ICARE

I CARE… We usually hear these 2 words from people who want to show their concern, their apprehension and even their love for us. But what do these words really mean for us Christians??

The leaders of our church were blessed to have Pastor Phil with us to talk about “The Life Behind the Mission”. And with this blog I want to discuss with you some of the points he shared on how to enhance our mission.

Many churches have wonderful mission statements and visions, but often times these weren’t accomplished because the spirit of mission isn’t simply there. But praise God!!! He revealed to us the key on how to make our vision happen.

Main Text: Matthew 9: 35-38 (The Workers Are Few)

I. Initiative (v.35)

Why Christ died for us?

~ he loves us..

~ he wants us to be saved..

~ he obeyed the Father..

~ it’s his mission..

** all of these are correct, but we’re missing one thing..

~ 2 Corinthians 5:15 “And he died for all, that THOSE WHO LIVE SHOULD NO LONGER LIVE FOR THEMSELVES BUT FOR HIM WHO DIED FOR THEM AND WAS RAISED AGAIN.”

“Every Christian is a missionary and every unbeliever is a mission field”

Let’s take the INITIATIVE to go to DARKNESS that we may bring LIGHT

II. Compassion (v.36)

Did you know that in Greek COMPASSION means BOWELS YEARN??

BOWEL?? As in the bowel in LBM??

Yes!! It refers to our gut; thus, compassion isn’t all about the heart, our intestines are also part of it. This means that we should give it our all, if our brethren need food then feed him/her, show them you care. :D

Let’s look at the story of the Samaritan woman… Jesus showed his compassion to the woman and that woman became a revivalist because of the compassion she experience through Christ.

Problems are opportunities for us to show our compassion for our fellowman. It is through pain that we experience God’s compassion.

2 Corinthians 1:3-4 “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves received from God.”

III. Alertness

We are often blinded by our ambitions; we concentrate on our work, our business that we tend to focus on our physical harvest and close our eyes to the multitude. (John 4:35)

For 40 days and 40 nights, Goliath (Spirit of intimidation) has been daunting the Philistines. In our present times, our Goliaths are those thoughts that bother us day and night like unpaid bills and other problems that seem to be hopeless.

Your dominant thought upon waking up and your dominant thought before you sleep will determine your course of life. So if your thought is bombarded with problem you’ll definitely live a problematic life. For us to conquer our Goliaths in life, we need to meditate on the word of God day and night.

IV. Responsibility

A lot of Christians nowadays love comfort more than responsibility. In short, they are irresponsible!

Responsibilities are like WINGS on our back, they are not necessarily heavy, and they can make us soar high ~^_^~

Pastor Phil shared the story of Wally Wild duck and it goes like this…

One day, Wally and his team are migrating to the south when he suddenly saw the barnyard ducks that did nothing but to eat corn, Wally got envious and he decided to stay with them for a while and he’ll just join his team when they’ll head back to the north. After sometime, he saw his team returning to north but when he flap his wings he couldn’t fly so he decided to stay there and wait until his team migrate to the south for winter. They again came but Wally can no longer fly for he got even larger than before. (ayun.. nilechon nlng siya..)

Moral of the story… (wag hayaang masira ang figure dhl sa katamaran!! Joke!!)

Don’t let laziness overpower you! Be RESPONSIBLE! If we’ve got the ability then do it! Don’t waste your God given talents and abilities! Don’t be jealous of those Christians who are irresponsible; be on fire when they’re cold!

Here is another story Pastor Phil shared… the story of the Perfect Pastor…

Perfect Pastor does everything on church, he plays the keyboard, he’s the worship leader, after the worship he goes at the back to usher the people and goes to the pulpit to preach. After the service he cleans the church and washes the curtains. The sad part of the story is that he died at 25 years of age.

Lesson…

Leaders, teach your members to be responsible.

Members, stop depending on your leader if you know you can do it.

Be RESPONSIBLE!!!

V. Entreaty

~earnest request

~a prayer

~a plea

Never go out of the house without praying

Mission is a lifestyle!!!

“The first answer to your prayer is you”

And that’s the meaning of the word ICARE…

Initiative

Compassion

Alertness

Responsibility

Entreaty

We should care for our flock, we should care for the unbelievers, we should care for people…

Loving GOD… Loving PEOPLE… the Life behind the mission… :D God bless!! <tine garcia>