Sermon thesis: Your neighborhood, your nation, your God needs you
Sometimes when things are going on in our neighborhood and our nation, we can forget the mission that Jesus gave us.
Point #1: we are sent
Jesus often repeats that He was sent. As the Father sent Him, he sends us.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
John 3:16, NKJV
19 Then, the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them, “Peace be with you.” 20 When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. 21 So Jesus said to them again, “Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.”
We have a commission on our lives.
Will you do what Jesus asked?
Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: “Whom shall I send, And who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.”
This needs to be our prayer; that we hear the voice of Jesus, the commission of Jesus, and we say, we’ll go.
Point #2: we are sent to all kinds of people
Point #2: we are sent to all kinds of people
18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
He wants us to talk to people all around the world.
9 The next day, as they went on their journey and drew near the city, Peter went up on the housetop to pray, about the sixth hour. 10 Then he became very hungry and wanted to eat; but while they made ready, he fell into a trance 11 and saw heaven opened and an object like a great sheet bound at the four corners, descending to him and let down to the earth. 12 In it were all kinds of four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, creeping things, and birds of the air. 13 And a voice came to him, “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.”14 But Peter said, “Not so, Lord! For I have never eaten anything common or unclean.”15 And a voice spoke to him again the second time, “What God has cleansed you must not call common.” 16 This was done three times. And the object was taken up into heaven again.
We need to pray for them, talk with them, witness to them.
Our number one job as Christians is to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ to others. God wants as many as possible saved.
Point #3: We are sent with a message.
46 Then He said to them, “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, 47 and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
Our message is that Jesus died for all people so that they can receive Him and be saved. The focus is Jesus.
Point #4: you are empowered by the Holy Spirit
But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”