Missions Needs To Be A Top Priority
What do you think of when you hear the word missions ? Most people when they hear the word “missions” think of mission trips. Or they think of a ministry at church. Sadly many churches do not even have a missions ministry these days. Many others think of a special community r outreach event the church has in the community 2 or 3 times per year.
The role that missions and evangelism plays in most churches today has been greatly reduced, if not completely eliminated these days. Understanding what missions is will help you to understand why missions is very important. And why missions needs to be a top priority.
Missions is not just a trip. Or a special event the church has 2 or 3 times each year. And missions is not a ministry in the church that only a few “gifted” get to participate in.Â
Missions Needs To Be A Top Priority
Missions Comes From God’s Heart
The idea of missions came from God’s heart. The desire and inspiration for missions comes from God’s heart. It is all about God’s great love for all people. And God’s passion to save the lost and have a restored personal relationship with everyone.
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”
Missions is all about God’s love and His desire and passion for all people to be saved. All people, from all people groups, and from all nations.
 1 Timothy 2:4 “God desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”
This verse is a look into God’s heart. And the desire that God has for all to be saved. Missions is not a trip, Or a ministry. Or a special event. It is all about God’s love and desire and passion to save lost sinners, who have a broken relationship with God because of their sin.
How Strong Is God’s Desire For All To Be Saved ?
God loves us all so much that He sent His only son Jesus to suffer terribly. And to die a horrible death on the cross. All to make it possible for us to be saved and to have a restored personal relationship with God.
Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
The romans researched how they could make someone suffer the most before they killed them. They discovered the cross was the most painful and terrible way for a person to suffer and then die. Jesus was willing to endure the worst possible suffering and death. All to make it possible for us to be saved and to have a restored personal relationship with God.
That’s how important missions and saving lost people is to Jesus.
#1 Reason Why Missions Needs To Be A Top Priority
The Bible tells us that God loves the world and that He wants all to be saved. That doesn’t just mean us Christians. It means that God wants all sinners and all the people that are not Christians to be saved. And it doesn’t mean just people in the US. God wants every person in every people group, tribe, and every nation in the world to be saved.Â
Because missions is very important to God, missions needs to be a top priority for us. World missions is important to God because of His great love for all people. And it is important to God because of His great desire and passion for all to be saved. All men, all women, all children in all nations.
Missions Needs To Be A Top Priority
#2 Reason Why Missions Needs To Be A Top Priority
If God’s people, the church, do not love people enough to go and tell as many others about the Gospel and Jesus, then who will ? God’s plan all along was to have the church be His instrument to take the Gospel to all people. And then help them to grow and to make disciples. That includes all people in your city, all people in your region, and all people all over the world.
And God has already provided what we the church need in order to accomplish this task. It is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit provides everything we need to be the fruitful witnesses and missionaries that God called and commanded us to be.
Matthew 4:19 “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
Mark 16:15 “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.”
Acts 1:8 “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem (your city), and in all Judea and Samaria (your region), and even to the remotest part of the earth.”
Notice in Acts 1:8 Jesus said “…you shall be My witnesses.” When God fills you with the Holy Spirit, and with His love & passion for lost people, you won’t just do evangelism and missions occasionally. You will BE a “fisher of men” or witness or missionary all the time. You will be filled with God’s love and passion for the lost, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Being a witness or missionary is a lifestyle of love and passion for reaching the lost.
#3 Reason Why Missions Needs To Be A Top Priority
Missions is all about loving people the way God does. And about having the same desire and passion for others to be saved that God has. Missions is also about leaving the comfort and safety of the church and going outside into the community, region, and even to other nations as God leads. That is where sinners are. Very few of the lost people will come to your church. Some will if invited, but most will not.
These days in the US fewer and fewer people want God in their lives. Many people have everything they need here, and the thinking is “Why do I need God ?”Or “I don’t need God.” But in other countries around the world, especially in poor countries, many people are more humble and they know they need God. And their is a great hunger for God. And a great openness to the Gospel. The harvest is truly huge in these areas, such as in Africa and other parts of the world.
We need to go out to where the harvest is truly huge and go tell them about Jesus. And help & train churches in those areas to do God’s mission work also, of sharing the Gospel and making disciples. There is a great harvest and a great need for people to step up and fulfill God’s mission there. We in the US have the resources to do it, but less and less people have the right heart attitude to do it. The “whatever it takes or whatever it costs” attitude to do God’s mission.
 Matthew 9:37 “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.”
Missions Needs To Be A Top Priority
#4 Reason Why Missions Needs To Be A Top Priority
It is a great privilege and honor to join God in what He is doing in the world. God is still the all mighty and all powerful God. And He is doing amazing things in the world today. God loves you very much and He wants to give your life great purpose and meaning and value. He does this by inviting you to join Him in His kingdom work and mission.
John 5:17 – “Jesus said to them My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.”
God does not need us in order to accomplish His kingdom work. But He chose to include us in the way He accomplishes His kingdom purposes in the world. He has given us the privilege and also the responsibility to do our part in His work and mission. We the church have the God-given responsibility to take the Gospel to the world and to make disciples.
 2 Corinthians 5:18-20 “Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.”
#5 Reason Why Missions Needs To Be A Top Priority
Missions changes us. When we participate with God in His mission work and we see and experience Him doing great things, it changes us. We see God in a whole new way, because we obey His commands to be His witnesses and join Him in His kingdom work. When we see God’s great power and glory up close, it changes us. We grow deeper in our faith and in our walk with God. And we become more and more in awe of God. Like the early church in Act was.
Acts 2:43 – “Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles.”
And visiting poor countries changes our hearts. We have been to a great number of slums and poor places and countries. We have shared the Gospel in many slums around the world. You learn to very much appreciate the things and blessings you have from God. The things you grow accustomed to taking for granted.
Your perspective changes, and you see the things that are truly important. And the things that are not. You step outside of the US and into a poor country, and you begin to see how materialistic we really are in the US. And in other well off countries.
Missions changes us and our hearts. And that is a good thing.
#6 Reason Why Missions Needs To Be A Top Priority
Besides changing us and our hearts, participating in God’s mission helps us to grow and become more mature Christians. Missions has a way of accelerating our spiritual growth. And it helps us to develop a deeper walk with God. Our faith is strengthened when we see God mightily at work. And we know Him in more real and personal ways from then on. Missions gives us the opportunity to see and experience God, and thus to know God much better.
Often times going on mission trips and participating in outreach ministries produces far greater spiritual growth than does going to a Sunday School class or small group. These things are very important to our spiritual growth and making disciples, don’t get me wrong. But nothing can compare to the spiritual growth and changes in us and in our hearts that missions produces.
We want to encourage you to seek God. And pray and seek how God wants you to be involved in His kingdom work and mission. And if possible find a way to be involved in missions in other countries around the world. Now more than ever there is a great need for more workers in the harvest that God has already prepared.
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Other Links
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Why Should You Pray & Spend Time With God ?
Is Jesus Your First Love ? Part 2
Prayer Is Passion To Seek & Know God
God’s Purpose & Mission For You And Your Church
Spiritual Gifts: All Christians Have Gifts
Jesus Wants To Heal You & Set You Free
Salvation & The Gospel Of Jesus Christ
The Kind of Christian & Church God Wants
Kevin Bart has been a follower of Jesus for over 40 years. Kevin has taught Bible study classes, small groups, and discipleship classes for many years. He developed Pursuing Intimacy With God Bible studies website and book after many years of seeking God and studying His word. Kevin and his wife Nancy have 3 sons and 2 precious grandchildren.
Kevin is a former business owner, and current international missions ministry leader with more than four decades of combined business and ministry experience. After building and running a successful business for 23 years, with God’s guidance and blessings, he sold his company to dedicate himself to full-time global missions.
For over 20 years, Kevin and his wife Nancy have led a self funded international missions ministry. Utilizing learned business and financial management skills, as well as knowledge and experience in travel points and miles, to date they have had more than 5o mission trips to 36 countries in the Caribbean, Central America, South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia.
After many years of studying the Bible and the Book of Revelation, and writing many Bible studies and articles, Kevin finally finished Unraveling The Mysteries of the Book Of Revelation. Hopefully it will be a blessing to many people.
