, you’re in the TOP 5% of the world’s wealthiest people!

You may not FEEL wealthy – but that’s because you’re comparing yourself to the MEGA-WEALTHY. But you’re very wealthy by world-standards.

If the world was a VILLAGE OF 100 PEOPLE, the village would have:
60 Asians, 17 Africans, 11 Europeans, 6 North Americans, 5 Latin Americans and 1 South Pacific Islander.
82 would be non-white, 18 would be white
67 would be non-Christian, 33 would be Christian
80 would live in sub-standard housing
50 would be malnourished and 1 would be dying of starvation
36 would not have access to clean water or adequate sanitation
24 would have not electricity. Of the 76 that DO have electricity, most would use it only for light at night.
7 would have access to the internet
1 would have HIV
5 would control 32% of the world’s wealth – and all 5 would be U.S. citizens

We hardly ever think about the global, multi-national, multi-ethnic, multi-lingual cause of God – and what His passions are for Ghana and Indonesia and Chile and Tanzania and Thailand and Kazakhstan and Algeria and Uzbekistan and Nigeria and Yemen and Finland and China and Siberia and Cameroon and Myanmar and Costa Rica – or the Hmong or the Cree or the Ojibwa Indians right here in America …

But I want you to hear something – and this is SO IMPORTANT as we consider how we relate to the Kingdom ... I want you to see the MAGNIFICENT picture of the FINAL OUTCOME of God’s purposes in history: “And they sang a new song, saying, ‘Worthy are You, (O Christ), to take the scroll and to open its seals, for You were slain, and by Your blood You ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nations, and You have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on earth.’” (Revelation 5:9, 10)

And THAT should be what we DREAM about. We should LOVE to hear how the Kingdom of God is advancing all around the world … how the church of Christ is being planted among people who, for centuries, have been held by the powers of darkness … because there is COMING a day when we’re ALL going to gather together and worship the Creator in Heaven … UNDER ONE ROOF … WORSHIPPING ONE GOD … ALL PART OF ONE FAMILY.

We believe reaching people far from God is our mission. It makes no difference if that is HERE or in EL SALVADOR. Reaching people far from God is our mission. It is not our ONLY mission, but it is our main mission. If we had to put ONE core value on paper, at the very TOP it would say “reach people for Christ.” It would not compete with any other value, though a few others might be close behind.

Some would say we’ve done ENOUGH. I don’t know …
· There are 6.6 billion people on the earth today
· 1 billion live on 23 cents per day
· Every 16 seconds someone dies of hunger
· 14 million were orphaned because of HIV/AIDS
MEANWHILE:
· $8 billion was spent on cosmetics in AMERICA last year
· $11 billion was spent on ice cream
· $17 billion was spent on pet food
· $105 billion was spent on alcohol

Have we given as much as we CAN? I'm not sure. All I know is … this is the reason God birthed the 20th century Pentecostal church - to be the GREATEST MISSIONARY-SENDING ORGANIZATION the world has ever known.

If we take care of God's city and God's world, He will take care of our church. When we do something extra for God's Kingdom, He does something extra for us. When we become interested in God's creation, we find that God becomes interested in our church.

So - give and don't look back. Give by faith, not by your calculator. If you can do it without God, you don't need any faith.

Forward.

And be blessed.