Passage – Various

Memory Verse: “until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” (Ephesians 4:13, NIV)

Introduction:

We are in this new series of 7 Dimensions. The main goal in this whole series is to better equip us as Spirit filled Disciples of Jesus, meaning how can we better follow Jesus in his footprints and what does that look like in the areas of our lives such as reading the Bible, Prayer, being led by the Holy Spirit working in us, serving him, worship, and Generosity. These are some areas we will go over in these weeks ahead and I am really expecting God to speak to all of us no matter where we are at in our journey as Disciples of Jesus.

Do you know what the Mission of Cornerstone is?

Before Jesus ascended, he gave his followers a mission to “go and make disciples” of all the families in the world. As families that have put Jesus at the center of our lives, Cornerstone is called to that mission of making disciples by growing Christ-centered families. The world consists of many types of families that are far from God. Our mission is to help all families explore the truths of Christ so that they might encounter Him and grow closer to Him until He becomes the center of their lives.

The title of the message today is called: Mission Accepted.

This is our 2^nd Dimension of this series in how to be on Mission as Spirit filled Disciples of Jesus.

Our mission as Cornerstone comes along side our main Mission as a Disciple of Christ: The Great Commission, and you can read that in Matthew 28:18–20 which tells us to go to all nations, sharing the Gospel, making disciples, baptizing them, and teaching them to obey Him.

Did you know, God has been pursuing us since before we even understood He existed?

As Spirit-filled disciples, we need to be focused on God’s mission in all areas of life, sharing the gospel, which is the Good News, and discipling others.

I used to play 1^st person shooter, and they have main missions and side missions to help with this message.

There are 4 side missions within our main Mission as Disciples of Jesus I want to dive deeper here today.

Being a Disciple of Jesus; we have 4 side missions to complete:

1. Having Intentional Relationships:

Jesus Intentionally prioritizes people- Luke 15:1–7:

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. ² But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

³ Then Jesus told them this parable: ⁴ “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? ⁵ And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders ⁶ and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ ⁷ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.

He told this parable of a searching shepherd and a lost sheep to help His followers understand how much He loves even those who don’t know Him. Jesus expects and desires his Disciples to have this same hunger and Joy of going out of the 4 walls being on Mission searching for the lost, hurting, and broken.

Can I tell you that we don’t realize how desperately lost the people around us really are? Here is a good illustration for us with those that are lost all around us:

How many have been swimming and know how to swim? When you go swimming like I did on my vacation recently, there are a ton of people around you in the water. What we may not even think about when swimming with many others around us, there are probably many that are in the pool or ocean you swam in, the person next to you doesn’t know how to swim and survive in the water and could drown even though they are around you and others that could save them from drowning? Drowning represented here are those going to Hell and not Heaven.

This is the point of being on Mission as a Spirit filled Disciple for Jesus. Being aware of the needs of people having intentional relationships with them no matter if you like the person or not.

God doesn’t want anyone to die in their sins, but He wants everyone to turn to Him for forgiveness.

We can find this in 2 Peter 3:9 which says: The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead, he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

True discipleship includes both a vertical relationship with God and a horizontal relationship with other people. This vertical and horizontal nature can be seen all the way back in Exodus 20 with the Ten Commandments. The first 4 commandments concerned the people’s relationship with God and the last 6 were related to their relationships with others.

The same principles are true today. Discipleship combines an intentional relationship with God and an intentional relationship with others. Every follower of Jesus is included in the Great Commission. Our mission is not complete until the person we have reached with the gospel can in turn offer the gospel to someone else.

Side Mission number 2 as Disciples:

2. Bear witness of Jesus

What does that mean? I am glad you asked.

Luke 21;12-13 says: But before all this, they will seize you and persecute you. They will hand you over to synagogues and put you in prison, and you will be brought before kings and governors, and all on account of my name. ¹³ And so you will bear testimony to me.

Jesus is saying here that you will be persecuted as my Disciples and this is a great opportunity to bear witness.

What this means by bearing witness to Jesus in this verse, we as followers of Christ, his Disciples, are to proclaim what we have heard and seen regarding the Word of Life. We are to be the walking and living testimony of what Jesus has done, is doing, and will do in us, through us, and out of us.

1 John 1;1-3 takes it deeper how to Bear Witness: That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. ² The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. ³ We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.

As long as there is one person in the world who doesn’t know Jesus, our main Mission is not finished. Jesus died on that Cross on Calvary for all creation. If it was just, you on this Earth Jesus would still die on that Cross for you, come and search for you and tell you to come follow me. If there would only be one person here today, I would still show up and preach this message to you because you are my side mission today of bearing witness what He has done on that Cross.

Jesus noticed and cared for people. His disciples need to do the same thing.

The third side mission as Disciples of Jesus is:

3. Bring Hurting People to the Healer:

This ties into the 1 side mission of intentional relationships.

The Gospels record 40 instances of Jesus healing people. For those seeking Jesus for healing, 34 of them did not find Jesus on their own. Either Jesus found them or someone else brought them to Him. Hurting people still need someone to bring them to Jesus. Will you be the one Jesus uses to help bring healing?

In order for that to happen we need to be intentional with our relationships and bear witness to them that there is only One who can Heal, and then telling them about him and bring that person hurting to him.

His promise to heal you whatever that may be for you, He still heals. Stand upon those promises that He will heal you in His timing:

One of these scripture verses I want to look at for healing is:

1 Peter 2;24: He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.

This verse comes from Isaiah 53;5: But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.

Through the wounds of Christ at the Cross, believers are healed spiritually from the deadly disease of sin. Physical healing comes only at Glorification, when there is no more physical pain, illness, or death.

Glorification Meaning: This is the final stage of your salvation in Christ where God will completely remove sin from believers transforming us into immortal beings sharing in Christ’s glory.

We can read this in Rev 21;4: He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. 

As we complete the side missions within our main Mission: Having intentional relationships, Bear witness to Jesus, bring others to the Healer, we come to:

The 4^th side mission as Disciples:

4. Disciples who make Disciples:

As followers of Christ, we are to be ambassadors for Christ.

2 Cor 5;20: We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.

This is a huge assignment asked of us by God. As ambassadors, we are to do 3 things:

1-Proclaim– Verbally share the Gospel of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection, and his return which is sooner than you think.

2-Multiply- Help others have an intentional relationship first with Christ, then with other fellow believers so then they can in turn disciple others.

3-Be a public witness: Testify your Faith in Christ openly, proudly, and loudly through your everyday interactions with His Creation.

God’s desire for every follower of Christ is to make disciples who make disciples. In Luke 10:1–16, Jesus sent out about 72 of His followers with instructions on how to be disciple-makers.

His words teach us that becoming a disciple maker requires 4 things: Deciding to obey Jesus, preparing to share the gospel, remaining accountable to fellow disciples, and maintaining a continual focus on the mission.

Conclusion:

Jesus tells us to live on mission, and we need to live in expectancy of that Mission assigned to all his followers. As we interact with people, we need to look for opportunities to point them to Jesus with having those 4 side missions at the forefront of our minds: Intentional Relationships, Bear witness of Jesus, bring hurting People to the Healer, and Disciples who make Disciples.

It’s easy to allow ourselves to get too busy and forget our most important mission.

To grow as Spirit-filled disciples, it’s imperative that we prioritize making disciples who make disciples.

I want to help give you some prayer points as you reflect on the spiritual dimension with being on mission this week:

Pray for opportunities to share the gospel as people are convicted of their sin (John 16:8–9).

Pray that people’s eyes would be opened to truth about God as you yield to the Holy Spirit. (2 Corinthians 4:4)

Pray that people’s hearts would be receptive to the gospel when you share it. (Matthew 13:23).

Pray that people would be unsatisfied with the world’s version of peace and instead search for peace in Jesus that which will transcend all understanding. (Phil 4;7)

Pray that God would draw people to Himself. (John 6:44).

Would you like to pray with someone today?

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NEXT WEEK: Part 4, Prayer

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