Mandate for Missions
Why should God bless us? Have you ever thought about that? Why should God give us the blessings that He does? Is it because we are such good Christians and we always follow His commands? Is it because we are so special that we deserve to be blessed? When we pray, “Lord, bless William’s family,” why would He honor that request?
I want to answer that question with point number 1: God’s blessings are a witness, God’s blessings are a witness.
The writer of this Psalm says, “God be gracious to us and bless us.” And the phrase “Cause His face to shine upon us,” is just another way of saying look upon us with your favor. So he is praying a prayer (or singing a song) that sounds much like our own prayers for blessing today. But, unlike our confusion as to why we pray the prayers for blessing, this writer knows the ultimate purpose for the blessing. He says, “That your way may be known on the earth, Your salvation among all nations.” The purpose of blessing Israel was so that all the nations could see how God blesses those who love and obey Him. God wants to bless those who love and obey Him so that the nations will see how God blesses those who love and obey Him.
Now you may be thinking, “I know Christians that have suffered a great deal, what about their blessings?” Have you ever seen a Christian that is going through great suffering and you hear someone say, “I don’t see how they make it”? They make it because God is blessing them. God blesses those who love and obey Him with the ways that are best. Paul said in
2 Corinthians 12:9-10 “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.
Paul was well content with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake. If we want Christ’s name to be known on the earth, we will be well content with weakness, insults, distresses, persecutions, difficulties, for His sake. And, when God blesses us, even during our hard days, the days of persecution or distresses, we need to be telling people of the goodness of God. We may not understand what God is doing, but He is still on His throne and He is blessing us even through the trials.
Romans 8:1 Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Romans 8:28 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.
The writer then says, “Your salvation among all nations.” This writer wanted to see everyone know his God. We can see than in verses 3 & 4. He says, “Let the peoples praise You, O God; Let all the peoples praise You.” This text is not a plea to God to let this praise happen, rather it is a way for the writer to say, “I want all the nations to praise you.” These two verses bring us to point number 2: God’s blessings are for the nations, God’s blessings are for the nations.
I have told you over the last two weeks that I want you to have joy in Christ. I said, “I want all of you to know the joy of living for Jesus.” But, I’ve been holding back on you. There is a piece to the joy puzzle that I haven’t give you until now. The piece is this: when you find your joy in Christ, you can’t keep it for yourself. A joy not shared is not a true joy.
Suppose you go to the movies and see the best movie you have ever seen in your life. When you leave the theater, you felt like you could jump up and touch the clouds. If you keep that to yourself, the joy is not complete. You have to tell people about what you have seen and experienced in order for your joy to be made full. I’ve been telling you that I want you to have joy in Christ, in serving Him, in trusting Him with your life, and I’m telling you now that you can’t keep that to yourself. The writer of this Psalm said, “Let the nations be glad and sing for joy.”
This is why we do missions. This is why we give our money to the Annie Armstrong offering. We do it because we want the nations to sing for joy. Now we have to be careful here and check our motives for missions. Yes it is true that we want the nations to be glad and sing for joy, but we don’t want to skip over verse 3 that says, “Let the peoples praise You, O God; Let all the peoples praise You.” If we are not careful our focus in doing missions projects, and going on mission trips, and giving to missions offerings will be an effort to help people in their poor condition. We are not some humanitarian agency. Yes, we want to meet people’s physical needs, but only to the end that it brings praise to God. We are going to Princeton KY to help build a house for people who can come and praise God at Bright Life Farms. Bright Life Farms is a place where they are giving God the glory and praise, and we want to help bring as many people there to join in that worship as we can.
We do missions so that the people will praise You, O God; Let all the peoples praise You. One writer said it like this, “Missions exist, because worship doesn’t.” We do missions so that God will be worshiped by those we impact with our missionary efforts. We give our money to the Annie Armstrong offering because the North American Mission board is trying to get more people to worship and praise God.
We give to the Annie Armstrong offering because of people like Diana Lewis who is trying to spread the joy of worshiping Jesus to the poorest people in Arkansas. Diana writes, “We need our Baptist in Arkansas to realize there’s a great mission field right outside the doors of their sanctuaries that every time they leave their church they are entering into a mission field where they can share the hope of Christ with someone they’re going to meet.” This is why we give to the Annie Armstrong offering. It’s because there are people in Arkansas that are not worshiping God. Missions exists because worship doesn’t.
The end of verse 4 says, “You will judge the peoples with uprightness.” There will come a day that the peoples of the earth will be judged, including you and me. When that judgment comes, we don’t want anyone to suffer eternal punishment.
In verse 5 the writer repeats verse 3 word for word to show the emphasis on his desire to see God praised, which brings us to the final point: God’s blessings produce fruit, God’s blessings produce fruit.
When the call to worship that the writer gives in verses 1-5 happens, the earth will yield it’s produce. One commentator argued that this Psalm must have been written in response to the celebration at harvest time. I suppose it could have been the barley harvest the writer was talking about but I think the harvest of salvation fits the context better. He said in verse 4, “You will judge the peoples with uprightness,” which leads me to think that the thought he has in mind is people coming to know God. If we are obedient in missions and evangelism, God will bring the increase. Paul said this in:
2 Corinthians 9:6 Now this I say, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.
The harvest is ready. There are many people who are not worshiping Jesus Christ. We need to do all that we can to see God praised among the nations. We need to give of our money, and all our resources to see God praised. Oh God let us sow bountifully for the joy of all nations and the praise of your name.