MISSION OPPORTUNITIES SHORT TERM Re-Entry Bible Study

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1 Understanding God s Will After a short-term missions experience, many of us are thinking, What does God want me to do with my life? We start focusing on the question of God s will as we never have before. We open ourselves up for God revelation, but He may not respond immediately or as soon as we would like. Finding the will of God is hard work, but the most significant work that we can do, as we seek to discover it, is to put ourselves at God s disposal right now. We are in the best position to understand where we fit in God s kingdom long term if we are obeying God today. The following five questions help to put us in the position where we can be growing to understand God s will for us today and the future. Question One: What is the Status of my Relationship with God Today? The spiritual high of coming home from a mission trip is no substitute for a healthy, daily relationship with Jesus. Josh tried to reverse things, he would go out on a service team every year to get revived, but his relationship with Jesus only seemed to come alive when he was overseas. When he got home, his Bible reading, prayer, and personal time alone with God vanished. No wonder he is having a tough time discovering God s will for himself. Serving on a mission team can give us the illusion God s top priority is that we all go out as missionaries. But this is a serious error. Going out as cross-cultural servants might be the outcome of our relationship with Christ, but first and foremost, the Lord wants us. If I earnestly desire to know what my wife wants for our marriage, and I spend all of my time running around serving her, helping to clean the house, or working hard to earn money, I may never know my wife s will because we have not spent time talking together. To know her will, I have to spend time with her and listen to her. The same is true in our relationship with God. If I want to know His will for my life-whether for today or into the future-i need to spend time in His presence. I need to be hearing and obeying Him. As I present myself as a living sacrifice to Him (Romans 12:1), I begin to understand His good and perfect will. Read Isaiah 6:1-8 Ask Yourself: When King Uzziah died, Isaiah s world was thrown into turmoil. What was his vision during this difficult time?

2 What are some of the words that come to your mind as you read the read the description of verses 3-4? Why does Isaiah get upset? What cure does God offer? How does Isaiah respond after God cleans him up? Isaiah s vision is in three parts. First, he sees the greatness of God: how can you focus on God s greatness today? Second, he sees his own sinfulness before God: do you need to seek God s forgiveness today? Then, Isaiah hears God calling for workers: will you say Here am I, Lord, send me as God calls you into your world today? Why is it important to see God s holiness and our sinfulness before getting sent out? Lord Jesus, strengthen me today to remember that I must see You first and remember Your love and forgiveness for me before I go out and try to tell others about this love. And when You call me, help me to respond, Here I am, send me. Question Two: What are My God-Given Skills? Marie came to me for spiritual advice and counsel. She started by saying, Pastor, I would really like to serve the Lord somewhere. Do you have any ideas? I replied, Well, Marie, what are you good at? She lowered her voice and said, Nothing really. I am just a humble servant with very little to offer.

3 Nonsense, I said, everyone has something to offer, and so do you! Marie was surprised at my response. She thought I was reprimanding her for being humble, but I was simply correcting her false humility. Every Christian has a gift or gifts given to him or her by Jesus. It is not pride to admit that we have these gifts because we recognize that everything we have came from the Lord. Pride is when we start taking credit for gifts and abilities as if they came from us, not God. If we start to discover our God-given gifts, we can start to use them and develop them, like exercising Godgiven muscles to make them stronger. If you sense a gift of teaching, start helping out in third grade Sunday school. If you are a musician, sing or play to the glory of Christ. God has given us all gifts to develop, and as we discover and use these gifts, we start to get a clearer sense of His special will for us. Over time, the gifts we have start to match up with needs we hear about, and God guides us to His will. Read Luke 19:11-27 Ask Yourself: How much was each servant given by his master? Did every servant earn the same return on the money he invested? How did the master reward the faithful servants? Which servant gets the master s anger? Why? What motivated the third servant to hide the money away so that he would not risk losing it?

4 What does this parable illustrate about investing our talents for Jesus? The parable seems to teach that it is better to take the risky route than the safe route. Where do you need to take a risk today in investing yourself for Jesus? Lord Jesus, I am like the third servant. I have a lot of fear because if I take a risk and step out for You, I might fail. Give me the courage, Lord, to invest myself and serve you today. Amen. Question Three: Where Has God Sent Me Right Now? After a trip overseas or into a new culture, we can become so excited about what we saw over there that we forget about the world God has called us to right here and now. Dan came back from his trip to North Africa excited and burdened about people from Islamic countries. We talked several days after he returned, and he told me that he sensed that it was God s will for him to return to North Africa. I just can t wait to go back, he said. Realizing that it would be at least six years before Dan could go as a full-time missionary, I asked, But what will you do until then? How does God want to use you right now? Mike and Mary decided to start serving Christ right now, so they began doing clean up work at a nursing home. It was humbling work, but they thought, Perhaps God will use this work to build into us Christ-like character traits that we will need later. Where has God sent us right now? Our friends? Our family members? Our neighborhoods? Serving these people and reaching out to them with the love of Jesus will be great preparation for any task that God calls us to later. Mark 5:1-20 Ask yourself: Describe the man that Jesus encountered.

5 What happens when Jesus encounters this man? What immediate changes were evident in this man after Jesus healed him? The healed man desperately wanted to come to Jesus, but Jesus sent him to his own people. Why do you think Jesus did this? If you were the healed man, would you want to return to your home and family? Why or why not? Sometimes it is harder to witness to people who know our past sins and failures than it is to witness to complete strangers. Are there any people you need to go home to today to tell about how Jesus has changed you? Lord, when I face the people who have watched me grow up and who know my sins, I grow fearful because I think that they will not listen. Help me reach out to these people right where I am so that I can tell them how You have had mercy on me. Amen. Question Four: What are My Desires and Dreams? An older Christian helped me understand how God works even through the desires of our hearts. I went to him after a missions conference and said, Jack, I am not sure if God wants me to be a missionary or if I just want to travel. I thought sure that he would rebuke me for my selfish thinking. I expected him to say, Paul, you need to sacrifice that desire to the Lord right now or else He ll never be able to use your life.

6 To my surprise, Jack responded, Paul, I doubt that God would call you to be a missionary if He hadn t put in you the desire to travel. Jack pointed out that God is not some cosmic Scrooge who is looking for the things that I enjoy so that He can take them away from me. Instead, He loves us enough to use even our desires and dreams to His glory. Phil had a dream as a young man of going to the frozen North Country. He read books by Jack London and poems by Robert service. He loved the cold weather and slept outside, even in Pennsylvania winters. He wanted to go to the Yukon, to the Northwest Territories, and to Alaska. But Phil was unsure that his desired were from God, so he applied as a missionary to China-hot steamy China. Twice he was turned down, but at the same time, God was leading him to work with an obscure Indian tribe in Hay River, Northwest Territories. Phil went, and he translated the Bible and worked with these Indians for twenty years. God worked to give Phil the desires of his heart, desires that He had put there years before. Read Psalm 37:1-7 Ask Yourself: List all of the imperatives (commands) that the writer exhorts us within these verses. Why do you think he starts by telling us not to be afraid even before he tells us the Good News about what happens when we trust the Lord? What does it mean to delight in the Lord What is promised to those who delight in the Lord? What are the desires of your heart? Are you delighting yourself in the Lord and committing these desires to Him? How can we tell if our desires are truly from God or if they are just selfish desires?

7 Jesus, I believe You already know all of the desires of my heart whether they are good or evil. Help me to follow through on the good desires and repent from the bad ones. Today, help me to delight myself in obeying You so that I can leave my desires in Your hands. Amen. Question Five; What are My Limitations? It is more fun to dream than it is to focus on our limitations, but we must. If we are to find out where God wants us today or tomorrow, we need to be willing to discover where we may never be. Understanding our limits helps us distinguish God s dreams for us from our illusions. I learned in high school that God was not going to use me as a professional basketball player. I had neither the talent nor the height. These limitations helped guide me away from dreams about pro-sports. Another person might be monotone and as a result should not go into professional singing. Limitations narrow our options. Sam had a learning disability which affected his ability to learn foreign languages. But Sam still felt called into cross-cultural missionary service, so he went to an education specialist. He asked, In light of my learning disability, can I learn a foreign language? He was honest about his limitations. He found out that he could probably never learn some of the most difficult languages like Arabic or Chinese or Japanese, but the educational specialist told him that he could definitely learn Spanish. So Sam is preparing for work in Latin America. Even his limitations were used by God to help him discover God s will. Read II Corinthians 11:24-30, 12:7-10 Ask Yourself: Make a list of the internal and external weaknesses that Apostle Paul faced. Of all of these things, which do you think would have discouraged you most from sharing the Gospel? Through it all, what seems to be Paul s attitude?

8 What are God s purposes in giving Paul limits (chapter 12)? What does Paul say happens when we are weak? Where do you feel weak and limited today? How might Christ make you strong in spite of this feeling? Do you think you could ever get to the point of delighting in your weakness? Jesus, I fear the sufferings and hardships that Paul seemed to face, but I do understand that limitations and weaknesses make me more dependent on you. I pray that today You will help me to see my weaknesses and hardships as something to thank You for because they remind me how much I need You. Amen. Conclusion: Where does God want us in the next fifteen years? How will we find our place in His kingdom? We may not know these answers yet, but we can affirm right now that God Wants us to offer ourselves to Him and build up that relationship. Has given us gifts, skills and abilities to be developed for His glory. Wants to use us to touch the lives of the people He has sent us to right now. Can work even through our desires and dreams. Can use even our limitations to guide us in His perfect will for us. With this in mind, we can face the hard work of knowing His will with confidence.