Your Mission...You Shall Accept It

if you got your Bible whether it be analog digital whatever I want to turn to Matthew 28 18- 20 and then acts 1 and 8 I when when Pastor reached out to me a few days ago you know I wanted to I wanted to go you know to some deep theological place for Missions service but you know how can you possibly talk about missions and not just simply go back to Matthew 28 and Acts chapter 1 and that's where God took me Matthew 28:18 and Jesus came and spake unto them saying all power is given unto me in heaven and in Earth go ye therefore and teach All Nations baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy Ghost teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded you and lo I'm with you always even

unto the end of the world Amen and then Acts 1:8 says but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be witnesses to me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the Earth and today for the next few moments I want to speak to each and every one of us this old guy included on this thought your mission you shall accept it was nearly 60 years ago that this iconic theme song took America and ultimately the World by storm

and those of us that are old enough to remember it we can we can see the little trail of fire stretching across the screen early moments of each episode found Mr Phelps often in some obscure setting finding a hidden oversized envelope which incl included pictures and recording that detailed the purpose of the team's next assignment and of course as the recording was going on before it gave its 5-second warning to self-destruct we always waited for that equally iconic phrase your mission should you choose to accept it see that that phrase always left room for the Mi team to refuse the mission but today as followers of Christ Our mission is not optional it's a Divine calling we don't just have the choice to accept it but we must we shall accept it our mission is not impossible because it is impowered by Christ himself your

mission you shall accept it the mission is commissioned by Christ the setting that we find at the end of Matthew's gospel is the 11 disciples are gathered there with the Risen Christ where he's given his final teachings and instructions before his Ascension and during the dialogue we find that Jesus shares a mission one that we now refer to as the Great Commission however Jesus didn't just suggest a mission but he commanded that mission go don't hesitate about it don't think about it don't weigh it out he just said go therefore and Make Disciples of all Nations baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you and behold I Am With You Always to the end of the age we're in the middle of February year is really

blazing by but it's already been a traumatic year for me January 1st I rolled over to Medicare this past Wednesday opened my bank app and there was my first Social Security direct deposit it's been a tough week 50 years ago in January 50 years ago in a cold January night 5th of January as a matter of fact I walked my way down to an altar I bowed my knee and repented of my sin 5 days later I was filled with the Holy Ghost 50 years ago that's just amazing to believe to understand I don't I didn't think I was old enough to that to happen 50 years ago but it did I remember that night I got baptized you see we're way too easy now I was baptized back in the day where he baptismal tanks weren't even thought of matter of fact I'm

positive our pastor found some way to keep the water in our Baptist stre at 32.1 De fah cuz he wanted us for reason because he thought that was going to help us start stuttering and getting Tong and praying getting the Holy Ghost there in the water I'm positive that's the way it worked but it wasn't long after that it was just it was just a short period of time that I knew God had called me into the ministry but life had a had a way of getting in the way you know I met a beautiful young girl she's watching I've got to make sure that my pockets are P she's you know I know she's checking she's watching we got married started a family I got involved in career and we went through the ups and downs of so many young couples went through getting

our priorities right and somewhere in all of that my call our call the call that both of us talked about so many times while we were dating got pushed to a shelf and everything else took a priority it was probably 12 or 13 years later before God finally stopped me and got me settled down and said hey remember that call and I said yeah I remember it so that started us on a on a long journey we were you know I was in a very successful career at the time but I we had already made the commitment that that career didn't mean anything and so we ultimately wound up in Cincinnati Ohio pastoring there for a for a period of time and then from there God moved us into a period of evangelism for a brief period and then

we wound up in chiley Missouri for a little while and from there God took us overseas I'll never forget it was late 2004 when our last missionaries while we were pastoring in Cincinnati came and shared their burden Mark and Robin shoots missionaries to the baltics most especially EST or G Estonia at the time and I can remember the three of us nette Cory and I and Mark and Robin all going to the restaurant after service like it was and Mark shoved a blue folder across the table at me and it had just a little label on it and I opened it up and of course it had his obligatory yellow Pim form in it and then on the other side of the page was a stack of papers and I said what's this all about he said

I really I really feel like that you all could be a part of the work in Estonia and you know I had I had been on a mission strip as a teenager I knew that God had had had put a heart for missions in me but we had never discussed anything like that and before really I could say a whole lot you know we kind of said you know right now is just not the time you know Corey's still in school we things going on blah blah blah and so we just kind of let it go we had a long conversation there at that table and just kind of Let It Go Fast Forward 5 years later the end of 2009 while we're pastoring in chilul Missouri I knew we knew already God had told us that we were about

done there in Missouri matter of fact he had already directed us to our next stop we were going to the St Louis area to Chesterfield in particular and we're going to plant a daughter work church for New Life which was pastor at the time by Brother Gary Tracy now neither one of us had ever been involved in a daughter work so we brought in the expert in daughter works Bishop became a counselor to us as we were walking through this process when all of a sudden on a Sunday morning God said excuse me change of plans and Mark shes showed up at our church in miss it was a dead dry service it was tough it was a tough service but anyway you know we went to the restaurant afterwards and the four of us sat down this time because his wife wasn't with him

and all of a sudden my mind went back to five years ago and it was like God had picked us up from Cincinnati and had carried us to Missouri and sat us back down because the conversation almost started back exactly where it had left off and he looked across the table and us and he says why are you here and my wife before I could say a word my wife the one who had before said that's not for us that's not for us she just simply said I'll go and I looked at her and I'm like go where what what what in the world is going on with you she said I said what are you doing she says I don't know she said all I know is he's getting ready to ask us to go somewhere and I know I've got to say I'll

go and so that started us on our journey to where eventually in the in May of 2011 we wound up in the city of Ria latva with this group if you'll give me that first slide now some of you have seen this group before because I've talked about them before this is the group that we lovingly I lovingly called The Island of Misfit Toys this is the group that wound up in Ralia that summer building and establishing the church Network that's now there in lvia we all came from very difficult ugly Church situations in our background those of us that were couples that had been involved in Ministry we had gone through some difficulties in Ministry the younger people were there had gone through some difficulties at church we all had no business being in laia as far as we were concerned but God spoke

to a man who spoke to us and told us otherwise and so now this rag tag group of people that you see sitting here represents one couple and their two children who are Pastor in successful Church in Wisconsin one of these young men is married with a family and they now serve full-time in their local church as the worship pastors one of the young men here married has a beautiful little girl and now for the last 10 or so years they have been the resident missionaries in lva another of the young men has married and now they are also serving as career missionaries one of the young ladies is now married has a family and they are currently serving as aers in Eurasia another of the young ladies is now part of the global Mission staff in St Louis and while we have lost contact

with the last member of this group she returned home and began to build upon her passion for reaching the lost that God developed in her during her time in lvia and then us the Great Commission is not a task for a select few but it is for every believer it is for every one of us when we reach out to Christ and we bow our knee for forgiveness and when he fills us with his Spirit we also accept the mission at that time you may not realize it you may not comprehend it you may not understand it but it is a part of our DNA when he fills us with his spirit that we are given a mission and we do not have a choice as to whether or not we accept that mission we have just got to walk into it share the gospel

disciple others live as his Witnesses in the world it's your mission you shall accept it the missions empowered by the holy spirit all throughout the Bible we encounter people people who experienced an encounter with God where he gave them a mission a calling people who responded often times to this Mission by giving an excuse or multiple excuses as to why they were not able to fulfill that mission people who we often equate with greatness because now we're able to see the end of their story and how it turned out but as that story was unfolding it was met with excuses Abraham Moses Gideon Jeremiah King Saul Elijah ananas Zacharias and we could go on and on and on about the number of people that did great and wonderful exploits but when God first presented the mission there was just an excuse so you

might ask here today well how how can I fulfill this Mission I'm not qualified but Jesus reassures Us in Acts 1:8 he says but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my Witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the Earth God is going to equip you for whatever he calls you to do he does not call the equipped but he equips the called and I am an example of that today and all across this congregation there are examples of that people that are not qualified people that that that that if we left it up to people would say no they can't do that but God says get out of my way I'm not thinking about what man says but I put a call on their life and I'm going

to give them a place to Bo to do what God called them to do give me that next slide I want to introduce you to the vnum family they were the part they were a big part of the church in Cincinnati when we got there not just spiritually but they were some of the craziest people that God ever said on the earth one Wednesday night my wife for some unknown reason forgot to turn her cell phone off and so in the middle of the then Pastor while we were assisting there the middle of his Bible study all of a sudden my wife's cell phone just started going off and she was just horribly embarrassed and the pastor made a big deal out of her being embarrassed and made sure that she was embarrassed even more every service Wednesday Sunday morning Sunday night Revival service it

didn't matter what it was every service after that one of these three boys would make sure that in the middle of something quiet they would call my wife's cell phone just hoping that again she had forgot to turn it off they were our biggest fans and our biggest supporters and I we love this family but I don't want to talk about all them I just want to talk about Sarah for a moment if you give me the next one Sarah is an amazing woman an amazing cook she made salsa that was to die for she had given us a jar of salsa after we had had had left the church she had given it to us as a gift and we had eaten most of it and somehow what little bit of Sals was left in the bottom of that jar somehow somebody and I

don't remember who it was but it very well could have been me accidentally brushed against that jar knocked it off the shelf of the refrigerator it hit the floor and the GL glass jar shattered all of us stood around that salsa jar and I don't remember who it was that said it looks like it's a clean break I think we could still eat the rest of it without shards that's how desperate we were to finish off the last of her salsa after we left this family began to attend Norm pasley's Church and Sarah stayed in contact with me and I can remember her three or four years after we were gone reaching out to me one day and she began to share by this time her husband had left her 65 years old he left his faithful wife and went to shack up with his

high school girlfriend craziest thing in the world I had ever witnessed she called me she said you know I'm just so lonely I feel so useless I feel like there's nothing for me to do and I mean she was really really scraping bottom and so I talked to her I encouraged her and stuff I said Sarah find something to do there's plenty for you to do you're you've got so much to offer the kingdom you know I talked about her volunteering in the hospital I talked about volunteering at a at some sort of a of a Ministry doing something doing this and things and she said you know that's a good idea I'm going to start looking for ideas couple weeks later I was talking to Robert Kelly he's our missionary in the United Kingdom and my boys were actually

going to go over there that summer for six weeks to do some missions work for him and he was telling me about a need in the bible school for the upcoming school year I said what is it he said we need a cook I said really he said yeah he said he said we normally don't have any trouble getting a cook we need a cook I said I'll be back with you I picked a phone call Sarah I said Sarah I know this is the craziest thing you're probably ever going to hear in your life but I found something for you to do she said you did she said how did you do that cuz you're all the way out there in Missouri she said you is it something in Missouri I said oh no I said the Bible school in the United Kingdom needs

a cook for the next school year Sarah said how do I sign up 72 years old Sarah put herself on an airplane flew to the United Kingdom and spent the next year cooking for those Bible school students in the bible school now if and if that's not enough of an obstacle a few days before she was to get on that airplane and go you know what she did she broke her foot so the first few weeks of her cooking in the bible school she was in a walking boot from her foot up past her knee to keep that all stable and she's told me the other day on the phone she said but brother Elkins I want you to know I didn't miss a single day of getting there and cooking for those kids and I said Sarah I have no doubt about

that whatsoever in my mind she was even a part of a group that went to Warsaw Poland for a week and spent that week out on the streets of Warsaw meeting people and inviting them to church taking part in Street evangelism and in street services why because there was a need that she felt she knew that God had something for her to do in her life and she looked for it and she found it she said I'm going to go and that's who God is looking for in this place today he's looking for somebody that will recognize that group of Misfit Toys that I showed you none of us got over to lvia and said we had a burden to be in lvia we just simply had a call we just simply had a burden to do something and God opened a door and I

want to tell somebody in this place today he's been speaking to you about something and it's time now to look at that mission and say it's my mission and I'm going to accept it we're not just sent out with our own strength we're empowered by the spirit of God just as the disciples transformed from fearful men into bold preachers of the Gospel after receiving the Holy Spirit you and I too are equipped for the mission our mission by God's power not ours it's your mission you shall accept it the mission is your purpose in today's society in today's culture so many people throw out there that I'm just searching for the purpose in my life I'm searching for the reason in my life and I get it I've been there done that we took some some of those t-shirts to Goodwill the other day as

a matter of fact but see as a Believer our purpose is already defined Ephesians 2:10 says for we are his workmanship created in Jesus Christ for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them this next slide please I want to introduce you to Tyler Tyler's 37 years old he's the oldest son of our pastor Back Home In Indiana Tyler and Angel got married young they were high school sweethearts and got married and like again like so many young couples they struggled in their walk with God to balance life and church and God and so for a lot of the period time that we were there basing out of that Church Tyler was there then he wasn't and then he was there then he wasn't and he just struggled kind of like that but just before we left there to move down

here Tyler had come back to church and he was he was starting to he was he was connecting now he was connecting better he's a great guy and so for the last eight nine years Tyler has been in a strong solid relationship with God and it's been beautiful to watch four or five Monday mornings ago I got a caller in the morning from my brother-in-law and it wasn't abnormal for my brother-in-law to call me because I worked with him quite a bit and you know he was always calling hey what are you doing what you got going on here's what I got going on why don't you come up to the Indiana and work and he called me that morning and I answered and said hello and there was silence on the other end of the phone and that bothered me cuz

that's not like jibi and he finally said hey he said what are you doing I said I'm putting paint on the wall what do you think I'm doing he said you got a minute I said yeah you're you're not going to believe this he said I just found out Tyler Hawkins passed away and his Sleepless last night I was stunned I mean just stunned disbelief as he shared that with me I mean Tyler was the kind of guy that I mean he loved life I can remember one of my one of my greatest memories he shared one time on Facebook he was working at home late one night it was getting close to midnight and all of a sudden he got a craving for a Whopper so he got in the car drove around the corner to Burger King it's about a quarter till

12 pulls up to the drive through places his order pulls up to the first window gives him the money pulls up to the second window and is waiting when all of a sudden it just happened to catch his eye out of the per or catch his attention out of the peripheral vision lights started going off and Tyler's like beating on the driveth through window hey hey you know and they come to the window and say you know open sir we're closed sir he said wait a minute you took my order you took my money I want my Whopper my way you know and I can just see Tyler doing that they're saying sir we're sorry the Grill's shut down the money is all locked up in a safe we can't give it to you if we wanted to Tyler's like unbelievable this just the kind

of guy Tyler was he was always sharing a story like that Tyler's passions were for God with his family running a close second I mean Tyler would do anything for his wife and these three kids running a close third for Tyler's passions was his love for the Chicago Cubs so much so he was so loving of the Chicago Cubs did you see this beautiful little brown-eyed girl her name [name redacted] thank goodness Tyler was not a St Louis Cardinals Fan some of you later tonight are going to get that but don't get caught in it right now Tyler never had a call to preaching Ministry his ministry was just simply serving wherever and to whomever he could Tyler became a champion for students not just at his home church but also in the local Apostolic Christian School and also at the district campgrounds when Tyler

was made aware of a student that financially was unable to be a part of an event now Tyler wasn't a big wealthy guy Tyler would probably tell you that most of their life their married life they live paycheck to paycheck and sometimes that second paycheck didn't get there before the first one had run out they struggled they did but when Tyler found out about a young person a student that one going to be able to take part in District youth convention or national youth congress or camp or the apostolic competition deal that they do for Bible or for homeschool and for school Bible schools over in Knoxville Every Spring he would take his spare time and would work something like door Dash to raise funds for that kid to be a part now Tyler didn't have a 9-to-5 job Tyler was

a sales rep for a company and he traveled across six or seven states and so this was a sacrifice for Tyler but Tyler said as long as I've got anything to do with it there's going to be no kid miss out an opportunity to be involved in something they should be involved in so how much of an impact did Tyler make on these lives you ask well he was a ball coach at that local Christian School and at their next game after his passing which just happened to be in terot at Pastor Harpo's church this whole school also being aware of Tyler's impact held an honor Tyler night and this is how those kids and those people attending honored Tyler because they said if there's anything in this world I want to do I want to live like Tyler there were over 800 people that

showed up to sit for Tyler's memorial service two hours and 45 minutes I sat beside my younger brother who a week before that had been a part of Pastor Paul money's funeral and a little over two hours he said we have just eclipsed his funeral but every person that got up and talked about Tyler had some story to share of how Tyler had made an impact on their life or how Tyler had made an impact on another life that they knew people from all over that been impacted by him as a worker come and shared their grief with that family over the loss of this young man and this is how they expressed it there that night you see you were created for this Mission every Talent every resource every opportunity in your life is part of God's plan to use you for

his glory your mission is not a burden but your mission is your destiny and I'm here to tell you today it is your mission and you shall accept it so where is my mission

field Luke chap 10 one day an expert in a religious law stood up to test Jesus by asking in this question teacher what should I do to inherit eternal life Jesus replied what does the law of Moses say how do you read it the man answered and said you must love the Lord your God with all your heart all your soul all your strength and all your mind and love your neighbor as yourself that's a tough that's tough you know we look at that and say you don't know my neighbor but you see part of the problem with fulfilling this particular portion of that text is that there's not enough of us that love oursel much less love our neighbor and so many times I think that lack of loving ourself can come from the fact that we have taken that mission that call

that God has given us and we have set it up on a shelf and we are living in misery we're going through the motions we're apart we're faithful in our giving this and that and the other but we know still up on that shelf is a call that God put on our life and we're running from it we're pushing it into the back recesses of our mind and it's putting us in a place of misery to where we can't even love oursel much less love our neighbor right Jesus told him do this and you will live the man then wanted to justify his actions so he asked Jesus just who is my neighbor see Jesus responds to this young man's question by relating what we know is the parable of the Good Samaritan here he lets us know that our neighbor our mission field

is any anywhere it's everywhere it's anyone it's everyone it isn't limited by physical boundaries it isn't restricted by cultural boundaries it it's not it's not impeded by social boundaries or any boundary it can be a specific calling or it can just simply be responding to an opportunity it's your mission you shall accept it so I stand here today to tell you sadly if you fall on that side of the spectrum God has brought each and every one of us here in this place today to a place where there is no turning back we stand at a Crossroads every one of us in this place place today because God is speaking I know that now you may you may think it's it's it's something you ate or you may think it's it's it's it's some other thing that's that that's running through your head right now

but I know as sure as I'm standing here God's speaking to each and every one and if you're not responding to that call to that mission God like Neon Lights is flashing that across your mind saying hey remember remember remember what we talked about remember that time when you were in such a place of desperation that you told me God whatever if you just and then I did and somehow that call got shoved up on the Shelf again I just want you to know I'm God sent me here with his message today to remind you of that don't hate me I'm just the messenger I'll be sitting down here in a couple minutes but take it up with him he's the one he's the one you see I have known now for 15 years that somewhere God was going to bring me to a

place to talk about Sarah and I knew before that memorial service was over a few weeks ago that God was going to bring Tyler to the heart of a message for me no idea that it would be today here and now but God just works like that sometimes Jesus has given you a mission and there is no opting out the Great Commission is not a calling for a few it's a command for all you have been equipped by the Holy Spirit and designed by God for this very purpose so today will you accept your mission not as an option but as a calling you shall fulfill the world is waiting the Lost are searching the hurting are crying out the Hopeless are desperate and Jesus is sending you can we stand you see your mission today it very well could consist of a calling to

go to another city in Middle Tennessee to another state in this country or to a foreign land and Minister this gospel to the lost and hurting and now parents for those of us over 25 or 30 I don't want you to take what I just said and look over here and say hey I hope you guys are listening Sarah proved to us that answering that call to go isn't restricted to our students I was 50 plus years old when we went to lva it's not just for the young Kim middlest that young lady or that lady I told you about she was the same age as us she just found out about the opportunity in Lota a few days before she wound up there she went and bought a bicycle and biked herself all over that city of Ria to reach people to share the

gospel with them the call to go is not just for the young or your mission may be to go into this city or this region this state another state another country and use your talents and capabilities to serve as only you can or your mission may simply be to be the very best you that you can be right where God places you in order to let the love and the light of Jesus Christ to flow through you and impact people in such a way that they desire to live for God just like you do this is actually a part of the mission for all of us live like Tyler

so we've heard it said so many times in these Mission services that some give by going and some go by giving and I get it I understand it I know what that's all about and next Sunday each and every one of us are going to get that opportunity to go by giving but sadly we have taken that phrase and we have used the last half of it as an excuse because just because God lays something on my heart to give does not excuse me from going just because God lays something on my heart to do here and don't get me wrong I am thankful I am thankful for the passion and the Heart of giving that this church has and there are souls that we will see in heaven because of the sacrifices that had been given in this church year after year after year

after year it is an essential part of it but more so than that you and I today have got to answer this call to Mission and respond to it and say Here I Am Lord I'm tired of running I'm tired of hating myself I'm tired of going to bed feeling guilty you don't know the guilt that I carry for those 15 or 20 years that I ran from my calling and I pushed God into the back corner and each and every person that I ever baptized each and every person that I was standing beside them when God filled them with the Holy Ghost I am thankful for that but I still have that gwing guilt in the back of my mind about what could have been but I cannot allow the enemy to destroy what he wants to do in my life today based upon

what he kept me from doing yesterday don't let your past failures keep you from receiving your future blessings don't let what you have done keep you from making the impact on the kingdom that God wants to do through

you the need demands it requires each and every one of us and we will begin today we'll continue next Sunday and we each will forever be changed it's your mission you shall accept it will you say yes to God's

call all across this place right now can we just bow our heads begin to talk to God just as you can as you know how

God let him bring back to your remembrance right now that night in an altar let him bring back to your remembrance right now that that night at a camp meeting that night at a youth congress that night at a youth convention let him bring back to your memory right now that night when you were sitting up with that sick child and things look so dark and so Bleak and you said God if you will just do this Lord let it just go back to that night that day that pastor preached and you found yourself that alar and saying God here I am send me yeah it may have been an emotion right then but God just he sets that aside and said hey you know I don't care what your emotion was you said you know we're quick to hold God to his

word maybe he's going to hold you to yours now I'm not I'm not asking you to go home and get on the global Mission site and sign up for an aim tour in the Far Corners of the world but if God says that far be it from me to dissuade you but if God just simply tells you hey I want you to go into your world tomorrow and every day forward live like Tyler because you can love someone to me then okay God that that sounds like a whole lot better deal than the Far Corners of the world so I'm just going to ask you whatever whatever you're feeling right now it's time to pray if you need to if you need to rekindle a commitment boy this is the place to do it if you're here today and this is all new to

you hey come on up this here and respond to what you're feeling and let let someone here work with you and begin to pray with you and help you to respond to what God is calling you to do in your life whatever it is in this place it is your call you do not have the opportunity you do not have the option it's a command it's a requirement according to his word so I just need to give up and accept it Church let's pray let's pray