This morning I want to talk to you about one of the most important, yet ignored areas of life: your mission. How would you complete this sentence: my mission in life is…? Have you ever given it much thought?
Bro. Mike, what exactly do you mean by my “mission”? In church we talk about missions and missionaries as those called by God to leave home and bring the Gospel to people somewhere else who haven’t heard about Jesus. A lot of us have respect for such people, maybe pray for them or support them financially, but you probably don’t see this mission as your mission.
But outside of church, people talk about missions, too. In the military or law-enforcement, members are sent on all kinds of missions—search and rescue, search and recover, reconnaissance (fact-finding), seek and destroy, just to name a few.
Here’s how the dictionary defines this word “mission”.
1. assigned task: a special task given to a person or group to carry out
2. calling: an objective or task that somebody believes it is his or her duty to carry out or to which he or she attaches special importance and devotes special care
With this in mind, let me ask again: what is your mission in life? What special task(s) has God called you to carry out? What objective in life do you attach special importance? Does God give missions just to special people, or to ordinary folks? How can you discover precisely what your mission is?
That’s what I want to speak with you about this morning: God mission for your life. I want to approach the question by looking at a good example from the Bible about a specific mission God called a young girl named Mary to carry out. Her mission is not your mission, but by studying her call from God—what I want to call the Mary Mission--I believe you and I can get help for discovering and carrying out our mission. Let’s begin in Luke 1:26-28.
PRAYER
What if God had asked us to choose the woman for the all-important mission of being the mother of His Son? Talk about the Miss Universe contest!
Well, we’d first have to be sure she was somebody special, with good looks, and a good head on her shoulders. We’d certainly want to do a background check to find out if she is the right sort of person for such an important assignment. She’d be a mature adult, of course.
But God has a very different standard for His choice.
1 Co 1:27-28 27But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; 28and the base [lowly] things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are,
In other words, God chooses ordinary people for His important missions—people like Mary.
6 months after Elizabeth, Zacharias’s wife becomes pregnant with John the Baptist, God sends Gabriel back to earth, this time to Nazareth, a small town in lower Galilee. The people of Nazareth did not enjoy a very good reputation, which prompted one person in the Bible to ask:
Jn 1:46 …Can anything good come out of Nazareth?...
The expected answer is no. Nazareth doesn’t seem an ideal spot to find someone to carry out an important mission for God. But the tale takes another twist as Luke reveals more: this person is a woman, a virgin, betrothed to another citizen of Nazareth. Luke is telling us two things about this woman.
First, she is young. Almost all Jewish girls in those days were in their teens when they married, though their husbands were usually older. Mary was probably a teenager, between the ages of 16-18. So much for God calling only the experienced for His mission.
Secondly, she is a virgin. That’s not too odd, unless you remember this mission calls for a woman to become pregnant before she is married. You’d think God would wait until after the “I-dos” to call a young woman to this mission.
This girl doesn’t have lot going for her, does she? Yet Gabriel addresses her almost as royalty. Rejoice, favored lady! The Lord is with you! He has blessed you above all other women! You have been chosen by God for an important mission!
Why did God choose Mary for this mission? I’m not sure the Bible ever fully answers that question. What we do know is that He didn’t choose her because of where she was from, or because of her age, or because she somehow passed the “mother of God” exam. She was just an ordinary young girl from the wrong side of the tracks who never expected such an honor to come to her. God’s choice of Mary teaches us a very important fact about how God chooses people for His mission in their lives: Your mission doesn’t depend on where you come from, or how old or young you are, or what you’re going through right now. In fact, Mary teaches us that God chooses ordinary people for His most important missions.
That makes you qualified, doesn’t it? You thought maybe you had to be older for God to have a mission for your life, but God says no---I have a mission for teenagers, children, as well as for older adults and senior citizens.
No matter which side of town you’re from, God has a mission for you. Mary’s mission is not your mission, but her mission does remind us that God has an extraordinary mission for ordinary people just like you and I.
Do you believe it? Can you wrap your mind around the idea that God is calling you—not the person next to you, but you? God has an important mission for your life.
But how do you discover His mission? The really good news of vs. 29-37: God wants to reveal your mission to you.
The great WWII general George Patton would often ask soldiers before they went into combat, “What is your mission?” Being able to articulate clearly the current mission was the most important piece of information a soldier could carry in combat.
Gabriel does 3 things in these verses: he outlines God’s mission for Mary, clarifies the questions she has, and offers a confirmation of God’s mission.
Congratulations! You’re going to be a mother. Your baby will be a Boy, and you will name him Jesus (Jehovah saves). He is the Son of God, the Messiah you’ve been looking for, the King Who will ultimately rule forever! The Mary mission is to be the mother of the Messiah.
Even though Mary is young, she’s not naïve. She knows women don’t just have babies without a Father being involved. So she asks for some clarification in vs. 34, which Gabriel is glad to give her in vs. 35. He doesn’t offer specific details about exactly how the virgin birth occurs, but he does explain this blessed event is the result of the power of the Holy Spirit, and this miracle Baby’s Father is God Himself. The Mary mission is accomplished by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Finally, Gabriel offers confirmation for His words: your relative Elizabeth will soon come to see you—the old woman everybody thought would never have kids! You’ll discover she’s 6 months pregnant! She will confirm the marvelous truth that with God, nothing is impossible!
Now let’s look at what aspects of Mary’s mission translate into God’s mission for your life.
To begin with, you can be sure God wants to reveal His mission for your life to you. He probably won’t send Gabriel or some other angel, but He will communicate His mission for your life, if you will seek Him in His Word, in prayer, and in the input of other godly friends.
You also need to know that God usually outlines His mission, but does not always go into the specifics. When you’re not sure, it’s OK to ask questions, as Mary did. Most often it is wise to get answers to those questions before you pursue what you think is God’s mission for you.
Perhaps most important is to understand that you cannot accomplish God’s mission without the power of the Holy Spirit. God can do the impossible, but you cannot do the impossible without Him. Whatever He calls you to do He will enable you to do, even if it looks impossible.
Let me throw in one more similarity between the Mary mission and your mission: whatever God calls you to do, it involves receiving Jesus into your life and sharing Him with the world. There’s a line from the 4th verse of Phillip Brooks’ beautiful hymn O Little Town of Bethlehem:
O holy Child of Bethlehem! Descend to us, we pray;
Cast out our sin, and enter in, be born in us today!
We hear the Christmas angels, the great glad tidings tell;
O come to us, abide with us, Our Lord Immanuel!
Just as Jesus entered Mary’s physical body, He must enter our hearts if we are going to accomplish God’s mission in our life. We don’t know the specifics of how this happened, but the Bible makes it clear how Jesus is “born in us today”:
Jn 1:12-13 12But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: 13who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
How do you know God’s mission for your life? Begin by believing in and receiving Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. Then ask Him to show you His mission for your life. Remember He wants to reveal your mission to you. Don’t be afraid to ask questions, and always remember you must depend on the Spirit of God to guide you and empower you accomplish His mission in your life.
Then there is one more extremely important element of His mission in your life: you must say “Yes” to the Lord. (v. 38)
This announcement may have been a little overwhelming for Mary. Here she is making plans for her wedding, and an angel pops up to announce God has another mission for her life. Does it cross her mind how hard this will be? How will I explain this to my family, to Joseph and his family? I can hear the gossip flying through Nazareth now. What if Joseph won’t marry me? What if nobody believes me? What if they stone me for adultery?
From where we sit, we know about problems Mary hasn’t even thought about yet---a trip to Bethlehem in the last days of her pregnancy, an inn so full she has to give birth in a stable, a wicked king who will try to kill her son, a last minute flight to Egypt, setting up house in a foreign land. Mary, if count the cost, are you sure this mission will be worth it? What would have happen if she says no? What if she answers Gabriel the way Moses answered the Burning Bush—here am I Lord, send somebody else!
But she doesn’t say no. She says yes to God’s mission for her life. She says it in a way that beautifully sums up the attitude of all who would accept God’s mission for their lives. She joyfully lifts her hands to heaven, and declares Behold the handmaiden of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word!
Handmaiden= δούλη the female form of the Greek word δοῦλος= slave. Mary is expressing her absolute commitment not just to the mission the Lord gives her, but to God as her Master. As a slave completely surrenders to her master, Mary completely surrenders to the will of God.
Mary’s response is the model for how you and I should respond to God’s mission for us. Is this your response to God’s mission for your life—hands in the air with a heart brimming with thankfulness, shouting to the Lord I am Your slave! Whatever you say, I will do!
Maybe not. Maybe your response is I need a little time to think on this, Lord. Do I really want to take a risk like this? Is this really what I want to do?
What if things don’t work out like I think they should? What if my friends make fun of me?
What if nobody understands? How can I turn my back on all my plans and dreams for the sake of this mission of Yours? Am I really willing to go this far for Jesus Christ?
These are legitimate questions you need to deal with, because they address a much more crucial issue of your life—is Jesus Lord of your life, or is that just another religious phrase you spout off that has no meaning?
Jesus Himself told us nobody can serve two masters. He makes that point about God and money, but you can extend the application to God and yourself, or God and your friends, or God and your job, or God and your boyfriend/girlfriend, or God and anything else. Your attitude towards God’s mission for your life is an indication of whether or not He truly is your Lord and Master, or whether you are the boss. The Mary mission help clarify the real answer to the question: who is your Master?
This is the great surprise of Christmas: the Baby in the manger is born not just to save you, but to become your Master. Will you make Him your Master, here and now today?
Rick Warren writes To fulfill your mission will require that you abandon your agenda and accept God’s agenda for your life. You can’t just “tack in on” to all the other things you’d like to do with your life. You hand God a blank sheet with your name signed at the bottom and tell Him to fill in the details.
Most of you here this morning will not do this. During this invitation the Holy Spirit will be dealing with your heart and you will, in effect, say, “No. I’m not willing to do that.”
But I wonder how many of you are willing to come to Christ this morning and accept His mission for your life? The Mary mission is all about 3 things:
God has a mission for your life.
God will reveal His mission for your life, if you will seek Him.
You need to accept both the mission and the Master of your mission.
Today, are you ready to say yes to the Master and His mission?
