January 4, 2004

Service Theme – "Our God Works Miracles"

Matthew 28:18-20

We Are the PMF (Possible Mission Force)

1. Introduction

1. Every year at this time I feel compelled to preach on the mission God has given us as a church. And every year I pray and ask Him to reveal to me what is the most important thing we need to know about this mission if we’re going to fulfill His will for our church. Our mission statement reads: (NEW SLIDE) Sodaville Evangelical Church exists to: Love God; Share His Love with You; Reach out with Compassion; Apply the Bible and prayer to real life.
2. Talk about an impossible task! I think about doing just one of those four and my mind begins to strategize and plan, and then the futility of even trying on my own begins to dawn on me. If I try to do any of these on my own, it is impossible! If any of us try to do any of these things on our own, it is impossible! The key to making this possible is found in one of the Scriptures our mission statement is based on: Matthew 28:18-20.

2. Scripture Passage

1. Matthew 28:18-20 (from the New Living) – (NEW SLIDE) Jesus came and told his disciples, "I have been given complete authority in heaven and on earth. 19 Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. (NEW SLIDE) 20 Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

3. A Possible Task

1. What Jesus is doing in this passage is transferring authority. He received His authority from the Father, and He in turn has passed it on to us. The question of the day is, how do we get in on this authority? How do we use this power for His glory? We know from other Scripture that the power comes from the Holy Spirit, but how do we free the Holy Spirit to pour His power into us so that we can go and make committed and transformed disciples of Jesus Christ? What is the missing link?
2. I believe we can find a big clue about what the missing link in appropriating the power of the Holy Spirit is in a story that Leadership Journal carried a year or so ago. We were wrapping up Vacation Bible School with family night. That year, 1981, our pastor, Jim Cymbala, had invited the parents to come on Sunday night. Nicky Cruz, a former gang leader, was sharing his testimony, and we took the children, about 200 of them, next door to the Upper Room. As we watched a Christian movie, I [Nancy Martinez] felt in my spirit that the Lord wanted the children to pray. I didn't know that the next 30 minutes would change our work dramatically, from ministry for children, to ministry by children. Pastor Cymbala had called the Brooklyn Tabernacle to be a praying church when he became pastor ten years earlier. "Nothing happens without prayer," he told us often….But our children's ministry was still mostly one of Bible stories and songs and games. Until that VBS. I asked the children whether any of them wanted to come and pray in another room. A dozen said yes. Without any prompting they knelt, and for the next half-hour they prayed spontaneously for their families who were in the service downstairs. It was amazing. When it was over, I remember God speaking in my heart, "Gather the children to pray." After several weeks searching for workers to lead a children's prayer meeting, I complained to the Lord. And he repeated what I had heard earlier: "Gather the children to pray." He was speaking to me. So the Tuesday night children's prayer meeting began and has continued, uninterrupted for more than 20 years. Almost immediately we had more children than space for them. Today we have capped attendance at 70, and there's a line outside the door every week as they try to sign in before all the places are taken.… On Tuesday nights, while the adults are singing and praying in the sanctuary, the children are next door in the basement classroom and in the Upper Room, singing and praying. Our meetings last two hours or more…. Our faith was tested in the attacks on the World Trade Center. We lost four of our church family. In the weeks afterward, the children prayed for the victims and their families, and for their own relatives who work in Manhattan. Many children expressed fear, but every week we brought that fear to the Lord. Pastor Cymbala has said this is harvest time, when people are more open to the gospel, so we are praying for their salvation. One boy reminded us to pray for Osama bin Laden. "That man needs to be saved, too," he told us all. And we prayed. Prayer is at the center of all we do in children's ministry—teaching, singing, activities—it all comes through prayer (as cited on PreachingToday.com).
3. When Jesus said that we must become like little children if we’re going to make it into the kingdom of heaven, I think He had something like this at least partly in mind. (NEW SLIDE) Prayer is the key to our church accomplishing the mission God has set before us. Prayer is the key to our own spiritual growth. Prayer is the key to revival. Prayer is the key to loving God. Prayer is the key to sharing His love with everyone. Prayer is the key to reaching out with compassion. Prayer is the key to applying the Bible and prayer to real life. Prayer is the key.
4. I know I preach a fair amount about prayer. But I believe God calls me to preach on prayer because prayer is what we need more than anything else. Prayer is our spiritual lifeblood. Prayer enables us to be in close relationship with our Savior, and that relationship is what enables us to do His will. We desperately need to pray. (NEW SLIDE) Prayer is the single most important activity every Christian is called to be involved in. If we try to accomplish God’s mission for us as a church without prayer, the possible will become impossible. We are called to be a "Possible Missions Force" and we are called to do it through prayer. As Dee Duke says, "No prayer, no power. Little prayer, little power. Some prayer, some power. Much prayer, much power."
5. I know this is hard for us, because we are all very busy people. It seems counter-productive to us to sit or kneel or stand and spend time in prayer. That’s time we could be doing something! But it is always worth it to take the time to pray.
6. As most of you know, Kim and I direct a camp every summer for third and fourth graders for our church conference. We’ve done it for five years. And we’ve had some significant problems with staff members almost every year. But when we’ve taken the time to pray personally, and taken significant time to pray as a group during staff training, those problems tend to shrink dramatically. And as a result of our increased emphasis on prayer over the past two years, we've seen about thirty kids each year out of about fifty either receive Christ for the first time or recommit their lives to Christ. Prayer works.
7. I’d like to say that our prayers for camp have been the most effective prayer tool. I’d like to say that sending out continual prayer requests and updates to staff members has been the most effective prayer tool. These things are very good, and have helped much, but they have not been the most effective prayer tool we have for camp. The most effective prayer tool was when we spent a whole evening of staff training in focused prayer as a group. That seems so counterproductive when there are attitudes and procedures and lessons we want the staff to learn and assimilate. But when we pray together as a staff, God moves!
8. The same thing is true for us as a church. (NEW SLIDE) When we as a church pray together, God moves! We will never move forward to accomplish God’s will for our church, to fulfill His mission for us, unless and until we pray together as a church. God is moving some because of the efforts of those who pray individually for our church and of those few who gather together at our prayer meetings to pray for our church. But that level of prayer is somewhere between the little prayer and the some prayer, so we are seeing little power or some power. I want to see God work with much power through our church. I want to see His Spirit poured out powerfully on our church and our community and our area and hundreds come to know Christ as their Lord and Savior. That’s the goal of our mission. And it’s all possible with prayer. In Matthew 19:26 Jesus challenged His disciples’ assumptions about who would make it to heaven: (NEW SLIDE) Jesus looked at them intently and said, "Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But with God everything is possible." That’s what God is saying to us this morning. On our own, it’s mission impossible. But when we appropriate His power through prayer, it becomes mission possible.
9. I know what we’re going to do next will probably make some of you a bit uncomfortable, and I apologize for that. But prayer is what we are called to do as a church, so prayer is what we’re going to do. (NEW SLIDE) Please break up into small groups of between four and six. Then spend the next ten minutes praying together for God to pour His Spirit out on our church. Pray also for the fulfillment of the four parts of our mission statement, loving God, sharing His love with others, reaching out with compassion, and applying the Bible and prayer to real life. To help you remember those, they’ll be up on the screen. And I’ll be the clock watcher, so you can focus on prayer. And please, everyone, feel free to lead out in prayer. So break up into your groups of four to six now.

4. Conclusion

1. I know that was a bit intimidating for some of you, and I thank you for doing it anyway. This is what we are called to do, folks, and as we do it God will pour out His Spirit on us.
2. Let’s join hands and pray together.