Life Foundations Part 4 Mission

The last in our series of life foundations is mission. God has tasked us with his mission. What is mission. Here is a dictionary definition.

Mission
mis·sion  [mish-uhn] 
noun
1. a group or committee of persons sent to a foreign country to conduct negotiations, establish relations, provide scientific and technical assistance, or the like.
2.the business with which such a group is charged.
3.any important task or duty that is assigned, allotted, or self-imposed: Our mission is to find the child a safe home.
4.an important goal or purpose that is accompanied by strong conviction; a calling or vocation: She has finally found her mission in life.
5.a sending or being sent for some duty or purpose.

Also called foreign mission. a permanent diplomatic establishment abroad; embassy; legation.
Military . an operational task, usually assigned by a higher headquarters: a mission to bomb the bridge.

Synonyms for mission
noun person's task, responsibility
aim, assignment, business, calling, charge, commission, duty, end, errand, goal, job, lifework, object, objective, office, operation, profession, purpose, pursuit, quest, sortie, trade, trust, undertaking, vocation, work

All of these are useful thoughts for us as they relate to God's mission. God calls us to his mission. Lets explore this further, and see how our mission is to be carried out. Mission statements can help ud. Mission Statements describe a mission. Mission is an operational task we have been given by God.

Citylife Church
Love God/Love People/Live His purpose
Helping our friends to discover the grace of God.

Love God - Heart soul mind and strength
Love People - love others as God loves us
Live his purpose – obedience – reaching people – finding his purpose for your life

Helping our friends to discover the grace of God. This is the outworking of our mission. That our friends will discover Gods grace as we share his love. Starbucks also has a mission statement:

Starbucks Mission Statement
Our mission: to inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time. (This is followed by their principles).

For us, our mission is what God has called us to do, personally and collectively as a community to share the good news and make disciples.

Jesus gave us a mission:

Matt 28:18-20
18 Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. 19 Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations,[b] baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. 20 Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

He knew his mission on earth had come to an end. His mission had been to come, live among us, teach, and then give his life for us. Now, he had risen and was going to the Father and he gives us a mission.

We often call it the Great commission. A commission, delegated authority to carry out business. We have been given delegated authority to carry out God's mission, to make disciples. A mission to bring God’s love to people and the good news of new life that is found in Christ.

We express this mission in our mission statement.

Paul says we are Ambassadors
2 Cor 5:15-21
15 He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them.

16 So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! 17 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!

18 And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. 19 For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. 20 So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” 21 For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.

Paul understood what the mission was. He had been sent on a mission to destroy Christians and ended up embarking on a mission to reach people with the good news of the love and grace of Christ. He says that we are ambassadors. An ambassador is a representative of one nation in another and they are responsible for various “Foreign missions”. They have auhority to act on behalf of another, their country.

We are representatives of Christ in a foreign land. This is not our true home. Just like Abraham, we are passing through. We are foreigners representing the Kingdom of God in our nation. We are foreigners and ambassadors representing God and carrying out his commision.

Hebrews 11:13-16
13 All these people died still believing what God had promised them. They did not receive what was promised, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed it. They agreed that they were foreigners and nomads here on earth. 14 Obviously people who say such things are looking forward to a country they can call their own. 15 If they had longed for the country they came from, they could have gone back. 16 But they were looking for a better place, a heavenly homeland. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

We are given a mission; a task to fulfil. Lets look at two key areas of mission.

1. Spread the Good News
We have been tasked to go make disciples and there is both an individual aspect and a collective aspect. We are commissioned to go make disciples. It is a task that we have been given; a task that we have been authorised to perform. If you are a follower of Christ, you have been tasked with this mission.

A disciple is someone who is a follower of Christ. A disciple is a learner, a student, apprentice or a pupil. The term is "mathetes" and according to literature is most often associated with people who were devoted followers of a religioys leader or teacher of philosophy.

Disciples in the Jewish context were people who followed the teachings and practices of a particular person, usually a Rabbi or teacher of some sort. A disciple was a devoted, life influencing process.

One source describes the role of disciples in the Jewish context as follows:

"Just as there were “disciples” in the Greco-Roman world of the first century, so there were people called disciples in Judaism as well. Such people were committed to a recognized leader or movement. This involved Jewish adherents to Philosophical schools or to religious and political sects. The Pharisees apparently had their own disciples and they too claimed to be disciples of Moses (John 9:28-296). John the Baptist also had disciples who lived with him and followed him, practiced his ascetic lifestyle, and promulgated (to some extent) his teachings (Mark 2:18; Luke 11:1; John 3:25; Acts 19:1-7).

"In general, the education of boys in first century Judaism centered in the home around Torah learning. The Torah was taught primarily by the Father. But during the time of Jesus there is good evidence to suggest that primary schools (beth Sepher) had been developed to mitigate against the inroads of Hellenism.7 But after a boy was thirteen years of age there was no more formal education as such. If he wanted further training in preparation for being a judge, teacher, scribe, or head of a synagogue, he might continue his study of the Torah in a small group or seek to study as a disciple under a certain scholar.8 The apostle Paul was an example of a Jewish boy who had left home (i.e., Tarsus) to study the Law under Gamaliel, a famous Rabbi in Jerusalem (Acts 5:34; 22:3)."

In other words, a disciple in this sense is someone who devotedly follows the teaching of Jesus. Our Mission is to go and make disciples – to go and share the good news, helping others to become devoted followers of Jesus.

As individuals we have a mission to reach out to our friends: to take the good news of Jesus to them, but we don’t do it alone. We do it with the help and the support of those who are doing the journey of faith with us. Our Citylife Church Mission is a corporate mission that each individual takes responsibility for.

This is one of the reasons the Bible says don’t stop meeting together. We need the love help and support of others. When we try to go it alone we become prey to the enemy. However there is an individual perspective. There are people that only you can reach

This is task is about sharing the good news. It is not up to us to save people; that is the work of the Holy Spirit. We share God’s love and the grace of Jesus with people, the Spirit works in their heart. This is why prayer is so important. Prayer breaks through in the Spiritual realm.

Not sure what to pray for your friends; John 16:5-15 helps us.

John 16:5-15
The Work of the Holy Spirit
5 “But now I am going away to the one who sent me, and not one of you is asking where I am going. 6 Instead, you grieve because of what I’ve told you. 7 But in fact, it is best for you that I go away, because if I don’t, the Advocate[a] won’t come. If I do go away, then I will send him to you. 8 And when he comes, he will convict the world of its sin, and of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment. 9 The world’s sin is that it refuses to believe in me. 10 Righteousness is available because I go to the Father, and you will see me no more. 11 Judgment will come because the ruler of this world has already been judged.

12 “There is so much more I want to tell you, but you can’t bear it now. 13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future. 14 He will bring me glory by telling you whatever he receives from me. 15 All that belongs to the Father is mine; this is why I said, ‘The Spirit will tell you whatever he receives from me.’

God promises us that his Spirit will lead us and guide us into all truth. His Spirit is the one who convicts the heart of people. It is his Spirit who reveals the truth to people. Pray for your friends that God’s spirit will reveal the truth to them and convict them of their need for Jesus.

As we take hold of God’s good news and share it with people, the Holy Spirit is taking on the task of saving people. As individuals and collectively we have a responsibility to share the good news and speak og God's saving grace and love available to all through Christ.

Romans 10:8-15
And that message is the very message about faith that we preach: 9 If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved. 11 As the Scriptures tell us, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced.” 12 Jew and Gentile are the same in this respect. They have the same Lord, who gives generously to all who call on him. 13 For “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

14 But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? 15 And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is why the Scriptures say, “How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!”

This may be community development that shows God’s love practically such our Love in Action and our work in Vietnam. It may be sharing your testimony with someone. It doesn’t have to be long and involved simply– this is what I was like – this is what God did – this is what my life is like now.

God calls some of us to cross cultural missions but for most of us we will be on mission here in Australia. When our friends are seeking God and are saved, when they choose to follow Christ, we stay on mission to make disciples, helping our friends grow and understand more of God'sgrace and purpose in their lives. They too then become people devoted to following Christ who in turn take on God's mission.

What am I doing to engage the mission?
Who am I engaging in mission with?

2. Live a life of purpose
The second aspect to this is our personal mission. This is more about what God has called us to do, our individual purpose that is part of the whole. In the synonyms it includes words like: commission, lifework, objective, task, vocation and work

What is my part? What is my mission and purpose.

We have looked at this before when we have talked about purpose, and gifting and what God calls us to do. Having a life’s mission written down as a mission statement is a great way to stay on track with whatever God is calling you to do.

Here is mine
Encourage others to fulfil their potential and be all that God created them to be.

Ephesians 4:12
New Living Translation (NLT)
12 Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ.

This is my overarching mission statement. There are others that I have written for various areas of my life in regards to my relationship with God, my marriage and family, my work and my education. My life plan has a vision, mission and purpose for each key area. You don't have to write it down, but God has a mission and purpose for your life.

What is your mission?
What would you write?
You may already have one and know exactly what it is. I encourage you to pray about it, seek God and ask him to reveal his purpose for you. Over time he will reveal it to you. Meanwhile, keep on with the mission we talked about in part 1, helping your friends to discover the grace of God.

When you know your mission, you will also be able to think about the principles by which you live your life that come from the mission. It’s a good idea to ensure our mission matches up with who God has created us to be. That’s why prayer is important. As a result of the mission, as you live out your purpose, you may have many areas that you serve in.

Your mission will involve some kind of service for the kingdom of God whether it be as part of service to the church family or service to the community. If you are working, then this is also part of your mission. You may not be where you want to be yet but we are all a work in progress. We are all on a journey. God will use you wherever you are.

Romans 12:11
New Living Translation (NLT)
11 Never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically.

Note the term "enthusiastically". It’s not always easy to be enthusiastic, but it is a choice that we make. Enthusiasm will not only help us but will encourage others.

Colossians 3:23
New Living Translation (NLT)
23 Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people.

These Scriptures remind us that God sees our work as something we do for him, whatever that is and wherever we are. That is to be our focus. When you are at work you are working for God. This is part of your mission and your mission field. Wherever you are God has you there for a reason and a purpose.

Permission Granted – Shared by Grahame Cooke:
"I feel it strongly in my heart on days that God is taking our hearts to a totally different place of intention, purpose and design. It’s time to stop being casual about the Kingdom and develop a lifestyle of utmost intentionality because there is acceleration with intention."

Be intentional with your life as you live his purpose. You might not yet be where you want to be, but you are on the way, you are on the journey and as you are faithful where God has you now, you will grow in him, and your life purpose will begin to take shape and be fulfilled.

Conclusion
We have a mission, we are on a mission. Let’s get about the individual/corporate mission of sharing the good news with our friends and our community, and start living a life of intention and purpose.