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THE MOST IMPORTANT WORK IN THE WORLD

INTRODUCTION

I trusted Christ as my Saviour 34 years ago when I was two months shy of being 15 years of age.

I can tell you that a heavy burden was lifted from my soul that night as in my heart, I knelt at Calvary and received as my Saviour the One who died on that old, rugged cross for me.

Burdens are lifted at Calvary! Amen!

That was the first major turning point in my spiritual life. It got me off the broad way that leads to Hell and destruction and it put me on the narrow road to Heaven. It saved my life from eternal destruction. It gave me a brand new start with God.

The second major turn in my spiritual journey came about 25 years ago, when I surrendered my life to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

There is one thing that I don’t want to happen in my life. I don’t want to stand before Jesus Christ at the end of my life and see the things I lived for burned up at the judgement seat of Christ. How sad it is that many Christians will see their works burned up because they are living for the things of this world instead of living for Christ!

When my life here on this earth is over, I want there to be something left that will last for all of eternity. Don’t you?

In my life I want the things that will magnify Christ. . .the things that help others to know Jesus like I know Jesus, and be blessed by Jesus like I have been blessed by Jesus.

The sermon today is about how not to waste your life. The way that we live a life that is not wasted is by focusing our attention on the most important work in the world.

Those of us who have been here in the services last Sunday and all through last week have heard messages centered around the most important work in the world–Missions. I want to wrap this week up with this message today as we make our Faith Promise Missions commitments for this coming year.

The most important work in the world is Missions! If our life is not going to be wasted, we need to have a part in Missions! Missions is the very heartbeat of God.

I.         THE LOCAL CHURCH IS THE EVANGELISTIC ARM OF GOD.

            A.        If God Is Going To Reach A Community With The Gospel, He Is Going To Use A Local Church To Get It Done.

            B.        If God Is Going To Reach This World With The Gospel, He Is Going To Use Local Churches To Get The Job Done.

            THE LOCAL CHURCH IS THE EVANGELISTIC ARM OF GOD.

II.       THE HOLY SPIRIT IS THE EVANGELISTIC AGENT OF GOD.

What we see throughout the Book of Acts is that when the Holy Spirit comes and fills and speaks and acts, He comes and fills and speaks and acts for evangelism and missions

            (i.e. that is, taking the Gospel out into the streets and sending it around the world!)

There are two statements here in our text, that tell us that the local Church (that’s us) is to be in partnership with the Holy Spirit of God to reach the world for Christ.

The Holy Spirit said, “Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.”

            This local Church responded obediently to this command and “sent them away.”

So we see a partnership between the Holy Spirit of God and the local Church to accomplish God’s work.

III.      THE PARTNERSHIP PARALLEL IN REVELATION 22:16-21

            A.        Verse 16 Tells Us Something About Jesus.

These are the words of Jesus.

                        It says that Jesus sent His “angel” to testify some things unto the Churches.

                        One of those things was that Jesus is the “root and offspring of David.”

                         1.         The “root” means that David recieved his life from Christ.

                        2.         The “offspring” means that Christ received his life from David.

                        3.         Jesus is saying, I gave to David his life, and David gave to Me My life.

                                    (How can that be?)

                        4.         He is the root of David because Jesus is David’s Creator, the Almighty God of eternity.

                        5.         He is the offspring of David because He is the virgin born Son of God whose earthly heritage came through the lineage of David.

                        6.         This means that Jesus is both God and man, both human and divine.

                        Paul said, For to me to live is Christ? Why should I live for Christ?

                        Why is living for Christ gain, and living for anything else is waste?

                        Because Jesus Christ is God!

                        Because Jesus Christ is the Creator who came to be our Saviour!

He is the one who died on the cross for your sins, and the sins of the whole world, and who afterwards rose from the dead

                        He is alive today and spoke these words His very last words to the human race.

            B.        Verse 17 Tells Us Something About The Church.

The Spirit here is speaking of the Holy Spirit. The Bride is the Church.

                         1.         The New Testament repeatedly affirms this. We are the Bride of Christ.

                        2.         In Ephesians 5, the Holy Spirit tells us that the marriage relationship was meant to picture the relationship of Christ to His Church.

                        3.         Paul puts it very plainly in 2 Corinthians 11:2, saying that we have been espoused to one husband, and that is Christ.

Here we see that one of the last messages we have from Jesus in the Word of God is that there is to be a partnership between the Holy Spirit of God and the Bride, that is the Church, in inviting men to come to Christ and drink of the soul-satisfying water of life.

As a local Church, which is a body of baptized believers who regularly assemble together in the Name of Jesus and who are indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God, we are to be filled with the Holy Spirit of God and then we are to be going out into our community, and our work places, and our schools, and our homes, and our nation, and our world, inviting others to come to Christ.

                        That is the work that God has called us to do!

            C.        Verses 18-19 Tell Us Something About The Word Of God.

                        Notice the phrase in verse 19, “the words of this book”

I want you to know that I believe that we have THE words of this book that Jesus spoke. I mean, I believe that God has preserved His Word!

There are so called scholars who say today that we can’t be sure of the Word of God. So much time has passed they say; errors have crept in; it has been tampered with and times have changed, and on and on and on they go.

But we have one that hasn’t been tampered with right here! We have God’s preserved Word for the English speaking people right here in the good old King James Version.

If God can’t keep His Word and preserve it for us the way He wants us to have it, then He isn’t much of a God!

This IS the word of God. It presents to us a Christ who is both God and Man.

A Christ who has appointed that His Bride work in partnership with the Holy Spirit of God to invite others to know the Christ we know and drink of the waters of life that have so satisfied our souls.

RETURN TO ACTS 13:1-4

                        Do you see the correlation between these two texts?

                                    a.         Revelation 22 tells us that this partnership should exist.

                                    b.         Acts 13 shows us what it looks like.

Now, let us spend a few moments considering the work to which Saul (whom we know as Paul) and Barnabas were called.

                        Read verse 5 –Saul (or Paul) and Barnabas preached the Word

                        Read verses 6-7--There were those who desired to hear the Word of God.

(By the way, verse 12 states that Sergius Paulus believed the doctrine which he heard, the truth from the Word of God)

                        Read verses 15-16, verses 38-39; 42, 44, 49.

                        What “work” did Paul and Barnabas engage in? Evangelism and Missions!

The work to which the Holy Ghost called them and to which the Church sent them was the work of preaching the Gospel, of inviting others to come to Christ and believe in Him as their Saviour.

                        Now understand that every child of God is called to be a missionary in a sense.

                        We who are saved have been given the Great Commission to carry out.

That means being involved in personal evangelism to those around us as well as having a part in getting the Gospel to a lost and dying world.

We know that in the strict sense of the word missionary that we are talking about certain men are called to go out and do that in a vocational sense.

The work they do, preaching and teaching and making disciples, we call missions.

Our job is to cooperate with the Holy Spirit by not only doing personal evangelism here at home, but in sending missionaries away to do that work around the world!

                        a.         We are not to send them away empty handed; with just a “God bless you.”

                        b.         We send them away with support, and we keep giving them support until God brings them home.

                                    1.         This is what the Holy Spirit calls us to do.

                                    2.         This is what the Word of Christ commands us to do

                                    3.         It is what the Good News of Salvation constrains us to do

                        This work of evangelism and missions is the most important work on earth!

                        Let me give you two reasons why that is true:

                         1.         Evangelism and missions are the primary work that God is doing in the world today.

                        2.         Evangelism and missions are the only work on this earth whose results will last for eternity.

Conclusion

When we live for Christ, (and living for Christ means being a part of this great partnership of evangelism and missions), when we die, we will gain.

That is how NOT to waste your life.

My Christian friend, what will it be? What will it take for you to see that all the things of earth will soon be past and that only what is done for Christ will last.

You see your friends, day by day,

You see them walk and go their way.

So many souls Christ died to save;

Yet you won’t take the time to explain the way.

The only thing you lose by living for Jesus Christ is a wasted life.

Can you say that you are living for Christ today?

            Not if you haven’t been born again of the Spirit of God.

            Not if you are not involved in the most important work of God–evangelism and missions.

Home Page   Contact Us    Service Times   Sermons   Are You Going To Heaven?

NOTICE:   THESE SERMONS ARE FREE TO BE USED BUT ARE NOT TO BE SOLD!