A Light to the Nations
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What is God’s plan for my life in 2023?.... What does the future hold? What should I do this year different or the same as years prior?..... In many ways… those are what I like to call.... shake the magic 8 ball..... There are endless answers.
Decisions (daily, moment by moment) in life that we must make, God is sovereign over, that we do not know all of the means and ways for us to get there.....
BUT there are decisions based on truths that are clearly laid out in the Bible that we must see, believe, and obey.
In 2023, I am leading us to the Bible and hear the truth that is written across the Bible.... The Big Sweeping Story!
One aspect of this big story we will focus our attention on is..... “We are a light to the nations”.... We are sent into the world as missionaries. Starting in the OT and then in the Spring in the book of Acts..... It is all connected from Genesis to Revelation.
It is all a part of God’s perfect plan....
God Has a Perfect Plan
God Has a Perfect Plan
God created everything..... Genesis 1 It was paradise! God dwelling with his creation, His creation experienced the full presence and fellowship with God!
Adam and Eve sinned and disobeyed God by eating of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil.....
God curses the ground, the serpent, eve, adam..... and in the midst of this.... we see the first glimpse of the Gospel message in the Bible - the protoevangelium.....
We see this..... in Genesis 3:14-15.... listen to the plan that God has already put forth in Genesis 3!
14 The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life.
15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
God’s plan is laid out that He will bruise the heel of the woman’s offspring, but the snake would be crushed!
The metanarrative of the Bible.... the Big Story can be seen in this.....
Genesis 1-2 - Paradise created
Genesis 3 - Revelation 20 - Paradise is lost, God sets forth a plan of redemption
Revelation 21-22 - Paradise is restored
God had a plan for The Serpent - Satan and The Women - Eve
The woman would have a “seed”.... an offspring..... and it is interesting that the Hebrew word here… it is in a male tense so much so that here in Genesis 3 we see that a male savior is coming!
God had a plan for Satan to be crushed.
Romans 16:20 (ESV)
20 The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.
Revelation 12:9 (ESV) JUST MENTION DONT READ.
that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan,
10 and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
God had a plan for the seed of Eve.
… Did Eve believe in this plan and promise from God? See Genesis 4..... and her response after having Cain.... how she longed for the wrongs of her sin to be made right!.... She was right to trust God, but it wasn’t the right son.... the right seed.
1 Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.”
The book of Genesis.... and the Old Testament is all about at times the descendants of Israel..... who will be this “male seed” to come and crush Satan! They are intently documented the plan unfolding from God in Genesis 3!
Anticipation - Christmas is in 351 days.... compared to christmas in 3 days.... raised anticipation.....
Sick and deceased...... You medication to save you is 35 years to wait for or it can be here in 3 days!
God had a plan that was completed in Jesus Christ.
We know this now in the New Testament.
God foreknew that Jesus was going to be sent to die on a cross for the forgiveness of your sins!
23 this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.
God put this plan in place before the foundation of the world! Ephesians 1 tells us this is true.....
We were predestined by His will before the world was created - Eph 1:4 s
Jesus was set forth at the right time in God’s will - Eph 1:9 … Jesus was never plan B but Plan A!
Why do I exist? What is my purpose? Genesis 1-3 raises those questions.......
What is God’s Perfect Plan for me?
You do not have to shake the magic 8 ball with this decision...... it is presented in Genesis 3:15 and the rest of the Bible
There is a holy and righteous God that created me. In my sin, I deserve the punishment due my sin against this Holy God that also separates him from me. God has set forth His one and only son, Jesus Christ, as the plan to restore the relationship with God and me......
My purpose in life is to glorify God by believing in Jesus and joining God in his mission to share this message of the Gospel with everyone through my life!
There are things in life where we will not know the next step..... where to live, where to work, how to pay bills, what to eat for lunch..... But there are things that are clearly laid out in the Bible that tell us a followers of Jesus what do to with our life..... to join in God’s perfect plan laid out in the Bible!
God’s perfect plan is rooted in His character… who he is. A God who sends!
God Sends
God Sends
WHEN WILL THIS OFFSPRING BE SENT? WHEN WILL HE ARRIVE ON THE SCENE?
God sends men and women for His purposes and plan in the world.
Hebrew Word Sent is the connection between the OT and The NT description of Missions.
In the NT and OT combined Greek Septuagent (used over 1000 times).... God is the subject of the verb 3/4 of the time!
Mission points to a central action: the act of being sent with a commission to carry out the will of a superior. It is God who commissions and God who sends. by Walter C. Kaiser
Do you like to be told what to do?..... NO, the favorite line of many toddlers in life!
Psychologists have taken time to define what the root of all sin is..... psychological reactance -
When our freedom is threatened.... we do the opposite to keep our freedom.
Today, I fear that Psychological reactance to God’s mission has crept into the church...
If God is a sending God, and we are His People..... we are to be sent without seeing it as a loss of our own freedom.
In the Bible we see God send:
1. Moses - Deut. 34:11
2. His Word Is 55:11 that it would not return void.
3. Prophets - Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, (Isa. 6:8; Jer. 1:7; Ezek. 3:5–6, 2 Kings 17:13; Jer. 7:25 Zech. 7:12)
3. He sends people to the gentiles! Melchizedek, Jethro, Balaam, Ruth, Jonah.
4. The Trinity is a sending relationship!
“God the Father sending the Son, and God the Father and the Son sending the Spirit [is] expanded to include yet another "movement": Father, Son, and Holy Spirit sending the church into the world.”
- (David, Bosh, Transforming Mission) (John 5:37; 6:44, 57; 8:16, 18; 12:49; 20:21; Galatians 4:4; 1 John 4:14).
Do you love Jesus as your Savior this morning?....... Here is what one missionary said that is so true..... the closer you get to Jesus.... the more intently missionary you will become!.....Henry Martyn, missionary to India and Persia
The more you think about God’s perfect plan in bringing you salvation in Jesus..... the more you will want to look like Jesus, be like Jesus, and Jesus is a missionary sent by God..... thus you too join in that mission!
If God is a sending God in himself, he is also sending others, his word, prophets to other nations, he is also sending the Church, the everyday Christian to be “A Light to those around them, and a missionary to the mission field around them!”
If God’s nature is to send, if Jesus was sent, then he also sends us as a part of His perfect plan unfolding from the pages of Genesis 3!
God Sends the Church
God Sends the Church
18 As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.
(1) Matthew 28:19, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations.” (2) Mark 16:15, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.” (3) Luke 24:45, “repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations.” (4) Acts 1:8, “…and even to the remotest part of the earth.”
The Gospel message began in Genesis a perfect plan of God in place for us now as the church to continue!
It has been said...."The mark of a great church is not its seating capacity, but its sending capacity."- Mike Stachura
EVEN OUR CATHOLIC CHURCH BROTHERS RECOGNIZED THIS.....1960s.... 2nd Vatican Council - The church at its very nature is to be missionary.
God sends us as a church to be missionaries:
How to respond to this Command to be a light to the nations.... to be sent as missionaries?
1. Prayer
2 And he said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.
"In our lifetime wouldn't it be sad if we spent more time washing dishes or swatting flies or mowing the yard or watching television than praying for world missions." - Dave Davidson
“Facebook proves the very fact that is it a lie that ʻwe do not have enough timeʼ to be gathered for prayer in the name of world missions.”
2. Going and Telling
Romans 10:15b (ESV)
15 ...“How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”
- God is not done with you yet! - Michael Laws memorial - Write down your testimony, and Let us video tape your testimony, let us help you share it with your friends and your family and loved ones!
- "The reason some folks don't believe in missions is that the brand of religion they have isn't worth propagating." Maybe our church needs some heart surgery, some faith reviving conversations with our soul..... Is my brand of Jesus worth propagating..... or am I psychological reactant to Missions and evangelism.
- “missions are not an extra; they are the acid test of whether or not the Church believes the Gospel.” Newbigin
- Are you expecting to go and tell someone about Jesus when you leave this place?
3. Seeing
Make Luke 10:2 your prayer..... Where am I not seeing the harvest around me?..... It is plentiful, but the labrorers are few.
Do you see the harvest, your field before you?
2 And he said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.
"The gospel is only good news if it gets there in time" - Carl F. H. Henry