Month: May 2013

Who is a Missionary?

I’ve been thinking…what is it to be a missionary?  What does it mean to be missionary minded?

A lot of people say “Well I am not called to do that.” However, that’s not quite right. The Bible says if you are born again you are called to reconcile people to God. I’m not a betting man, but if I were, i’d assume a good majority of you reading this, right now, are born again. So, according to scripture, you don’t need a calling. It’s just a part of what we do, it’s in our DNA of being a believer. We’re reconciling this world to God, bringing it closer to God through the Lord, Jesus Christ.

I looked up missionary, and wondered where in the world it came from. Obviously, the word mission, it comes from the Latin word, “missio.” It means, “a sent one, the act of sending.”  Those that are in the mission work are to get individuals born again, and after that, plant churches so the new believers have somewhere to go-a Body of Christ they can attach themselves to. Many times, people have gone to big events and have received the Lord Jesus, then not plugged in to a local church. Listen to me when I say, you need the local church.

If there’s anything wrong with some major television ministries, it is they want to be everything to you need. They can not be, because they are not the local church. They’re a television ministry, which envolves, evangelism and missionaries, but they’re not the local church.

The Bible says in Matthew 16:18, that the gates of hell shall not prevail against my church.

The Bible didn’t say non-governmental organization, it says the gates of hell shall not prevail against my church. So, when somebody goes into the mission field, it’s for saving the lost. It could be translating the Bible into local dialects and languages, or Bible teachers. It could be medical missions, bringing medical help to many nations over seas. It could be a feeding programs, or a ministry bringing the good news.

My friend, Brother Tim Johnson, down in the Dominican, goes with his family on vacations to China and Thailand. On these vacations, they don’t know the local language-they’re only fluent in English and Spanish. Believe me, those are not Chinese…or Thai. So what do they do? They go there and pass out thousands, and no exaggeration, thousands of tracts. One. At. A. Time.

Years ago, when the Olympics were in Mexico, my father, Dr. Sumrall, wanted to make sure that there was a spiritual significance to those who came to Mexico City, in the late 60’s. He made up a track called, “You Hold the Reigns,” and had it translated into five different languages on one pamphlet. He knew he couldn’t hand out over a million tracks by himself, nobody can. So, he paid Brother Glen a salary to go down to Mexico City and help pass out the tracts and organize local churches for that one purpose of passing those out to over a million people that were going to be there. Also, the local churches plugged in, to bring those people into the house of God.

I went out one day with Brother Glen, with bags and bags of tracks in the car. When they ran out of a bag, they’d run to the car a grab another. He was passing them out like they were hot cakes! Street corners, the Olympic Village, everywhere! I said to him, “Who do you talk to when you’re giving the tracks out like that?” He replied, “Anybody who stops and asks a question.” I thought, that’s a little too simple, Brother Glen. I asked, “How do you know you’re supposed to talk to somebody about what you just gave them?” He replied, “Anybody who takes time to actually look at it, and asks me a question, that’s who the Lord wants me to talk to. Other than that, they’re going to get this and read it later.”

That is another example of missionary work.

There are a lot of people who raise funds to be missionaires, that I wouldn’t consider missionaries at all. There were people that were janitors, an organist, printing press printers, and secretaries, all put under the category of “helps.” So if you’re very strict about it, it is the one who goes and publishes. In an apostolic mentality of going, getting them lost, planting a pastor, and seeing a work raised up. Then, believers are in there duplicating themselves. The broader sense of mission work, is that everybody goes and brings the good news to the captives. Amen?

There’s one man who wrote the book about angels. He said the Lord told him to buy a plane ticket to Asia.

He said, “I don’t know anybody in Asia!”

Lord said, “Go buy a ticket to go to Asia.”

Man: “I don’t have much money, so i’m going to buy a cheap seat.”

Lord: “No, I want you to buy at least a business class ticket.”

Man: “Lord, that costs a lot of money and I don’t have anyone to meet over there.”

Finally, he agreed that’s what he should do. He did it. He flew, business class, to Asia, and there was a man right beside him as lost as could be. He had been in the church as a child, slid backwards, and turned his back on God. Every single spiritual thing he fed him, the man was eating it up. Eating up the word of God. His life was a mess. He was crying, absolutely sobbing, in the business class plane seat. The Lord said, “Alright, that is why I sent you on this airplane. You can now go home.”

The Lord can send you half way around the world, for one person. You know why? Because God loves us all. He loves us so much, He sent His son, from heaven. Why is it so outlandish to believe that He can send someone to you, or you to someone.

There are many people that need to be set free. We as believers are called to bring them the Good News that will set them FREE, Body, Soul, Spirit.

Pastor Steve

 

You are with Me

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. -Psalm 23

 

I just want to start off this entry, by focusing on the first verse that says, “The Lord is my shepherd.”

A shepherd didn’t have two, or three, or four jobs. He only had one, and that was to look out on behalf of the sheep. So whatever was going on in the life of the sheep, the shepherd knew about it. Where it slept…where it ate…where it drank water. More than that, it was the protection of the flock. You know there were wolves out there who made it their mission to mess up the life of those sheep.

Ever hear someone say, “there’s a wolf coming in sheep’s clothing?” The wolves were very strategic and even disguised themselves, but the shepherds could sniff them out. They’d get their nose in the air and know, something wasn’t quite right with one of their sheep. Why’s that? Because it was a wolf trying to act like a sheep. In that scripture, it says because the Lord is my shepherd, “I shall not want.” My body, my soul, my spirit, my material needs, my soulical needs, my mental needs, my emotional needs, my spiritual needs. Every single thing I have need of, God has already provided. Sometimes you don’t know He’s there until He hits you with that shepherds staff.

If you’re going in the right direction, He has no need to poke and prod you. You only get poked and prodded when you’re going in the wrong direction. I bet some of you are thinking, “Why is the Lord being so mean to me? Why is He directing me? Why is He hitting me? Why this chastisement from the shepherd?” Well, it’s pretty simple. You might be going in the wrong direction. You get back on que, in the direction of the Lord, then all of the sudden you’re in the perfect will, the perfect place that He wants you to be.

I know that we have our own flesh and our own desires. The little sheep go this way and that way. But the Bible says, that He leaves the 99, to go find that 1. That’s how much the Lord loves every single one of us. Thank God that He leads me beside still waters, He restores my soul, He leads me in a path of righteousness for His name’s sake.

Even though I walk through, I don’t have to, but sometimes you do, walk through the valley of the shadow of death, YOU are with me. Let me just reiterate that; the Bible says, “you are with me.”  When the sun is out, He’s with me. When it’s dark as midnight, He’s still with me. He hasn’t departed, He isn’t abandoning you. He is there. He is there, all the time.

I pray that you will sense that presence of the Almighty God right now, and receive the provision of the Lord today.

-Pastor Steve