Missions Sunday — special guest
All the peoples on earth will be blessed through you. Every missionary story we hear on Sunday started in this sentence.
God’s plan for the nations begins with one family. Who told you about Jesus, and who told them?
A prayer that God’s way would be known on all the earth. Read it as a prayer, not a poem.
Mark every “all” and “every” in this psalm. Who is left out?
Here I am, send me. Notice the sending comes second. Worship comes first, and it is what makes a person willing.
Isaiah volunteers after he sees God, not after he is shamed. Where does willingness actually come from?
The commission itself, given to a group Matthew tells us was still doubting. That detail matters.
Name three people you know who are far from God. Just three names.
Every nation, tribe, people, and language standing before the throne. This is what our going and our giving are actually for.
Pray for those three by name. Ask God for one conversation this month, then listen for it.
If our guest sends a text ahead, put it on Monday and move Genesis 12 to Tuesday.
What are the Marks and the 3 Circles?
The Marks of a Disciple
Each week names one of these — the practices we are cultivating in each other.
- Daily Devotion
- Time with God every day, in the Bible and in prayer.
- Prayer
- Not only a set appointment, but a life of prayer at any hour, for anything.
- Generosity
- Giving your effort and your resources to this church and to God’s kingdom.
- Service
- Giving your time and talent to the church and its mission in the community.
- Witness
- Seeking people far from God and telling them about Jesus and about your own finding of him.
- Worship
- Weekly praise together, and a life presented daily to God’s service.
- Spiritual Disciplines
- Fasting, solitude, study, sabbath — the old practices of the faith.
The 3 Circles
How we tell someone about Jesus — simple enough to draw on a napkin. Each week names the part of it that week’s reading sits in.
- God’s Design
- The world and your life as God made them to be.
- Sin
- The arrow out. We each go our own way instead.
- Brokenness
- Where that leaves us. Ecclesiastes spends most of twelve chapters here.
- Repent & Believe
- Turning from our own way and trusting what Jesus did.
- Gospel
- Jesus lived the life we could not and died the death we deserved.
- Recover & Pursue
- The way back toward the life God designed.