The Reason for Missions

      We were in a conversation concerning missions recently and I woke up in the middle of the night with a statement ringing in my head that was said about missions by John Piper.  He stated, "...worship is the goal and the fuel of missions: Missions exists because worship doesn’t"  This quote come from a sermon delivered October 27, 2012. Psalm 22:27 says, "All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you."
         Unfortunately, the American church spends most of its resources on the inhabitants of their own community.  Many churches do not have a mission program at all but merely send a token gift  here and there to those involved in reaching the lost of the world.  I once heard a demonstration of this very fact when a missionary was feeding bread to the front row of the church.  Then, someone would stand up in the back and say, "I want bread."  The missionary would keep feeding the front row even after countless people would stand and declare a need for bread only to have it fall on deaf ears.  We keep sharing the gospel with those who have heard it over and over and over again while the larger masses of the world don't hear it at all.  One preacher declared, "Why should anyone hear the gospel message twice until all have heard it at least once?"  People often declare that we should just leave the heaven alone and that they are better off without the gospel message.  We, however, know the full story.  We know what is going to happen in the end.  We know the benefits of salvation and the terrible results of the Great White Throne Judgment.  God desires worship and we should be about that business in everything that we do.  So, missions does have an end.  It can stop being a priority in the life of the believer when every soul bows the heart before God.  Missions can stop when everyone is worshiping God as stated in the Bible.  At the rate we are going, the responsibility for having a thrust for missions won't stop anytime soon.  We will spend more on entertainment and dog food that we do on missions.  It is really surprising that we, who know the full story of the Bible, still refuse to be involved in missions.  The usual statistics bear the story.  Only four percent of the church in America will be supporting the 96% of the mission thrust while 96 % of the church supports only four percent of the work.  It's backward, true, but we have an obligation to send the message out with both finances and prayers and prayers being the most important item.   Remember the reason for missions.  "Missions exists because worship doesn't."   Praise God that someone brought the message of salvation to you and me.