Recipe for Success
"..the Lord worked with them..." Mark 16:20

Ever since I became a free-lance writer and my wife went off to work, I’ve been the chef at our house. Here’s my gourmet recipe for a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich.

Ingredients:

• Peanut butter
• Jelly

Directions:

• Spread on the peanut butter.
• Spread on the jelly.

Of course, if you follow this recipe, you won’t have a lunch, you’ll have a mess. I left out a key ingredient—the bread.

It may sound silly, but this is a lot like what many people do when they’re trying to cook up mission fervor in their church or Bible study groups. They use this incomplete recipe:

Ingredients:

• The Great Commission
• Other commands to witness and reach out

Directions:

• Focus on commands to witness, responsibility and duty.
• Sprinkle with plenty of shoulds and oughts.

If you follow this recipe to the letter, you won’t have mission zeal in your congregation—you’ll have mission indigestion.
Peanut butter and jelly, though delicious, are sticky and untidy. To handle them properly, you need bread. God’s commands to witness and make disciples of all nations are certainly valid, but they can be just as hard to handle. That’s why the Lord gave us two kinds of promises to handle the assignment to "preach the good news to all creation" (Mark 16:15).

Slice of bread #1: Gospel promises.

Our sinful nature often prevents us from speaking up when we should and supporting missionary work as we could. The devil hopes we’ll crawl into a hole of shame and guilt over what we fail to do, and never volunteer to witness again. Only one thing can deliver us from our mission sins—God’s Gospel promises of forgiveness in Jesus Christ our Savior.

It’s interesting to see that a Gospel promise follows on the heels of Mark’s version of the Great Commission. "Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved" (16:16). You are saved by faith, not by your own good works, not even the work of witnessing to the lost. What a relief!

Slice of bread #2: Mission promises.

Mark’s Gospel adds this mission promise:

• "And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons" (16:17) [plus other marvels, like speaking new languages and healing the sick].
  Then the Gospel of Mark closes with a report of how the Lord kept His promise:
  
• "Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it" (16:20).

You can compare Gospel promises to the foundational, bottom slice of bread in the mission sandwich. Mission promises are the upper slice. We can handle God’s commands only when we have firm hold of His promises in Jesus Christ. Now that’s a recipe for success!

1. What experiences have you had with "mission guilt"?
2. What difference do you think it will make to focus on God’s mission by grasping His Gospel promises? His mission promises?

• Write one especially meaningful Gospel or mission promise on an index card. Also add the name of one person who needs to know Christ, and for whom you are praying. Tape the card to your bathroom mirror where you will see and read it every day.