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Being SENT is about saying "yes!"

There are some very unusual things you can send in the U.S. Postal service:  a card with never ending music, a potato, glitter bombs, even animal excrement.  There are also several documented examples of people being shipped through the mail.  For instance, In August 2012, a man in southern China decided to ship himself to his girlfriend as a prank. Unfortunately, his prank almost turned deadly when the courier took three hours to deliver the package. With minimal air in the box, and it was too thick to puncture a hole so that he could breathe.

Just what exactly does it truly mean to be SENT?  It is all about participating in God's mission to reconcile man back to Himself.  It started in the Garden of Eden when the first man and woman were separated from God because of their sin.  Throughout Scripture, we see God sending many different people to fulfill His mission:

• Abraham - was told to leave and go and be a blessing to others,  so he went  (Genesis 12:1-4)
• Joseph - was brought to his position in Egypt so he could save many people from starvation (Genesis 50:20)
• Moses - was sent to Egypt to free the Israelites from slavery“(Exodus 3)
• 12 explorers- were sent to spy the land of Canaan (Numbers 13) 
• 12 Disciples - were sent by Jesus to preach, teach, and heal (John 20:21)
• 72 - were sent like the apostles to preach, teach and heal (Luke 10:1-20)
• Philip - was sent to Gaza to meet an Ethiopian (Acts 8:26)
• Annanias - was sent me to Saul at his conversion (Acts 9:17) 

We too have been sent!  2 Corinthians 5:20 says:
We are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!”

That is God's mission and we have been sent.  As a church, we want to be 1 church in multiple locations influencing others to live Godly lives!  We are all essential to this vision and the mission of God becoming a reality.  We must lead where we are because we are all people of influence!  God has sent us to our families, to where we live and work, and will create the opportunity. God is looking for people who will join in on His mission.

Isaiah saw the Lord and heard a powerful question being asked by Him:  "I heard the Lord asking, “Whom should I send as a messenger to this people? Who will go for us?” I said, “Here I am. Send me.” (Isaiah 6:8)

It's a simple as saying "yes!" 

 In John 14, Jesus makes a powerful challenge: “All who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will come and make our home with each of them.   Anyone who doesn’t love me will not obey me."  Jesus is clear that love = obedience.

Therefore being SENT is not  a question of “are we being sent?” but “Will we go?”

Convicted and Compassionate

• Convict: to impress with a sense of guilt.
• Compassion: a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering.

I have not always been a compassionate person. I was a lover of justice, and my idea of justice was that people got what they deserved. I actually took great pleasure in seeing justice delivered -- like when that speeding driver who passed me on a double yellow was nabbed by the police a half-mile up the road and I thought to myself, “you got yours!”

On a spiritual gift assessment I took about 10 years ago, I scored very high on, “discernment,” which is literally defined as, “acuteness of judgement,” and very low on, “mercy.” So when, in 2014, God made it clear that He was calling me to minister to inmates in the Hamilton County Jail, I questioned the wisdom of His plan. Discernment without mercy is a recipe for hurting people.

But God did not back down from His plan to send me into the jail. Realizing there was more than one way for Him to get me there, I decided to go willingly. I smugly considered that my, “tough love,” approach might be exactly what the inmates needed to get on the right track.

But God didn’t send me there because of what I could teach them. He sent me there because of what they could teach me.

Compassionate

“T” was 19 years old when I met her, right around the same age as my own daughter. A drug addiction had landed her in jail, where she attended our recovery study.

She told me how her own father showed her how to get high the first time. She was 11 years old. She told me how she had sold whatever she had, even her own body, to feed her and her father’s addiction. What chance did she have?

I longed for her to have another chance to make something of her life. I felt deep sympathy and sorrow for “T,” who was stricken by misfortune. I felt a strong desire to alleviate her suffering.

“T” taught me to be compassionate.

Convicted

Another young lady I met was grieving the death of her young son -- a consequence of her alcohol addiction. The night she shared that difficult burden with me we talked about forgiveness and how, through Christ, anyone can be forgiven of anything. She looked right at me through tear-filled eyes and said, “But I don’t deserve forgiveness.”

I replied, “No, you don’t. Neither do I. Neither does anyone.”

That young, grieving mother taught me the profound meaning of mercy and grace. Through her, I was convicted.

“God paid a ransom to save you…. And the ransom he paid was not mere gold or silver. It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. He never sinned...He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right.” (I Peter 1: 18-19; 2:22, 24)

Convicted and Compassionate

It was through those women, and many like them, that God convicted me. I had always thought I loved justice, but I really only loved it for other people. For myself, I much preferred grace.

Once convicted, the rehabilitation could happen. God continued to show me the pain and suffering behind their circumstances and I began to see the inmates differently. I looked through their orange or yellow prison-issued shirt to their hurting, broken hearts and I desired so deeply to alleviate their suffering.

They taught me what it means to be convicted and compassionate.

We were ransomed for a reason. We were bought at a very high price, but for a purpose.

“For God called you to do good, even if it means suffering, just as Christ suffered for you. He is your example, and you must follow in his steps.” I Peter 2:21

My Prayer

Dear God,

Search me and convict me. Impress upon me a sense of guilt for the suffering of others. Do not let me rest with the knowledge that people are hurting because they don’t know You. Thank you for the mercy and grace you have shown me instead of giving me the justice I deserved.

Make me compassionate. Take my stubborn heart of stone and give me a tender, responsive heart. (Ezekiel 36:26) Fill me with a new spirit and with compassion for the lost, the hurting, and the afflicted. Let me feel their agony so deeply that it becomes my own. Stir in my soul an unwavering desire to alleviate that suffering and share with them the hope of salvation.

Let me follow the example of Christ and to live for what is right.

AMEN