Were continuing on in The Purpose Driven Life. We are on Mission VI: You Were Made for a Mission. We are talking about evangelism. Pastor Rick Warren said, Believers and unbelievers have a lot in common with that word. We both dislike it. It conjures up images when you think of an evangelist. [You think] probably of somebody with big hair who is angry, yelling at the TV, begging for your money, crying or something else. Its just not a pleasant picture you conjure up in your mind when you think of an evangelist. The things Im going to share with you, I dont think youre going to hear them and say, Oh, I didnt know that! Thats a revelation! Its more trying to put things in such a way that provoke our thoughts and provoke our actions in a positive way. In Acts 1:8 (page 1075 of pew Bibles), Jesus gives one of His commissions to the Church, and He says, But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. It says, …you will be My witnesses. Now, this is not just for the Apostles and the early believers. This is for the church today. Would the early believers go to the ends of the earth? No. But, we can. This commission is for the church from generation to generation, not just for the small few that were gathered that day to hear Jesus talk before He was ascended to Heaven. So, He has given us all a mission. This is our mission-to share with people we know what God has done for us. Thats what a witness does. Its really not complicated, and its really not hard. What is a witness? A witness is somebody who testifies to what they have seen and heard, testifies to what they know. A witness speaks; a witness is not silent. God does not call you to be silent in your faith. Hes called you to speak your faith. Hes called you to testify about what you see and what you know. We should not be intimidated and think, Oh, I dont know about the Bible to engage in a spiritual discussion. What you do know is you know your story. You know your testimony. Im not just talking about the new birth experience. Im talking about if youre a believer, God is doing things in your life all the time. Hes helping you; Hes encouraging you; Hes strengthening you; Hes teaching you. All through your life, you testify-or you share-what God is doing in your life. Thats what it means to be a witness. Sometimes we make it too complicated. Sometimes we try to turn it into…Theres nothing wrong with having a plan or a strategy or knowing Scripture, but let me illustrate to you a good example of what witnessing is not. When I was a young man studying for the ministry, one of the pastors took me under his wing. His name was Dane Christensen. He called me the puppy. I guess [he called me this] because I was young and eager, naïve, and hed say, Come on, puppy, lets go. Id just follow him around. Wed tour the campus of Northwestern, and Dane would share his faith. He was very good at that. We had this little posse of students. One day, Dane said, Okay, today when you get to the campus, you are going to share, not me. You are going to share. Were going to pair up by twos, and were going to circulate around the campus of Northwestern, and youre going to share your faith. I was not excited about that prospect. I was scared, but I knew I had to do it. There we were. We had a system. We were going to start off saying, Were from Trinity, and were here to do a survey. Do you have a moment to answer a question? You know what? That wasnt really truthful, as I look back in retrospect. We werent really conducting a survey in the sense of recording data, analyzing it, and getting statistics. It was our way to ask these questions that would lead to spiritual questions. What are your goals and purposes in life? If you were to die, why should God let you into Heaven? Those kinds of things [were what we were asking], and eventually we would share the Gospel. We had a nice diagram we had drawn and had key verses memorized. So we went into this cafeteria, and we looked for our first victim, first guinea pig. I was partnered with a young lady named Sue. I saw a young lady over here that looked very friendly, very nice, and very innocent. I said, I think God is calling us to speak to her. She looks like she needs the Lord. Sue picked out the meanest, toughest (if thats even a word), scruffiest, toughest-looking guy and said, I think God wants us to share our faith with him! I beg to differ. I think she really…shes lost right there. She said, No, I think God wants us to reach him. I said, Okay, compromise. Well go talk to him. You go first. She said, Okay. She came out, Hello, sir, were from Trinity, and were here to ask you survey questions if you have a moment. He said, Sure, as he was eating his ice cream sundae. So she starts asking him questions, and at first he was cooperative. Then he started scowling a little bit. Then you could tell he was starting to resent what was going on a little bit. We didnt know his name; we didnt know anything about him? He sees that were on an assignment, and hes one of our projects. Pretty soon, he interrupts the speech, and he says, What is this? Theres no survey! He grabs the piece of paper, and he starts reading the questions. He says, Where would I put myself on this diagram? He grabbed the pen, and he said, Id say right about here, and he makes a big old circle on it. He hands it back and says, I had religion shoved down my throat my whole life. Ive had it up to here. Im not dealing with this anymore. Leave me alone. We said, Okay. We backed off and walked away. We were walking down the hallway in silence, embarrassed and feeling like total failures. I think I said something really dumb like, I guess this is what the Apostles felt like when they got rejected. I look back on that, and I think we did so many things wrong. One was we didnt know the person. We should have started out by being honest. We should have said, Were here on campus from Trinity. Were preparing for the ministry. We thought wed come to Northwestern today. We thought we would ask you questions about spiritual matters. Do you have some time to talk with us today? Maybe then the first 20 minutes to a half hour should have been about him, finding out about who he was and what his needs were, and adapting the message we had to share to his needs. We should have shared from our own lives what the Lord has done for us. Maybe if we would have loved on him and took time to get to know him, so we really begin to care about the issues in his life, that experience would not have gone so wrong. Theres an expression that says, People dont care what you know till they know that you care. Isnt that true? People can see when youre disengenuine. People can see when theyre your project. They can tell when your pastor is giving a message on sharing your faith and you felt guilty, so you had to find somebody to dump everything you know about the Bible on them. They can tell that. They resent that. But if they know that you love them and genuinely care for them, and youre just sharing what you know, a witness should be a natural flow of good news. When good news happens to you, you tell people around you. Hey, my team won the big ball game. How about those Badgers? Wasnt that great yesterday? That sort of thing. Guess what? I got this check in the mail I wasnt expecting. When something good happens, it is a natural thing to share it. Thats what witnessing is. Its a natural flow. Its saying, Heres what the Lord has done in my life. Heres what Im excited about. If somebody thinks they are a notch on your spiritual belt, theyre going to resent that. I had a high school reunion. It was our 20th anniversary. At the reunion, we all get a book. It lists where everybody is at, names and addresses, emails. I dont even think there were emails back then. One of the guys called me a few days later and said, Hey Jeff, this is Bob. Hey, Bob. Boy, I havent seen you for 20 years. Now I saw you at the reunion, and you call me on the phone. Whats up? I just wanted to know if you wanted to get together and play some ball sometime. Sure, Bob. Lets get together and play some ball like old times. Yeah! We talked for a little bit. I asked, What made you call me, Bob? What made you, out of the clear blue sky? He said, Well, just going down the directory here, and I was thinking old friends…and I thought wed play some ball. Then I have a business opportunity to discuss with you. I said, Really? What kind of business is that, Bob? He said, Well, you know, you work for yourself. Pretty soon, youll be financially independent. You can retire. You wont have to work for anybody. Its a great opportunity for you. Bob, is this what I think it is? Im not interested in retiring. Im a pastor. I really dont want to retire. Im not interesting in financial independence. Im planning to do what I do until I cant do it anymore. But we can get together and play some ball sometime if you want to, Bob? Hello, Bob? Bob? He was gone. I think he said something quickly while I was talking and hung up. I didnt even realize he hung up. He didnt care about me. He didnt care about playing ball with me. I was a dollar sign to him. I was a project to him. I was a name in the book. If a witness is disengenuine, if were just doing it out of a sense of obligation or doing it so we can say, Hey, I witnessed to somebody, people will see right though that. If our witness is judgmental or if its demeaning or condescending-saying, Why cant you be a believer like me?… But if its done in love and in a natural flow of life, and Im sharing what the Lord has done for me that will help this person… Here, you can read this, or, Here, listen to this, or, Come with me, our church is talking about that, or, Heres what happened in my life, and the person knows you know and love him and care about him, friends, theres nothing to be afraid of. People are not going to repel that kind of a witness. Jesus says, We are called to be a witness to whom? He says, We start in Jerusalem. What was Jerusalem for them? Home. Home base. He said you start where youre at; you start at home. In the Book of Luke 8, if youd turn there, a man who is demon-possessed is healed dramatically and cleansed. The demons leave the man. [The man] is so excited and so thrilled that he wants to follow Jesus. In Verse 38 (page 1025 of pew Bibles), The man from whom the demons had gone out begged to go with Him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, return home and tell how much God has done for you. So the man went away and told all over town how much Jesus had done for him. Thats witnessing. What was his theological degree? Tell me. What class in witnessing had he gone to? You know what? He knew what the Lord had done for him. The change in his life was evident to all. He shared with enthusiasm, with joy, and with love to the people he cared about. I bet you he was effective. Jesus says, You start at home. Go back to your friends, neighbors, and family. Just tell them whats happened to you. You may not be an expert on the Bible, but youre an expert on your life. Youre the leading expert on your life. Nobody else knows more about your life than you do, so you are qualified to share what youve experienced. Bear witness to what youve seen and heard. He said it doesnt just stop in Jerusalem. It says we go to Samaria, we go to Judea, we go to people who are different-near to us-but different from us, and then we go to the ends of the earth. Thats everywhere else. Were called to take the Gospel to all the world. When you come to the banquet on Friday night, youre going to hear how Faith Community is strategically trying to take the Gospel to all the world. Were not just trying to focus on one area of the globe, but we want to bring the Gospel-we want to influence every area of the globe. Thats why we sent teams to Guatemala. Somebody asked me, Pastor, why did we send a team to Guatemala two times when there are needs in Rock County? There will always be needs in Rock County. We will never get to the point where we say, Rock County has totally reached for Christ. Now lets go to the world. That will never happen. So we do these things concurrently. We reach to our local community through things like Angel Tree thats coming up around Christmastime. Around Thanksgiving, youll start hearing about it. We do it through things like the Day of Compassion in the summer. We do it through our relationships. We are reaching out, but were also called to reach the world. Thats why we support missionaries around the world. Thats why we send teams to places like Guatemala. Right now, were going to watch a media that was taken on our first trip to Guatemala. This isnt the most recent trip, but our first trip in 2003 set to the song, Such a Time as This,by Wayne Watson. See if you recognize some of the faces of your church family in this video. I think that video speaks for itself. Im so proud of our team, our missions teams. God has given the mission call to each one of us, so what remains is what is our response? I want to talk to you this morning about three different responses to the call. The first is Who, me? Its found in the Book of Judges 6. There was a man by the name of Gideon. The Bible says he was the least in his family. His family was the least of all the clans of Israel. God literally picked the lowest of the totem pole to carry out His mission. In Judges 6:11 (page 239), remember were talking about the angel of the Lord. If you remember our series in the Minor Prophets, where we speak and the angel of the Lord speaks, its a pre-incarnate appearance of the Lord Jesus. The angel of the Lord always speaks in the first person. He doesnt speak [as], God sent me to tell you this… He always says, Thus sayeth Me. When Hes addressed, Hes addressed as the Lord. So thats who is speaking to Gideon. Lets start in Verse 12, When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, He said, The Lord is with you, mighty warrior. I guarantee you Gideon does a double take right then. Hes probably looking around his shoulder like, You talking to me? Im not mighty. Im not a warrior. Are you sure you have the right guy? …But sir, Gideon replied, if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all His wonders that our fathers told us about when they said, Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt? But now the Lord has abandoned us and put us into the hand of Midian. Boy, one thing Gideon is-is honest, right? He speaks his mind. Then the Lord turned to him and said, Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midians hand. Am I not sending you? But Lord, Gideon asked, how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family. The Lord answered, I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites together. The first response is who, me? You have to be kidding? I cant do that. Dont you know my weaknesses? Dont you know my shortcomings? Dont you know my fears and anxieties? I dont think I can do that. There are some of us whom God called to be a witness to fill His purpose, mating for a mission of sharing the good news with people we come in contact with, and our response is I cant do that. Im not a speaker. Im not a Bible scholar. Im not an evangelist. Im not a Billy Graham. I think you have the wrong person. Do you know what the Lord delights in? He delights in people who are weak. He delights in people who are humble. He delights in people who dont think they have what it takes to get the job done because then He shows them that its Him. Its not them. He says, Gideon, youre factoring something very important out of the equation. I will be with you. I will equip you. Listen, the attitude you dont want to have if youre a servant is that God gives you a mission, and you go, Hey, about time You asked me. You asked the right person. Ive been waiting and wondering what took You so long. Im Your man. Im Your woman. You picked correctly. In fact, Im not even sure I need Your help on this one. I think I have it from here. Thats not the attitude you want to have. Theres nothing wrong with feeling inadequate, not up to the task, having anxiety or fear and looking at your weaknesses, but what is wrong is to look at your weaknesses and your fears and say, I cant now because… I wont accept the mission because Im weak or because Im not this or because Im not that. If God has called you to that mission, you fulfill that mission. God will use you even in your weakness and even in your shortcomings. The second response is found in Book of Exodus. Lets turn there if you would please to Exodus 4. God is going to call a fugitive, a man who had committed murder and then ran away to a foreign land. Hes going to call that man to come back into the land where he is wanted, back to the place he has avoided. God is going to use him to lead His people out of Israel, out of bondage. That mans name is Moses. Moses encounters God through a burning bush, a theophany-a physical manifestation of Gods appearance that could be seen. Moses hears his mission. He asks questions. How will they know God is with me? God gives him answers, Heres the signs youll do. How will I know what to say when they ask Who sent me? God gives him an answer. He clearly understands his mission. He clearly understands hes the one God has chosen to carry out the mission. God addresses his shortcomings and fears, and heres the response, Chapter 4:10 (page 57): Moses said to the Lord, O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since You have spoken to Your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue. The Lord said to him, Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say. But Moses said, O Lord, please send someone else to do it. The second response is not me. Not me. Moses said, You know what? I like my life. I like being a shepherd. I dont want to go back to the place where my face is hanging on the post office wall for killing an Egyptian all those years ago. I have it made. I have a good life. Why would I want to throw that away and do something like confront the Pharaoh and lead a nation out of bondage to freedom? That sounds adventurous and exciting, but please ask somebody else. Moses said, No, no. He gave every reason, every excuse, and God said, Youre still the man. God counted every excuse he gave. Then, when it was all said and done, he still answered, I wont go. I wont go. Eventually he would go, of course. We know that, but for quite a while, it was a tug of war. Most of us dont blatantly say to the Lord, I wont do it. You told me to be a witness. I wont do it. Not going to say anything! Most of us dont do that, blatantly. But, guess what we say by our silence? Guess what we say by the fact that we dont obey and fulfill the purpose? What are we saying when we never share with another person who doesnt know the Lord what the Lord means to us, how He has helped us, how He has blessed us, we never share any of our testimony, or what He is doing in our lives, we never tell a sole, we never invite anybody to church: what are we communicating? We are saying in essence, no. If I ask my child to do something, and my child says, Okay, and I come back an hour later and its still not done, I say, I thought I told you to take the dog out. We have a dog now, by the way. There are probably some stories coming about that. I come back an hour later, and [they say], Yeah, Ill take care of that. You can comply all you want to, but by your disobedience, youre saying no. Youre not fulfilling the directive Ive called you to do. Some believers do that. They simply say, Not me. We simply dig our heals into the ground, put our brakes on, and say, I shall not be moved. Thats my theme song. Im not going to speak. Im not going to be a witness. There is a third response. Thats found in the Book of Isaiah 6, if youd turn there. Isaiah is having a vision of Heaven and the thrown of God. This is an interesting study to do sometime. Look in Ezekiel and look in Revelation and Isaiah and start righting down the similarities of these visions which were written hundreds of years apart. Youre going to notice they are very similar in what they see. Why is that? Because theyre seeing the same God. Theyre seeing a glimpse of Heaven. So Isaiah is totally intimidated, as anybody would be. He is in the presence of the living God. He says in Verse 5 (page 680), Woe to me! I cried. I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty. In other words, friends, thats all of us. Isaiah said, Im no better than anybody else. Im an unclean man. If being totally upright all the time is the qualification for fulfilling this mission, none of us could fulfill it because we are all sinners. Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for. Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send? God doesnt say anything about where Hes going to send them or what Hes going to do once they get there. And he says, And who will go for us? And I said, Here am I, Send me! The third response is send me. Gideon has the mission spelled out and says, Who me? I dont think so. I dont think I could do that. Im flattered, but You have the wrong guy. Moses says, Not me. I understand the mission, but I dont want to go. I like my life the way it is. Isaiah doesnt even know what the mission is, and he says, Im in. I dont know where Im going. I dont know what Im going to do when I get there, but if You need somebody-even though Im a sinner-if Youre asking, Im going. Im signing up. Thats the kind of mentality God wants a witness for Christ to have-an enthusiasm, an eagerness that says, You want to use me in that way? I dont understand all You want me to do, and Im not sure Im going to be that good at it. I dont understand all it entails, but send me. Send me-Ill go. My wife alerted me to a song on the radio by Mercy Me called Blink of an Eye. She said you have to do that in church sometime. Its really a good song for the series were on. I said, I think I know what week to work it in. So we asked Mike Powers, our youth pastor, who is also our tech guy, our media guy, if he could put together a media for us to Blink of an Eye by Mercy Me. Mike did an outstanding job. Lets watch it right now. We talked about the three responses to the mission the Lord has given us: Who Me? Not Me, and Send Me. Lets talk about Plan B. Verse 18 of Matthew 28 (page 989), Then Jesus said to them All authority in Heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations… Notice, a witness is not like a witness in a court system where you wait to be summoned to appear. A witness, spiritually-for Christ-goes, initiates, starts. …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 you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. And in case you fail in your mission, I will then send the angels of Heaven to pick up where you fail. Does your Bible have that verse in there? What about this version? See if you have that. I have commanded you. Surely, I am with you always, even to the end of the age, and should you not accept this mission, my Father will write the Gospel in the clouds of the sky and will speak with an audible voice from Heaven. Is that in your Bibles too? Its not in your Bibles. Okay, so Plan A is the Holy Spirit empowers the believer, and the believer goes to all the world and tells the story of Jesus. Whats Plan B? There is no Plan B. There is no back-up plan. Its entrusted to us. We are Plan A for this generation. Thats why its imperative that we take this mission so seriously. As a church body to reach the world, we should have so many people coming to that missions banquet Friday, we cant contain them in the multi-purpose room. We need to understand that we are a part of what God is doing, that we seize the moment and say, Im going to be a witness for Christ in Jerusalem or at home or to the ends of the earth. I want to be an Acts 1:8 Christian. I want to be a Matthew 28:18 Christian. I want to make a difference in my world, in the blink of an eye that I am here. Amen? No Plan B. We take it as serious as a heart attack-the mission that God has given us to do.