Dear Christian friends:

On Mission Festival the minister can preach about various things: Jesus' Mission Command, Mission Examples, Mission Challenges, Mission Success or Mission Glory. But all that preaching will do no good if we have no heart for missions and for Jesus.

One day a pastor of a church here in America said to a Missionary from India: "I have told my congregation about mission work and about Jesus' command to preach the Gospel in all the world, but they don't care, and will not listen to me. Perhaps if you tell them then they will listen to you. The Missionary replied, "If they will not listen to Jesus, they will not listen to me."

This afternoon you will listen to Rev. Buege tell about missions in Asia and he will tell you to wake up and suppor that mission work more. But if you don't first listen to Jesus, you will not listen to Buege. Your heart must be right first.

In our text the prophet Jeremiah tells us how to get a right heart for God and His work. This we need more than anything else. No so much brains or tools or organization but right hearts and spirits.


In our text the prophet Jeremiah tells the people of the Jewish Church, "Let us search and try our ways." The prophet here urges the people to search and test their hearts. That is what we must do today also, search and test our hearts. That is the first step to getting a right heart for missions.

Now that doesn't mean that we should judge and test the other members and forget about ourselves. Jeremiah says, "Let us search and try our ways." No one is excused from this searching and judging, not even the prophet himself. Everyone of us must judge himself or herself.

That is not easy to do. We quickly and easily judge the other fellow and quickly see his faults and then over-look our own (self) faults. One member finds fault with the other; pastors blame the people and people blame the pastor. This does not help the church, but makes it go down more and more. Let us each one today search his own heart and judge themselves as this will help us all get a right heart for missions.

Now the prophet says how we are to do this: "Let us search and try our ways." We should judge all our ways of thinking and doing, but chiefly today our ways of doing mission work. We have only one way through our giving money to Synod. Yes, we have decided to give 15% of all our offerings for District and Synod Mission work. We all know that. But here the prophet says search your ways.

We are to look for something that is not easy to find. That's why he uses the word "search." For what should we search in our mission ways? Search our heart or motives. Everything that man does he does because of a motive. A car must have a motor to pull it forward. If it doesn't have a motor it will not go ahead. So man must have a motor or motive that pulls him forward to work and do.

Most of the time money is man's motive. Because he hopes to get money and praise man works hard and goes ahead. Money or praise pulls him.

Now what pulls you to do mission work and to give for missions? Ask yourself that question. Do you do it because the pastor says so? If that is the only motive pulling you, your mission giving is sin even if you give $100 a year for missions. Do you give because you want to show off? If show-off pride is the motive pulling you that too is sin. Do you give for missions because you feel forced and do you give with complaining? That, too, is a sinful motive pulling you.

What is the true motive for mission work? Love for Jesus our Savior and love for lost sinners. Love is the motor that should pull us forward eagerly and, cheerfully in mission work. St. Paul the greatest missionary said, "The love of Christ constraineth (pulls) me." And if you study the life of St. Paul, as some of you have during the past year in Bible Class, you will see how love for Jesus and love for lost men pulled Paul through many troubles and sufferings to do mission work. Love for Jesus, that motive pulled Paul in missions.

Is love the motive that pulls you? Maybe you give and do nothing for missions. You have no motor. Do you spend more for sports and pleasure than for missions? If you do you have no motor for missions. Do you fail to pray for missions and missionaries? Do you read and study church papers like the Lutheran Witness to see how our Synods missions are going ahead? We easily read the papers about sports and can't wait to hear who wins the football game. Do we read our church papers and mission news as eagerly?

Yes we have many motors pulling us to do many selfish and pleasurable things, but the big motor the Jesus motor often is broke or stalled. The motors of Satan pull us to do many things and much sin, but the Jesus motor pulls us little or nothing.

Last year we gave on average $7.00 for missions. Many of us spend ten times more for cigarettes, beer, and other pleasures which are not necessary. So if we like today search and judge our mission ways we will find what Jeremiah found out about himself and the Jewish Church of long ago. He says, "We have transgressed and rebelled." So have we. Our Lord commands us to love Him and obey Him and "Go preach the Gospel to every creature." This we have not done very well.

Surely, today we cannot boast about our mission record. We can only stand with shame before our God and pray, "God be merciful to me, a sinner."

And this is exactly what the prophet wants us to do. He says in verses 40 and 41, "Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord. Let us lift up our hearts and our hands to God in heaven." Notice, the prophet is here speaking to church members. Many of them had left the Lord and gone their own way. They had their name in the church book, but their heart did not belong. So the prophet invites us also to come back to the Lord.

Today each one must stand before God and say with the hymn writers:

Just as I am, without one plea,
but that thy blood was shed for me,
and that thou bidd'st me come to thee,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.
Hymn: Just as I Am, Without One Plea

Without one plea. I have no excuse for my sin and failure. I can't argue and defend my poor giving and doing. I have only one plea, "but that thy blood was shed for me, and that thou bidd'st me come to thee, O Lamb of God, I come, I come."

"But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:7-9) Oh the great mercy of God!

We Christians know our duty and often fail. We can't excuse ourselves and say we didn't know God's will, like the unbelievers may. We deserve more punishment than they. Yet our merciful God is ready to forgive us again.

Let us return to Him with sorrow and true faith and resolve to do His will in missions. Today as we receive His body and blood given on the cross for us, for our forgiveness, let us resolve to please the dear Savior.

By this His love will come to us more and more. We will have the true Jesus motor pulling us forward in missions without complaint or fear. And this Jesus motor will lead us to love others who are still without Christ.

This afternoon Pastor Buege will show many pictures about our church's missions and how you can go forward in Missions with the love of Jesus pulling you. May God give us all a right heart for missions.

Amen.