Intro To Mission - Lecture #3 - Biblical Basis of Missions

hello this is unit three of in introduction to missions I'm Professor Timothy Moore and we are still looking at the biblical basis for Missions and today we're going to be examining something referred to as the missio day missio day means the mission of God or the fact that we have a missional god we've looked at Abraham as the first person called by God to missions in that sense because he said you're you will be a blessing to all nations in Genesis CH 12 but before Abraham before any other person was called to missions God himself

was the missionary he's always been missional the missio day so I have a a video here and I want you to pay close attention to how this is expressed very artistically uh by this lady and see how the misio day is uh is described red through um through what she [Music] expresses MSO day the mission of God it is here it is now and it is moving this is more than a story or or a rehearsal this isn't lip service it is about living God's Mission today the mission of God's intimate relationship with all of

creation expressed through the Life of Christ it's an invitation to embrace God's unfolding Vision that Christ made living it's been here from the beginning MSO day is a moving mission of Discovery and healing and hope an agenda of significance for all who answer yes to the call to serve every encounter with God is an opportunity for exploration and growth msio day is living the message with the community every aspect of it embracing the world around us our home work Neighborhood Church School Park Street Corner Grocery Store phone call bus ride everything the hope of wholeness

is a promise but we must look outside our doors God is outward moving it is expanding growing and connecting in a separated world that constant relational impulse of Christ Mission creates connectedness and hope misso day God's love love is enduring and persistent join us together through the Holy Spirit through the living body of Christ we become one messio day God's Vision Christ's Mission the word must become [Music] flesh so let's talk about the missio day what is it um the first person to elaborate on the missio day was uh was St Augustine and what he

meant by the missio day was God being God in time in other words uh God is outside of time time is a created thing but God decides to enter into time and bring God's self into time in order to accomplish a specific mention so uh Mission so God comes into this world in a way that we as human beings can experience him with our senses and it's an amazing thing that members of the Holy Trinity God the Father God the son God the Holy Spirit Come into our space and time and do work for the

benefit of human beings made in their image you remember we've referred to um human beings are referred to as the imod day the image of God and so God on Mission missio day comes to imod day people created in His image for our benefit and so biblical missions is a reflection of what God himself does in in in coming into the space or the place of a of a people to be involved in an ongoing process that did not begin in the heart and mind of human beings it is the missio day it is the

heart and mind of God and the ongoing mission of God on planet Earth we are in invited into a mission and so let's pray about that together father I pray in Jesus good name that you would Open the Eyes of our understanding so that we can comprehend in a deeper way how you have called us into your mission you are the missionary God you have the misso day and you've been doing it from the very beginning and so we live our lives here and Lord I pray that you would show us how to intermingle our

lives with you to live in relationship with you and to be aware of what you are doing around us and simply join you in it so that people might know the hope and the restoration that you are bringing and have been bringing from the very beginning we glorify you I ask for the Holy Spirit to enable me to communicate this well so that it makes an impact and we can join you together in Mission In Jesus good name amen so there are four key aspects to the missio day and and we're going to look at

those four key aspects it's not enough to just know them so we're going to move from the knowledge of the four key aspects of missio day to the personal application of the four aspects of missio day and so I'm going to State them and then we're going to elaborate and explain so number one the misso day is God revealing himself and so from the very beginning to Adam and Eve in the garden God is revealing and unveiling himself who he is and and so the second part of it it is god um calling people to

himself so it's not just God revealing it's God calling and bringing people to himself the third aspect of missio day is about God weaving our lives together with himself and so it's us joining God and living Our Lives not just here but for all eternity with God and the fourth aspect of the missio day is about us joining God himself in his mission like this is our purpose so God revealing himself God calling people to himself God weaving our lives together with himself and US joining God himself in his mission so why do we need

to grasp and understand the missio day I want to speak to this uh first theologically so how does it impact us theologically um and the our our theology is just how we understand God and the misio day affects one aspect of theology that's referred to as theology proper which is who is God and what is he doing I mean that is the missio day and so the the theology proper is about having a proper theology a proper understanding of who God is and what he's doing and so um the aspect that I want to focus

on in regard to theology proper is this concept of joining God in what he is already doing and so in order to understand that we have to focus on God's um unchangeable attributes first and then our appropriate response to those unchangeable attributes God's attributes there are words for them but the way they're expressed it always begins with all he is all powerful he is all knowing he is all sufficient he needs nothing from us and so we can't add anything to God or take anything away from God so God being all knowing the word for

that is omniscient God being all all powerful that's omnipotent him being um unchangeable that's immutable there are words there are theology words to express all of this it's sufficient for us to know that he's all knowing allmighty all sufficient and he needs nothing from us we can't add anything to God and we can't take anything away from God God needs nothing God God created everything that exists including time and he holds it all together and is outside of it he exist outside of everything that he has made and in order to come into it it's

a missionary it's a mission trip for God to come into the time and space and creation and so he does that and all that we can do and all that we're expected to do is join God in what he is already doing around us Dr Henry blackaby beautifully captured this concept in his book Experiencing God knowing and doing the will of God I had the opportunity to know uh Dr blackaby and even in the uh the church that I pastored in seminary uh Dr blackaby son uh was a part of our church and so he

personally um impacted my life and he wrote this incredible book that it's worth reading it's worth everyone reading because it is such a good expression of missio day Dr blackaby thanks for making time for us today and welcome back to Canada I bet a lot of people don't know that you are a Canadian I am a Canadian do you still consider yourself a Canadian even though you're transplanted oh yes and I I've been asked to be in the Oval Office of the White House several times and I sit there saying what's this Canadian doing counseling

the president well good for you we're proud of you and you know you're really well known of course as a writer and speaker and you're really well known for Experiencing God which sold 4 million copies but what a lot of people might not know is that you actually are really involved in the business world the group that uh has formed uh starting with two uh that I work with we call the CEO forum and uh it basically touches the lives of the um CEOs of the Fortune 500 companies so it started with two and we're

over 170 now and uh these are the top companies of all kinds from medical to financial planners to Bankers to uh Builders I mean every aspect of of life in the nation are involved in this group so now is this training business people to share their faith at work is that what part of it is it's helping uh these folk to be authentic Believers and have an authentic genuine real relationship to The Living Lord in the marketplace when they get into uh a board meeting I'll tell them how to function in the board meeting how

to recognize the presence of God I said God was there before you got there you don't have to to invite him in and uh but you do have to recognize when he's guiding you if he's going to give you wisdom you better know when he is and when the Holy Spirit is teaching you you better know when he's teaching you well nobody's ever discipled these folk I would say that uh 95% of all the CEOs have never been discipled so when you say an authentic believer some people may not really have an idea what what

that means there's only one guy and he has told us how he wants to relate to us and uh he tells us what the prerequisites are and what it what it is in our life that will prevent him from helping us for instance if I hold sin in my heart the Lord will not hear me when God speaks and you don't obey that is sin and uh then I'll illustrate from the marketplace and they oh that's what you mean or they'll come back the next month saying you know God really dealt with me and for

the first time I knew it was God and I obeyed immediately and let me tell you what happened doors open things happened that I have been trying to see happen for years but once God had my attention and had my obedience then he could open a door and this is all from really them opening up their hearts and their spiritual ears I guess it is to what is God saying to me where is God leading me and and inviting him to take over and direct things yeah and they had no idea that they weren doing

could be yeah and you see for the for those top CEOs of the top companies of America our CEO forum is a safe house they don't have any other Safe House where they can be themselves where people aren't always trying to get them to influence and give them money and and in the process our group the CEO Forum has had two White House briefings where the White House heard about Christian businessmen and said would you come to the White House and we want to brief you in what's happening and here I was as a Canadian

so they're saying what am I doing here and God says because I put you hear and because you you like you said you've been obedient I've been obedient one day at a time yeah that's right and he cannot give you a larger assignment which affects eternity and affects the direction of the world if you don't have a track record where you're absolutely immediately obedient and that sounds really easy because I mean honestly when we come to God we give him our lives that means he gets control he's Lord as we say but but you say

that people aren't really living out there that reality they still want to be in control the essence of sin is the uh refusal to acknowledge that he has the right to be Lord so we always come with our agenda and we say well we want to do this for God and he'll say don't or we ask him what do you want me to do for you and he'll say nothing I want you to be available so that I can do whatever I want through you now is there a difference between between you and me doing

for God and God doing what only God can do through us different is night and day well give me an example then of of what you would say to them when you're trying to teach them this here's an example of how you know the holy spirit is opening your mind or telling you this is something well I'd say uh when you open the scripture he's your teacher you need to have a notepad where you write down what truths are you saying being that you've never seen before been through that passage many times why now and

why this truth that is a holy spirit teaching you well I think a lot of people would say you know what Dr blackby this sounds like a great idea involving God in my workplace and he's gonna just bless my work and everything but you say another challenging thing that I don't think people would suspect and that's that God is not interested in our success that's if we're going to put him in charge and in our of our business that's scary well he's concerned about your character and he will be developing your character because character determines

assignment he'll never give a large assignment to a small character and so he's going to develop your character and he's going to put you in situations that will press areas of your life that need changing if he were to give a success in the business world it would cancel the opportunity to develop as a believer we would be with the success and it would go to our head and all kinds of things success is much more difficult to handle than stress and failure so are you saying he never gives us success oh no he will

he will and he'll put you in a very significant position and he may make you the CEO of a whole company but uh you just need to know your position is not so you can be recognized by men but but you can be used by God and whether men recognize you or not you want the approval of God if we let the world shape our objectives and our goals we'll miss 90% of what God wants and he's going to touch your life globally and you may you know have recognition and be given an award for

the most effective CEO in the company and Miss entirely what God could have done and I'm I'm listening you know with a an utter amazement I'm listening to these CEOs as they develop I've been working with them for 12 to 14 years wow and I have seen the growth and the development in their lives and what Dr blackaby teaches us is that God himself is always at work around us and his will for our lives is never to do anything for him it's simply to join him in what he is already doing and so to

say we need to do something for God is actually improper theology because God's all sufficient all knowing all powerful he needs nothing from us and so it's not what we do for God it's what we do with God that is our involvement in the missio day and so having a proper understanding of who God is and the fact that God's always at work around you it doesn't matter where you are if you're on a bus if you're in a classroom if you're at work if you're at home God is always at work around you and

he will always allow you if you are yielded to him and have a heart to obey him and be yielded to him like Galatians 5:116 says yield yourself to God God will invite you to join him in the work that he's doing and the the the beautiful and powerful thing about that is God never fails in his work never it's not dependent on us and so if it's God's work God's work is going to succeed and we get the blessing of joining a sovereign omnipotent all knowing all sufficient God in the work that he is

doing and that should give us an incredible amount of confidence we lose that confidence when our theology gets skewed and wrong and we think that God needs something from us he doesn't he's The Sovereign God he holds everything together by the word of his power and he is on Mission he is missio day the missionary God so our theology is impacted uh in terms of joining God and doing Mission with God not for God it's with God but also our understanding of the Bible in uh in seminary terms in in theological terms we call that

hermeneutics hermeneutics is understanding interpreting and expressing the scripture properly and uh 2 Timothy 2:15 says be diligent So it's talking about it's talking to rather Ministry leaders first second Timothy and Titus in the Bible are called the Pastoral Epistles meaning their instructions to Ministry leaders and so 2 Timothy 2:15 says we as Ministry leaders are to be diligent to present ourselves approved to God workers that do not need to be ashamed rightly dividing the word of Truth now that word that's translated rightly dividing just means to understand it correctly so we understand it correctly we

express it clearly that's hermeneutics and so in order to have good hermeneutics in order to have that ability to rightly divide God's word we must understand what we call the missio day um it transforms our view of the Bible so without the missio day without the four aspects of the missio day the Bible becomes can become just a collection of stories like eso's Fables are a collection of stories that we may or may not have an interest in if we read them we can get some type of moral out of the story which is a

suggestion for how we live our lives better so that's possible with eso's Fable it's possible with the Bible if the missio day is not applied to scripture but the Bible is not a collection of Stories the Bible from Genesis 1 to revelation 22 is an expression of one thing the misso day the mission of God and if we understand that the whole Bible becomes one unit it becomes one book one Narrative of how God is revealing himself how God is calling people to himself how God is showing people how to we interweave their lives with

him in relationship and how God is calling us into his mission for planet Earth that's what the whole Bible is about so it's impossible to understand the Bible fully and express it accurately if we don't grow in our understanding of the missio day the mission of God so we've talked about the three aspects of our of our life with Christ Our devotional life our relational life and our missional life life um the reason that one needs to flow into the other so your relation your devotional life with God flows into your relational life with other

spiritual friends who are walking with God and then that flows into missional life the reason all three of those things have to happen is because that's the only way to cooperate with the missio day that's the only way to be engaged in the mission of God and fulfill his purpose for your life here on planet Earth and so the missio day has to move from the these um uh impersonal Concepts like we we think of them as these four principles it has to shift from that to becoming incredibly personal and so instead of um it

just being um you like for instance you open your Bible you're reading a chapter of the Bible and uh and you're asking yourself the four questions of the missio day it's absolutely going to help you to understand what the Bible is saying but it's not enough here's what I mean by that if you are reading a chapter of the Bible and you have in your mind the four missio day uh aspects the four principles how is God revealing himself to people that's number one so you're reading a chapter of the Bible first question how is

God revealing himself to people in this chapter second question second part of the misso day um how is God calling people to himself in this chapter how is God drawing people to himself uh the third question how is God leading people to weave their lives together with his life here in this chapter and then the fourth question is how is God lead you know um how is God inviting people to join him in in his mission in this chapter okay that's still over over there you're looking at something you're trying to answer those questions and

it absolutely helps you understand that chapter better but if you don't put it into your into your own jacket it into your own lap into your own life we fall short and so here's the difference instead of saying how is God revealing himself to people you have to make it how is God revealing himself to me and instead of just how is God calling people to himself how is God right now in my life drawing me to himself because we can walk away from the Lord we can distance ourselves from the Lord we can forget

God and walk into besetting sins and so how is God drawing me back into into Fellowship into relationship into an awareness of his presence in my life how's God drawing me to himself right now and so um instead of it just being how is God leading people to interweave their lives with him it it the question is how's God leading me to weave my life into his life and the fourth question instead of how's God calling people to be on mission is what assignment is God how is God revealing where he's working around me and

inviting me to join him in that work so it's got to become intensely personal this is not just a theological principle or precept this is how we walk with God the missio day is how we walk with God how's God inviting us right now into his mission how how are we supposed to join God and when people in the Bible Express this uh I think about the apostle Paul um he he cannot they the people in the scriptures talking about this missional connection with God it seems like they're overstating it like in Acts 2024 uh

Paul says my life is worth nothing that seems like an overstatement but it's not because it's what we're made for he says my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus this work of telling others the good news about the wonderful grace of God God invited Paul in an incredibly tangible way when he is persecuting Christians and on his way to the town of Damascus to get more to arrest and persecute more Believers the Lord appears to Paul Jesus appears to Paul in a

blindingly powerful way it literally blinded Paul and Jesus asked him to join him in calling people out of Darkness into light from the power of Satan the Bible says to the kingdom of God and so this is God in an amazing tangible way saying Paul join me here's your assignment and from that moment on on Paul is saying my life is worth nothing to me unless I join God in this um so let's expand to the to the world like why is there a global need for missio day why do human beings in general need

the missio day so as opposed to God needing us or us accomplishing anything for God again God has been actively doing redeeming saving restoring work from the very beginning of the world even though people made in the image of God exercise their Wills continually to forget God and rebel against God God is constantly actively doing redeeming and saving and restoring work um This Global need for the missio day uh we can't speak of the global need without talking about Sin um sin as a concept refers to anything that separates us from God um it's doing

things our own way instead of God's way and God's way is the only way to Hope and healing there's no other way there's no other path to Hope and healing than God's way our way without him always and when I say our way I mean human way the human way without God always diminishes life it diminishes hope it diminishes relationships and so life without God Cuts us off from the source of Hope and healing from the source of Abundant Life and blessed relationships and so sin is anything that we do that that causes that to

happen and so that's why the missio day is always in effect God is always reaching out to human beings that's why we we studied in the biblical basis of mission in in unit two the Great Commission Matthew 28:18-20 like this mission is is something that God is doing to the Nations to the world and he calls us to join him in it and and uh Jesus says all power is given to me go you therefore join me in this and make disciples of all the nations and so um what I want to focus on now

in regard to that is like why why would God be motivated to constantly be engaged in drawing people to himself if he has no needs why what motivates God to do that why is he constantly engaged in Saving rescuing redeeming and restoring work on planet Earth and in order to understand that aspect of missio day we have to back up into IMO day we have to back up into what it means to be created in the image of God and there are two main words to express being created in God's image and why God would

be motivated to do the work that he does and those two words are worth and will worth and will and when we're talking about worth and will as it relates to us being in the image of God worth equals value and our will equals heartfelt wishes or desires because we are created in the image of God we have a certain worth a certain value and because we're created in the image of God we have a will of our own um our will which is what motivates us what drives us it's the Greek word thma thalma

means the desires of our heart our our the wishes and motivations of our heart worth and will we're created in the image of God Genesis 1 1227 is a conversation among the Triune God it doesn't say God doesn't say I am going to make man in my image in Genesis 1:27 he says let us make man in our image and so there's a conversation in the Eternal relationship of Father Son and Holy Spirit to create this being in the image of the Triune God and because we're made that way we have incredible value before God

that's expressed in uh a verse that I've used often and if you've been listening to um other lectures or me teaching in person I've probably used this verse six or seven times because it's a great verse to express our worth Ephesians 2:10 and that is that we are the Masterpiece of God the Bible says you're the craftsmanship the master piece the Greek word poema you're the Poetry of God and you're created for a specific purpose God has ways that he wants you to join him in his work the Ephesians 2:10 says he has the work

marked out for you and he did it even before the foundation of the world so you have great value as the Masterpiece of God human beings do all human beings have value and all human beings have a purpose within the missio day people miss it people can do it or not do it in order to join God we have to come into relationship with God we have to exercise our will our desire to be in relationship with God worth is ultimately expressed worth and will worth is ultimately expressed and what someone is willing to pay

for something I've used this illustration I think it's a good one I can say the watch on my wrist is worth $1,000 I can say that all day long but if somebody's only willing to pay $10 for this watch it's not worth $1,000 it's worth $10 so worth is determined by how much someone is actually willing to pay for something another thing that determines worth is who made it so the watch that I'm wearing um I didn't buy it someone else paid for it uh this is the benefit of having six children that are grown

and have jobs uh I've never owned an expensive watch but my children all got together uh at Christmas and said we're going to all pitch in and get Dad an expensive watch a watch like he he wants he loves the outdoors we're going to get him Garmin smart watch and because Garmin made this watch and they have a reputation for making high quality products this watch is a pretty expensive watch more expensive than any watch I would ever think about buying for myself so the Creator the person that makes it gives it value so value

is determined by who makes it and how much someone's willing to pay for it and so when you talk about a human being the imod day who made human beings the artist the manufacturer the creator of human beings is the almighty all- knowing all-sufficient unchanging God and because he is the ultimate artist he's the ultimate manufacturer human beings created in the image of God have a value that cannot be expressed using human language every human being has a value that is beyond expression so the imod day is not just created by God how much is

paid for the IMO day who is willing to pay what amount for human beings for God so loved the world John 316 that he gave his only begotten son the second person of the Trinity misso day comes into time and space 2,000 years ago approximately and he lives on Miss for 33 and A2 years and he gives his very holy perfect life to pay the price that also we don't have words to describe we can't describe the the um the amount we can't fully understand what it cost God the son God incarnate to pay the

price for all of our sin and shame but what we can glean from that what we can understand from that is human beings no matter who they are no matter what they've done no matter what they're involved with no matter how far away from God they are their value is beyond anything that we could even express with human words that's why Jesus was willing to come and create this opportunity for us to come into relationship with God for our lives to be intertwined with the life of God and for us to join God in his

mission the mishio day so Jesus comes and creates this opportunity because the missio day exists because it is the framework for God's purpose in this world Jesus Christ creates opportunity there always exists an opportunity as long as we are breathing as long as someone is alive the opportunity exists but God only works by invitation Jesus said seek and you will find knock and the door will be open to you ask and it will be given to you he said if anyone opens the door Revelation 3:20 I will come in and dine with him and he

with me if we open the door if we invite him in if we receive him John 1:12 as many as receive him to them give he gives the right to become children of God to those who believe on his name it is By Invitation Only and the Bible is very clear Jesus is very clear we can reject re it reject the opportunity we can forget God we can go our own way and not engage in the missio day and as we do that everything that makes life and existence worth happening diminishes diminishes keeps diminishing Matthew

23:37 Jesus before he was crucified he sat overlooking Jerusalem and he said J Jerusalem Jerusalem you who killed the prophets and stoned those who sent you how often I've longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings but you were not willing worth and will people are the imod day and because of that they have incredible worth and they have a will and when Jesus said you were not willing that's an expression of wish desire motivation if we don't have the wish desire motivation to have a relationship with God

and to engage with God in his mission on planet Earth the MST of your day then we miss out we miss out and ultimately if that if if we never engage with that and we don't intertwine our lives with God we don't have that relationship with God we miss out on that for all eternity that was the message of Jesus but Jesus Saidi am the way John 14:6 I am the truth I am the life he said this is eternal life John 17 that they may know you Father and Jesus Christ whom you have sent

God wants us to come into relationship with him God wants us to be on Mission with him this is his purpose for our lives the misso day