IMB reports 500,000 baptisms in 2008

By Don Graham

EDITOR’S NOTE:This is the first of two stories that look beyond the numbers in the Annual Statistical Report to the lives changed by Southern Baptist missionaries and their ministry partners.

RICHMOND, Va. (BP)--“You could be killed for talking about Jesus around here.”

That’s what a Muslim named Bershi* told missionary Luke Jenkins* after Jenkins shared the Gospel with him.

Bershi was an illegal immigrant looking for work when he came to the Central Asian nation where Jenkins serves as a church planter. But his warning didn’t stop Jenkins. He continued to discuss Jesus with Bershi, and as the young man’s interest grew, they began studying the Bible together. Eventually Bershi gave his life to Christ and was baptized.

Since that time Bershi has begun to actively share his faith, and even baptized three others he led to Christ earlier this year. He’s also returned to his own country, a place with severely limited access to the Gospel and very few believers.

Bershi’s baptism is among the more than 506,000 recorded by the IMB (International Mission Board) in 2008 — about one baptism per minute. Southern Baptist missionaries and their partners also reported starting more than 24,650 new churches last year, as well as engaging 93 new people groups with the Gospel for the first time. The total number of overseas churches broke records again, topping 204,000, continuing a steady climb from 111,000 just five years ago.

The numbers are evidence of the powerful way God is using Southern Baptists to complete the Great Commission task.

ESTHER’S STORY

Missionaries Karl and Anna Rickman* work with college students in East Asia, an area of the world that sometimes presents some unusual challenges when baptizing new believers.

The Rickmans led a Bible study group where five of the students accepted Jesus as their Savior. As the Rickmans began discipling the students, one of the first lessons focused on baptism. After reading the story of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8, one of the students, Esther,* raised her hand.

“I want to be like that Ethiopian eunuch,” she said. “I want to be baptized now.”

“When she responded to the story so quickly my husband looked at me and said, smiling, ‘I think you should go prepare the bathtub,’” Anna remembers. “We knew that the Holy Spirit was leading her, and we were not about to quench it.”

But the typical Asian bathtub is a lot smaller than the tubs most Americans are used to — only about 3 feet long. Esther is 5’8”. She had to scrunch up her knees to sit down in the tub and leave enough room to be dunked. Karl proceeded with the baptism, but even with the tub filled to the brim, Esther’s knees remained dry.

“She looked at Karl and pointed to her dry knees and said earnestly, ‘What about these? Can you please baptize my knees, too? I want to be completely clean,’” Anna said. “So Karl helped slide her legs back into the water so they would be covered.

“Oh, if we could only possess that kind of heart. With tears in our eyes we were reminded that it is God’s Holy Spirit that prompts us, and it is only by the blood of Jesus that any of us can become clean — even to our knees.”

ASSAN’S STORY

You might think missionaries would jump at the chance to baptize someone. But that wasn’t the case for Jack Kirk,* who works in a dangerous Central Asian nation known for violent encounters between Muslims and Christians. He met Assan,* a local believer, through a mutual friend and wanted to hear his testimony.

Assan explained that he gave his life to Christ in prison after a fellow inmate gave him a copy of the New Testament. He read through it dozens of times during his five-year incarceration, and though he had no one to disciple him, Assan knew he wanted to be baptized.

Soon after his release, Assan went to one of the few Christian churches in town. He visited with a priest for three days, repeatedly asking to be baptized. But the priest refused because he suspected Assan was a government spy or an Islamic radical.

The experience left Assan discouraged, but the Holy Spirit didn’t allow that to squelch his passion to be baptized.

Four years had passed before Assan met Kirk. Almost immediately he asked Kirk to baptize him. Kirk was more than willing, but felt it would be better if Assan was baptized by one of his own people. He set up an appointment for Assan with a local Baptist pastor, but before they could meet, the pastor was thrown into prison for evangelizing.

Again, Assan asked Kirk to baptize him.

“I was still hesitant, so we read Scriptures concerning baptism,” Kirk said. “When we read the story of the Ethiopian eunuch, with tears in his eyes, Assan said, ‘Every time I read this I cry.’ At that point I knew that the Holy Spirit was giving me the OK to do this.”

So Kirk brought his children’s plastic swimming pool into the house, filled it with water and baptized Assan. After rising from the water, he sat still for a few moments, trying to regain his composure.

“I believe he was trying to not cry, which is very shameful in this culture,” Kirk says. “The joy that flooded the house was incredible.”

-30-

*Names changed

Don Graham is a writer for IMB.

URGENT PRAYER

URGENT PRAYER
IMB
DECEMBER 4, 2009

AFRICA. Urgent prayer is needed for a situation involving a Baptist convention in an unstable country in southern Africa. Attempts are underway to discredit convention leaders and have them arrested on fabricated charges. Pray for the protection of everyone from threatened physical harm. Pray for wisdom and safety for national believers and missionaries as they work to resolve these issues. Pray that Satan’s schemes will be revealed. Pray that national believers will stand against these schemes. Pray that they will remember that a believer’s armor does not protect their backs, teaching us that we are not to retreat from evil. Pray that truth will be known at every turn, exposing all lies.

Living Above The Line Sermon Series

Two Sides of the Cross, Part 2 Christ Lives In You

1 John 4:15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God,…. God abides in him, and he in God.

Christ Lives in You

Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, comma…You know how many Christians sit on that comma. Some do for years, some forever. I did for 27 years. Then I experienced the other half of that verse, God abides in him, and he in God. Jesus said I AM the life. I finally realized the LIFE had been residing in me all along. But I did not know it.

I have been talking about the two sides of the cross; the blood side and the body side. On the blood side, Jesus Christ died for our sins. Through His death we obtained forgiveness. On the body side of the cross, in the unseen and eternal realm, in our spirit, we experienced with Christ what He experienced; we died with Him and were raised with Him.

I have focused on the death aspect of the body side. We died on the cross with Christ. Our old self is dead, burred. We are dead to sin. We are dead to the law. We are dead to ourselves as a point of reference. The fact that we died is a foundational truth in the Christian life IN CHRIST.

But, if we only emphasis our death in Christ, we will never see what God purposed to be resurrected out of our death; what is that…it is LIFE! We can stand on the tomb and celebrated our death all day long and never get on to living the Life.

In Romans 6, Paul emphasized both our crucifixion and our resurrection with Christ. Romans 6:4-5, 11 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. V. 11So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

God raised our new man from the dead, and then God berthed in us an entirely new spirit, holy, righteous, so that He could then unite Himself to our spirit and live His life through us. And whether we knew it or not, at our rebirth, Jesus came into us and we became one with Him. He now lives in and through us. Two sides of the cross; Blood, and Body, Christ died for us, Christ lives in us.

Now it is time for another trip. Last time we went back 2000 years to the cross, this time we will go 3400 years to the Exodus. God gave us a wonderful illustration of what IM trying to help you understand. We call it the Passover. In Exodus 12, before God sent the death angel to kill all the firstborn in Egypt, God told the Hebrew people to set apart a lamb from the flock, to kill it, and smear the blood on the doorposts of their dwellings. When God saw this blood, He would then Passover that house and spare the firstborn inside. The people had only to apply the blood to the doorposts.

This part of the Passover foretells the blood side of the cross. The lamb died for the household. The household did not participate in that death, the lamb died for them. When they applied the blood to their doorposts, they escaped the wrath of God. The firstborn was sparred. The parallel to the blood side of the cross is undeniable. Christ died for us. He shed His blood as payment for our sins, a satisfying sacrifice to the righteous judgment of God. When, by faith, we today apply Christ’s blood, His death, to our lives, we are spared the wrath of God upon us. Our sins are forgiven.

Now follow me. Let me ask you this. When the children of Israel were in captivity under Pharaoh, what country were they in. Where were they?...Egypt. And after they put the blood on the doorposts and the Lord passed over them, and the firstborn son was spared, what country were they in. …Still Egypt.

You know, as long as our revelatory knowledge is limited to the blood side of the cross, Christ died for us, we may still have our firstborn. That is our sins may be forgiven. But we still live in captivity experientially. We are still living as if we are the subjects of the Pharaoh of our life, in bondage. If I were to allow for the term Carnal Christian to be used, this would be my definition of one. A Christian, living in bondage to the ruler of this world, trying to overcome with one’s own efforts, trying to become spiritual. And what happens is, they think it sure is great to have my sins forgiven, but this captivity stuff sure takes the excitement out of it. They think I sure thought it would be different.

And God had a solution, then and now. The solution was to provide them with LIFE. To get them and us out of Egypt, He instructed each household to roast the lamb and eat it as nourishment for the journey ahead. This is the body side of the cross. You take the lamb, Jesus, into you as LIFE. God showed them and us today that the same lamb that provided the blood is to be eaten for the journey.

Everything that is necessary for living comes from the lamb. It is not that the lamb dies for you then you are sent out on your own to do the rest on your own, and not even that you do it with His help. The lamb is everything here. The lamb gave His blood for them and his life to them. They took its meat into them, and it became nourishment, strength, vitality for the long journey. They lived their life out of the lamb’s life. They walked in his energy. They killed one lamb for two purposes; the Passover and the walk.

Paul also calls the New Testament life a walk. What is the LIFE of that walk? Well it is not our trying to walk for God. It may look that way on the outside, but we have the Lamb of God in us. He is not only forgiveness of our sins. He is also the LIFE in us, from whom we make the journey; one cross, two purposes, just like one lamb two purposes. God say’s “Take the blood and put it on your door. Take the meat and put it in your body. Put The LIFE in you. And unless you put the LIFE in you, you will always be operating in that realm of bondage. When you put the LIFE in you, you will be ready to live. You will be ready to start the journey.”

Christians can walk around for years with a sense of forgiveness, but absolutely no sense of LIFE. WE have the LIFE in us, but we do not know it. We try to generate the LIFE ourselves, but we are doomed to failure, because it is impossible for us to generate the LIFE. God is telling us, I will share my Glory with no man. Only I can live MY LIFE. But, …I will impart the LIFE to you. I will give you the LIFE. I will live it through you.”

This is why there is not anything beyond the grace of God, once it is understood, that is necessary for living the Christian LIFE. All you are ever going to need for LIFE is in the cross, ..that is both sides of the cross. It is all in Christ. And HE is in us.

The Apostle Paul wrote: Romans 5:10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. See, we were saved not just by Jesus’ death, but also by His LIFE. This is true eternally, above the line, but it is a truth here and now. We are saved by the Life of Christ that lives within us.

Not Us, But Jesus In Us

In the 6^th chapter of Johns Gospel, Jesus feeds 5000 with 5 loaves and 2 fish. When he leaves the crowd goes after Him. They want more. He tells them, you did not see the miracle in the miracle. You saw the seen and temporary. You saw bread and fish multiplied. But you missed the unseen and eternal miracle. I AM the unseen and eternal miracle. See Jesus is not just a bread producer He is THE LIFE giver.

Later in John 6, He says “I AM the bread of life…unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood; you have no life in yourselves. He who eats MY flesh and drinks MY blood has eternal life.”

We, Christians, have ETERNAL LIFE in us, God’s very LIFE; LIFE without beginning and end. We have the uncreated LIFE.

Jesus is telling us, I AM all a person needs for living the LIFE, it is not ME plus something. It is not Me plus your prayers, or your Bible study, or your service, or all you can do, because you will never produce a life that pleases ME. I AM the only LIFE that pleases Me.

See, no one gets offended when you are talking about separation from God, instead of Union with God. As long as it is God up there and us down here, He does things for us from up there it is okay. But when you start talking about Jesus and He does something for us, as us, things get touchy. People get nervous when you start touching them. In John 6, the people were perfectly satisfied with Jesus as long as He produced bread. The problem came when He said I AM the bread. How can this man give us His flesh to eat?

· Jesus was telling the Jews, you are doing all the external things, but there is no LIFE in it. What is the opposite of LIFE?...Death!. This became so real to me at Faith Temple these past few months. In March as I prepared to write these very sermons I wrote an editorial in our monthly news letter. In my excitement I wrote that God is ready for spiritual awakening, another term for The Life, at Faith Temple, and that I was also, and that if you were not please leave. I had no Idea how upset this would make people. I mean what is the opposite of Spiritual Awakening, ..Spiritual death. If we are not operating out of LIFE, then we are operating out of Death. Yea, people are okay when it’s God up there and us down here. But a preacher starts talking about Christ in the man, oh he better watch out, people get mad, they make comments like, oh I guess it’s his way or the highway, well, …that what Jesus said.

Yes, If we are not operating out of LIFE, then we are operating out of Death..but, ..it does not look like death, because we often get results. I think that is another lie of the devil. “Results” Church programs get results, personal programs get results, in the seen and temporary realm below the line, and people are getting results. Jesus has a word for Christian trying to get results; it is “Enjoy Your Reward.” You want results; you’re getting results, well then enjoy your reward. Go ahead with it. But it is not of Me. It is not MY LIFE flowing through you.

Paul revealed the secret of Christ in us. He said to the Galatians, I live, but not really, Christ lives in me. It looks like me, but it is Christ. To the Colossians he wrote, It is Christ in you that is your hope of Glory. To the Philippians he proclaimed; For me to live is Christ. Who was doing the living? Jesus Christ was. But if we could look at Him, we would see Paul.

2 Cor. 5:20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. These ambassadors were pleading, but who was really pleading? God was. He was making His plea through them. The words and the works came through Paul. But Paul knew he was not working up this concern for lost people, God was. God was in him making the appeal. It looked like Paul, but it was the indwelling Jesus Christ.

3) What does Jesus In Us Look Like

Matthew 11:28-30 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, … and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

What did Jesus mean, Learn from Me? The Gospel of John has the answer. Jesus says over and over things like, I do nothing of myself, I only do what I see with the Father, I only speak what I hear from the Father, the works I do , they are not My works, they are the Father’s works, who dwells in Me.

When Jesus said “Learn from Me, He meant from how He lived. And how did He live. He lived out of the Father. He had no other secret. He did not have a Bible to read, He did not have a prayer group, He simply let the Father live through Him. He learned how to live off the resources of the Father, which are not of this temporary realm below the line. The resources of the Father are above the line, in the eternal realm.

Jesus could have said it this way. The Father is LIFE. Every statement He ever gave is a witness to this. God is LIFE! The Father was living His LIFE through Jesus. Jesus says, what you see when you look at Me is the Father in Me. We are ONE. The Father lived through Him as Him. Jesus was at rest in Him. Jesus was at rest all this time. The Jews were irate when they heard this.

The life of the Son was the Father, and the Life of the sons is the SON. So how do we live the LIFE? We learn to live it out of the Son and the Father. To learn to live out of the Son and the Father you have to know something. …Where the Son and the Father live. Where do they live…In US!

It is a miracle, it is absolutely amazing, I cannot fully explain it, but it can be witnessed in the LIFE of one man, The Man Jesus Christ.

How do we live The LIFE? We don’t, because we can’t. For years this is where I lived, but I could not produce the LIFE of God. I could not bring the uncreated, Gods LIFE out of the creation, me. How was I ever going to do that? Well, as long as I saw myself as the source of LIFE I kept on trying. Then one day, Jesus said to me, I AM your LIFE. I AM the only One acceptable to the Father. I not only want to forgive you; I want to live the LIFE in you. I want to be your LIFE!

Look at Roman 6 one more time. Verse 7 says He who has died is free from sin. We then usually ship to verse 11 in our focus and read, consider yourself to be dead to sin but alive to God in Jesus Christ. But I want you to focus on verse 10 for just a moment. Romans 6:10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.

The LIFE that Jesus lives, He lives to GOD! And where is Jesus? He is in us. Jesus in us lives His LIFE to God. He lives only to God. …We don’t have to try and live to God! He who lives in us lives to God. If we know that the old self is dead and out of the way, we can rest assured that the Person in us is going to live for the Glory of God. Jesus said; My food is to do the will of Him who sent me. That is who lives in you. His only desire and will is to do the Will of the Father. He lives in you and me, and HE will Do IT!

So let me bring all this to a conclusion.

We have really only 3 questions. Who is The LIFE? Where is the LIFE? And who am I?

When we get those settled, LIFE is easy. …Jesus is The LIFE. Jesus lives in me. I am the vessel, a container of His LIFE, holy, righteous, and blameless in His sight. If I know who life is and where the life is, I am free from trying to become something I was never meant to be. It is easy to be natural. It is hard to be unnatural, trying to produce the LIFE on our own, resulting in frustration, anger, desperation, till finally you give up. I did.

We are not meant to operate un-naturally. But if we know who we are, and who LIFE is, and where LIFE is, we can just be ourselves and let Him live it because no one has any trouble being themselves.

I pray you are on the verge of an I SEE moment. An I see now how to live the life. I let him live it. If so then I encourage you to count yourself dead. The old self dead. Count on it. Count yourself alive to God in Christ Jesus. He is the One in you that lives to God. Count on Him to be doing it moment by moment. By faith reckon yourself dead as your point of reference. You are holy and righteous and blameless in His sight. Christ in you is you point of reference. He is sufficient, always loving, and always living to the Father.

It is not our trying that releases Christ life through us. It is our trusting. Just say, Lord, Your Holy Spirit is showing me this truth. I embrace it by faith, just as I embraced Jesus for forgiveness of my sins. I now embrace Jesus in me as my LIFE. Teach me; convince me God, of this truth by the Holy Spirit, so that I will not be captive any longer to trying to produce the LIFE myself.

Conclusion:

Is it not good news to us to know that He did not just die for us, though that is great news, that He is with us, though that is great news, that He is in us helping us, though that is good news, but that HE IS In US, Living The LIFE! He has joined His Spirit with our spirit. In the eternal realm, above the line, there is Deity inside us. We are not Deity, but we are containers of that Deity.

A well of eternal life is springing up inside of us, within us. This LIFE is adequate, This LIFE is sufficient; This LIFE is never exhausted, never tires, never taste bitter. This LIFE is always light, always has mercy in it, always has a second chance in it, always carries God’s forgiveness toward others, and always is love.

When we recognize this, suddenly the ought-to’s and musts of the Devils frantic way of life become the “Be Still and be’ of God’s LIFE. The be still and be of His eternal presence. A dramatic change of our point of reference results.

Satin’s invitation to humanity was “you Become.” …And when we are playing in his game of must and ought-to, we are in the spotlight. Our performance is the center stage. But our new point of reference is the indwelling Jesus Christ. He has no part in the separation implied by must and ought. He lives in the inner sanctuary, the Holy of Holies, where all simply is.

We are invited to let that be, and let Him come. We pray it all the time. It is time we meant it. They Kingdom Come, Thy will be dome, on earth, below the line, just as it is in Heaven, above the line. Christ in the man, God in His Kingdom.

IMB appoints 55 missionaries despite financial hardships

11/13/2009By Don Graham

SHREVEPORT, La. (BP)—Despite the rocky economy and a red-line budget, IMB (International Mission Board) trustees took a step of faith Nov. 10 when they celebrated the appointment of 55 new missionaries at Summer Grove Baptist Church in Shreveport, La., in conjunction with the Louisiana Baptist Convention meeting.

Earlier this year, 25 of the 55 appointees were told they would be delayed going to the mission field until 2010 because there wasn’t enough money to send them. The global recession, decreased giving through the Cooperative Program and a $29 million shortfall in the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering left the IMB with a limited budget, forcing trustees to restrict new missionary appointments. Sixty-nine long-term candidates and 350 short-term candidates already in the pipeline to go overseas were put on hold.

But during the summer, Southern Baptists responded to the IMB’s financial restrictions with a grassroots effort to raise additional support to send as many of the delayed missionary candidates as possible before the end of 2009. IMB leadership determined the extra gifts would be enough to send 25 of the 69 career candidates on hold, including Tim and Audrey Shepard.*

The Shepards had already quit their jobs, sold their house, said goodbye to family and friends — even given away the family dog — when they got the news their appointment was being delayed until 2010, potentially leaving them in limbo for six months or more. But now they won’t have to wait and are already preparing for their assignment in Asia.

“We’re thrilled to be missionaries again,” Audrey said. The Shepards previously served 15 years with the IMB but left the field in 2004 so their daughter could attend high school in the United States. “We have seen how it is for missionaries that are sent without the support that Southern Baptist missionaries have, and we know that in this economy they must be really struggling.

“We don’t have that burden as Southern Baptists. … We can be on the field drawing people into the kingdom and not think about where our next paycheck is coming from, and that’s a tremendous blessing. We have faith in Southern Baptists that they will never let their missionaries go in need; that they will always support missions, and they’ve proven that throughout history.”

Zoe Parker,* who also was among the 25 appointees who would have been delayed, is now getting ready to go to South Asia where she’ll serve as a church planter.

Born to an abusive, alcoholic father, she became a Christian at age 9 only to turn her back on God at 16 when her boyfriend committed suicide. Parker says she was angry at God because He didn’t seem to answer her prayers to heal her family, and her boyfriend’s death was the last straw. She eventually married and became a social worker, trying “to fix an unfixable world.” She remembers sitting on urine-soaked sofas and fending off roaches while visiting clients’ homes, experiences she now recognizes as training ground for her work in poverty-stricken areas.

Then at 34, her life was rocked again by death when her husband, Carl, died suddenly of a heart attack. But this time, instead of driving her away, the death brought Polk back into a relationship with her Savior. Fifteen years later, she is answering God’s call to share Christ’s love overseas.

“God has used everything with a purpose for getting me to this point,” she said. “I’m very excited that God is allowing me to go [to the field] earlier than expected. … I feel very humbled and very grateful.

“How do you say thank you in a situation like this? … It’s an honor and a privilege to serve the Lord my God and to go on this adventure with Him. It’s not something that I take lightly or for granted.”

BEST OF THE BEST

IMB trustee chairman Paul Chitwood praised missionaries like Parker and the Shepards for their commitment and passion, calling them the “best of the best” in light of the IMB limiting the number of new appointments to the most strategic assignments.

“Their testimonies are clear. Their commitment is unquestionable. Their identity as Southern Baptists is without apology. And their call — God’s call on their lives — is so evident,” Chitwood said.

But he cautioned that the extra gifts that made it possible for many of the new missionaries to go would be given in vain without Southern Baptists’ continued support to keep missionaries on the field.

“In the midst of this unprecedented opportunity all over the world, we find ourselves … paring back our missionary force because of a lack of funding,” Chitwood said. “As excited as we are to see these 55 new missionaries appointed, and as grateful as we are to Louisiana Baptists for [helping to] make it possible, my prayer is that you will be challenged to make a greater commitment to pray, and during this Lottie Moon Christmas Offering season, to give.”

‘SECOND MILE’ OFFERING

As a sign of their commitment to support the new missionaries, Louisiana Baptists present for the appointment service took up their own special offering of nearly $8,500. David Hankins, executive director of the Louisiana Baptist Convention, called it a “second mile” offering, in reference to Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.

“Louisiana Baptists love missions, and we’re going to make a demonstration of that tonight,” Hankins said, addressing the many church pastors in the audience. “If someone compels you to go one mile, then you go a second mile. The first mile is out of duty, the second mile is out of love. The first mile is what you do under ordinary conditions; the second mile is what you do under difficult conditions.

“One of the most important things you can do pastoring people is to go to your church and say, ‘This year we don’t care how hard the economy is, how strong the recession is, we’re going to do more for international missions through the Lottie Moon offering than we’ve ever done before. This is what is demanded by difficult times, and we’re going to go the second mile.”

DEAF AND KOREAN APPOINTEES

Gordon Fort, IMB vice president of global strategy, pointed out the special significance of having Korean Americans and Deaf Americans among the appointees. He lauded the more than 200 Korean Americans now serving with the IMB, as well as the growing number of Deaf missionaries. There are more than 30 IMB missionaries, a third of whom are Deaf, who use sign languages from various countries to share the Gospel.

“We became convinced that a person who is, for instance, a Deaf Chinese, has more in common with a person who is a Deaf Russian than they do with a hearing person in their own population,” Fort said. “We began to understand that there had been an artificial barrier that was preventing many of the Deaf people of our world not only from hearing the Gospel but from crossing the boundary into the church.”

Fort spoke about meeting a young man, both deaf and blind, who responded to God’s call to missionary service.

“He had to understand what was being said through the interpretation of the fingers of the lady whose hands he held,” Fort said. “With tears streaming down his face the young man said to me through his interpreter, ‘Could God use someone like me as a missionary around the world?’

“Friends, I felt so ashamed … because there are people that have far greater capacity and ability than that young man has, who today are unwilling to go. We as Southern Baptists claim to be a missionary people and we are. But we only have [5,500] missionaries engaging 95 percent of the world’s population, and if we as Southern Baptists would simply send 1 percent of the 10 million active members … we would have 100,000 missionaries.

“While a young man like that is willing to go and should go, there are many of us that might consider the possibility that we are the ones to take this Gospel into some of these last remaining strongholds around the world.”

RANKIN’S CHALLENGE

IMB President Jerry Rankin concluded the appointment service with a challenge for the appointees and some words of advice. He urged the new missionaries to fully let go of the life they leave behind in the United States and to be wary of distractions once they reach the field.

“It’s so easy to get diverted, to get caught up in our ministry and doing good things that we lose the focus on why we are there,” Rankin said. “Satan knows how vulnerable we are to busyness. … It’s so easy to determine your own agenda and miss God’s priority for what He wants you to do.

“Don’t compromise in longing for a more comfortable lifestyle, the amenities that you enjoyed in America. Don’t always be entertaining thoughts that if it doesn’t work out ‘I can always return to the States and ministry there’ — no, place your life on the altar.

“Never forget the reason you’re going is that God has called you to plant your life among people who are lost. Tell them about Jesus, preach the Word and proclaim redemption until all have heard.”

Rankin also reminded the missionaries that their effectiveness as Christ’s witnesses is dependent solely on His power.

“We have no business going and thinking we can convince Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and others of the truth of the Gospel … except for His power to draw all men to Himself because He was lifted up on the cross, died and rose again.

“We’re not sending you out simply because of your qualifications and your education … certainly that’s important, in fact, essential. But it’s not your ability — it’s your availability to the power of Jesus Christ. … Never forget He will demonstrate His power as you faithfully bear witness according to His purpose.”

Rankin also asked the audience to consider God’s calling on their lives.

“God may want you right here in northwest Louisiana — or wherever you’re from. But you can never be sure you’re in the center of God’s will if you’ve never come to the place of saying, ‘Wherever He leads I’ll go.’

“There is no greater thrill than sharing Jesus with someone who has never heard.”

Great Commission resurgence requires radical change

Great Commission resurgence requires radical change, Rankin says
11/13/2009

By Mark Kelly

SHREVEPORT, La. (BP)—If Southern Baptists truly want to experience a Great Commission resurgence, they must turn their backs on business as usual and be willing to make radical changes in their missions commitment and approach, Jerry Rankin told IMB (International Mission Board) trustees Nov. 10 in Shreveport, La.

Rankin, who plans to retire as IMB president July 31, 2010, believes the 23-member task force studying how Southern Baptists can be more effective in obeying the Great Commission will bring some radical recommendations to the June 15-16, 2010, Southern Baptist Convention meeting in Orlando, Fla.

“We should not be afraid of making radical changes. If we come out just kind of tweaking what we are doing to try to do it a little better, that would be most unfortunate,” Rankin said. “We are at a watershed time in history, with an unprecedented opportunity. God has blessed us and we must not become ingrown and self-focused, committed simply to continuing what we are doing in the way we are doing it. We’ve got to be willing to change.”

Rankin said he finds some merit in the idea of merging the denomination’s international and North American mission boards but only to the extent that it helps Southern Baptists accomplish the mandate to take the Gospel to “the the ends of the earth” and “make disciples of all nations.”

“If we’re thinking of combining [the two boards] just for the sake of efficiency, thinking it will release more funds to be more focused on our mission task, I think that would be a huge misperception,” Rankin said.

Trying to merge the two entities could merely wind up creating “a complex, bureaucratic structure that would dilute the effectiveness of what each of us is doing,” Rankin said. On the other hand, the current geographic dichotomy between North American and international missions “doesn’t make a lot of sense and is a detriment to fulfilling our Great Commission task,” he said.

Nearly every “people group we would ever hope to reach anywhere in the world is found right here in our own country,” Rankin said. “If there could be a way to come to a global missions entity that is focused on evangelizing and planting indigenous churches and reaching all the peoples of the world, whether here or overseas, there could be some merit in that. ... We could not afford to be diluted in [the] focus and application of our resources on taking the Gospel to all peoples.”

One challenge in facilitating a Great Commission resurgence among Southern Baptists lies in the fact that “Great Commission” is not a term found in the Bible and people differ in their definitions of its mandate, Rankin added.

While the Bible passage usually identified as the Great Commission — Matthew 28:19-20 — makes it clear that Christ’s mandate is to make disciples of all the world’s people groups, the words of Jesus in Acts 1:8 often are misunderstood, Rankin said.

When Jesus told the disciples they would be His witnesses “in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth,” he was outlining the progression the Gospel would take as it moved toward the “ends of the earth,” Rankin said. Understood in the light of Matthew 28:19-20, the Great Commission is to focus on people groups that have yet to hear the Gospel and become disciples, he explained.

“Certainly God wants us to reach our home community, to evangelize our state, to minister to people in need,” Rankin told the trustees. “But let’s not misuse the Scripture to divert our attention from the focus of what the Great Commission is all about: reaching the ends of the earth, those that are yet to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

“I am quite concerned we will miss [a Great Commission resurgence] if we miss that very foundation of what we’re talking about when we talk about a Great Commission resurgence: to restore Southern Baptists to God’s heart, God’s priority as His people in reaching the nations and peoples of the world,” Rankin added.

“If you define the Great Commission as anything and everything we do as a denomination, an increase in baptisms, more healthy churches, greater cultural impact on our society, there’s not going to be a lot of change because we will just continue to do anything and everything the best that we can,” Rankin said. “But I am convinced that God has blessed Southern Baptists, He has raised us up in numbers and resources, not to take pride in being a great denomination and how many programs we can implement and how well we can do them but to be His instrument to reach a lost world and fulfill His mission.”

Rankin noted a recent report from Empty Tomb, a Christian research organization in Champaign, Ill., that Southern Baptists set a goal several years ago to fulfill the Great Commission and complete the task of reaching all peoples with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and calculated that if Southern Baptists could field 8,000 international missionaries, the remaining unreached people groups realistically could be engaged.

The report, however, then went on to analyze what Southern Baptists do with the billions Southern Baptist churches receive each year and the amount of money actually allocated by the denomination to send out missionaries and finish the task of the Great Commission, Rankin said.

The research organization’s conclusion was that the Southern Baptist Convention has obviously implemented a goal not to fulfill the goal of the Great Commission, Rankin said.

“We must be very careful of how we speak of other entities in our denomination. I know the leadership of our state conventions, our SBC entities, how conscientious they are, how sincerely dedicated to serving the Lord ... and the wonderful job they are doing. That’s not the issue,” Rankin said. “If we are to have a Great Commission resurgence, we’ve got to be willing to ask, ‘How does it all stack up in relation to reaching the nations and getting the Gospel to the ends of the earth.’

Living Above the Line Sermon Series

Living Above the Line

Two Sides of the Cross Part One 1 Cor. 15:3

A very large majority of Christians only know about one side of the cross. Much of modern preaching is nothing more than a steady diet of Christ died for the forgiveness of your sins. Week after week preachers deliver this message and already saved Christians are perfectly happy hearing it again and again and again… The problem is that most audiences in churches on Sunday morning are already saved; their sins are already forgiven. And if and when another message is offered it is typically having to do with some external compliance or keeping some commandment.

Much of my life I heard these messages and thought that there has got to be more. This is not getting me any further along than I already am. It was like a rehearsal Sunday after Sunday, but never any performance. Lots of effort but no action, no growing, defiantly no growth spiritually.

Why? Why is there no growth? Because only one side of the cross is being preached; the local church is being feed a steady diet of only half of the cross. The church is being sustained on only one half of Gods daily requirement of nutrition. Now one side of the cross has a strong enough nutritional value to sustain life but that’s all. It sustains life but does not provide growth. And where there is no growth the body’s development becomes stunted. So what we have is a body with an Identity problem as we saw last week, but also a problem in its development.

Let me take you back two thousand years.You are in Jerusalem for vacation. It is Passover week and you can not believe you did not read up on the travel brochures and find out never to come during one of the local peoples religious festivals. But all the talk is see the Holy Land. You’re out shopping and you hear that there is to be a crucifixion that day. Two local thieves and some man accused of being a political extremist, an enemy of Caesar. ….Your disappointed in the place, the food is bad, the climate is hot, public transportation stinks, so you say to your wife lets go to the crucifixion and see what that’s all about. …That is what we see in the seen and temporary realm.

So you go out in the middle of the afternoon, and they nail the man in the middle to a cross and He dies.

Being Americans, nothing holds our attention for any length of time, so we immediately ask, What else is going on.

But then, a very strange thing happens. A voice within says, this was no political extremist. This is My Son. I AM God the Father. This is God the Son. And He died for your sins. If you will receive this, your sins will be forgiven.

We hear this and respond yes, I will receive that from Him. …

All of us who have believed, had faith in, who have trusted into Christ, have had this experience. It is not important that you know the date, or the time, but that you know it happened, so that you can say MY SINS HAVE BEEN FORGIVEN! That is a revelation from the Holy Spirit. Nothing from the seen and temporary realm, below the line, tells you that your sins are forgiven. It is a truth from the unseen, eternal realm above the line.

This is the first side of the cross. Christ died for you. 1 Cor. 15:3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins. And this message is spread throughout the New Testament. (Eph. 1:7-8, Col. 1:14, Col. 2:13, 1 John 2:2)

And it is a thrilling thing to have your sins forgiven. Just knowing that we are forgiven and now have a right standing with God is usually enough to carry even the weakest of Christian for at least a few months, as we marvel at God’s amazing grace toward us. And that is all most preachers preach, a steady diet of Christ died for your sin’s, a constant diet of Amazing Grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me and Are Washed in the Blood fully trusting His Grace this hour. You know, week after week, are washed in the blood, are your garments clean, are they white as snow, and we scream yes, yes, yes, …hallelujah…

But very soon, and in some case very, very soon, we encounter a problem. Why, because there is only one lesson that the Holy Spirit can teach us from this event in Jerusalem of Christ dying for us: Your Sin’s Are Forgiven. That is the basic truth this event contains. But once we are forgiven, Jesus said its time to start living. … and so we ask, how in the world do I live this thing out. How on earth do I get my act together? How am I going to keep from sinning?

And we discover the truth that we are forgiven, does not tell us one thing about how to live the life. It only addresses the question, what do I do about my sins.” It has nothing to do with living the life. Forgiveness is the only inner revelation we have so far from the Holy Spirit. We do not have any revelation on how to live the life. So we take this one single revelation, that our sins are forgiven, and we try to stretch it out to somehow cover how to live the life.

And how do we do it? We go out and try to live the Christian life, but we just can not quite pull it off. Instead, we sin a little bit, or a lot, and then we get forgiven before we go to bed at night. Or we get forgiven on Sunday at church. Preachers take their congregation through this week after week after week.

They say, this is what we have done wrong; now let’s ask God to forgive us. Then let’s do out best to make it until next Sunday. The People say, Thank you preacher, you made me feel twice as bad as last week, and I’m twice as glad I’m forgiven this week, oops, now its 12:00 o’clock time to pass the potato salad, got to go.

And that’s the way it is for far too many, either at church, or in their individual lives. And there is no way out, because we do not have anything from the Lord yet on how to live the life. So we become preoccupied with whom? With ourselves and on our sin’s.

We still see ourselves externally, based on our performance. And this is like being on a roller caster, because our performance goes up and down and we never measure up. So we are very unhappy, but we smile, a fake smile, sometimes. We go to church and say IM fine when asked. We think IM actually miserable, but it is Sunday, I can not say IM miserable in here because everyone is so happy. I mean Happy happy. So we say where’s the coffee? I need more spirit. More caffeine please, turn up the music.

See, after you get over the thrill of being saved, you’re stuck on this treadmill. And It is worse than being lost. And by that, I don’t mean it is really worse than being lost, but I mean it feels worse than being lost. … Why, because when you were lost you were comfortable being lost. You do not have to do anything to be lost. Have you ever seen a book on how to be lost? Lost people are good at being lost. …It is easy to walk on two feet, it gets difficult when you have to drop to your knees and spend the day crawling. It is against our nature to crawl. We are comfortable being lost because it once was our nature.

And it is easier being lost than being saved and trying to live off of only “IM forgiven,” trying with all your might to be a good Christian. Because that is simply only one side of the cross; it is only half of the Gospel Jesus proclaimed. And it will give you only a partial, fragmented view of salvation. With only half the Gospel, we go back to the old way, into our independent self-effort, trying to make the rest of it happen on our own.

And we can not make it happen. But, there is a reason why, this is actually part of the way God programmed us. God programmed us so that if we try to make the Christian walk work on our own we will fail. He designed you in a way that that kind of living would bring you nothing but heartbreak, and despair and disappointment. He designed us that this kind of life would bring nothing but condemnation.

And so many simply preach or decide that this must be how the Christian life is supposed to be. That victorious living on this side of Heaven, below the line is impossible, that this is the Christian life, this side of eternity, and it is never more than a struggle in which you will suffer defeat after defeat after defeat. That is a far cry from what my Lord Jesus promised as “Abundant Life.”

So why the disparity? ….Because the first side of the cross only deals with the issue of sin’s. S-I-N-S. Plural. Jesus Christ died on the cross, our S-I-N-S are forgiven. God has wiped the slate clean of all the offenses we have or ever will commit against Him.

But, getting our sins forgiven does not deal with the question of sin. S-I-N. Singular. Sins are the product of something that the Bible says dwells within us-which is sin. (Rom 7:17)

Sin is a power, or a force, that is in rebellion against God and produces sins as its fruit. We inherited sin through Adam, from whom sin was passed to every subsequent generation (Rom 5:12). As long as sin dwells in the center of our being, it will produce sins. So most Christians are on this sort of treadmill: we sin, we get forgiven; we sin, we get forgiven. Over and over and over.

But, we read our Bible and think praise God, it says one day that sin will not dog us anymore, causing us to do what we don’t want to do. We read God’s promises of abundant life, and how we have victory over sin. But because we don’t experience that victory over sin, in the here and now, below the line, we conclude that some event is yet to take place before we can experience them. And that is exactly right.

That event is that WE MUST DIE. But we even have that all wrong.

See, we tell ourselves that once we physically die we are going to move into the unseen and eternal realm above the line. Then we are going to have everything that we have anticipated. So we push all of God’s promises off into the eternal future, and we say, Thank You God that this great big struggle will end when I die. When I die, IM going to join the unseen and eternal realm above the line, and everything is going to be great!

And there is a tremendous truth to this thinking. … I know, I lived that life; But there came a moment in my life when I realized that none of those words in the Bible applied to the future. Every single one of them applied to my life now. Remember the word I said best described the eternal, unseen realm, it was simply “Now.” 2 Cor. 1:20 For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. Not will find their yes, not will be yes, but find, are yes, in Him. God did not intend me to relegate them to the divine realm. He meant for Greg to experience them now.

But we have one thing right. The only way to experience these promises is to die. When we die, we finally will be free from ourselves. That is an absolute truth. We all must die to enter into these unseen, eternal realities, above the line. So I say, you do have to die, but the issue is when you die? You know what God showed me, 27 years after I became a Christian, I had already died, and it was a whole lot earlier than I ever imagined. Here I was walking along waiting on something to happen that in the unseen, eternal realm above the line had already happened. I had already died. ….

Now let’s go back to our Holy Land trip 2000 years ago. Remember we were standing just outside of Jerusalem observing a crucifixion. There the Holy Spirit told us that the man in the center was God’s Son, and He died for the forgiveness of our sins. But now the illustration changes. Suddenly quite beyond our understanding we are transported off the ground and up into that body. The body of Jesus Christ Himself. And we are no longer observers of something He is doing for us. We are participating with Him in the event. We are being crucified with Him. And when He dies, we die with Him.m

Look at Romans 6 Romans 6:3-6 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him …

I used to read that passage all wrong. Being a Baptist, and not reading Greek back then, I came along the word baptize and all I saw was a pool of water. But the Greek word Baptizo does not mean what baptize means to us. We are victims of the fact that King James was a Catholic. Rather than translate into the proper English word immerse, the translators decided to keep their heads, I mean literally keep their heads, and just turned the Greek word into an English word. Baptizo became baptize. And whenever someone says baptize we think of water and a religious ceremony of some sort.

But we get a much more accurate meaning when we translate it directly into the corresponding English word. Do you not know that all of us who have been immersed into Christ Jesus were immersed into his death? There is no water here, because Paul is saying that we were immersed into Christ. We went into Him. He swallowed us up.

All of us who have been immersed into Christ Jesus were immersed into his death!

Why? Because He died. And whatever happened to Jesus on the cross happened to whomever was immersed in Him. We were all immersed into Him. We were in Him on that cross, experiencing what He experienced. So when He died, we died. When He was raised, we were raised with Him. And to emphasize the point, Paul said that we were “buried with Him.” And when we bury someone it can only mean one thing. At least it better. They are dead! The human life is over. Whatever they were is gone.

So there is a great big question confronting every one of us today. What died with Christ? It certainly does not seem like we died with Him. Here we are, still alive, still breathing, and alive. Jesus died 2000 years ago in Jerusalem. How could we have possibly died with Him.

The answer can be found in Romans 6:6 We know, or knowing this, that our old self, (the one we inherited from Adam, cut off from God but alive to the power of sin) was crucified with Him, Christ. …..Look at Ephes. 2:1-3 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

The source of that life had to die. You can not put an I Love Jesus Band-Aid over it. It had to die. It had to be cut off. Cut Loose. The root must be killed. You can not just scrape off the sin and cover it up. God had to cut the old man out of you at the root or he would continue to produce his sinful fruit. So God crucified you with Christ.

The old man is indwelt and enslaved by sin. But God crucified that old man and gave us a new spirit, created in righteousness and holiness, (Eph. 4:24). Hundreds of years before Christ, Ezekiel prophesized that God would perform this heart transplant under the New Covenant: Ezekiel 36:26-27 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you,

We were dead in trespasses and sins. But we are no longer. We were sons of disobedience. But we are no longer. We were expressing desires of our spiritual father, Satan. But he is our father no longer. We were children of wrath. But we are no longer.

How could we have been crucified with Christ 2000 years ago? Because we were not crucified physically, in the seen and temporary realm below the line, we were crucified in the sprit realm, the unseen, eternal realm above the line. In the realm in which time has no meaning; because everything is now!

This is why Jesus is the Lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world. In the seen and temporary world below the line, He was slain 2000 years ago. In the unseen and eternal world above the line, He has always been the slain lamb. In the seen and temporary world, you and I live physically right now. In the unseen and eternal realm, you and I were crucified on the cross with Christ. Our old man, inherited from Adam, dead and separated from God, died wit

h Christ!

This is just one side of the cross. There are two sides. The first is the blood side. That is where Christ dies for us. He shed His blood for the forgiveness of our sin’s. The second side is the body side. We were united with Him on the cross, participants with Him in death, burred, and resurrected. Our old man was crucified with Him. Our new man, righteous and holy, was resurrected with Him.

On one side of the Cross is the Blood, Christ died for us, on the other side is the body; we died & were raised with Christ.

This should not be so unfamiliar to us. Every time we take communion we eat the bread, we drink the cup. The problem, most Christians do not have a clue what the bread represents. What representing the body really means.

It means that we were united with Him, and that when He died, we died. When He was buried, we were buried. When He was raised, we were raised. The heart of Paul’s theology is built on the Lord’s Supper; the blood and the body of Christ. Christ died for us; we died with Him.

We do not feel dead. We do not look dead. We do not act dead. But at some point the Holy Spirit pulls back the certain and shows us that in the deepest part of us, our spirit, which is who we truly are, a death has occurred that has forever changed us. We are going to look the same, feel the same, and think the same on many, many days. But…. we will know this, we are not the same. 2 Cor. 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. If this has happened to you, you are ruined for the ordinary.

My friends in the unseen and eternal realm, above the line an exchange has taken place; I call it the great exchange, a change in our spirit that once we know it, produces a quality of life that is different from anything else the world has ever seen. It is light in darkness. It is God’s love in place of a world of self love. It is desirable above all else. And it is in us.