The Problems With Our Missionary Zeal - Part I.

Let’s think about some issues that affect missions for a moment. The United States has gone from being the largest missionary sending country to now needing missionaries to come here. Why? What has happened to our missionary zeal?

All my life, I’ve been hearing of a crisis in foreign missions. There is never enough money and there are ever enough volunteers to do the job or meet the need. Mission boards constantly report more missionaries retiring and leaving the field than new missionaries going out to the field - all while the world population continues to explode. Every year, we lose ground in fulfilling the great commission. Why?

There are a lot of possible reasons. You can examine your own life to determine what level of missionary zeal you might have and what reasons it might not be greater. But here are some possible reasons:

An article I read from Biblical Ministries Worldwide written by James P. Steel listed three problems that face us:

1. People are not willing to pay the price when they really begin to consider what missions is all about.

2. Christians have lost the purity battle somewhere along the way.

3. Christians have simply lost the desire – they’ve lost the vision of a lost and dying world.

Those make a lot of sense.

But, Biblical Ministries Worldwide also gave a passage of Scripture that might help us understand. It’s in the book of Revelation, in the letter from Jesus to the lukewarm church of Laodicea.
Revelation 3:17-18 -
17 “Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked— 18 I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.”

Do you see? The Laodiceans made the same mistake that many of us make in America. We use the wrong standard to judge ourselves by. We use the standard of the world, and think we are doing fine, rather than the Word of God to see the truth. The Laodicieans said, “I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing.” Indeed, their pockets were full of cash, and their bank accounts were flush.

We too are filthy rich, at least by the standards of the rest of the world. We have a standard of living unheard of historically and unheard of in 90% of this world’s population.

Here are some statistics: If earth’s population were shrunk into a village of just 100 people with all the human ratios existing in the world still remaining, here’s what this village would look like:

30 would be Christian, 70 non-Christian
30 would be white, 70 non-white
6 people would own 59% of everything, and all 6 would be from the U.S.
80 would live in substandard housing
70 couldn’t read, 50 would suffer malnutrition
1 would be near death, 1 would be pregnant
1 would go to college, 1 would own a computer

The following is an anonymous interpretation:
“Think of it this way: If you live in a good house, have plenty to eat, and can read, you are a member of a very select group. And if you have a good house, food, can read, and have a computer, you are among the very elite. If you wake up in the morning with more health than illness, you are more fortunate than the millions who will not survive this week. If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation, you are ahead of 500 million people of the world. If you can attend a church meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture, and death, you are fortunate; more than 3 billion people in the world can’t. If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75% of the world. If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish somewhere, you are among the top 8% of the wealthiest of the world.”

By those standards, we are doing great, just like the Laodicieans. Except, Jesus wanted to puke them out. I wonder what He thinks about the modern church?

Revelation 3:15-16 says:
15 “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. 16 So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.”

The problem is, they picked the wrong standard. Spiritually, they were (Revelation 3:17) – “wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.” They had invested in all the wrong places. But where it counted, they were bankrupt.

They failed to heed the words of Jesus in:
Matthew 6:19-21
19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. “

They had worked hard to accomplish this world’s temporal riches, but they had neglected to lay aside any true spiritual gold so their heavenly bank account was empty, even as their earthly one was full. Therefore, Jesus said: (18) – “I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich.”

You buy that kind of gold every time you deny yourself and pick up your cross and follow Jesus; every time you bow your head in prayer and pray for the lost people of this world; every time you dig into your wallet and give toward a mission cause; and especially when you yourself do the work of reaching the lost somewhere on this globe, even if it is next door, or within the walls of your own home.

So, do you see? This first problem is with our priorities. What is most important in your life? Is it your ease and comfort, is it your bank account? Or is it serving Christ?