Resources for the Work of Mission
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
BENJAMIN KREPS:
Hey everyone, and welcome to the Mark Prater Podcast - where our aim is to connect our global family of Sovereign Grace churches with our executive director.
Hey Mark, here's a quote: "In Sovereign Grace churches, the gospel of Jesus Christ is the center of our confession of faith, our mission to the world, and our lives as Christians." All God's people say amen.
MARK PRATER:
That's right. Yeah, I love that quote, actually, because it really captures the heartbeat of who we are. Captures our gospel centrality, right? And we exist to advance the gospel of Jesus Christ and to proclaim his good news to the world.
That's not a unique sort of mission statement. Any denomination can have that because Christ gave us that commission, right? In Matthew 28,
“Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and Son and Holy Spirit.”
That message that we carry is the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is really our mission to the world. It's something that I hope we never lose.
I point that out because Ricky Alcantar has been doing some really good work on our website. I want pastors and members of our churches to take advantage of the resources there. If you go to our homepage, click on resources, then click on news, there are a number of articles Ricky has made available. And what he's done is define a theme for each month of this year, so you can have focused resources for that month.
It just so happens that in the month of January, mission is that theme. I know for myself, I need help in consistently sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with those who don't know Him. I've benefited from these resources. I want our pastors and members of our churches to be aware of them and benefit from them as well.
BENJAMIN KREPS:
Yes, we're so grateful for the wonderful work that Ricky's doing. He just brings creativity, imagination, and thoughtfulness to the task of digital communications for Sovereign Grace. The website is a wonderful reflection of that.
I've been benefiting ever since he started in this role from some of the things he's been sending out over the last couple of months, via email and now on the website as well. Talk to us about some of the helpful resources on mission that we can find on the website.
MARK PRATER:
He's got several that are there for this month. The first one I want to mention is titled "The Great Errand: A New Year's Prayer for Mission," with Thomas Watson. It's wonderful. It really is a prayer adapted from a sermon by Thomas Watson on the Lord's Prayer, "Thy kingdom come."
It's a prayer that will stir your heart. It's a prayer that will stir your heart to pray for the lost and to pray for opportunities to share the gospel with them. I just want to share a few lines from that. Here's the very first line of that prayer: "Father, your heart is that sinners become sons through the work of Jesus." It's just right away, I'm so drawn into the prayer, right? It's beautiful. The Father's heart for the lost.
The good news is God still saves today. And he's got good news for sinners like you and me, Ben, who’ve got no Christ, through the work of Jesus Christ, that they can be born again and adopted as sons. So that's just the first line that drew me in.
Go to another line: "May you give us favor, boldness, courage, as we hold out the hope of Christ." Just a wonderful, simple line that is also profound in many ways and is exactly what we all need to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. We need favor, boldness, and courage.
And then one more line that I just want to read, and it really captures the title: "The great errand for which you sent us into the world is to prepare for this heavenly kingdom." Because the Lord's kingdom is going to come. He promised as much. He's going to bring with Him the new heavens and the new earth, and He will reign, and we will reign with Him forever and ever. And that time we don't know when it's going to happen, but it's going to happen.
So that line has a sense of urgency on this errand, this great errand, that he has sent us on, to continue to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. And that stirred me when I read that line. It's just, I've got to be more intentional and feel that sense of urgency for those I know who don't know Jesus, that I would, with boldness, courage, and favor, share the gospel with them.
So that's one resource I would encourage you to read and to even pray about. Other resources written by Ricky Alcantar is called Five Mission Killers. And he just said, you know, at the beginning of every year, I just propose, I'm going to be on a mission this year, but I run into obstacles. I run into things that keep me from sharing the gospel, what he calls mission killers.
And the five of those are distractions. The second one is comfort. The third one is lust. The fourth one is self-doubt, and the fifth one is condemnation.
One of the things I really appreciate about Ricky's writing is that he writes in a very relatable way. What I mean by that I read this article, and I can relate to him because he's humble. These are all things he's seen in his own heart and life, and yet they point you to scripture for help and hope to continue sharing the gospel.
I would commend that article to anyone who's listening to the podcast. Please give that a read. It helped me, and I know it will help you.
One of the resources we've got there this month, that Ricky has up, is our most recent mission video. We actually got two mission videos that are there. The one is Salt and Light. It's really the story of the Santa Ana church, Cross of Grace Church, and their efforts to reach out to the lost, along with stories of people being born again right there in that community.
So that will stir you, I think, to share the gospel. And then there's another mission video there, Declaring All That God Has Done, which is just a recap of last year, but I reference certain things regarding our mission there that you might want to take a look at.
Those are all the resources on the website. Let me mention one other thing that's not exactly on the website or the resource page. And that is the gift that Jim Donohue is to us.
Jim has been tasked to help us grow in the area of evangelism and he's just doing a really good job. So if you're a pastor and say, "Well, I'd love my church to grow more in this area," contact Jim. He's got some wonderful ways to help you. I would also commend the Proclaim course that Jim has put together. I've been through it. It's helped me grow in my evangelism. That's available online, the Proclaim course, and you can contact Jim about that if you want.
I just want to know what my prayers are for Sovereign Grace this year? Is that we would be, as Thomas Watson's prayer I referenced earlier, we would be bolder and more courageous to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. Because he's coming back.
BENJAMIN KREPS:
Yes.
MARK PRATER:
We want people to be prepared for the kingdom that will come.
BENJAMIN KREPS:
Amen. While there's a lot of help for us that you just described from Ricky and others who are making contributions, and Jim, of course, a powerhouse in our family of churches who has been serving us for decades in the area of evangelism and mission.
We are currently, as a team, thinking through how we can use Proclaim locally so our church can continue to benefit from Jim. If you haven't seen that video, "Declaring All That God Has Done," you need to see it because I love the title. It's making it clear that God is at work in our little family of churches.
And our call is to continue to take up and press into the mission of proclaiming the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ for the salvation of sinners. Our task, our calling, is to be faithful, and resources as you described, and I think that mission video very much so, help inspire us to continue on in the mission that we share together in Sovereign Grace.
So thank you.
MARK PRATER:
One of the things I was thinking about, Ben - Jim is a resource to us, and of course, I'm on the same pastoral team as him. I can just pop into his office and ask him questions. But I find that there are times I'm sharing the gospel with people, and I'm like, I don't know what to do next.
So recently, having a conversation about the Lord with someone who's in a gay lifestyle, I've gotten to know them really well; they're not Christians, obviously, at this point. What do I do to take the next step? What would you say to them? Because they're aware that their life would be completely changed if they had some regression.
Jim just gave me some really, really helpful thoughts. I just say that because I think it's just a way for us to benefit from one another and our partnership, and specifically, Jim's an evangelist. He thinks about things I wouldn't think of, and it can be a help to me.
So call him, email him. He'd be glad to just interact with you about questions, as I did when sharing the gospel with people I don't know how to take the next step.
BENJAMIN KREPS:
I'm sure Jim will be thanking you at your next elder meeting as his inbox and voicemail fill up.
MARK PRATER:
Yes I hope so.
BENJAMIN KREPS:
I know everyone knows, but Jim is eager to be a resource and a help as he has been for so many of us for so many years. So, great recommendation.
Thank you, Mark, for encouraging us to use the resources available on the website. And thank you all for checking out the podcast. We'll see you here next week, Lord willing. Bye for now.