Bible Information on Missions and on the Philosophy of Missions

<p>Bible Information on Missions and on the Philosophy of Missions</p>

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East Bangladesh Mission of SDA

The State of Missions in Adventism

Eugene Prewitt

The Bible on Missions

Codependent Missions

Making a Connected Mission Strategy

Assets, Cons and Support for Missions

I want to welcome you to our series on the state of missions in the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

I'm speaking to you today from Bangladesh.

Our Father in heaven, I'm asking you to bless us as we talk about the most important things about the work we have to do.

Guide us by your Holy Spirit, I ask in the name of Jesus, amen.

So in this sermon or this message, in the next few as part of a series, I wanna talk to you about your part and my part in missions, about what's going on in Adventist missions, what I know about it, the very good and the not so good, and parts that really need attention.

And we'll look at some Bible evidence too, and even some thoughts from other sources.

It wasn't so long ago that I was in Malaysia and there my wife and I had made some friends in Malacca.

And 1 of our friends had a friend, a friend of a friend that we invited to eat with us 1 day at a restaurant there.

And as we began to share with him some ideas from the Prophet Daniel, this young man, Abdullah, he admitted that he was on the verge of becoming an atheist.

He had seen things in Yemen that had really turned his mind against Islam.

He saw the very popular public preachers there, the Islamic preachers, switch from being oriented towards the Sunni ways of Saudi Arabia to the Shia ways of Iran in just a few days.

That is, they just turned coats just like that over the political situation in their country.

And this really made Abdullah doubt that religion was real.

He studied, he became a believer, and he went through some real struggles.

1 of the real struggles he went through was in relation to marriage.

Yemeni men often have intended a fiancee for many years before they marry because it's hard for them to raise enough money to pay the dowry.

And he had had an intended woman for him for a long time.

They'd known each other since primary school.

And now he finally had enough money from working there in Malaysia to marry her, but she was a Muslim and he was a Christian, and he struggled with that.

And eventually he did marry her, and his own interest in these things had cooled down a bit but it wasn't long after that that a young man there, we'll call him Sajjad, but that's not his real name, He was studying the Bible for himself in the university.

And he looked on YouTube for some evidence and he became a Christian.

He began to share Christianity right there in the university.

He lost his scholarship there and maybe some of you even are the ones that helped sponsor him still.

He's graduated now and But his work in trying to reach other Muslims in the university led to several young men giving their lives to God, and also reminded Abdullah of his experience.

And he began to join Sajjad there at the university, and they became a team.

And the warmth of Sajjad brought Abdullah back to the table.

Well, today, Abdullah and his wife and their baby, they're in France.

He's attending an Adventist church there near where he's working as a researcher, and Sajjad is awaiting baptism in the country where I met him.

Beautiful things are happening in missions.

Let me talk to you about some of the things that are on my mind.

If you have a Bible with you, turn to Philippians chapter 1.

Philippians 1 was written when Paul himself was in prison.

And we're going to look at verses 15 to 18.

It says here, some indeed preach Christ even from envy and strife, and some also from goodwill.

So Paul recognized that among preachers, you have various types.

Some are really trying to compete with each other.

Verse 16, the former preached Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my chains, not meaning that their ambition was to hurt Paul, but meaning that their ambition hurt Paul, It really hurt him that they were striving for supremacy.

He says in verse 17, but the latter, out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel.

That is, some people who loved their neighbors and were trying to reach them knew that Paul had been prepared to speak.

He'd been given visions that would prepare him to know what to say in the right place.

Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached.

So, when I'm talking to you in this and the next few messages about the state of Adventist missions, if I tell you about someone or something that's going on that's negative, I don't want you to end up thinking that there's no reason to rejoice in the work that's being done by that person or that situation.

Whether in pretense or in truth, if Christ is preached, it's something to rejoice in.

God can use insincere persons to reach sincere persons If only those sincere persons will talk about Jesus and about his gospel.

So, if we talk about the biblical basis of mission, We have 2 passages that I think you're very familiar with, but we need to mention them both.

There when Jesus gave the Great Commission, it has a few elements that we might need to think about more.

He said, go, that's the first step, as opposed to stay.

He said, go and why don't you turn there with me, we'll just see it.

Matthew 28, the last page of Matthew 28 and verse 18.

He said, actually I'm starting in verse 19 after the all power in verse 18.

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things, whatever I have commanded you.

And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world.

But what it says right there is that in this business of Adventist missions, there needs to be a strong teaching component before baptism, that's denied by some, and a strong teaching component after baptism.

That is, there needs to be a strong preparation for baptism and a strong discipleship program after baptism.

And those 2 ideas would make such a difference in Adventist missions.

But now turn to the other familiar passage, Revelation 14.

Revelation 14, and looking at verse 6 and 7.

My goal in giving this short series is to make a difference in Adventist missions, maybe even in how Adventist missions are funded and what you do.

Revelation 14, verse 6, it says, "'Then I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, "'having the everlasting gospel to preach to them who dwell on the earth, to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people.

In this talk, I'm not gonna get to the content, that's in verse 17, but I want you to see how tribalism opposes the first angel's message.

How when Jesus sent us to preach to every kindred nation, tongue, and people, he was saying that it's not right for Caucasians to preach only to Caucasians or to seek them out, or the Japanese to speak to the Japanese, or the Tongans to the Tongans only.

Revelation 14, 6 requires cross-cultural missions.

There's a reason why in the Philippines that foreigners are the ones reaching some of those hill tribes.

There are plenty of avenues in the Philippines to reach every class of people in the Philippines.

I'll call it what it is, it's tribalism that prevents a lot of the good work that could be done.

So as we're getting into the Issue of missions, but let's keep these ideas in mind the idea that tribalism is anti gospel The idea that we need to do strong Preparation work before baptism and have a beautiful discipleship program post baptism 1 that brings people to practice all the things that Jesus said, and then he promises when we have those 3 components that he will be with us always, even to the end of the world.

So as my first point after that introduction, I want you to consider what you would find if you read Acts 7 and 8.

I won't read it to you, but Acts 7, that is where you find Stephen, the newly chosen deacon, is preaching and he is stoned, and he dies there in chapter 7, and that just puts the church on fire.

I mean, the church is scattered because of persecution, and they go everywhere preaching, that's 7 and 8.

I wrote a little jingle or a little rhyme over that.

What I mean is, how do we respond to persecution?

In Malaysia, where I've been working many of the last few years, it was, I was told when I got there that someone who reached out to the Malay people was killed.

And I learned later from Johnny Wong that someone that he knew personally, a Malay convert there in Sabah, was also killed by his own family in an honor killing.

You know, when I learned that story about the first man, I was told that story as a warning to kind of stop me from reaching out to the Malay people.

It was as if persecution was an ice pack designed to freeze the church to stop it.

Series

The State of Missions in Adventism

The Bible on Missions

Transcript

Description

Parent Series

Sponsor

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