Today, I’m going to talk about what is the most exciting part of life. It’s actually not very well known. A recent poll showed that less than 1 in 4 church goers practiced it in the last year in the US. I’m talking about one of the 5 purposes that God has for your life, the purpose of outreach. the purpose of telling someone else about your faith in Jesus Christ.
Today, we’re beginning a new message series called “Reaching Out To Make A Difference.” God wants to use you to be a bridge to Himself for people who don’t know Him. In our last message series, I talked about the purpose of Ministry – serving believers in the church. Now, I’m going to talk about the purpose of outreach or mission – serving unbelievers by telling them about Jesus.
A lot of believers apparently think that telling people about Jesus is mission impossible. Yet, it’s not impossible to reach out to others, so I’ve entitled today’s message “Mission Possible.” God has given every believer a mission. As a believer you don’t have a choice whether to accept your mission or not. If Jesus is your Lord, you accept every mission He gives you. Your mission is to tell the people in your circle of influence about your faith in God. Your and my mission is mission possible.
Is everybody going to like you sharing your faith with them? Absolutely not. NIV Matthew 5:11-12 Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven. When you take a little heat for sharing your faith, you should rejoice because you’re on the right track. In fact, if you’re not taking any flack for being a Christian, there is something wrong with your life. If you’re not having any opposition, then people don’t know what you stand for. Jesus put it this way NIV Luke 6:26 Woe to you when all men speak well of you.
Even though most people claim to be Christians, most people are not Christians. They need to hear how they can have a relationship with God. Even when people seem to reject the message of God at first, don’t give up. Lives changed for Jesus Christ are what makes life exciting. Outreach is your purpose in life, it’s not just the purpose of pastors or evangelists. You can reach people that no one else can reach. So today, let’s look at the question “Why should you reach out to those around you with the good news about Jesus?”
To hear more about this topic, listen to my October 15, 2006 message entitled Mission Possible