1. God’s work in us. How God wants to deal with us?
I. Why we serve? Because we love him
o Mark 12:30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.
o Mark 12:31 Love your neighbour as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.
o Why do we love him?
o 1 John 4:19 we love because He first loved us.
o We learn to love when we realize how much grace we owe God
o Luke 7:42 Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven – for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.
o If you love Me, feed My sheep
o John21:17-18 The third time Jesus said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “ Do you love me?” He said “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “ feed my sheep”.
II. Aligning us to His purpose
o None shall perish, but all will be saved
o John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.
III. Purify our purposes – for charity/fun/noble cause/elective/seeking meaning to decorate our lives
IV. How He mould us, refine us for His better use
· Roman 5:3-4 …because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character, and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.
V. God tear down and rebuild our purpose on the right foundation – that can withstand the test of the fire
a. 1Co3:12-15 If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his 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 man’s work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.
VI. seeing things from God’s eyes
· Matt 14:14 When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, He had compassion on them and healed their sick.
· Luke15:4 Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the 99 in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?
· Jer 50:6 My people have been lost sheep, their shepherds have led them astray and caused them to roam on the mountains. They wandered over mountain and hill and forgot their own resting place.
· Jonah 4:10-11 But the Lord said “ You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well .Should I not be concerned about that great city?”
A missionary’s purpose
Is not about us, is about them
God is their shepherd
Ezekiel 34:11-13 For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of cloud and darkness. I will bring them out from the nations and gather them from the countries, and I will bring them into their own land…
Their suffering and prayers
Exodus 3:9-10 And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.
End time – Jesus’s second coming
Matt 24:14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
We as the ambassador of the Heavenly kingdom
2 Co 5:18-20 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation…And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.
Make disciple of all mankind
Matt 26:19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded your. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.
Mark 16:15 He said to them “ Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.
Evangelism
Spiritual warfare
I. There is a spiritual world parallel to this world
o Job 1:6 One day the angels came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them. The Lord said to Satan “Where have you come from?” Satan answered the Lord, “Form roaming through the earth and going back and forth in it.”
o We are constantly fighting against these spiritual authorities
o Eph 6:12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armour of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.
o We are constantly fighting against our sinful nature too
o Romans 7:15-17 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.
o Satan is constantly finding ways to accuse you, esp when he is not happy with you
o 1 Peter 5:8-10 Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. And the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.
o Our prayers and decisions has an impact to the spiritual world
o Prayer:
o Daniel10:12-13 …(Gabriel) Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me 21 days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia.
o Decisions:
o Job’s decision not to wrong God has shamed the satan
o The full armour of God – to resist devil’s scheme
o Eph 6:12
o How can we win?
o By the blood and the Name of Jesus
o Philp 2:9-11 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
o Matt 28:18 Then Jesus came to them and said All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
o Spiritual Authority
o Matt 16:19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
o Do not fall into the devil’s scheme –offended/discouraged/suffered/unforgiveness/bitterness/pride/complesent/slack/disappointment with God
o 1 Cor 9:24-25 Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.
o 1 Peter 4:12 Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when His glory is revealed…If you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name.
o God will help us
o Romans 8:26-27 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.
o So he attacks, but never win…
o Rev12:10 …for the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down.
o Esther 6:13 … His advisers and his wife said to him, Since Mordecai, before whom your downfall has started, is of Jewish origin, you cannot stand against him – you will surely come to ruin!
o Rev 12:11 They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.
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