Intro to Mission - Lecture #7 - Disciple Making Movements PT BR

this is unit 7 of introduction to missions I'm your professor Timothy Moore and we're going to be talking about missional readiness in this unit and um what it takes we're still talking about in this unit uh internally how we ready our hearts as missionaries and um and we're going to make a shift in the next unit that is very tactical very strategic we're going to look at um Mission strategies and anecdotes from the field in the next four units uh but this unit focuses uh on the heart of the missionary it's missional Readiness from a

personal standpoint uh because um that is absolutely the most important thing that we are biblically based in our mission efforts and that we are aligned with the mission of Christ and we are in tune with the Holy spirit and we are ready for what the Lord is going to do in and through our lives and in and through the lives of the people that we connect with on the mission field and so um we want to look um at this concept of removing hindrances uh it is possible for us to have certain um beliefs certain

attitudes udes uh certain perspectives that actually hinder the work of God through our lives when we are uh trying to be on Mission with the Lord um I was speaking to uh a gentleman yesterday that I I've known uh he he is a theologian I've known him for many years and uh um I'm going to be writing a forward to a book that he's publishing and he uh we we were having this discussion about hindering the work of God through our lives and um sometimes people respond with uh man just doesn't have the capability to

hinder the work of the Lord and and when I when I think about that kind of response and I've heard it from a few people we were discussing it yesterday uh it sounds sounds righteous but it's actually very biblically wrong when it comes to our personal experience with God and the kingdom impact that he designed for us it's absolutely possible to hinder the work of the Lord that he wants to do in and through our lives and the first place we're going to look at this and this connects to missional Readiness because we don't want

to hinder anything that God wants to do through our lives we're looking at Matthew 13:54 says he returned to Nazareth his hometown when he taught there in the synagogue everyone was amazed and said where does he get wisdom and power to do Miracles then they scoffed he's just the carpenter son Joseph was a carpenter and we know Mary his mother and his brothers James Joseph Simon and Judas and all his sisters live right here Among Us where did he learn all of these things and they were deeply offended and refused to believe then Jesus told

them a prophet is honored everywhere except in his own Hometown and among his own family and so he did only a few Miracles there because of their unbelief so Jesus goes to his hometown everybody knows Joseph and Mary everybody knows his brothers and his sisters uh I know there are some denominational groups that don't believe that Jesus had brothers or sisters but actually several places in the New Testament indicate that he did have brothers and sisters they're actually his half brothers and half sisters because God the Father through the Holy Spirit caused Mary to to

have Jesus there was a virgin birth and then Joseph and Mary had these other children and it's interesting that these children rejected Jesus can you imagine you're growing up with someone and and it's it's unfolding before you that that this your oldest brother is is something very special and there's jealousy and disbelief and and then at at there's a certain point where everything changed and that point is the resurrection they did not believe they being his brothers and sisters did not believe in him until Jesus conquered death and at the point that he was resurrected

his his physical half brothers and sisters became dedicated followers of the Lord Jesus James here wrote the book of James Judas here his name was Jude uh and he wrote the book of Jude and it's interesting when they introduce themselves they don't introduce themselves as the brothers of Jesus they introduced themselves as the Servants of the Lord so the moment that Jude and James were exposed to the resurrection Jesus conquered death to prove that he is our our Lord and our savior um it's just interesting to me that they never referred to themselves as you

know they it's like name dropping if Jesus was my older brother I would say Jude the half brother of the King of Kings and the Lord of lords but he didn't do that he said Jude the the servant of the Lord Jesus Christ James the servant of the Lord Jesus Christ because the resurrection caused them to believe but the people of Nazareth where Jesus grew up were deeply offended and number one they refused to believe in him and it says that he he only did a few Miracles there because of their unbelief Jesus was limited

in what he could do in Nazareth because the people of Nazareth did not have faith in him and not only did they not have faith in him they did not honor him Jesus said a prophet is not honored he in his own Hometown he's honored everywhere else but not in his hometown and so um we can limit the work of Christ if we're not living a life um that is aimed at his honor and if we are if our faith level and our trust in him is low if we're relying on ourselves not on the

Lord then it limits what the Lord does in and through our lives and so uh they didn't honor him they didn't trust him and it limited what could happen there um another New Testament passage that touches on this just this brief statement first thess Thessalonians 5:19 says do not quench the Holy Spirit and so the holy spirit's role is as we've seen before is to magnify Jesus John 16:14 he magnifies him some translations say he glorifies him and so the spirit wants to make Christ known and so when the spirit is at work to make

Christ known and and people um literally it says quench which means to extinguish a fire it means to pour water on a fire to put out a fire so God's spirit is working in a mighty way to bring people out of death and into life into a relationship with God through Jesus and we through our disbelief dishonor distrust of the Lord can quench what the spirit is doing and so um we need to be able to recognize what the work of the holy spirit is to glorify Jesus and and we need to eliminate any roadblocks

any choke points any ways that we may be a hindrance to the work of the Holy Spirit and so we need this missional Readiness a Readiness spiritually for the work of God wherever we are doing missions um so what's that going to look like how do we how do we recognize the work of the holy spirit so as not to hinder it like we see it and how do we get our heart hearts in a position where we don't hinder or quench the work of the Holy Spirit Well the the first thing I want to

do is is focus on what man what it looks like for the for the Holy Spirit to do unhindered work through missionaries uh on the field Ephesians 3:20 and 21 give gives us four principles four things that we can see and observe and say oh man the holy spirit is working in a mighty and unhindered way and uh let's make sure we're not standing in the way of this let's make sure our hearts are are in a position of Readiness to join him in this work Ephesians 3:20 says this all glory to God who is

able through his mighty power at work within us to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever when the unbridled unhindered um work of the holy spirit is happening and it's going to have four characteristics number one in verse 1 a there it says all glory to God the first thing is this he's going to get glory god is being glorified and there is there's a an atmosphere there where people are giving glory to God number two we're going

to see Mighty power at work an unusual power that's that's the second part of verse one his mighty power is at work within us number three it's beyond what we can ask or think the last part of verse one it says it's infinitely more than we can ask or think there's an exponential nature to the unhindered work of God and and then the the last thing that I want us to see through this uh passage is that it has an eternal impact it says glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all

generation forever and ever there is a sense in which eternity is being impacted through this outpouring through this work of of God and and it's in in this unhindered space because people's hearts are ready the missionary's hearts heart is ready um so how do we make sure that we have a heart a a a heart of Readiness as a missionary uh Readiness requires four things and we're going to look at different uh places in the word of God that emphasize this the first thing that it requires is a kingdom focus and we might call that

an upward Focus so Kingdom Focus upward it also requires equipped and encouraged workers and so that an inward Focus there is a kingdom Focus an upward Focus the the workers in the the in the vineyard the laborers in the vineyard the workers equipped and encouraged that's an inward focus it requires compassionate Hearts like Christ which is the outward focus and it also requires a Vigilant awareness which that is a situational awareness that's around us the focus is is around so there's an upward Focus an inward Focus an outward focus and an around focus and perspective

and so I want to unpack that a little bit so this missional Readiness this heart that's ready for the uh the the great magnificent exponential work of God so Jesus in Matthew 6:33 says seek the kingdom of God above all else some translations say Seek first the kingdom of God and live righteously and he will give you everything that you need so this ready heart this missional Readiness involves a kingdom Focus so we are not um we're not looking at things in the natural we're not saying uh the Lord we feel like the Lord uh

has led us to do this but um we don't have all of our ducks in a row so we're not going to do it we don't we don't have everything together so we're not going to do it imagine Moses with the uh people of Israel estimates of up to couple of million people pharaoh and the Egyptian armies are coming and they're standing at the water's edge and they said Lord um we know that you said you're going to part the sea but we need to see we need we need to not only see it happen

we need to know how you're going to do it we need to have some type of written perspectus and procedure of how you're going to part that sea and dry out the ground before we're going to walk through well what would have happened is they would have been killed by the Egyptians God said move and as they moved forward the the sea un it's like it unzipped and it stood up and the ground dry was dry they went through on dry ground and then the enemies that were pursuing the walls of water came down and

consumed them destroyed them when God gives a direction we we cannot operate in the natural if we're going to see God move in an exponential and Powerful way when he gives Direction our yes has to be on the table and we have to start moving in that direction before we have a t crossed and I dotted or a lowercase j and uh we can't we can't require all of the specifics we have to move in faith the Bible says whatever is not of faith is sin and that is the work of the Kingdom that we

have to have a focus that is above and beyond the natural a kingdom Focus where we know that our God who breathed this universe into existence and holds the whole universe together by the word of his power if he leads us to do something he will bless and resource and protect and guide his work and so we move forward in faith we have to have an upward Focus a kingdom focus and we can't stand still when the Lord says to do it because our Lord owns everything and our Lord can release abundant resources and he

will for the assignments that he gives and so not only do we need to have an upward and kingdom kingdom Focus to have a heart that is missionally ready we need to have encouraged and equipped workers and that's the inward Focus us and then Ephesians chap 4 it says now these gifts are uh Christ gave to the church the apostles the prophets the evangelists the pastors and the teachers these are leadership gifts that the Lord gives to equip and encourage the church and it says their responsibility verse 12 is to equip God's people to do

his work and to build up the church the body of Christ Christ and so there in order to be missionally ready for the outpouring of God's exponential work people need to be equipped and they need to be equipped through these gifts that God gave Apostolic prophetic Evangelistic shepherding teaching these are the leadership gifts of the church and the apostolic gift is um it doesn't mean the office of an apostle the word Apostolic apostolos in the Greek means to to be sent and specifically to be sent to start new things and so uh an example of

of being Apostolic would be a frontier missionary that goes in where there is no church and he begins to connect and Reach people and plant churches appoint Pastors in those churches and continue on in that assignment because it's the kingdom entrepreneur because this the apostolic leader is starting new kingdom works and then the prophetic leader there's Apostle and then there's a prophetic leader the prophetic leader is focused almost in the the entirety of his or her focus is on alignment with the word of God and being attuned to the holy spirit is this biblical and

is the the is this biblically aligned with the work of the Holy Spirit that's the prophetic gift and then um evangelists the Evangelistic leadership gift uh people with this gift share Christ naturally they can't not share Christ it's as naturalist breathing when they have the spir this spiritual leadership gift and so um when they go go to the grocery store somebody's probably going to hear about Jesus it's just who they are that's the Evangelistic gift to equip the church because there's a sense in which everyone in the church needs to be sent right uh by

the Lord by the spirit there and and we all need to be aligned with the word of God in the tune to the Holy Spirit we all need to be equipped to be ready to share our faith that's being Evangelistic and then the next gift is the shepherding gift and the shepherding gift is the the ability to help people navigate life and the hardships of life uh and and it is a caring gift it is a wisdom gift and so when people are experiencing difficulties and they don't know where to turn someone with the shepherding

gift can help them navigate life biblically in accordance with the Holy Spirit and in a way that that brings solutions to their challenges and so that's the shepherding gift and to a degree right all of us are going to have the opportunity to help friends relatives Associates and neighbors navigate life that's why we need to be equipped by the sheering kinds of leaders and then the last thing is teaching and teaching is the god-given ability this is a spiritual leadership gift it's the god-given ability to take these truths and these promises from God's word and

help people understand it in a way that they can apply it to their lives and be transformed and shine as lights for the Lord even in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation that's what the Bible says they hold forth the Word of Life equipped through the teaching gift so the lord gave these gifts and these gifts are designed these leadership gifts are designed to equip Believers to do the work to do what work Kingdom work to do the assignments of the Holy Spirit and this is about readiness and so the the the missionary

heart the missional Readiness is uh is focused on being encouraged and equipped to do the work to build up the church the body of Christ this is beyond the the local church this is this is the church Universal this is what the apostle meant Paul meant when there's he said there's one Lord One Faith one baptism we'll we'll connect we'll we'll touch on that more a little bit later the fourth thing that has to uh I mean the third thing that has to happen is the outward focus and and this missional read Readiness involves a

Compassionate Heart the Compassionate Heart of Christ and there's so many um there's so many verses that have a phrase that is translated moved with compassion connect to Jesus and I just want to share four with you very quickly in Matthew 9:36 it says Jesus was quote moved with compassion for the crowds who were scattered in distress like sheep having no Shepherd so he's moved with compassion for the crowds and then in Matthew 14:14 it says Jesus was moved with compassion for those who interrupted his grieving Jesus was grieving and people interrupted him and he was

moved with with compassion even for those people and then in uh Matthew 20:34 it says Jesus was moved with compassion and therefore he healed them in uh Luke 7:11 through1 15 it says in in that context Jesus was moved with compassion for a widow who who had lost her only son and he raised that son from the dead and so I'm just trying to give you a feel for uh so often in the gospels Jesus is moved with compassion and he has a heart of compassion and so if we're going to have hearts that are

missionally ready it involves having that Compassionate Heart of the Lord Jesus Christ that's the outward Focus are we moved with compassion for people um and the last thing that it requires is what I call a vigilant awar aess um and this is the focus around this is a a guarding Focus uh we have something to protect uh in terms of missional Readiness in Matthew 715 Jesus said Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly they are ravenous wolves and in 1 Timothy chapter 4 verse one Paul says to Timothy the

spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the Faith by paying attention to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons this is because of the hypocrisy of those who have their consciences seared as with an iron so we have something to to guard if we're going to be missionally ready there's a sense in which we have to be situationally aware that the enemy is trying to bring in a counterfeit anywhere the Lord is moving in a powerful and unhindered way the enemy of our souls is going to try to counterfeit it uh in

2 Corinthians chap 11 it says that he presents himself as an angel of his of light and the Servants of the devil present themselves as sons of righteousness and so they're not trying to do something that is completely opposite of the work of the lord they're trying to bring a counterfeit in beside the work of the Lord to draw people away from at least two things in particular number one in theology we call it the preeminence of Christ that that means that Christ is is absolutely the most important thing he is the focus the preeminence

of Christ is that there's nothing more important than the Lord Jesus Christ in the in missional work in church work in Kingdom work he is the king of all Kings he is the Lord of all Lords God has given him a name the father's given him a name that is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow and every tongue confess that he is Lord to the glory of God the father in the in the book of Acts it says there's no other name given among Heaven by which we must

be saved in Colossians it talks about uh in chapter one it is all about the preeminence of Christ um to say that he's preeminent means that he's Supreme Over All Things it says in verse 15 Christ is the visible image of the invisible God he EX existed before anything was created and is supreme overall Colossians 1:15 that's preeminence for through him God created everything in the Heavenly Realms and on the earth below he made the things we can see in the natural world he made the things we can't see in the spiritual World such as

Thrones and kingdoms and rulers and authorities in the Unseen World everything was created through Jesus and for Jesus he existed for anything else he holds creation together we're still talking about Christ God the son the second person of the Trinity it says he existed before anything else he holds all creation together and he is the head of the church which is his body and he is the beginning Supreme Over All Who rise from the dead he is first in everything and so when the enemy brings a counterfeit up next to the unhindered work of of

of the Holy Spirit the work that is counterfit will never make the Lord Jesus Christ preeminent that's the last thing that the enemy wants to do so what does he do instead he makes spiritual experiences preeminent you see that subtlety you see how he tries to to to bring something beside it that looks righteous and he wants people to worship the experience and they think they are giving testimonies when 2 Corinthians chap 11 says they're only boasting my cousin who's a pastor his name is Jim and he says uh in in in the movement of

God we give testimonies and then the counterfeit of the of the evil one they give bronies are boasting and in 2 Corinthians chapter 11 it says these false teachers only boast and it is shameful and so the second thing that the the counterfeit to the movement of the Holy Spirit uh attacks or diverts people from is the sufficiency of the work of Jesus Christ on our behalf and so it it's trying to get people away from the preeminence of Christ that he's Supreme that he's the focus and that he is our all in all our

king of kings and Lord of lords preeminence but it also diverts people away from the sufficiency of the finished work of Jesus to give us the full and complete experience of God's grace the full and complete forgiveness of God the full and complete acceptance of of God the full and complete love of God and so the enemy is always going to bring a counterfeit and we have to be vigilant in the prayer that Jesus prayed for us before he went to the Cross it's called the the many call it the high priest prayer of Jesus

in John chapter 17 uh Jesus says father I pray that they know that you love them as much as you love me verse 23 he says I am in them talking about people who believe in Christ people who invite Christ into their lives anyone who has said in Faith Lord I need you Lord Jesus I Need You Come Into My Life be my savior be my Lord Jesus says in verse 23 I am in them and you father are in me may they experience such perfect Unity that the world will know that you sent me

and don't miss this you love them as much as you love me when I first read that I I had already had uh I mean when when when the Lord I'd read it before but somehow I'd skimmed over it in a way way that it didn't really impact me all that much uh but one day in my devotional time with God many years ago maybe 30 years ago I was in Bible College may maybe my second semester of Greek and I read that and and I saw that and it landed in my heart for the

first time where it says father show them that you love them in other words show Timothy that you love him as much as you love me and I and I thought I remember thinking to myself that can't be God the Father can't love me as much as he loves Jesus Christ and so I immediately went to my analytical Greek New Testament I look at it to see exactly what it's saying there and you know what it say it uses the word kathos which means just like just as just as much and so it is saying

that the father loves you as a believer me Father God God the Father loves you and me as Believers with the same kind and the same amount of love that he he loves the Lord Jesus Christ that should that should impact you so much that's the sufficiency of the work of Jesus on your behalf you and I could never deserve that it is Grace Grace means it's a completely free benefit purchase it's a it's an expensive benefit but we didn't do anything to deserve it Jesus accomplished it through his death and his burial and his

resurrection he paid for it that's why at the end his in his final breath he said to testy which means paid in full Jesus paid for it we receive it when we receive him as our savior and that is a a a benefit that cannot we cannot estimate the the the cost of that treasure the value of that treasure and that speaks to the sufficiency of the finished work of Jesus and so the counterfeit of the enemy coming alongside the outpouring the true outpouring and unhindered work of the Lord the counterfeit will never focus on

the premeny of Jesus Christ how he is supreme over all things and it will never focus on the sufficiency of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ so that you don't have to do anything to earn the grace and love and forgiveness and acceptance of God because Jesus paid for that on the cross the enemy will come alongside and say oh you can have this if you press in if you seek God if you if you do this and this if you if you keep this list of of of what is required then you too

can experience this and so people lean in and they pray oh God give me this give me Grace give me love give me forgiveness and God says hey stop asking for this I've already given this to you through Jesus here's what I need you to do believe it declare it be grateful for it and so instead of begging God for it when we see the supremacy of Christ and the sufficiency of Christ here's how we come to God oh ABA the Bible says he he's we no longer are are are at a distance from him

the word ABA means daddy in Aramaic so we come with this term ter of endearment to God and we just say thank you Father thank you ABA that you have given me the full and complete measure of your love because of what Jesus did for me thank you that I have your complete forgiveness thank you that I have the full and complete measure of your mercy and Grace let that father let that knowledge and that awareness bring a peace upon me that passes all human human understanding or you can just say thank you Father for

that peace that I have because of these things and you're operating in that space of complete love and forgiveness and acceptance because of the sufficiency of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ on your behalf he has atoned for all of your sin and all of your shame and he's conquered death and he said because I live you will live also oh forget not the benefits the Bible says forget not the Lord and all his benefits to those who trust in him what incredible benefits the enemy brings a counter fit and it causes you to

forget the benefits it causes you to not think about the preeminence and supremacy of Jesus it causes you not to think of the sufficiency of the work of Jesus on our behalf and so the emphasis then is really not on Christ it's on you and as long as it is about you the enemy is happy even if it looks like the like something people would do in church in fact um what do we do with church we we we attend worship Services we give tithes and offerings we pray we sing songs we serve okay let's

just focus on those five things right there well we can either do those things because we think those things make us accepted by God or we can do these five things because we are accepted by God we do the same things the only difference is our heart motivation so when I show up to worship to pray to sing to Fellowship to serve I'm doing it from a place of complete acceptance because of the supremacy and sufficiency of the Lord Jesus Christ and if I don't have that I show up and do the same things for

the for a completely different reason so it's a counterfeit and it looks exactly the same I hope you're understanding that there is a way to discern there's a way to see the unhindered work of God to for our hearts to be missionally ready and there's a counterfeit because that's what the enemy does and to understand those things and that those things are in op in in operation and to respond appropriately to those things is missional Readiness a missional church for example is uh is characterized by a great deal of respect for uh people who don't

believe other words a mission Church understands what it's like not to believe and that permeates everything every meeting we understand what it's like not to believe uh we understand uh the problems people have with the church we understand the problems people have with the way life goes we understand people who wonder about suffering they wonder about hypocrisy in the church they wonder about Injustice so because we understand that uh the way the preaching goes the way uh uh conversations happen in small groups non-christians can be there and not be a offended by all by all

the the cracks about non-christians or not offended by statements about homosexuality statements about other religions uh they're not offended and secondly they're not totally confused because instead of just using Evangelical subcultural jargon we're always in all of our conversations everything from the education to the worship service the preaching we're always connecting the gospel to Baseline cultural narratives problems hopes aspirations when when non-christians come in they see that we inhabit the same world we read the same magazines we're struggling with the same issues in the neighborhood they they they see that we're really being Christians in

the same um world that they live and that has to there's an awful lot of Evangelical churches where a non-Christian comes in they can't understand the jargon they they they see an enormous us them mentality you know there's there's us good people and there's you bad people the uh all of the things that that are obsessing the Christians that they talk about are not the issues in the neighborhood they're not the issues in the the Christians are not concerned about the common good they're really just concerned about their tribe so when a non-Christian comes in

and they hears they hear all this talk they're confused or offended and they're out that's not a missional church see that's that's very different than just an Evangelistic um approach or let me put it one more way uh one of our church Planters from here who was trained here it started a church in Berlin Just Got Started was doing quite well downtown Berlin young secular people almost all new Christians Sun single people right in the heart of Berlin and he came back and gave us a little uh a video of a a girl who a

young woman who' become a Christian and he translated it was in German but what what struck me was she she told the story how she became a Christian she got to know Christian which is the name of the pastor and he talked to her about Christianity and gave her a book and as she read the book she came back and she said you can't be a Christian you're just like me you've read the same things you're concerned about the city you're concerned about all the you're just like you can't be a Christian you're just like

me Christians aren't like me and then she said but then I realized you are a Christian and you're just like me so maybe I could be a Christian now in other words they she saw that he was he had similar sensibilities he was truly German he was truly he was young he was hip actually but he was also concerned about the same problem she was in the world and she he was addressing them from a Christ with Christian resources and I think an awful lot of non-christians listen to Christians talking about the problems of the

world and they're different a whole different set of problems they don't hear Christians concerned about the same problems they're concerned with when non-christians see Christians addressing the common good and the problems that we all face as co-citizens in the world using Christian resources therefore maybe the people won't agree with us but at least they see that we're that we have the same heart then they can identify they say maybe I could be a Christian too but honestly I think most non-christians when they see how what Christians are obsessed with they they can't even begin to

relate to them