Jesus Take the Wheel

We’ve talked a lot about the importance of living on mission, to get the Gospel to the end of the Earth. We’ve talked about being committed to that even to the point of suffering. But we have not talked as much about how to do it, or how to be prepared for it. That’s what we’re going to talk about tonight, what we can do to be prepared for a mission trip or even just to share the Gospel with someone in third period.

Now ultimately, it’s up to the Lord…

John 6:44 ESV

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.

But we want to do all that we can to be prepared for an opportunity and to remove every reasonable obstacle we can that may get in the way of someone coming to faith in Jesus.

We need to be prepared to share the Gospel and sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit as we are going.

Read and pray

Prepare for the Mission

They didn’t just say “okay let’s go” and head out. There was some thought ahead of their journey. It’s not all laid out for us in the text, but it is clear that there was preparation.

Prepared for the people

They wanted to make sure that they wouldn’t be offensive, that they would blend in, in a sense.

If you have ever seen a movie or a show about zombies then there is a strong chance that you have seen characters in that show or movie try to get through a hoard of zombies by pretending to be one…

One of my favorite scenes where someone pretends to be a zombie is a different spin on it. They’re in a zombie apocalypse and one of the characters dresses up like a zombie to scare another guy. He walks in the room, hands up and groaning, and he scares the guy! So much that the guy jumps up, grabs his shot gun, and shoots him in the chest! Once he realizes what he’s done, he says, “if it’s any consolation, I’m really sorry”, to which the guy dressed as a zombie replies, “It’s ok, I was never a good practical joker.”

1-3

Paul wants to make sure that Timothy doesn’t offend the Jewish people that they will share the Gospel with, so…

Imagine you’re in Timothy’s shoes here… But he gets it and he wants to be a witness for Jesus, so he’s on board! He wants to remove this potential stumbling block to people believing the Gospel.

1 Corinthians 9:19–23 ESV

For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.

Be you, but also be relatable. Or maybe a better way to say it is make sure you aren’t offensive to the people you are sharing with. The Gospel may be offensive, but you shouldn’t be!

What does that mean for you in the places you are in?

So they were prepared to connect with the people they were witnessing to, and they were prepared to share with them.

Prepared for the teaching

If I ask you to go deliver a message for me and you tell me you’ll do it cause you’re a good and kind Christian person, what’s the next thing you’re going to do? Ask what I want you to tell them, right?

Or actually pull someone up there and ask them to go tell someone in the back of the room something. If they wait, make the point that way, if they just go, wait for everyone to get it.

We see back in 15:36 that they knew they knew what they were going to do and I’m sure there was some discussion that isn’t recorded because they went to these cities and delivered the same message in all of them.

4-5

They shared the teaching of the apostles to strengthen their faith. That’s what God’s Word does, that’s why it’s so important to be in the Word!

Colossians 1:9–10 ESV

And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;

So first, you need to be taught by the Word of God so that you may be strengthened in the faith! Your faith always needs to be strengthened, no matter how strong it is! And then, you need to take that teaching and be prepared to share it with those who need to hear it!

You do it in a loving and kind way…

Listen to the Holy Spirit

(That doesn’t always mean you’ll get a vision!) But they do!

As they set out, they have an idea, but they follow where God leads.

6-10, use the map to help show

We should have a general idea of what we’re doing, the Bible tells us what that is… Then we need to look around our lives and pray and figure out how we will do that in our lives.

I have to confess something to all of you. We didn’t necessarily want to move to Dyersburg. There was another church near Huntsville that we liked, really liked the community, and I really liked that pastor. If that door had been opened, our lives would probably look very different. But the Lord didn’t open that door, he closed it. He opened this door. And the more I talked with Mike, the more clear that became and the more I wanted to minister with Him. And the more time we spent in Dyersburg, the more we loved it. And now I hope I’m at this church, in this town, with this staff for the rest of my life! The way the Spirit brought it all about was a little circumstantial and a little super natural… We just have to listen to the Spirit, however He is speaking.

We can’t make our own plans and be set in them, not just when it comes to spreading the Gospel, but in every part of our lives. We have to listen to the Holy Spirit.

John 16:13 ESV

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.

We listen to the Spirit for truth, for what is right, in every part of our lives. That doesn’t mean we sit and wait…

And the cool thing about this is that the Spirit always knows what He’s doing…

1 Peter 1:1 ESV

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,

So we don’t know exactly how, but God got the Gospel to Asia and Bithynia, it just wasn’t through Paul, because He had something different for Paul, Silas, and Timothy!

The first thing the Holy Spirit will lead you to do is to believe in this Gospel that these guys were sent to preach to be saved…