Our Strategy for Missions

Lead Vocalist (Kelly)

Welcome & Announcements (Mike L)

Good morning family!

If you received a connect card, please fill it out and put in offering plate

Announcements:

1) Discover Class

2) __________________________________________

3) __________________________________________

4) __________________________________________

Now please take a moment of silence to prepare your heart for worship.

Call to Worship (Psalm 96:7-10)

Prayer of Praise (Susana Donahue)

Victory in Jesus (Christ Won the Victory)

A Christian's Daily Prayer

Prayer of Confession (Kevin Hammond), Greed

Assurance of Pardon (Psalm 84:11-12)

O For A Thousand Tongues to Sing

Yet Not I But Through Christ in Me

Scripture Reading (Luke 10:2-3)—page 1031 in the black Bibles

Pastoral Prayer (Mike L)

Prayer for PBC—Help each member to be engaged in the mission

Prayer for kingdom partner—Reaching & Teaching – Luke & Emily Waite

Prayer for US—For the U.S. House of Representatives

Prayer for the world—Chad

Pray for the sermon

SERMON

We’ve been watching a lot of the Winter Olympics at the Boutot house. And one event that is particularly fascinating is called the speed skating team-pursuit.

Three skaters line up side-by-side at the start. When the gun fires, they don’t sprint off competing with each other — they immediately form a single line.

SHOW TEAM PURSUIT IMAGE

Only the skater in front cuts through the air.

He takes the full force of the resistance while the other two draft behind him, conserving energy. After a lap he peels off, glides to the back, and another skater takes the lead. Then another. Over and over they rotate, each one bearing the hardest part for a time so the others can recover.

Here’s what makes the event fascinating: If you took those exact same athletes and had them skate the race individually, they would be slower than when they skate as a team. Skating together creates more speed than their individual abilities could ever produce alone.

Working together doesn’t merely add strength. It multiplies it.

And that’s not only true on Olympic ice, it’s true in the local church.

We’ve spent the month of February talking about missions.

We’ve said repeatedly that Missions is crossing cultural distance to make disciples in and through local churches throughout the world.

Because God is glorious and worthy of all worship,...

Because He promises to save sinners from every tribe, language, people, and nation,...

Because people cannot be saved without hearing and responding to the gospel,...

And because people cannot respond to a gospel they have never heard,...

We must start and strengthen churches all over the globe until Christ returns.

But the task of reaching the nations is far heavier than any one believer can pull alone.

God designed the work of missions to be shared.

So as we conclude our study of missions this morning, I want us to talk about what we—the people of Poquoson Baptist Church—can do together.

Turn to Luke 10:2

Typically when I preach a passage I’ll try to walk the entire text.

But this morning we’re focusing on three verbs in this text that together form a strategy for how we pursue missions as a church.

This strategy has been graciously shared with me by my friend Ryan Brice at Nansemond River Baptist Church.

By God’s grace the Lord has used it to transform their missions engagement over the past decade.

When I first heard about this strategy six months ago, my heart burned to see God do something similar at PBC.

We are not NRBC. We’re a different church in a different place.

But Jesus’ words are the same in Poquoson as they are in Suffolk.

And from these words we can see a clear strategy for how we can work together for the sake of the nations...

Here it is: Our missions strategy is to see every member working together to pray, send, and go.

As we walk through this strategy together, I want to ask Three Simple Questions:

Will we Pray? Will we Send? and Will we Go?

Let’s go to the Lord in prayer one more time before we dive in.

PRAY

1) Will We PRAY?

The context of Jesus’ words in Luke 10 are something like a commissioning service.

Jesus is about to send out 72 of His disciples into every town in the area.

They are to go as messengers, announcing the good news of the kingdom.

But before they go, Jesus tells them to pray.

Luke 10:2a—And he said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore PRAY earnestly to the Lord of the harvest...”

What is Jesus talking about when He talks about a harvest?

It’s a reference to people who need to hear the Good News of Jesus.

The fact that Jesus calls the harvest plentiful highlights God’s open-armed eagerness to save people from every tribe, language, people, and nation.

Jesus puts it this way in...

John 10:16—“And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.”

And Revelation 5:9 tells us Jesus died to ransom “people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.”

Here’s the bottom-line. God is GOING to save. It’s a promise!

So why pray? Better yet, why pray EARNESTLY as Jesus commands His disciples?

If God is going to save the nations, why should we pray?

Because God intends to use His people to draw sinners to Himself.

As we saw a few weeks ago...

Romans 10:14—How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?

And if you and I are expected to be involved in this great and glorious work of missions, we’re going to need God’s help!

In his fantastic book on missions, Let the Nations Be Glad, John Piper says our prayer often malfunctions because we’ve forgotten what it’s for.

He says this…

“Probably the number one reason prayer malfunctions in the hands of believers is that we try to turn a wartime walkie-talkie into a domestic intercom. Until you know that life is war, you cannot know what prayer is for. Prayer is for the accomplishment of a wartime mission. . . . But what have millions of Christians done? We have stopped believing that we are in a war. . . . And what did we do with the walkie-talkie? We tried to rig it up as an intercom in our houses and cabins and boats and cars—not to call in firepower for conflict with a mortal enemy but to ask for more comforts in the den.” [1]

Is this the way you think of the Christian life? Is this how you think of missions? Is this how you think about prayer?

Prayer is not an optional add-on for the Christian who needs something he can’t get for himself. It’s an essential lifeline for the Christian on mission!

Our missions strategy is to see every member working together to pray for the mission.

Perhaps you want to pray, you’re just not sure how.

Here’s a few suggestions...

Pray for our missionaries by name. Pray their marriages would be strong. Pray for their children. Pray for their health. Pray their ministries would bear fruit.

Pray God would send more missionaries into His harvest. Pray He would send your sons, daughters, and grandchildren. Pray you would love His glory enough to support them if He calls them.

Come to our monthly prayer and praise gatherings (beginning this Wednesday night!) to hear from a few of our missionaries and learn more about how you can pray.

The harvest is plentiful. The laborers are few. And Jesus commands us to pray.

Will you pray, Christian?

If you’re willing to commit to pray, please mark that on your Pray/Send/Go card.

And please put your name and email address on the top of that card so we can send your information to our supported missionaries. They’re not going to hound you, but they will put you on their prayer newsletters so you know how to pray.

We can accomplish far more if we’re willing to pray together for the mission.

But there’s a second question we need to ask ourselves...

2) Will We SEND?

After commanding His disciples to pray, Jesus tells them what to pray.

And in these words, we see not only something we should be praying for but a key part of our missions strategy...

Luke 10:2b—“… pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to SEND out laborers into his harvest.”

Now if you’re paying attention, you noticed that Jesus says God is the One who sends laborers into His harvest.

So which is it? Do we send, or does God send? The answer is YES!

Last week in Acts 13:3, we watched as the church in Antioch sent Paul and Barnabas on a missionary journey. But in the next verse it says they were “sent out by the Holy Spirit.”

This isn’t a contradiction!

Just as Scripture was written by God through human authors, missionaries are sent by God through faithful churches.

Another place we see this is in 3 John.

The Apostle John writes to encourage a pastor named Gaius for the way his church welcomed and supported a group of traveling missionaries.

Look at what he says in verses...

3 John 5–8—Beloved, it is a faithful thing you do in all your efforts for these brothers, strangers as they are, who testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God. For they have gone out for the sake of the name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles. Therefore we ought to support people like these, that we may be fellow workers for the truth.

Notice what John says: we are “fellow workers for the truth” as we faithfully send and support those who go “out for the sake of the name.”

In other words, we get to play a part in the missionary task as we faithfully send and support those on the front lines!

But I want you to notice another principle about sending from this passage.

Verse 6 says, “You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God.”

In other words, we should strive to send our missionaries with the same level of support we would give if Jesus Himself were being sent out on a mission trip.

Our friends Luke and Emily have shared horror stories with us about how poorly some churches treat their missionaries. They told us about one missionary family whose church sent them used teabags. And the rationale was that the used teabags were probably better than anything else they could get on the mission field.

Now I don’t think any of us would be tempted to do anything quite that cold, and yet we may still be guilty of sending leftovers to our missionaries. We make a budget, we spend, we save, we invest, we splurge, and we even give. And only if there’s something left after all that do we think about supporting our missionaries.

Sending laborers into God’s harvest is expensive!

And it’s even more expensive if we aim to care for missionaries as comprehensively as we discussed last week.

And even more expensive if we aim to send them in a manner worthy of God.

Our missions strategy is to see every member working together to send for the mission.

Perhaps you want to give, you’re just not sure how.

Here’s a few suggestions...

First, give faithfully to PBC. The bulk of the money we give to support our missionaries will come from our normal operating budget. If you’re not faithfully giving there, that’s where we want you to start.

IF you’re already doing that and you’re able to do more, consider giving to the Pray/Send/Go offering.

For the sake of transparency, let’s talk for a few minutes about what we’ll do with the money you give.

SHOW PSG ALLOCATION CHART

Every penny will go to support missions—work that crosses cultural distance to make disciples in and through local churches throughout the world.

45% will go towards sending teams to Belgium and the UAE over the next two years.

25% will go to strengthen our support individual missionaries—our sent and strategic partners.

10% will go to support special projects in international churches that are in our Pillar Network.

10% will go directly to Lottie Moon, which helps supports thousands of SBC missionaries.

5% will go to support a team project to help support our church plant, Ciudad de Gracia.

And 5% will go in a savings account to help support a future church plant, whenever the Lord opens a door for us to do that together.

Just remember, this giving is in addition to your normal giving. This will allow us to do more as a sending church.

As you think about your giving, here’s the bottom line we need to remember:

2 Corinthians 9:6–8—The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.

The harvest is plentiful. The laborers are few. So we need to send.

Will you help us send, Christian?

If you’re willing to commit to give, please mark that on the bottom of your Pray/Send/Go card.

If you’d like your pledge to be anonymous, go ahead and tear off the perforated part on the bottom.

Just please, only turn in one giving section per household so we don’t count your gift twice.

We can accomplish far more if we’re willing to send together for the mission.

But there’s a final question we need to ask ourselves...

3) Will We GO?

After His words on prayer, Jesus begins to commission His disciples...

And in these words, we see the final part of our missions strategy...

Luke 10:3—Go your way; behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves.

To send a lamb into the middle of wolves, is an impossible task. This a reminder that going is hard.

There’s a reason why Jesus says the laborers are few. Because going is hard.

And of course the best example of that is Jesus Himself.

He came to this earth as “the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” [2]

Like a lamb, He was gentle and kind, helping and healing people wherever He went. And yet He was hated by the wolf-like Pharisees who were jealous of His popularity.

So they had Him arrested, falsely tried, flogged, and crucified.

But “like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so He opened not his mouth.” [3]

He didn’t fight back because Jesus, as the spotless lamb of God, was dying in our place as our substitute.

Then on the third day He rose from the day so that whoever believes in Him can have eternal life.

Have you trusted in this Jesus? Would you trust in Him today?

Jesus came the first time as a lamb, but He’s returning as a lion. And when He returns every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

Would you bow before Him today before it’s too late?

If you have trusted Jesus, you long to see more men, women, boys, and girls bow before Him.

Michael Reeves puts it this way: “Mission is no clunky add-on to your own delighting in God. Instead, it is the natural overflow and expression of the enjoyment you have of him so that, like him, you gladly go out to fill the world with the word of his goodness.” [4]

If you truly delight in God, you want people all over the world to know and love Him!

That doesn’t mean everyone should go to the nations, but I’m praying God would use this series and this missions strategy to call some to go.

But often one of the things God uses to birth in His people a heart for long-term missions is opportunities for short-term missions.

I told you this at the beginning of the month, but I was at a pastors’ lunch a few years ago and a bunch of local pastors were talking about how to cultivate a missions culture in the church. One of the pastor’s asked if anyone had seen a church cultivate a missions culture without short-term trips. The answer was unanimous: none of us had seen a church grow to love the work of missions without going.

Before the pandemic, PBC was building that sort of culture. We had sent three teams to Mexico City with a plan to send more in the future. But eventually our partners there left the area, and we were unable to return.

Now we hope to rebuild that culture. With the Lord’s help and your sacrificial giving, we hope to send small teams over the next few years to partner with missionaries in Belgium and the UAE. With God’s help, we hope this will become a normal part of who we are as a church.

Our missions strategy is to see every member working together to go for the mission.

If you’re interested in going—whether long-term or short-term—please indicate that on your card when you turn it in.

Before we conclude, let me remind you that even if you never go, if you help us pray and send we are still doing this together.

What happens if instructions that were intended for a group get applied to an individual? It may not seem to be that big of a deal. After all, groups are made up of individuals so why does it matter?

Think about Olympic hockey. At any moment six players share the ice. And each position has a real responsibility.

One forward pressures the puck. Another covers the passing lane. The defensemen guard the net. The goalie protects the goal.

The game only works because every player performs a role within a coordinated effort.

Now imagine a hockey team playing like a group of little kids playing soccer.

Have you seen that? Everyone runs after the ball — all in the same place, all doing the same thing.

They’re all trying hard. They’re all involved. But they’re completely ineffective.

A hockey team playing this way would miss assignments, leave the net exposed, and the goals would pile up.

Because success doesn’t come from every player doing everything —and it doesn’t come from every player doing the same thing —it comes from each player faithfully doing their part for the sake of the whole.

And Christ designed His mission the same way. Not every Christian is called to go. But every Christian is called to participate — together — through praying, sending, and going.

Our missions strategy is to see every member working together to pray, send, and go.

In just a moment we’re going to conclude a bit differently than we normally do at PBC, so listen carefully.

After I pray, the musicians are going to begin singing and I’m going to ask you to take your Pray/Send/Go card and bring it up here to the front. You’re welcome to stop and pray over it for a moment if you’d like. You can even do that as a couple or as a family if you choose.

But as a symbol of our commitment before the Lord, would you take that card and bring it to the front as the musicians play? And then we’ll conclude our service in song together.

Prayer of Thanksgiving

Facing a Task Unfinished

For the Cause

Benediction (Eph. 3:20-21)