The Mission

The Mission - Both my Mission and the mission of Jesus Christ

Luke 19: 10
For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost

Clearly it is written here in Luke that the purpose of Jesus coming to this earth was to seek and save the lost. He didn't hang out with the righteous. He taught the poor, weak, sick and oppressed. He hung out with sinners. Why? Only people that walk in faith will understand why.

Acts 20: 24
However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me - the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace

Colossians 1:6-8
All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God's grace in all its truth. You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf, and who also told us of your love in the Spirit.

These verses are talking about conversions. A conversion summarized in one of my earlier posts.

1) You hear the message
2) You come to your faith
3) You repent. Repent just doesn't mean asking for forgiveness. It means asking for forgiveness and turning away from sin.
4) You confess
5) Baptism = Salvation = Eternal Life

I learned the gospel from Charlie and others that I studied with. I heard the message and came to my faith. I repented and confessed my sins and than I was baptized.

A lot of people think, "ok I got baptized and now I'm saved." And then they go about their business and sometimes fall from grace and get caught up in earthly ways and keep sinning and never truely repented.

Charlie and Onuwa baptized me, and I hope someday I can baptize people and study the Bible with others. This is my mission...but it doesn't end there. You build personal relationships, personal ministries, and friendships along the way. And you teach them and feed them milk. But the key is to be persistent with them just as my brothers and sisters have been persistent with me. The food will come.

When you study with someone and you baptize them, its key to check up on them and see how they are doing. In the world today, its easy to become earthly. I thought Jeff's message was awesome today about his message about prayer, faith, and trust in the Lord.

Habakkuh Chapter 1

Habakkuk’s Complaint
How long, LORD, must I call for help,
but you do not listen?
Or cry out to you, “Violence!”
but you do not save?
Why do you make me look at injustice?
Why do you tolerate wrongdoing?
Destruction and violence are before me;
there is strife, and conflict abounds.
Therefore the law is paralyzed,
and justice never prevails.
The wicked hem in the righteous,
so that justice is perverted.

For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD
as the waters cover the sea.

“Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbors,
pouring it from the wineskin till they are drunk,
so that he can gaze on their naked bodies!
You will be filled with shame instead of glory.
Now it is your turn! Drink and let your nakedness be exposed[e]!
The cup from the LORD’s right hand is coming around to you,
and disgrace will cover your glory.
The violence you have done to Lebanon will overwhelm you,
and your destruction of animals will terrify you.
For you have shed human blood;
you have destroyed lands and cities and everyone in them.

Is this not the world that we live in today Jeff asked? There's violence everywhere, people killing each other, rapings, genocides, etc. And we ask God why is this happening? How could you let these things happen?

Answer: It's all in God's plan.

The righteous that walk in faith though and pray trust the Lord. God's plan will reveal everything. Just as the Lord said "For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea."

Only those that walk with faith understand this. Those that do not will never understand this or get it.

Therefore, I go back to what my point is about the mission. The mission is to not only walk with Jesus and make disciples of all nations and plant seeds. A critical part of this mission is to make sure those that we help convert don't fall from grace. There are consequences:

1 Corinthians 3: 1-15
Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. 3 You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans? For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere human beings?
What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor. For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building.

By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames.