How are you? How is your week going? Have you been missional?
I love the beginning of each new year, because I get to revisit our vision or mission statement with the first sermon of the year. Each year, I get to ask myself how we’re doing as a ministry in heading toward our vision and executing our mission.
As for our vision, I believe we are striving to make the gospel the center of every program and meeting we have. Because of the faithfulness of our officers and leaders, it’s been so encouraging to see our programs, small groups, and committees be intentional about living in Christ.
As for our mission, I believe we’re doing ok, but we have much room to grow. We are teaching the Word of God in various contexts. It’s been a pure joy to see people grow in their love for Jesus as they grow in their knowledge of Him.
However, like I stated this Sunday, I believe our weakness is the first part of our mission of making disciples. We aren’t very good about sharing Christ with our non-Christian neighbors. Please don’t get me wrong. The Lord has worked. In 2018, we had the pleasure of seeing people come to faith and also getting baptized in our ministry. We truly praise God for the fruit He is bearing within and through our congregation.
But we still need to repent of our failure to share the gospel more boldly and more often. We need to repent of our fears (of rejection, ridicule, termination, etc.) that prevent us from sharing Christ.
This past Sunday, we saw Jesus loving on the Samaritan woman. She was a sinful woman, drinking from one unfulfilling well of man and sin after another. She was a shameful woman as she desired to avoid people by going to the well in the hottest part of the day.
But Jesus loved her, and He restored her. He knew all that she ever did, and yet He still gave her the Living Water, Himself.
Because of the redemption and restoration she had experienced, she left her empty water jug, being filled with the Living Water, and she went straight into the town to talk about Jesus.
“Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” -John 4:29
Have we filled ourselves with the Living Water who thirsted on the cross for us? Have we cherished the love, mercy, and grace that Christ has poured out on us through the cross? Have we been so in love with Jesus that we can’t help but to talk to others about Him? Is the message we’re sending to our neighbors “Come and see” or is it “I don’t want to bother you?”
These are humbling and challenging questions for us all. May this restoration story of the Samaritan woman be our story. And may that lead us to tell the whole world, “Come and see Jesus.”
See you all on Sunday for Lord’s Day Worship. Let’s continue to pray for one another.
In Christ,
Pastor Tim
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