“Mobilizing the People of God”

(part 2)

“Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Matthew 28:18-20


It is called “The Great Commission”! To be commissioned, like a ship, means that the vessel is placed into a state of readiness for service. Ships that are commissioned for service do not sit dry-docked in the shipyard! They are sent out! These great vessels were constructed to do a “work.” They were designed to carry people and resources all over the world! Like these mighty ships, we too were created to carry something to the whole world… the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We were created to do a work:

“In the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul. While they were worshipping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and send them off. The two of them, sent on their way by the Holy Spirit, went down to Seleucia and sailed from there to Cyprus. When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the Jewish synagogues.”
Acts 13:1-5

Everyone of you has a “work” to which God has called you! It may be serving in the nursery at your church, volunteering at a local food bank, or taking the gospel to the jungles of Ecuador. I cannot tell you where God is sending you, but I can tell you what God has NOT called you to do. God has not called you to go week after week and occupy a pew in your church and never “go” and “make disciples”.

We have made church so comfortable and entertaining that no one wants to leave. Wonderful music, air conditioned sanctuaries, and padded seats are all designed to make those that come in comfortable. Our thinking is…“If we make them feel comfortable here, then they will stay”! Then we preach comfortable messages so that they will come back week after week. We’ll even talk about the importance of the Great Commission and reaching people for Christ as we watch the drama team perform a wonderful illustrated message.

The church, today, looks more like a “staged area” than a staging area. I like to watch the home improvement shows on television and one of things they do to sell somebody on a house is “stage it”. To stage a home is to set it up to make it appear someone lives there. Likewise, we are staging our churches to look like we care about people and taking the Gospel to the nations, when in reality, we are not “going” anywhere! If we are truly going to be Great Commission churches then we must be busy equipping people, training them and sending them out in obedience to God’s Word!

Pastor Scott Burr
http://faithandworshipseries.blogspot.com