The Great Commission - Come and Do Missions | Dr Jill Ling

You're listening to a message to go from axt church.

We hope this message will light up your day. All right?

So today the message that God has given to us

is called the Great commission, Come and do missions. Ah.

So do you see the word commission if you stretch

it further like an accordion, is saying come missions commission ah?

Get it all right? So we're gonna, you know, unpack

this and let's see what God has to say for us. Now.

So today's message, right, I'm really coming back to basics.

I'm going to be talking about the www dot missions meaning.

I'm going to be talking about the word of missions,

the why of missions, and the how of missions. Okay,

coming back to basics. But in there I believe God

has you know, different words in season for us, different

gems for us to take back. So to all who

are willing, may the Lord feel you know your life

with his word today? Amen? Okay, So let's start with

the first part, which is what is missions? It sounds

so simple, right, what is missions? Now? I want to

just remind us about the the not just the definition,

but the true meaning of missions. And it's important that

we get this right because in a while I will

show you some interesting surveys that have been done among Christians,

among pastors, even on what they think missions is. All right,

so let's go on to the next slide. So before

I talk about missions, I want to talk about evangelism

because it is like the cousin of missions. Now, we

all come from families, and I believe all of us

here would have some sort of cousin. Right, yeah, so

you know a cousin is related quite closely, right, same, same,

but different different, And so evangelism is the cousin of missions,

and evangelism basically means sharing the good news about Jesus

to people who do not know it. It's as simple

as that. So children, you can actually take down notes

from my slide. I try to make it as simple,

not very colorful, but there are some pictures there. Okay.

So evangelism is sharing the good news about Jesus to

those who do not know him. Okay, Now let's look

at mission. What does it mean, same family, same surname,

but a bit different. Okay. Missions is sharing the good

news just like evangelism, but it is different in the

sense that it involves crossing cultures and it usually involves

getting out of our comfort zone. So we can evangelize,

we can share the good news about Jesus in the

same culture, within our comfort zone, but Missions takes it

out where we share the good news to another culture

and usually it's out of our comfort zone. So Missions

is like the older cousin of evangelism, same surname, same family,

but requires a little bit more. Okay, now this is

a simple definition. Yeah, okay, Now why did I say

it's important to get this definition right before we move

on to the next slide. So, how many of you

have heard of the Barner Group in America? The Barner Group? Okay,

So the Barner Group is actually an organization in America

that does a lot of research, especially among Christians, to

find out, you know, their spiritual health in America. And

they've been around for I think at least forty over years,

and they have conducted millions of interviews or surveys, and

they've done thousands of studies. Yeah, I know, passa KENNEF,

I know passa Jack. They've also quoted from, you know,

studies from the Barner Group. So if you're if you

are you know a person that likes research and you're

wondering is there any you know, good research on the

Christian faith in the world. You can check out the

Barner Group, okay, bar and A on the internet. But anyway,

as I was preparing for today's message, the Lord led

me to come across two studies that they did in

relation to missions. Okay, I want to show you the

first study. Sorry, yeah, the words are a bit small,

but yes, I will try to read it out for

you and just help you to interpret it. Okay. So

the Barner Group actually did a study among two thousand

adult Christians in America and about five hundred Protestant past

Us in America. And this study was done in the

year twenty twenty one, that's right, twenty twenty one. And

the group actually asked the Christians and also the pastors,

how do you define missions? And they gave them a

few options. Okay. The first option is proclaimed missions is

proclaiming the truth of Jesus Christ wherever you are. And

that was the majority answer. Majority of the adult Christians

and pastors were involved in this survey. All answered, missions

is proclaiming the truth of Jesus Christ wherever you are at.

Is it surprising even pastors, you know, define missions as dead. Okay.

The next definition is missions is the calling to proclaim

the Gospel to a specific people group or religion. That's

the second definition, and most of the lay people chose

this as their next best answer. The pastors, however, chose

the third definition as their next best answer, which is

the holistic transformation of people's lives by caring for their physical, social,

and spiritual needs. So basically we can see here. I mean,

I won't read the other two more lines. But even

in the US Church, among you know, lay persons and

also leaders, people are not clear about the definition of missions,

and that's quite shocking and saddening actually, and I pray

that here in ex church we will be clear on

the definition, the meaning the truth of missions. Okay, it is, yes,

telling about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but not just

within our comfort zones within our own culture, but is

out of our comfort zone, it is beyond our culture. Amen. Amen? Okay,

all right, so let's move on. Now, what does the

Bible say about missions? It's the word missions actually mentioned

in the Bible alphabet for alphabet. What do you think

how many of you think the Bible has versus that

mentioned missions? Literally? Am I s s io ns. How

many of you think that the Bible has versus that

talk about missions. It may not spell out missions alphabet

for alphabet, but it does talk about missions. How many

of you think that? Okay? All right, So the word

missions here am I SiO n s is not actually

found alphabet for alphabet in the Bible. So if you

search a Bible, you want to find this word alphabet

for alphabet, okay, in the traditional Bibles. Okay, but it

is mentioned in the Bible in three ways. Okay, I'm

going to show you what are the three ways. The

first way is the word missions. The English word missions

actually is derived from the Latin word my threee. I

hope I'm pronouncing it correctly, my threee. And the Latin

word myteree is actually synonymous or has the same meaning

as the Greek word apostolin apostolin, and apostolin means to

send to, and the word apostolin is mentioned in the

New Testament literally is mentioned one hundred and thirty six

times in the New Testament. So by affiliation, by relationship,

missions is talked about in the World of God, not literally,

but by affiliation and relationship. So missions links to mithere

links to apostolin, which means to send. So when we

go for missions, we are not sending ourselves for a holiday,

but we are being sent by God and our local

church for a mission. Always remember that the heart of

missions is never us going alone. Is we are being sent.

We are being sent for a mission. Okay, now there's

the first way the Word of God talks about missions.

Let's look at the second way that the Word of

God talks about missions. So in the Bible there are

many many scriptures themed around missions. Now, how many of

you were at homes this week? Yeah? I think most

homes met this week. But I know see why uh

seven is gonna make this coming week. So do you

remember that you went through a lot of scriptures themed

around missions? A right, Okay, I will not go through

all of them again. Our homes was pretty cool because Priscilla,

who is our assistants home leader, she was sharing the

word that day and she turned the study of scriptures

into a quiz ah fill in the blanks. And then

you know boys versus girls. Guess who won in our homes?

Boys or girls? Yeah? The boys on the boys on? Yeah,

okay on our girls, come on, have in our kind. Yes, Okay,

so you have learned homes that there are many scriptures

themed around missions, So I'm not going to run through that,

and later in this message, I'm going to point us

to more scriptures themed around missions. So that's the second

way that missions is talked about in the Bible. How

about the third way. The third way that missions is

talked about in the Bible are true scriptures recording true

stories of missionaries. So there are many, many parts of

the Bible that have many, many stories on people who

are missionaries for God. And who is the greatest missionary

ever Jesus. If you never saw Jesus as a missionary,

I'm telling you today Jesus is the greatest missionary the

world has ever seen. Because he had to leave Heaven

to come to Earth physically, it's a different place already.

He even had to come from spirit into our human body.

That's metamor for sis. Already we speak a totally different

language from the Kingdom of Heaven. That's a different language.

So Jesus left Heaven in place, in body, in language,

in culture, in practice, in comfort, in closeness to God

to come to Earth to preach the good news to us.

So if you want to learn after the greatest missionary,

look to Jesus. Don't just look to any man, look

to Jesus. Amen. Okay, right, So now we've talked about

what is missions. I hope we know the clear definition

of missions. Yeah, it is talking about sharing about the

good news cross culturally out of our comfort zone. Now

next let's go to why why do missions? Why tell

me why? Okay, no, finish the song. Okay, all right,

So I'm gonna start with a story. Okay, so this

recognized when do you think this picture was taken? If

you recognize the backdrop Father's Day? That's right. Remember this

year in ex Cyber we actually had a Father's Day

celebration and a doctor Sheila, very amazingly whipped up a

photo bove at the back. It was amazing even those

who are not fathers. Yeah, also told the opportunity to

take a picture there. Yeah, I think ladies and different

ones or so acause it was so nice. So for

Father's Day this year, Judah, our eldest son, actually made

a special handmade give for puss Jack. Yeah. Okay, I'm

sorry I do not have a picture of the gift.

I was supposed to bring it this morning, but in

my rash, I forgot to bring it. Whenever mind, I

will try to describe the gift to you. Okay, it's

like guess the gift. Yeah. So for Father's Day this year,

he secretly and ingeniously made a gift for puss Jack.

You want to know what the gift was, Okay. So

the gift was made of these few materials. You know,

those small round microwaveble containers that you normally bring home

from takeout delivery. So he used a small plastic container,

round container, the one that's you know, microwavable and you

can just throw it away. So he used that. And

what he did was he took the cover of Now

on the cover, he actually took a piece of paper

clip and he formed it into a unique formation. What

was it supposed to look like? Some say it looks

like an airplane, Some say it looks like an insect.

Some say it looks like a reindeer. I don't know,

but you imagine with me. He took a paper clip

and he bent it and formed a unique formation. It's

so unique that I don't even know what it's supposed

to look like. Yeah, And then he used masking tape

to tape the paper clip on the base of the

the container onto the cover of the container. Okay, so

imagine with me. So this is the cover and this

is the formation taped onto it with masking tape. After

there was masking tape. Yeah, okay. Then what he did

was the actual coupperware container. He filled it with water,

and then he took the cover that had the paper

clip formation. He covered the container of water, and then

he turned it around and it looks like a snow globe,

but there was no snow. So he called it the

no snow snow globe. Okay, no snow snow glow. Okay,

what a tongue twister. And he gives it to pasta Jack.

I wish I took a picture then I didn't like okay, yeah,

So so there was his ingenious gift for past the Jack.

And you know what we did. In a few days, right,

brown dust started to form inside the water. Guess what

was that brown dust? Rast? And over the weeks, right,

the brown doest just increase inside that little man made

snow globe so much that it looked like brown snow. Actually,

And now today, like months later, right, all I see

is brown colored, murky water. I cannot even see the

paper clip formation anymore. So baby just as well I

didn't bring it today because you just see like a

container of brownish looking water. It's dead clouded already. Now

in these few months, I have been so tempted to

throw it away many times because I'm like, Judah, it's

a piece of rust sitting in my kitchen, and I

don't like rust, Okay, I don't like dirty and messy things.

I'm like, oh man, it's such an ice sog. Daddy

has already taken your love. Can I just throw it away? Now?

What do you think? He said no, So every time

I'm so tempted to throw away that no snow snow glow,

he would fight for it and ask me to keep it.

And until today, if you come to my kitchen counter,

it's still sitting there. I think that day my homies

came and then Little was like, whoa, is this a

stick insect inside the water? I say, no, it's a

no snow snow blow blah Okay, yeah, anyway, it's still

sitting on my kitchen counter this morning, the brown color upperware.

Now I want to tie it in with the word

of God. Let's look at a few verses, and for

this I want to get different people to read the

Word of God. So I will project the verse titles there.

But I do not have the scripture on screen. So

let's all take out our Bibles, whether it's physical or

e bibles. If you don't have one, turn to your

neighbor and smile, and then you tell them you know

what's next. Okay, All right, now I have one, two, three, four, five, six,

I have six creatures here, and I would like a

representative from every age group to read the scripture. Okay,

so I want to go by decades. Okay, anybody under

ten years old who wants to volunteer and read the

first scripture? Under ten years old and a sinner? Okay,

come innocent, Okay, you come and stand here first. Okay. Okay,

your scripture is Genesis one one. Just wait now you

turn to it. Okay, Now, someone between eleven to twenty

years old. Another word, volunteer between eleven to twenty. Maybe

we get a girl right now, we got boy. We

get another girl, ah, between eleven to twenty anyone, come hurry, Harry, hurry. Okay,

Ella has got off her seat. So she's officially onto this. Okay,

thank you, Ella. Okay, your scripture is Genesis one twenty six. Okay,

Now between twenty one to thirty, Oh gosh, now everyone

will know your age. Right between twenty one to thirty Okay,

I hear Sarah. Okay, Sarah, come come, come, cay. The

next one better be a guy. Okay. You know God

made both male and female, right, Okay? The next person

between thirty one to forty years old, A man, A man?

A man? Between thirty one and forty any volunteers. If not,

you will be volunteered.

No one.

Okay, come come, Noah, come come entern into the ark. Okay. Okay,

so you have your Bible ready? Okay, Okay, on the way, okay, okay.

Next forty one to fifty years old. This is an

open category, male or female. Also kay. Forty one to

sixty years old. Any volunteers. Forty one to sixty years old. Hey,

forty one to fifty sorry, fifty right, forty one to fifty.

Forty one to fifty, forty one to fifty, abbey, yes, ken, okay,

abbe alright, come come alright. Forty one to fifty Okay,

he doesn't look a day over forty wow, okay, okay,

Now the final one, the Golden Age. Yes, fifty one

to sixty. Fifty one to sixty, God, I heard Elaine, Elayne,

time stooler. Maybe fifty one to sixty are the pot

calling the cattle black? No, you're not fifty one yet. No,

it hasn't reached it. Fifty one to sixty, okay, fifty

one and above actually above, alright, Christine gol awesome, come okay, yes, okay.

So let's get ready to hear all right from our

young people. Guys, give them a hand. Okay. So we

will hear from Anderson, and the scripture will be Genesis

one one. You can turn to your own Bibles as well.

Genesis one one. Read it out loud and clear. Take

your time, Anderson, Genesis one one.

In the beginning, God cree does happen?

Very good? Okay, just remain there, Just remain there. Okay,

just stay there, just stay there. Okay. Next we will

hear from Ella. She will read from Genesis chapter one,

verse twenty six.

Genesis chapter one, verse twenty six. Thank God said, let

us make human being in our own image and likeness,

and let them rule over the fish. In the sea

and the birds in the sky. Let them rule over

the tame animals, over all the earth, and over all

the small crawling animals on the earth.

Thank you, Ella. Next Sarah will read from Genesis chapter three,

verse six.

When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree

was good for food and lissing to the eye, and

also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it.

She also gave some to her husband, who was with her,

and he ate it.

Thank you, Sarah. Next Noah will read from Roman six

to twenty three.

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift

of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Amen. And next Abbe will read from Hebrews nine twenty two.

All right, and almost all things are right alone prtue

with blood and without chilling blood snor mission.

Amen, Thank you. Next Christine, we'll wrap up with John

Tree sixteen.

For God so loved the world that he gave his

one and only son, that whoever believes in him out

not parish, perish, but have eternal life.

Amen. Thank you, My dear young people. You may take

your seats. All right. So just now we read through

different scriptures from the beginning to you know, towards the

end of the world of God, and they all tell

about the good news. So actually you can take down

this versus if you ever want to share the Gospel

with your friends and you want to back it up

with Bible verses. These are very simple, straightforward verses that

tell us from the beginning. You know, Genesis one one

says that God made the heavens and the earth, that

we have a creator to begin with, right. And in

Genesis chapter one, verse twenty six, it says that God

made the first human beings in his lightness, okay, And

then in Genesis chapter three, it tells us that the

first human beings sin against God. They disorbeyed God. They

didn't listen to his commandment to not take the fruit

from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,

and that's how sin diobedience came into the world. And

then in Romans six, verse twenty three, it tells us

that sin must be paid with death, there is no

other way out. And in Hebrews chapter nine, verse twenty two,

it tells us that you know, only blood can cleanse

us from sin, and that's why Jesus had to die.

He couldn't just come and preach the good news. He

couldn't come and just do good works and miracles. He

had to die because only with blood can our sin

be forgiven. And not the blood of animals, but the

blood of a perfect sacrifice, a blameless and holy sacrifice,

Jesus Christ alone, the lamb of God. And why would

God do all of this? Because of John Tree sixteen.

He loves us and that's why He's willing to give

and sacrifice his only son for us. I remember watching

a video, you know, where they interviewed a father whose

son got into some kind of accident, and I remember

the father would say, if I could take the place

of my son, I would have done so because the

pain for me as a father, to watch my own

son go through that tragic accident is far more greater

than the pain I would suffer if I were to

take his place in that tragic accident. And so some

may think, hey, God, Father God didn't come down himself.

He sent Jesus, his son to die for us. But

do you know that the pain that Father God felt

was far greater than if Father God had come down

himself to die for us. The pain of seeing your

love one suffer and you not being able to do

anything is far greater than if we were to suffer

that pain ourself. So Father God himself went through a

far greater pain that we can ever imagine as well.

But why did he do all of it? It's because

of love, you know, one John one forces. God is

love and everyone who lives in love lives in God.

And so the reason, the why prombitions is very simple.

It's just one word. We fall let us and what

is that word spelled as church? L oh we e?

It's not rocket science, friends, The why for missions it

all bawls back down to God's love. And if we

say that we are made in God's image, we are

his children, then we too want to bear that love

for His creation, his people. But it's going to be

a God thing. It's going to be the Holy Spirit

who would birth and stir up that love for others

within us on our own right, we can never start

or build up God's love for other people. We need

the Holy Spirit. We need the Holy Spirit. Amen. Now, So,

how I want to tie into the story that I

shed earlier, was you know, Judah made that no snow

snow globe for massa Jack, right, and that was such

a simple creation. But yet he didn't want to throw

it away because it the world to him. Can you

imagine our creator, our father in heaven, all of us

are like his snow snow snow globes. Okay, yes, he

bade us, you know, with full pride and joy. And

then when we sin, the rust came in, and the

rust has covered the waters until some of us are

unrecognizable already before God. But yet he doesn't want to

throw us away. He still wants to keep us on

his kitchen countertop. So, friends, that is the heart of missions. Okay,

no throwing away the snow snow snow globe, because it

matters enough, amen, amen. Okay, Now the final point, how

do we do missions? And I will wrap up with

this point. Okay, Now we're going to read from Matthew

chapter twenty eight, verse eighteen to twenty. Yeah, we're just

gonna keep it on this slight first. So the how

to do missions, the foundation of it is found in

the Great Commission, because the Great Commission essentially is come

and do missions commission. All right, So let's read Matthew

twenty eight, verse eighteen to twenty let's turn to our bibles. Okay, children,

are we doing good? Yes, you guys are doing so good.

I'm so proud of y'all. Bigger children. Are we doing good? Yes,

rare proud of you guys as well, bigger children of God. Amen. Okay,

So allow me to read from Matthew chapter twenty eight,

verse eighteen to twenty and read along with me. You

know in your heart as you read your bibles verse eighteen.

And Jesus came and said to them, all authority in

heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go

therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in

the name of the Father, 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. Amen. Amen. You know,

earlier on I talked about the Barnard Group, right, how

they do a lot of research among Christians in US.

There's another piece of research that they did. This was

in twenty seventeen, and they asked again a group of Christians.

All right, they asked about one thousand church goers in

the US, have they heard of the Great Commission one

thousand church goers. That's about the size of XKL pulled

together in a combined service. So imagine they came and

they asked all of us, Hey, have you heard about

the Great Commission? You want to know what's the finding

of that research. Let's show it up. Fifty percent have

not heard or known the Great Commission among one thousand

US church goers in twenty seventeen. Fifty percent. That's like

half of you. If I ask you today, exciteerchia, do

you have you heard of the Great Commission? Do you

know it? Half of you say no, Wow, they're shocking, right,

and one quarter says, yes, I have heard, but I'm

not very sure. Lah, I heard, but not very sure.

You know. This is the same answer that we give

right when people ask he do you know? Do you

know about this? Then you don't want to lose face, right,

so you say yah, yah, yeah I know. But when

they ask you for further details, you're like, oh, no,

but I cannot remember the details. Ah. So one quarter

apparently know, but they are unclear of the details. Okay.

Only seventeen percent were confident of the Great Commission. Only

seventeen one seven percent said yes, I know it. And

I'm sure of what it means. That's less than one

fifth of the congregation. Man. When I found out these steps, right,

I was quite blown away. I mean, yeah, it's you asked.

It was years ago, but it still says something, right

that we cannot assume that just because we come to

church every Sunday, that we will necessarily know the Word

of God, let alone live it out. So I'm not

going to take chances here. This is my church, you know,

and I'm going to, you know, really try my best

to help y'all to be clear on the Great Commission.

I pray one day, if the Barner Group really comes

to Malaysia to do a research among us, I pray

that our stats will show way different. Okay, kenn On

not X Church. Okay, Today we talk about the Great Commission,

and you're going to keep hearing it. You're in year

out because EX Church is a missional church. So we're

going to be always talking about and doing missions. Okay. Now,

so let's put the next light on. Okay, next one, Okay.

So I'm projecting this scripture the Great Commission on screen

for learning purpose. All right, Now, there are actually very

quickly six points that we can learn and unpeck from

the Great Commission. Okay, let's go to them. The first

point is mission starts with a personal relationship with God.

Mission starts with a personal relationship with God. If you

don't have a personal relationship with God, you can forget

about doing missions for him because you will not have

the heart to do it. Neither will you have the

strength and power and grace to do it. So missions

starts with a personal relationship with God. Okay, now let's

look at the scripture, the next one. We always remember

verse nineteen as the Great commission, Go not Gola Olympic fever,

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations. Many times

when we talk about the Great Commission, we're always thinking

about goal right, true and not true and not Yeah.

But you know, before the goal, there is one more

verse on top and at the start of the worse

I've highlighted it says and Jesus came and spoke to them.

Before Jesus will ask us to go, he will come

and speak to us first. And how can he come

and speak to us if we don't have a personal

relationship with him? Okay, next light, So today I want

to ask you two questions, and these are probably gonna

be the only two questions I will ask you today,

which is, firstly, where is our walk with God today?

Remember in the garden of Eden, after Adam and Eve sin,

God was walking in the garden in the cool of

the evening, and it's like, Adam, where are you?

Eve?

Where you Bumis? Where are you? Coi? Where are you? Praise?

Where are you Hannah?

May?

Where are you? God is asking, It's calling out all

our names. Where are we today in our walk with Him? Next?

What is God saying to us as we walk with Him,

especially in regards to missions? I know every day we're

asking God for help, for direction, for provision, et cetera,

et cetera, et cetera. But this man, in your quiet time,

can you throw in one more request to God? Can

you can you remember to ask God? God? I know

I want your answers on many things in my life,

But do you have anything to say to me in

regards to missions? Can we remember to include that into

our quiet time this month at least, because it's Missions

emphasis month? Say? God, is there anything you want me

to do for missions?

All?

Right? Okay? So I leave these two questions with you.

The second point is, after we hear from God, we

need to go. That's right, Okay, and go many times

starts from our feet because if our feet don't move,

the rest of our bodies can't move. None of us

move on our bumbums, right or hands? Is the feet

that starts moving, right. So after we hear from God,

we need to go. Yeah, that it showed in verse nineteen,

Go therefore and make disciples. And how many of you

know that God is the perfect role model of go.

Jesus himself went before us, right. And how many of

you know that God is tutors of the name of God.

A have you ever seen this? God is tutors of

the name of God. So when we're saying God, I

love you, God, I worship you. God, please bless me

and help me. God, I will serve you, we're also

saying God, I will go for you. Because whenever we

call on the name of the Lord, we have to

be ready to go for the Lord. Whenever we call

on the name of the Lord, we have to be

ready to go for the Lord. Amen. Okay, next point,

and where do we go too? We go to places

and people who have not known Christ yet? How many

of you here like to plajigabas or make jigsaw puzzles. Yeah,

I know, yeah balajeees girls. I think was it one

one point in time y'all did like a thousand pieces

jigsaw puzzle on your dining table, right, yeah, so you

know I like giesaw puzzles as well. And what's the

goal of jigsaw puzzles is to complete the jigsaw puzzle?

And how do you feel if there is that one

piece that is missing? Very grum right, very frustrated. Now

Anna has a jigsaw puzzle set twenty over pieces only,

I think, but there's one piece that's missing. When we

bought it from the shop, that one piece was already missing.

So it's horrible. It's like, oh forever that one piece

is missing. It's a horrible feeling. And you know God

feels that about us. To imagine all the people groups

are like different jigsaw puzzles, and he's trying to, you know,

spread his glory among all the people groups. He's trying

to piece together all the jigsaw puzzles. How do you

think God feels if one piece one people group was

left out of knowing him? You know, that's how we

will feel if we are we have that missing jigsaw

puzzle piece. Okay, next, okay, Chris, time, how many recognized

countries are there in the world as of twenty twenty four?

Who wants to attempt? How many recognized countries? This is

by the United Nations definition? Very close, Kathy said, one

ninety four, super duper hot and close. Okay, let's reveal

the answer. One hundred and ninety five. Wow, So there

are one hundred and ninety five recognized countries in the world.

Actually one hundred and ninety three and two are observer nations.

One is the State of Palestine and the other is

called Vatican City, so they are observer nations. So in

the world right now, there are one hundred and ninety

five recognized countries by the UN. Of course different indexes

will have different numbers, but I think the UN's you

know number. Now, let's see, while there may be one

hundred and ninety five recognized countries, do you know how

many people groups there are by countries? So a people

group is definition is defined as a group of people

that share the same language and the same culture. Same

language and same culture. So like right here, we have

many different people groups. Although we're all living in Cyberjaya, Malaysia,

but we all come from many different people groups. Languages

are different, our cultures are different. And how do you

know a person's culture. You can look at their food.

Food is a very very big indicator of their culture.

They're dressing as well, right, the way they do things. Now,

who wants to guess how many people groups are there

in the world by country? Just no, Litty was saying

something something thousands, few thousands, okay, liutwarm lit warm? Okay,

few thousands is littwarm, litwarm. Few hundred thousands, Oh that's

very cold, thank you for good. Try. Few hundred thousands

is very cold. Few thousands is littwarm? Ten thousands, getting warmer,

getting warmer, getting warmer? Eighteen thousand, or Kathy, what do

you live on? You keep getting the very my answers. Okay,

seventeen thousand, two hundred and fifty eight people groups by country, Yes,

very close, eighteen thousand, very close. Okay, Wow, this is

quite amazing, right, one hundred and ninety five countries, but

seventeen thousand people groups. That means in each country you

can have so many different people groups, even within Philippines itself.

You have different people groups, right, yeah, different provinces at all,

India even more, I think the most populous in terms

of not just your number of people, but number of

people groups. Okay, Now you want to guess out of

the total number of people groups by country, how many

percent are unrich? How many percent? Yes? RJ said ninety

fifty one? Okay, RJ is quite far. Anderson is very close.

You said ninety percent, and say fifty one percent? How

many are unreached? Sixty five? Okay, Katy this time a

bit further already sixty or still a bit far? Okay,

let's reveal the answer. Forty one percent. So Anderson is

the closest. Well done, forty one percent are unreached in

this day and age. I find it very shocking. With

you know, mass media, we travels right with the advancement

of the church globally, forty percent is a big number

that are still unreached. Okay, So that tells us there

is still so much work to do. I pray that

year by year, you know, if I get to speak

on missions, I will try and keep pulling out the

latest stats, and I hope that year by year we

will see this percentage of unreached keep going down every year,

you know, to thirty percent to twenty percent, to ten

percent to one percent to zero percent unreached. That all

may know. Amen. Now I want to show you a

map now, okay, don't panic. Now what colors do you

see on the map? Green color, some more red color? White? Okay,

don't know what's blue? For the ocean? Now, I want

us to focus on the green and the red dots.

The green dots are basically if people groups that have

been reached already, and so the red dots are people

groups that have not been reached. Take a while to

digest that rate is unreached, green is reached. I give

you ten seconds to digest this map. Then tell me

some of observations, maybe tree. Okay, so can you see

that there is a very unequal distribution. Tell me some observations,

maybe one from this site, yes, Anderson, Asia has a

lot of rare dots. So what does this tell us?

A lot of people are not rich yet in Asia?

And in Asia we see right somehow, while India has

the most dance unriched people groups, there's still a lot

more work to be done in India, right, Okay, de sight.

What other observations can we see? Next highest is the

African continent. That's right, litty, very good observation. So there's

a lot more work to be done, even in the

continent of Africa. Okay, one more observation from this site.

Maybe no these are by people groups, so maybe that

area is covered by a larger territory. So we see

like generally you know, the North and South American or

even Europe, or southern African or even Papoor side Papa site,

they have been quite reached, right, yeah, so this is

quite interesting. This is by the Joshua Project, so they

focus their global organization that focused on reaching the unreached. Okay,

so you can actually go on it on the internet

and find out more about who are these people groups?

You can pray for them, all right. So this is

just to let us know, okay, that that there is

still a lot more work to be done, especially in

Asia and also the northern part of the African continent.

All right, Now let's go on to the next point

number four. But even as we go, okay, I want

us to be very careful to remember our local church. Okay.

Remember the definition of missions is to be sent and

it's our local church that sends us, not we send ourselves. Right,

It's very important to remember the local church. So we

should look for opportunities for missions within our local church,

which is ex Church. So ask your homes leaders, ask

your huddle leaders, you know, ask the leaders in our church. Hey,

what you know? Missions opportunities are available for me? Okay.

So one opportunity is our local Community Outreach and for Cybergaire,

we go to c CEC. Yeah, it's a refugee education center.

We go in on Saturdays by homes to actually teach

them English, teach them the gospel and uh yeah, draw

them closer to Christ. Okay, So there's one that's one way.

Are missions our local community outreach. I know this coming

week Sey four and c Y one not supposed to

go in right, Okay, awesome. Another opportunity that we have

in ex Church is through our rural development program. So

this was my homes before the pandemic. That time, it

was Sey Tree and U priests there, RJ and Nina.

We had a Koran family as well, so most of

my teammates were not locals and the Auran Ashley speak Bahasa.

But we had a Filipino family. We had a Koran

family on the team and they went in faith. Yeah

all right, So we definitely want to go again as

the homes very soon. I know some homes has already

gone here. Another opportunity would be different special mission trips

that you know the church will open the doors too.

So like for some of us last year we went

for a medical missions trip to Sabah to serve the

stateless people. That doctor Sila was part of it. Yeah, okay,

So ask for opportunities within your local church, all right,

and remember that and if you do come across any

external opportunities, always bounce it back with your homes leader

or your harder leader, because it's important to know that

we don't go as a solo person. We are always

part of a bigger team. We don't go to be

a hero. We go to be a servant. Many missionaries

crash and burn on the missions feel because they do

it all alone. We need the prayer support, We need

the covering of our local church to ensure that we

keep sustainable and safe on the mission field. So if

any of you have any external missions opportunities, let our

leaders know so that we can actually support you in

prayer covering. That's very import that I know biologias that

you know, he goes to missions actively and he will

account the pass eject past, the kind of you know,

and we were keeping in prayer as a homes so

that he knows. He never does it alone, but he

goes with the covering of the church. And that's powerful.

God always works as a team, never as a loan ranger. Amen, Okay,

find a we're gonna end already. Okay, worship team, you

can come up and remember the next point. When we

go on missions, we are not just to preach Christ only,

but we are to teach people to follow Him. And

that's why it's not enough to do compassionate works only.

It's not enough to do evangelistic rallies. We need to

plant churches because it is in churches that discipleship happens,

not in compassionate work, not in evangelistic rallies. It is

in churches that discipleship happens. And that's why ex church

model of doing missions is also very much in church planting.

You follow Paul, He planted churches. He didn't just do

compassionate work. He didn't just do evangelistic rallies, he planted churches,

and he would disciple the church leaders a man. And

the final point is we are never alone in this

journey of missions. Christ said, I am with you to

the end of Ages X one eight tells us that

the Holy Spirit has been given to us to empower

us to be His witnesses. So we are never alone.

And I just want to end with this. You know,

last Homes. So I'm part of CY four, all right,

and all my homies here give a shout out. Whoo okay,

so last Homes. On Friday, I said this, this was

our homes. We studied about missions, and at the end

of the discussion, we brought into small groups and I

had the privilege of being with our teenagers in our homes,

and so I asked them, what do you learn from missions?

Today's discussion of missions in our homes? And I really

loved what one of our young people said. She said

that what she called from missions at homes was what

her daddy said. And this young person is none other

than Audrey Chua. And she said, my daddy said that

God doesn't call the equipped, but he equips the call

God doesn't call the equipped, but he equips the call,

and so that Friday night, I believe something in Audrey's

heart has changed a new sense of courage and Boness

has risen up towards missions because of what her daddy

has said. And this is the power of doing. You know,

church as a family, parents, you know, you may think

that your children don't want to hear you anymore in

homes and in church because you say a lot at home,

but they are listening, they are watching you. Like what

Katy says, the best way to pass on is by

role modeling. And so parents continue to declare the word

and the ways of the Lord because you are inspiring.

You are teaching your children in men, and this is

a message that we can all take right how many

of us you feel equipped for missions? Ever? I don't

even last year when we went for the medical missions

to Sabba to serve the stateless people, as a medical doctor,

as a longtime Christian, I didn't feel fully equipped for

the trip as well. But God came true. God equipped

me because he has called me for that trip. And

believe that He will equip you when he calls you,

when he sends you. Amen. We hope you've been blessed

by this message. For more information on our church, please

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We're believing that this week is going to be a

good week, a hit for you. God bless