Hope Fellowship Blog

Day #8 Live with a Mission: Worship

Read Matthew 22:34-40 and 28:18-20

Remember the Palm Pilot?  Still use one?  Probably not.  Why?  Because the palm pilot has gone the way of other first generation technology devices and disappeared into the realm of trivia questions (What is a bag phone?).  But just a half dozen years ago you could have thrown a rock into a crowd of ten businessmen and hit twelve PDA’s.  Now just try to go and buy one— they don’t exist; they were replaced by devices that accomplished what the palm pilot did in a better way.

One day, evangelism will not just be replaced like the Palm Pilot, it will become obsolete—its function will not be needed any longer. John Piper said that missions exists because worship doesn’t.  He goes on to say that  one day evangelism will be obsolete because all blood-bought believers will worship Christ as we should. But today, everyone doesn’t worship God as He deserves, so there is a need for evangelism and missions to take the good news to those who don’t know Him.  This need will be with us until the end of the world when Christ returns. But on the day that Christ returns evangelism will soon become a memory because in the new heavens and the new earth there will no longer be anyone around who does not acknowledge and worship God.   In heaven those who have trusted in Christ will praise him for all eternity.

But until that day we have been given a task to accomplish by the power and direction of God.  What we mean when we say mission is: “Mission is the task [given by God] that we are given to fulfill [as Christians].” (DeYoung and Gilbert) This task is best summed up in what is known as the great commission in Matthew 28:18-20.  That we might make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey all that Jesus has commanded.  How does Jesus sum up his commandments?  Love God and love others. (Matt 22:37-40)  The task we are given now, as the church, is to make disciples and love the Lord our God and love others.  Or as we say it in three words, “Love, Worship, Proclaim” 

Love for God and fellowship and love for others will continue for all eternity. So will worship.  Evangelism will not.  So when we worship God now, by obedience and praise, we are doing something that we will continue to do for all of eternity such that Our mission now to worship God, then, is a never ending mission in which we will always participate.  When we worship God now we are doing something that will be our primary occupation for all time.  But we can also uniquely honor and worship God in the only space and time that we will ever be able to do so again— in proclaiming him to those who do not know Christ.

Live with a Mission Today: Non-Christians that we encounter today do not have an infinitely long time to hear truth and believe—the message for others to trust Christ is urgent because none of us know how many days on earth we have left.  Ask God that you might live with a mission marked by more urgency to proclaim the message of salvation to those who do not know Christ.

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