“No, we don’t know, Lord,” Thomas said. “We have no idea where you are going, so how can we know the way?” Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.
John 14:5-6 (NIV)
JESUS WAS COMMISSIONED BY THE FATHER TO SAVE THE LOST.
Then after her baby is born, name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.
Matthew 1:21 (CEV)
And you know that he became a man so that he could take away our sins.
1 John 3:5 (LB)
YOU AND I ARE COMMISSIONED BY THE SON TO SAVE THE LOST.
Just as You sent Me into the world, I am sending them into the world.
John 17:18 (NLT)
This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to Himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to Him.
2 Corinthians 5:17, 18 (NLT)
THIS GIFT OF MISSION REQUIRES ME TO DO ALL I CAN…
1. …TO TALK LIKE JESUS
For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, no longer counting people's sins against them. And He gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation.
2 Corinthians 5:19 (NLT)
So faith comes from hearing the Good News. And people hear the Good News when someone tells them about Christ.
Romans 10:17 (ERV)
The Word took on flesh and became human… to live alongside us. We have seen Him, enveloped in undeniable splendor—the one true Son of the Father—evidenced in the perfect balance of grace and truth.
John 1:14 (VOICE)
• Like Jesus I must communicate grace.
“The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, for He has anointed Me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.”
Luke 4:18, 19 (NLT)
??? Graceful communications greatest enemy? Pride
The rivers of Grace cannot flow uphill, up the steep cliff of the proud man’s heart.
Bernard of Clairvaux
??? Graceful communications greatest ally? Humility
Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up.
James 4:10 (NIV)
…Jesus Christ came into the world to bring sinners back to life—even me, the worst sinner of all! Yet I was captured by grace, so that Jesus Christ could display through me the outpouring of his Spirit as a pattern to be seen for all those who would believe in him for eternal life.
1 Timothy. 1:15b, 16 (TP)
• Like Jesus I must communicate truth.
I have come as a light to shine in this dark world so that all who trust in me will no longer wander in darkness. If you hear my words and refuse to follow them, I do not judge you. For I have not come to judge you but to save you. If you reject me and refuse to follow my words, you already have a judge. The message of truth I have given you will rise up to judge you at the Day of Judgment. For I’m not speaking as someone who is self-appointed, but I speak by the authority of the Father himself who sent me, and who instructed me what to say. And I know that the Father’s commands result in eternal life, and that’s why I speak the very words I’ve heard him speak.”
John 12:46 – 50 (TP)
In a turbulent world where people are either dying or being rescued, we are the sweet smell of the Anointed to God our Father. To those who are dying, they smell the stench of death in us. And to those being rescued, we are the unmistakable scent of life. Who is worthy of this calling?
2 Corinthians 2:15-16 (VOICE)