Praise the Lord with Me (Bless the Lord with Me), Great Jehovah, King Jesus, When I Think About the Lord, The Blessing, My God He Can Do Anything

What comes to your mind when you think of the word “missions”?

36 Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. 38 Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.”

Knowing the purpose for why a thing exists is vital — if you use it for something else, you may destroy it! Imagine your grandma stepping on your latest-model tablet because she mistakenly thought it was a weighing scale. Do you know your purpose, or mission in life? Some of us indeed may have a mission that we pursue, but is it God’s mission for your life? Remember, the greatest tragedy is not death, but life with the wrong purpose. Or has living without a purpose become your purpose in life? The apostle Paul taught that we are to live a life that is pleasing to God — that is to be our ambition, our purpose in life (2 Corinthians 5:9-10)! When we stand before God one day, we will have to answer the question of whether we accomplished His purpose for us, or not. We are all accountable before God, and that’s why we need to find out what our mission is so that we can pursue and accomplish it. Jesus declared that He has all authority and gave the mission that He commanded all His followers to fulfill — the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20). The primary verb in this passage in the original Greek language is “make disciples”. In the Bible, “disciples” refers to believers; a believer though may not be a disciple, but a disciple is a definitely a believer in Jesus. We cannot call ourselves “Christian” if we are not following Jesus. To make disciples includes teaching believers to obey Jesus. Embrace God’s mission of making disciples! “If a commission by an earthly king is considered an honor, how can a commission by a Heavenly King be considered a sacrifice?” (David Livingstone). How do we embrace God’s mission?

HAVE THE EYES OF JESUS

Jesus doesn’t see people as a problem or a burden; when He looks at us, He sees our problems (Matthew 9:36). Most of us don’t have compassion when we look at crowds of people, but God sees them differently. We see this contrast between Jesus and the Pharisees in the way they viewed Matthew, the chief tax collector, and his friends (Matthew 9:10-11). “Compassion” as used in Matthew 9:36 (Gk. splanchnizomai) is the strongest word for pity that moves a person to the deepest depths of their being— literally, the “bowels” or “stomach”. Spurgeon notes, “The original word is a very remarkable one. It is not found in classical Greek. In fact, it was a word coined by the early Christian evangelists themselves.”  It’s only when you have Jesus that you will have this kind of compassion. Sadly, many Christians can be critical of other Christians who go to certain places outside the church to evangelize others! The Lord values compassion from us towards others more than our “sacrifice” (Matthew 9:12-13).

HAVE THE HEART OF JESUS

The words used to describe how Jesus saw the crowds (distressed, dispirited) gives a very powerful description of someone who is knocked down and about to give up (Matthew 9:36). When Jesus sees you, He sees your problems that’s weighing you down. Like the Pharisees, the problem with a lot of Christians and religious people is that we may have a lot of Bible knowledge, but we fail to have the heart of Jesus for people (Luke 15:1-2). Jesus tells the parable of the lost sheep to address this lack of a heart for people (Luke 15:3-4).

HAVE THE URGENCY OF JESUS

The audience of Jesus understood the urgency of gathering the harvest when it is ready (Matthew 9:37). The harvest today is still plentiful! Contrary to what you may believe, people are interested to know about Jesus. If we don’t harvest ripe fruit, they will get destroyed. This is “crisis” time; that’s why we are to “beg” (beseech) God to send workers into the harvest field (Matthew 9:38). When you pray for God’s solution, you become part of the solution (Luke 10:2-3). Jesus is sending you out — are you doing your part in bringing in the harvest? To have the urgency of Jesus to accomplish the mission, we need to have these convictions: 1-God desires everyone to be saved (1 Timothy 2:4); 2-People are lost (Romans 3:23); 3-There is life after death (Hebrews 9:27, Mark 8:36), you spend eternity with Jesus or in hell (Matthew 25:46, John 14:2, Revelation 20:11-15); 4-Jesus is the only way to be saved (John 14:6); 5-The Great Commission is a command (Matthew 28:18-20).

When we talk to people, we have to remember that they are immortals (C.S. Lewis) — we will live for eternity either in heaven or in hell. Since Jesus is the only way for people to be saved, He gave all His followers the Great Commission so that we will all make disciples. Why is there the urgency for us to obey? World religion statistics) tell us that Christians make up the biggest percentage of the world’s population (32.42%) though there are probably less percentage of true believers in Christ among the 8.16 billion people in the world today. 70% are unbelievers. Unreached people groups are 3.3 billion individuals who have not heard about Jesus and 90% (4.4 billion) of them live in the 10/40 window. The biggest number of Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and atheists live in Asia. The great need and urgency to tell others about Jesus is shown in the Samaritan woman’s story (John 4:7-27). Like Jesus, be willing to get out of your comfort zone to share the gospel. Even an hour-old believer can be an effective witness for Jesus — just share your story of what God has done in your life (John 4:28-30, 39-42)!  Jesus was training His disciples to have compassion on the Samaritans, people they disliked (John 4:35). Church history tells us that the Samaritan woman, Photini, became an evangelist who became a martyr for refusing to denounce Jesus. Start fulfilling God’s mission for your life at home and embrace God’s mission to make disciples of all the nations!

Pray for the crowds of people you meet every day — at the mall, on the streets, at work, school, on social media platforms.

See them with the eyes and heart of Jesus— share the gospel to those you interact with.

Make disciples urgently, embracing God’s mission for your life.

• Worship God for who He is, what He has done, and what He will do in our lives.

• Upright and moral governance of public servants; repentance and salvation for government leaders and citizens for a Christ-centered Philippines.

• For legislators to promote and support bills and laws aligned with God’s Word.

• War in Ukraine to end, loss of lives prevented.

• For the rest of the Israeli hostages to be restored to their families safely. For Israel’s war with terrorists to end according to God’s purpose and for His glory.

• Pray for Jewish people worldwide who are experiencing a surge of antisemitism; may this lead them to the Messiah, Jesus as they turn to God for help and comfort.

• For protection of Iranian, Syrian and Lebanese Christians and other minorities, and freedom from oppression. Pray for the gospel to spread rapidly throughout their region.

• Pray for Sudanese and Nigerian persecuted Christians; earnestly seek God’s intervention to stop the bloodshed. Pray for freedom from oppression, that God’s word and His people bring them comfort and hope.

• God’s help to rescue and comfort flash flood victims in central Texas, USA who have lost loved ones, many of them young children; strength and protection for first responders.

• That CCF Members would honor and love God and make disciples.

• Elders, pastors, dleaders, and families (holy, humble, harmonious, happy, heart-working).

• Ministries and churches expand worldwide.

• Worship and Training Center

• Prayer Mountain

• Deeper intimate relationship with God.

• Righteous living.

• Salvation of family and friends.

37 Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. 38 Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.”