OWN IT!

You don't own it until you experience it!

Owning Mission

Most Christians know the great commission. Go, preach, make disciples, baptize, and teach some more. The great commission (GC) is our marching orders. But what would marching orders be without marching. This mandate calls us into a very real and tangible experience. Until we actually go somewhere we do not own the GC. Until we preach somewhere we do not own the GC. Until we make a disciple, we do not own the GC. Until we baptize someone, we do not own the GC. Until we teach that person what Jesus commands, we do not own the GC. How do we move from memory verses to making memories? We need stories to tell. We need reports to file. We need numbers to count. When God commands, He expects something to happen.

Jonah didn’t own his mission to Ninevah until he went to Ninevah and preached. While on the boat heading west, he was anti-going. When he was in the fish with seaweed around his neck, he was reluctantly and unwillingly going toward his mission. When he was spit out by the fish on dry land, he was neutral on going. When he got up and took the first step towards Ninevah he was finally on his way to going. But though he did go and he did preach, he did not do so with God’s attitude towards the juvenile people of Ninevah who did not know their right from their left. He was technically fulfilling his GC, but not with his heart. To own the GC, one needs not only to go, but to go with the heart of God.

We don’t get the full experience of the gospel mission until we love people we seek to reach with God’s love. Jesus saw people who were like sheep without a shepherd. He saw people starving and thirsting for the gospel water while drinking salt water. He saw people ravished by sin, law, death, and condemnation who needed grace. Until we see people as He sees people we will never own the GC because we will never truly experience the GC. Lead your first soul to Christ, and you will be hooked. The experience is just that good. YOU DON’T OWN IT UNTIL YOU EXPERIENCE IT.