Our Mission for Missions | Elder Terence Atkinson

You're listening to a message to go from acts Church. We hope this message

will light up your day. The message for this morning our missions for missions.

You know, we are at Mission's Emphasis month. And I asked God,

God, what should I share? And so he led me to Collosians.

And I'm going to be reading from Colosians one Versus one and two.

And it says, here Paul and Apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will

of God, and Timothy, our brother to the saints and faithful brethren in

Christ who are at Coloss, Grace to you and peace from God, our

Father, the Lord Jesus Christ. What was Paul's relationship with the church at

Coloss? Do you know that it was not a church that Paul had started.

It wasn't a church at Paul's side. So why should Paul be bothered

with a church that he did not start? You know, it's like this

missions. Why should we be bothered with a church that perhaps we did not

start. Oh we're not a part of or you know, it's some other

ministry. What was Paul's relationship with the church at Coloss. Paul had not

started the church. In fact, the church was started by ap us.

He had started the church, and Paul had never been to this church.

But Paul could even write and say, Hey, I greet you. How

you're doing? You know, I'm Paul and I want to tell you.

You mean something to me missions. Do you have to start the church to

be involved? I mean, okay, don't put up your hands. How

many of you know how many ex churches they are in Indonitia at the moment,

I don't. But you know, as long as they call themselves by

the name of Jesus, we should be happy. You don't have to know

who they are to love them. You don't have to be the one that

started up to love them. But you and I have got to be invested

and interested in their well being. And that's what missions all about. When

scriptures said when Jesus said, go out into the world and preach the gospel,

when he said, God, I make disciples of the world, did

he imagine that it should only be for the ones that we started. Hey,

you're much more than that. You know your value, what you bring.

It's much more than just starting the church. It's about taking what you

know, taking what you have in your heart to somebody else. It's about

being involved. It's about sharing with them, it's about loving them. Why

would Paul concern himself with this church he didn't know about. But you see

they are believe us. You know what's wonderful. You're going to any part

in the world today anyway, anyway in the world, and if you connect

with the Christian he treats you like a brother. Anyway, I remember I

needed two us coming back from Singapore. I finished my studies and I had

ten bags and a TV set. Yeah, ten bags in a TV set.

No, they didn't exist in that time. Being funnier mixing, you

know, I can ask you to sing. So anyway, I had finished

my studies and I caught a train. The train left at ten pm from

Singapore m HM opposite the World Treet Center. That that that train station doesn't

exist anymore. So anyway, I got my ten bags, got my friends

helped me. They put the bags in the cart and I had my seat

was back train and the train took off from Singapore. Took off. The

train startle from Singapore and then somewhere in when it crossed into JB and I

think it was before the rum Bun, I realized I was on the wrong

cart. You see. What was going to happen was the train was going

to stop at the station in the front, and they're gonna detach the car

and another train will come and take this batch of carts to the east coast

while the front carts went to KL. I was on the cart going to

the east coast, and when I found her, I said, are you

sure? I said, why didn't you tell us? Man? Man?

We could have said something, but they didn't. So there was with ten

bags and ten carts, and I pray and say, God, what am

I going to do? He said, look up? And looked up,

and I saw this group cited at the table and they were memorizing scripture.

I even remember the scripture that they were memorizing my soul pants for the as

in a dry and weary land wed no water is So I went up to

them and said, hey, you guys Christians. He said yeah, let's

he praised the Lord. Say I need help. What help you need?

I said, I need to move ten bags ten carts or so to the

front. They said, sure, I will help you. So they all

took bags and we were like, you know, walking through these carts.

It wasn't easy. You get train was going like that. So finally I

found one place. Yep, they put the bags all over and I had

to sit on the floor because there was no chairs, So in between two

chairs that were lying back like this, I sat on the floor the whole

journey. That was the last time I traveled on the train. But praise

the Lord. You see, I didn't need to know them, but because

we shared Jesus Christ in our hearts, I found really help. And you

see that's why Paul was dealing with He did not know these people, but

he was going to be helped to them. Please forgive me for this cough

Father. I pray in Jesus name that it stops right now and it will

not have a part to play in this service anymore. In Jesus Name,

Amen, what can we learn about this? Will we be invested in somebody

else's life? In Collusions one three to five, it says we give thanks

to the God and Father of a lorgious Christ, praying always for you,

since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and your love for all the

saints, because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven,

which I have heard before the word of truth of the Gospel. Pauwel was

giving thanks for people he had no part in playing. They're start for we

can be thankful for the believers in London, in Gabaroni, in Melbourne,

in Motudi, in Osaka. We can be thankful for them. Why because

that's what God expects us to do, to be thankful to Him for them.

We can get excited about somebody else. It's a sad thing if you

only get excited about yourself because it can only go so far. But can

you imagine if you can get excited about somebody else. There are millions of

people out there for you to get get excited about. And God expects ours

spirit to be excited with the rest of your children all around the world.

And that's why we should get involved in missions. I'm gonna share with you.

I will share with you something about missions. And we think, then

missions is we need to be preachers, or we need to be pastors,

or we need to be somebody special before what we say can help and change

lives. Not so. In Collusion Collisions one six eight, he says,

which has come to you as it is also in all the world is bringing

forth fruits. So the Gospel is now bringing forth fruit as it also on

you since the day you heard and you the grace of God in truth.

Oh, we can be thankful when we see the foot of God in somebody

else's life. It changes us, It changes us. I'm going to share

with you a couple of testimonies, and I promise you when you hear these

testimonies, you will most probably be going through your life to see how you

touch somebody else. You've got so many things to look forward to, so

many things, as you also learned from Epper for us, our dear fellow

servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, who also

declared to us that your love in the spirit. If you don't get involved

emissions of some sort, how will you know how much God is working all

around the world. See, you need to have a bump in your spirit

even as you bump somebody else's spirit in the Lord. If you are a

self jolly guire who's only happy about the things that happens in your life,

it means you can only one person to make you happy yourself, And when

that starts to fader, you're done for. But can you imagine if it's

much more than you. If it's somebody else. And you begin to see

God doing great things with everybody around you, your life just takes a new

you know, a new strength. It just begins to grow. There's a

picture coming up. Thank you. I yeah, okay, you see this

picture. I used to tell you there is a time when I was it

was seventy pounds ago. Here it is. That's me on the right.

This was taken in nineteen eighty one, eighty one. That's forty two years

ago. And and and you that guy on the right is I would consider

him a brother. Remember I told you the testimony, the one that I

lost for twenty five years and I reconnected with here's the guy. When I

studied in Singapore. Every night when I was staying the hostel in eighty eighty

one church hostel. So after I come back from school and then I you

know, get I had my dinner and get ready, I would go into

the church and we would pray because the church was by the side of the

hostel. There was a church hostel that I was staying in and every night

I would join the pastor and we would pray for possession cases, people who

were possessed by evil spirits. So I would pray together with them. And

you must understand they were not filled baptized the Holy Spirit, but they were

just Christians with strong faith, and we would pray every night for deliverance cases.

And some of the things I saw was quite amazing. So I would

pray together with the pastoral about four or five in the morning. Then I'll

go and go back and my child get ready to go to school. And

we used to do this around the club. So every day when I go

back to school, I would share with my friends the part of God that

I had seen take place. I mean, there was one guy we prayed

for, and as we were praying, three sinces came to the front of

the church. And while we're praying, they tried to step into the church.

And the moment they took one step in the front gate, all three

of them fainted on the ground. They got up and they ran for their

lives. But these are the things that I was seeing on a daily basis

that I used to share with my friends. I used to be telling them

all the power of God that I had seen those nights that I was praying.

Did it have any impact on them? Then well, it scared them.

It scared them. But I only saw one or two people come to

the Lord, but this had such an impact in their lives. I even

told them this destiny was one time we were praying for this guy and somehow

the demon just would not release him. So it was already very early in

the morning passed. I said, go back, quit and get some rest,

and come back and tell me anything that the Lord speaks to you.

So it must have been three or four in the morning. I went back,

managed to catch some sleep. In a sleep, I had a dream

and in the dream I had washed my uniforms and I had hung it out

on the balcony to dry, not over the balcony, but in the balcony,

And I said, in the dream, the second uniform fell all the

way three stories to the ground. And in the dream, I'm thinking to

myself, now, this is very strange. Why is the second uniform falling

when it's not the one closest to the balcony. So the next day,

when I went back, I prayed. I told pastor, Pastor, I

had a straight strange dream, you know, this is my dream. And

we prayed, prayed that the demon still will not come up. So anyway,

I went back. When I went back the next day, the pastor

told me, said, Terrence, remember the dream. He told me.

So this is what happened. We went to his house under the guidance of

the Holy Spirit, and we were looking through his things. And while we

came across a set of uniforms, And as we were looking through the set

uniforms, a second one fell to the ground. When we picked it up,

we realized that there was a an amulet in it. It was charmed

and given to it by a so called friend. We took that uniform together

with the amulet, and in Jesus name, we threw it into the fire.

And the moment we did that, the demon came out. Oh.

When I told this to my friends, it had such a great impact on

them. Was I telling them theology? I was just telling them what I

saw. I was just telling them what I knew. Do you know that

in missions you are just sharing your testimony. That's it, man, I

have seen more people come to the Lord during my time as a Christian.

When all I knew was Jesus Christ's Lord and God still on the throne,

that's all. I had. No theology beyond that, and people were coming

to the Lord. Then as I grew older, I knew all the theology,

you know, all the understanding, all the sociology, all the all

the logies. I knew all that, and I saw less people come to

the Lord. You see, it's not about what we know up here,

it's about what it's going speaking to us down here. So there was a

reason I showed you this picture. You go into the next picture. You

see, this is us last year, a year ago, and we're singing

a song, and it's a gospel song. See, after all these years,

he is the one home I reconnected. You see, I lost track

of him for twenty five years because my computer crashed and within all the information

on how to contact him. This was in the early nineties, huh,

early nineties. So I tried everything I could to find him, and I

couldn't. And on the day I told the Lord, Lord, I give

up. I'm not going to search for him anymore. I'm done. I'm

not going to do anything. I've tried my best. It's not going to

happen. I'm done. And then I went to sleep, and as I

just laid down in bed, I remember us toweling night. Later, the

Lord said, get up, go and search for him now like that,

you know that kind of tune. So I got up out a bit,

turned my computer on search for him, exactly the same way I had always

searched, But this time I found his name on the PGA golf list.

He's a single handicapper. So when I found his name there and I did

a little bit of research, I found that he was the MVY of a

company in Bangkok. There was a telephone number. Next day, I called

this number and I said, is this so and so and so. I

say yes, but he just retired two months ago. I said, I'm

his friend. I need to contact him, give him my number, check

out if it's okay, get in touch with him. And within an hour

we spoke. After twenty five years and only because the Lord said, go

and search for him. Now we reconnected. So this was August thirty first

last year, on his birthday. He was fifty nine. He's fifty nine.

He's now a born again Christian and I never thought that I would see

this day. When our first song together, this is the first time he

realized I could sing, and it's the first time I realized he could sing,

and we were singing gospel. We were singing Christian music. If we

go on to the next picture, those trees in the back there are rubber

trees. He owns a rubber plantation about eleven or twelve acres. This is

somewhere up north, about eight hours from Bangkok, and he cleared about two

acres because he's building a church. You see that the dome there, that's

the hut in which he stays every time he goes up. The next picture,

you see another angle. You see the house on the left. I

think it's your right. He ye is your left. That is the church

as it is now. Now, my friend, he's done very well for

himself. And every time he builds a factory, he buys a plot of

land on the side and he builds a church. So until this he had

already built four churches. And when I met with him last year, he

said, you know, I had only enough money at that time, because

of the pandemic and all that. I bought a plot of land to build

a school. And I was so sad I didn't have the money to build

a school. So I talked to some friends and one of them said,

put up the school out here for the whole thing. So last year when

I met him, the school had just started with seven students. Now it

has about twenty students. And then he says, oh, I bought this

land in the north, so I'm starting a church there. So he started

a church. The next one you can see is the fish pond that he's

creating, big fish pond. He plans for this land to be used for

church ministry. Besides having the church there, you know, they can go

there for retreats and stuff like that. So it's a huge pond. Doesn't

look lad huge, but it's pretty pretty large, and it's gonna put fish

in it. That's the church. The next one starts off that way.

Now I've seen the church he did in Bangkok. Started off as a small

church. Now he has expanded it. It's got about three hundred you know

it consider about three hundred, very nice, very beautiful church. So he

has funded the whole thing and he goes there. He drives up eight hours

on the weekends to go and start with his church. Now the next picture

you see the guy seated on the step. That is his pastor. I've

met with him. Also a heartful ministry to keep expanding the church, all

right. So that's his wife seated in the foreground. That's his wife.

When they started the church, they had three people, his wife, the

pastor. They go from house to house and after eight months today twenty people

attend the church. Is that wonderful about me? Do you know that I

got saved in a in a hut like this? I should be honest with

you. I got saved in a hut a hundred times worse than this.

It was in a plantation where only poor It's a lot of poor people,

and the smell of cowdown was the air that we breathe in. That's where

I got saved. See you, and I have no idea what's going to

happen with the lives we touch. When I came back from Singapore, I

prayed for my friends daily that they would come to know the Lord. Did

I have anything to do with their salvation? If you talk to them,

they will always tell you that I had an impact on their lives because that's

what I did every day. And what did I know? No theology.

I was only telling them what Jesus was doing. Missions. Guys, You

know you think you've not done missions before? You have no idea. How

many people you're gonna meet twenty years from now, thirty years from now,

we're going to tell you. Because of what you did, my life was

changed. You think you go to school and you don't have anything much to

say. Let me tell you, because of you, you may have some

evangelists. Because of you, you may have some church building us. Because

you made yourself available. And what did you do. You just went to

a mission and played the guitar. You don't understand. When you played the

guitar, the heavens opened and the anointing of the Lord poured down, and

it changed the spirits of some people who were there. So if you've never

been on a mission, your whole life is a mission. Every person you

touch is mission ground. But even better when you make yourself available. Go

on. In the next picture, not very clear. This was a classmate

of my classmate, also in Singapore. See I got saved about two months

before I went to Singapore, so that's where all the action took place.

Okay, right, This guy came from a multimillion dollar family. I'm not

sure where there's an only chat, but I do know this. He was

very, very very rich. He was the only kid in school with his

own car Nissan Bluebird. Hey in the eighties, big car, expensive car

to own a car in Singapore, even bigger man. All right. So

I caught up with him some years back, and then he tells me you're

responsible for me being a Christie. I said, what, So, don't

you remember what you wrote in my autograph book. I say, I have

absolutely no idea. He said, I was on my yacht. That's how

rich he was. Okay, he had his own yacht. He was alone

the waters and said he said, something happened and I was about to die.

At that moment, I remembered what you wrote in my autograph book.

I said, that's good, because I can't remember. He said, you

wrote these words. When you run into trouble, call on the name of

Jesus and he will come and he will help you. When I was about

to die, I called on the name of Jesus and he came to me

and he saved me. The moment I got back to show, I gave

up all my riches and I decided to serve the Lord. So he is

now a pastor in BALI serving the Lord. Who am I a man?

It was an autograph book. Hey, God used that autograph to see if

somebody's life, how many lives have come to the Lord because of him?

Do I have a part to play it? I guess, so better have

some. You know, these are the kind of connections you should be having

a lodder that guy? You know, my my autograph? Can I can?

I can I cash in on it? Hey? You want to score

points and these are the kind of points you got to score. So when

you get called up to go for a missions trip, do not think you

have nothing to offer because you have no idea. As we learn from epp

of for us, you know, there is a connection. It's not about

them and us. There is no distinction. We always think, oh it's

you, it's me them. Oh is this plan nothing to do with me?

Or ten thirty or we are separate? No, you're not. It's

about us. It's about we, the body of Christ. So when you're

going out for a missions trip, you're not going out to them. You

are actually going out to us. That's the way God sees it. We

play our part together as one in a work across mere geography. Isn't it

fun? Life is not boring? We are not restricted to geography. Everywhere

you walk, if you can believe you are walking battery of the power of

God, if you can believe that you will see things happen not because you're

somebody great, but because somebody great is in you. In Croustians one nine

ten, it says for this reason we also, since the day we heard

it, do not cease to pray for you. Do not cease to pray

for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of

His will in all ways them and spiritual understanding, that you may walk worthy

of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work,

and increasing in the knowledge of God. For what reason? At the very

least, do you know that missions is praying for someone that's not you.

You know, when we're praying for someone that's not us, it's missions.

Paul says, we do not cease to pray for you. He's telling this

church whom he's never met, whom he did not start, we do not

cease to pray for you. To pray for what? What do you pray

for? Knowledge of His will, that they get stronger in the Lord,

that they walk worthy, or Lord that my friend will get to know Jesus

Christ that he will walk worthy. And even as he's come to the Lord,

he now wants to build churches, fully pleasing him. And I'm sure

as everybody gets saved in those churches that he builds, you're pleased, fruitful

in good works, increasing in the knowledge of Him, and in collisions one

eleven twelve. Strengthened with all might according to His glorious power for all patients,

and long suffering with joy, giving thanks the Father who has qualified as

to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints. In the light, we

pray that they be strengthened with all might. Hey, the Soviet Union broke

up because Christians prayed when they went after the believers. Christians prayed, and

the Soviet Union broke up. But guess what Christians have stopped praying. The

Soviet Union is trying to rebuild itself China when after the believers, and they

have realized that when they persecute the believer us more Christians come. So they

have now gone on to Plan B. You know what is Plan B.

Plan B is the same as what Balem did. You know what Balim did

when Balem was asked to go and curse the children of Israel. He wanted

to do it for profit. But he was so dumb that even the donkey

spoke. If you read scripture, God did not put the words in the

mouth of the donkey. God just opened the donkey's mouth. Go and read

that scripture. You know what that tells me. Even animals can think right

from wrong, and the donkey can tell him. What's the matter with you?

Your dumber? You want to go through that? Can't you see the

angel there about to take your head off? What did Baillim do? Bilim

resorted not to curse, but he told something else to the king. He

said, intermarry them, infiltrate them, destroy them from the inside. China

is following that same philosophy. They are now on a tenure plan to change

the Bible, and they will release the Bible in Chinese too. Confuse the

Chinese Christians. In the Chinese Bible, for example, Jesus stoned a woman

is one of the changes that they hope to make. Why because the people

stopped praying? Hey, you and I we got missions. Men? Will

we pray so that they be strengthened with all my giving thanks to the Father.

How can this be summed up discipleship. In Matthew twenty nineteen, s

is, go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them the name

of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,

teaching them to observe all things that I've commanded you in law. I am

with you even until the end of the age. What are you and I

supposed to do? We have to have a mission for missions. Go when

we can and when we can't, pray without ceasing that the church will be

strengthened and able to stand. And wherever you are, you are in the

missions field, because as you walk along, people are being touched by you.

For many years down the road are going to reveal that because you entered

their lives your life. We hope you've been blessed by this message. For

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