Watch/Listen
They Were Going
Brian Mashburn
May 11, 2008
Audio Player
They Had A "Going" Lifestyle
If you are a Christian, then embedded inside of you is an impulse to give Christ to others.
Christians express it in so many ways...they offer Bible studies to people; they give money to missionaries; they tell someone their story; they ask a co-worker to lunch; they pray for people who are lost in the world's "matrix"; they do benevolence.
This is a Biblically explainable phenomenon. Christ is a missionary (Luke 19:10). Christ embedded his missionary heart into his followers (Matthew 28:19). And Christ himself is embedded in each of you (Colossians 1:27).
God himself is a missionary. He "goes" outward to redeem the people He does not have, and He "goes" inward to redeem the untaken parts of the people He does have. God is on a mission.
Pardon the grossness, but you know how ingrown toenails work, right? They are growing, but not in the right direction. They are growing in a direction that is actually painful to the body, and sometimes require surgery to correct. Many Christians are ingrown. They are growing, but not in the right direction. They grow in a way that increasingly disconnects them from the world God loves, which is the wrong direction.
When Christians are correctly growing, you will notice that they will be "going"...into the world, into hearts, into God's mission.
"As the Father has sent me, I am sending you," our Master says.
It is not for lack of desire that we do not go into other people's lives, it's for lack of submission to that desire. Oh, and how we have our reasons: "that's not my gift," "that's what we have ministers and missionaries for," "I don't know anyone who doesn't know Christ," or "I'm uncomfortable doing certain things."
There is a group of people in our city that God has either made you a part of, or wants you to be a part of...for His mission, His glory, and your growth. In Acts, they went. In Amarillo, we need to go.