February 4, 2022
I hope you're planning to be with us the next two Lord's Days (and the Wednesday in between!) to hear our Missions Festival preachers and other presenters. Tito Padilla, Mark Horn, and Rick Phillips will be bringing God's good word to us, to equip and encourage us in the glorious work He has saved us to do in His world. Have you ever wondered why God didn't take us immediately into heaven on the day He saved us out of darkness? Why does He leave us in this world to struggle with our sinful hearts and the suffering of a fallen world? Part of the answer is because He has work for us to do - He intends to send us into the darkness out of which He has saved us, so that He might rescue more men and women and boys and girls into His kingdom of light and life in Jesus Christ! "As you sent Me into the world, so I have sent them into the world," prayed Jesus in John 17:18. We are sent as the Son was sent, to suffer, to serve, to plead, to pray, to live among the lost as shining lights so that they might see God's glory and goodness and come to honor the one who created them.
Of course, that work doesn't only need to be done across the oceans. We do it right where we live. One of the reasons to read missionary biographies and to hear tales of missionary labors is that we might be spurred on to live as the missionaries we're called to be right where we live and move and have our being every normal, ordinary day of our lives. Whether you live in Ridgeland, Madison, Jackson, Gluckstadt, Flowood, Brandon, Clinton, Pearl, or some other part of the Jackson Metro Area, you are called to live for the glory of God and the spiritual good of your neighbors, speaking about Jesus and living out the gospel of grace in your daily life, so that many might be saved. The church of Jesus is an outpost of exiles in a foreign land, recruiting others to come follow the risen King of kings and Lord of lords.
As of this past week, there's another outpost of our branch of the Lord's church in the Jackson area: at the meeting of the Presbytery of the Mississippi Valley this past Tuesday, we approved the request of a group of saints who live around the Florence area (including a few POPC families!) to recognize and establish them as a mission church of the Presbytery. This is exciting news, not only because it's been a long while since our Presbytery planted a church in the Jackson metro area, but also because the Florence/Highway 49 South area has been in need of a PCA church for decades. Be in prayer for the Presbytery as it appoints a provisional Session as a temporary form of government for this church plant, and for those the Lord will call to be a part of this plant - both current believers and current unbelievers/future believers. Lord willing, it will be the first new church plant of several more to come down the road. We'll keep you posted on how this Florence mission church grows and develops, and how you can support and pray for them.
I'm so thankful to be a part of a congregation that has a vision for planting churches and supporting laborers in God's harvest fields in every continent, and I can't wait to see how God continues to use us to bring His gospel to the lost all around us. I pray that we would continue to send out missionaries (i.e., Christians) around the world and across our community, so that the spiritually dead might be converted to Christ, and the spiritually alive might be built up in the faith. Let's be praying and working and giving toward that end!
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Speaking of giving, don't forget that one of the key opportunities you have at our Missions Festival is to pray about how much you will give toward supporting our missionaries and ministry partners in 2022. We will be collecting your commitment cards next Sunday and throughout the rest of February, so please aim to give generously this year! Our total 2022 missions budget is $328,106 - the POPC general fund will underwrite $215,560 of this amount, so we need $112,546 in direct member giving to supply the rest. It would be great to receive even more than this amount, as we did this past year, so that we can give even more money away to those serving the Lord around the world. Thank you for your sacrificial giving!