Stay on Mission
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Mission and Vision
Mission and Vision
Today we are going to conclude our series on Tactical Grace
We are all members of the Church Militant
If you are above ground and moving around, God has something for you and you are a valuable member of the Army of God
As soldiers in the Church Militant, we have been given Grace as our tactic
We utilize the grace that we have recieved from the Lord in order to reach a goal that is beyond our current situation
The Grace of God is used tactically to reach people for the kingdom, to Grow the Church Militant
To save, to serve, and to reach the lost
Today we’re talking about Staying on Mission
How many of you have ever played capture the flag?
its a baby version of a military campaign
Your goal is to go and get the flag from the other team while at the same time defending your team
Say we’re playing capture the flag and our team decides to split up and say this half is on the offense and this half is going to defend our flag
What would happen if everyone just decided that going after the other flag was too risky and everyone stayed and defended the flag?
Because see this is what happens in our cultural context
We get caught up because of fear, because of the barricades of bitterness, because we don’t want to loose something, ultimately because we don’t trust God who is giving out the orders
And we switch missions
Instead of giving we start hoarding
Instead of advancing we retreat
If you don’t get anything else that I say today… get this point
As we’ve been talking about tactical grace, we have to understand that it’s not just a tactic that we use in an otherwise unengaged life
But we live grace-filled lives and that grace-filled life is what will be tactically used to bring you into the fulfillment of life that God has called you to and will also bring others into a living relationship with the lover of their soul.
As followers of Jesus our life is marked by Tactical grace.
We are the ones who have recieved grace upon grace and therefore we should be the ones showing and extending grace to all. WE should be a people on mission
Our life is not our own but it is the Life of Christ in us
It is in fully surrendering and living this life that we start to experience the fulfillment of life, the life in abundance that Christ talks about in John 10:10
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
What does staying on mission look like?
The Grace-filled life
The life marked by tactical grace
the abundant life?
1 Peter 4:7-11
The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Peter gives us some context to understand why living our faith out is so urgent. at the beginning of v7
The end of all things is at hand
He is telling us, look… things are getting real
Peter is writing to a church where people were being killed for being Christian, where war and disease was going around.
The early church was living with an anticipation of the return of Christ
The word testifies to us throughout that whether the Lord Comes or calls, your closer to seeing him today then you were yesterday
There is a real truth to the fact that all that we have is temporary and that the world that we are living in will try to have you put your focus on the wrong thing
WE begin to identify ourselves with the wrong mission
Mission of empire, of collecting stuff because there isn’t enough to go around
We start to identify with the mission of maintenance
the mission of survival
What happens when you are survival mindset… you may survive but you’ll never thrive
We buy into things that will never sustain us because we’re looking at our temporary situation as a permanent solution and God is telling us THE END OF ALL THINGS IS AT HAND
Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins
He then leads us to the truth that if you are on mission it will first and foremost be a mission of love
Earnestly loving others
That means telling them hard truths
that means overlooking little things that annoy you
that means forgiving when you don’t want to
that means love in action
Stewards of God’s varied grace
That means this tactical grace we are living in is not our own
We are stewards. The mission is stewardship
Let me put this in an analogy
If you write a grant and that grant is to be used to house the homeless
but instead you put the money in your bank account and sit on it… what do you think will happen?
You’re gonna be in trouble. Either pay it back at best or prison time at worst
God has given us the mission to steward his grace that we’ve been given
Not just in metaphorical ways
He’s not telling us the mission is to sit at home and have good feels about people, but to actually and really use the gifts that hes given you as means of grace for the purpose of loving people
THis is the mission, this is the grace-filled lifestyle that is the life in abundance
You wonder why you have an emptiness in side
You wonder why you feel like you’re not growing in your walk with the Lord
You wonder why you feel like your not getting deeper in your faith?
When was the last time you lovdd someone
When was the last time you used the gifts that God has blessed you with, the ability to speak, the ability to teach, the ability to give, to clean, to whatever?
God gave you that grace, not to hoard it, but so that it would work tactically for the kingdom of God
I’m going to tell you a few things that happen when you get this in your spirit and live this out
First you are going to testify to who Jesus is here on earth
Jesus says they will know you are little versions of my by how you LOVE
He also says to let your good works shine before men, not so that you will be saved (this isn’t a salvation thing) but so that people will see your good works and glorify your father who is in heaven
as you serve, as you operate tactically on mission, people are going to get to know the character of the Lover of their soul. T
They begin to see God who loves them through your actions
Second thing that happens when you stay on mission is
The Church operates in health
Your gifts were given to you for me and my gifts were given for you
The church is called a body and if one part of your body started hoarding resources and didn’t share and help the rest, we call that a tumor and the surgeon hast to cut that out for the health of the body
When you are operating on mission and serving, you begin to see the body of christ operating as she should. In health and vibrancy
Here’s the crazy thing. If you don’t serve in an area that you were given to steward either it won’t happen and the body suffers lack or some other body part starts to compensate for your lack of involvement and burns out.
Third thing that happens when you stay on mission is
You are fulfilled
God created you to be in community
God knows not just how, but why your were created
He’s got plans for you, ephesisans tells us that he layed out for you since before the foundations of the world to walk in
Because he knows its good for you
God didn’t give you these gifts and call you to give them away and serve others to hurt you
But because he knows why he created you and he created you to operate on mission
Time for response as we prepare for communion
Maybe you havent’ been living on mission
Nows the time
As we take communion we are identifying with the mission of God here on earth and he is empowering us to live that mission out
You can’t do it by your own power but by his might
What you have to do is surrender to the work that God wants to do in you
Receive the grace, then surrender to what God wants to do through you and live in that grace