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Thursday, September 29, 2011

NOW is the Time...invest, invite, involve

As we enter into our 35th Annual Mission’s Conference, I want to direct your attention to something that the entire population of the earth has in common… TIME. Planet Earth is home to over 6 billion people, 16,000 different people groups, speaking thousands of different languages, and yet with one thing in common, we are all bound by time. The earth makes its revolution in 24 hours, sunrise to sunset, each passing day is one day closer to the end of our time on this earth. Each person who is born is born with their days numbered. The Psalmist prayed, “teach us to number our days.”

Our theme this year centers around what we find in Paul’s letter to the church in Rome chapter 13:11-12, “And that, knowing the TIME, that now it is high TIME to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.”

Paul, in Romans 13:8, says, “owe no man anything, but to love one another.” He would say in this same letter to the church at Rome (1:14) “I am debtor both to the Greeks and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise.” Is this a contradiction in scripture? Hardly, it is rather the thought that we are to make sure we do not owe anyone the Gospel we possess. In other words, we are not to save the Gospel or hoard it but to give it to the world as a debt we owe them. The “Greeks” would represent the educated, advanced, modern and refined peoples of the world and the Barbarians those who are perhaps not even civilized. Paul said owe no man (people group) anything.

Since God’s first covenant with Abraham, He has been declaring His heart for the nations. From the Old Testament prophets to the New Testament Apostles, God has been showing His global nature and commanding His people to be a “blessing to the nations.”

Into this reality we are called to declare God’s goodness, His glory, and His salvation. Psalm 96:1:3 “O sing unto the Lord a new song: sing unto the Lord, all the earth. Sing unto the Lord, bless his name: shew forth his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the heathen, his wonders among all people.”

This is reality - “only one life to live and it soon past, only what is done for Christ will last.” With that understood, what are you going to let God do with you? Truly, there is an unlimited amount of things that you can commit your life to and in God’s design He leaves those choices up to you. He has however given us His command – The Great Commission.

The Great Commission is recorded in all four of the Gospel records and in the book of Acts. In all of these verses we learn that all power is given to us for this great assignment, and that He goes with us wherever we go. We are to make disciples of all people, baptizing them and we are to teach them to obey everything He has told us in His Word. We are given a blue print of how to do it, beginning in our Jerusalem and ending at the uttermost parts of the world.

There are hundreds of passages that show God’s global focus. He desires some from every nation, kindred and tribe to be a part of His bride, the Church. Some people, perhaps you, will discover that God desires to send you to reach our Jerusalem or maybe He desires for you to go beyond our Jerusalem, to the uttermost. The meter is running; what are you going to do? NOW IS THE TIME!

Time, the one single thing that we have in common, is coming to a close. How much time do we have left? That is uncertain but this I know, it is less today than yesterday. We have scores of ways to tell time, yet no one seems to know how late it is. As followers of Jesus Christ we are to know the time and NOW IS THE TIME! The night is far spent and the day is at hand! Let’s pray and believe for great things in this year’s conference.

Pastor Roy

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