The Four R’s of Readiness

Pastor Darrin Wright – November 11, 2007

Introduction

            It has been said that before you pack your bag for a mission trip, you must prepare your heart.  There are at least four areas of our heart that must be prepared before we engage in missions.

 

I.  Repentance  (Psalm 32:1-5)

  • Repentance – to change your mind; it is a word that describes not only what we say with our lips, but also our life.
  1. Genuine Repentance Unlocks the door of God’s Mercy.  (vs.1-4)

1.      Proverbs 28:13(NASB)- “He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, But he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion.”

2.      This verse speaks of a desire to make a clean break from our sin.  (burn all bridges)

3.      There are two kinds of repentance:  real and fake.

4.      True repentance always comes from the heart.

5.      Thomas Watson – Puritan who said, “repentance is the vomiting of the soul”

6.      Genuine repentance is always accompanied with great remorse.

7.      Psalm 51:17(NASB) – “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.”

8.      When there is genuine repentance, there will be brokenness over sin; not defensive, angry, proud, or bitter.

9.      A contrite heart makes no demands and has no expectations in return.

10.  A person with a contrite heart does not place blame, but the contrary, they take the blame.

11.  Genuine repentance always brings evidence with it.

12.  When genuine repentance takes place, there will be changes in three major areas.

Three Major Areas Of Repentance

1)      Desires of your heart

2)      Direction of your life

3)      Destiny of your soul

B.    My Past Life Does Not Exclude Me From Present Service.

1.      Psalm 103:10 (NASB) – “He has not dealt with us according to our sins, Nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.”

2.      God rewards us according to His grace.

3.      Psalm 51:10-13(NASB) – “Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me.  Do not cast me away from Your presence And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.  Restore to me the joy of your salvation And sustain me with a willing spirit.  Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, And sinners will be converted to you.”

4.      It is a turning around and going in the other direction.

5.      It is a claiming of God’s forgiveness and reinstatement.

 

II.  Riches  (Matthew 19:23-26)

A.    Matthew 19:23 - 26 (NASB) – “And Jesus said to His disciples, Truly I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.  Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.  When the disciples heard this, they were very astonished and said, Then who can be saved?  And looking at them Jesus said to them, With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

B.    Jesus was not condemning wealthy people.

C.   However, the Jews often interpreted wealth as a sign of God’s blessing in the sense of a sure ticket to heaven.

D.    Instead Jesus saw the dangers inherent in wealth and taught that only a few, with God’s help could handle wealth properly.

E.     Camel- the largest animal commonly seen.

F.     Eye of the needle – the smallest opening

G.   The eye of the needle mentioned in the Bible, was one of the many gates providing passage through Jerusalem’s massive walls.  The needle gate was used when the city’s main gates were closed at night.  It was designed for security so that enemies could not simply ride into the city.  The gate was so small, that a rich man would have to unload his camel, or with great effort lead his camel through the gate with the camel on his knees.

H.   We must come to God stripped of all of our importance and all the things we are trusting in, and humble ourselves before him.

I.       Abundant life is not found in our possessions, but in Jesus Christ, the one who possesses us.

 

III.  Relationships  (Matthew 22:36-40)

A.    Right Relationships

1.     Matthew 22:36-40 (NASB)- “Teacher which is the great commandment in the Law?  And He said to them, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.  This is the great and foremost commandment.  The second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  On these two commandments depend the whole Law and Prophets.”

2.     Our vertical relationship with God must be right.

3.     Our horizontal relationships with others must be right.

B.    Relinquished Relationships

1.     The writer of the Psalms and Proverbs makes it clear that our earthly relationships are a gift from God.

2.     Because they are a gift to us from God, we are merely stewards of them.

3.     It means that we must relinquish them to God and make important investments into those relationships.

4.     In the book Shadow of the Almighty:  The Life and Testament of Jim Elliot, Elizabeth writes of the last time she saw her husband alive:

Jim slung the carrying net across his forehead, and started for the front door.  As he put his hand on the brass handle I almost said aloud:  Do you realize you may never open that door again.

He swung it open, followed me  out and slammed it, striding down the bamboo trail in his usual firm, determined gait.  As we reached the strip, the plane was circling to land, and it was only a matter of minutes before Jim kissed me, hopped in beside the pilot, and disappeared over the river.  On Sunday, January 8, 1956, the men for whom Jim Elliot had prayed for six years killed him and his four companions.

5.     Jim Elliot’s life was one of total commitment to Jesus Christ.  He owned few things of worldly value; however, his life was an eternal treasure.  At the age of twenty two he wrote, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”

 

IV.  Relinquishments  (Acts 8:1-8)

          On January 9th, 1985 – Pastor Hristo Kulichev, a congregational pastor in Bulgeria, was arrested and put in prison.  His crime was that he preached in his church even though the state had appointed another man the pastor whom the congregation did not elect.  His trial was a mockery of justice.  And he was sentenced to eight months imprisonment.  During his time in prison he made Christ known every way he could.

            When he got out he wrote, “Both prisoners and jailers asked many questions, and it turned out that we had a more fruitful ministry there than we could have expected in Church.  God was better served by our presence in prison than if we had been free.”

  • Acts 8:1-8
  1. God Makes Persecution Serve Mission.  (vs.1b)

1.     Up until now in the book of Acts, all the ministry has taken place in Jerusalem.  The church had not yet fulfilled what Jesus commanded in Acts 1:8…Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the remotest parts of the earth.

2.     Whether the church may have awakened to her calling eventually without persecution, the fact is that God used persecution to move his people into the mission God had given them.

3.     Comfort and ease and affluence and prosperity and safety and freedom often cause complacency in the church. 

4.     Hard times like persecution often produce more personnel, more prayer, and more power than easy times.

5.     We should not seek persecution, but we should not be disheartened but filled with hope if we are persecuted.

  1. Adversaries Become Advocates.  (vs.3)

 

  1. The Word Of God Is Good News And Brings Joy.  (vs.4-8)

 

1.     Even though the Word of God brought persecution and exile, it is still Good News and brings joy.  (vs.4;8)

2.     The Word that brings persecution also brings joy, and the joy it brings is so much greater and longer than the trouble it brings that the trade off is worth it.

3.     vs.5-7 describe the joy

4.     If you have Christ, if you know Him and trust Him, then no matter how severe the persecution is, no matter how great the suffering of life, you have hope and you have joy.

David Eddinger from Persecution.org 11/07/07

·        The persecuted church is going through the worst of times.

·        Today 200 million Christians worldwide face persecution.

·        Since the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, more than 70 million Christians have been martyred, most in the 20th and 21st centuries.

·        There are currently 50 nations, the majority of them Muslim controlled, where Christian persecution is supported by the government.

·        Tim Gill (Voice Of the Martyrs) – The persecuted church is” walking through things that we in America have not even dreamt of yet.  They are setting the example for us.  If we study the persecuted church now, we will be prepared when persecution hits us later.

·        Major Countries:  China, North Korea, Sudan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nigeria, and Vietnam.

·        “When you become a Christian in those places, your status is completely shot.  The minute they accept Jesus Christ, they are looked at as infidels and second class citizens.  They are looked at as dirt.”

·        “They develop a joy we can’t understand.  Though they suffer horribly on the outside, inside there is a joy and radiance.  That’s the work of the Holy Spirit.”

·        Philippians 3:10(NASB) – “that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.”

·        Question – Is Christ so valuable to you that no loss you experience for his sake will feel like losing in the end?