What’s my Mission?
Made for Mission: Week 2
January 12th, 2020
Luke 9
We are going to start a little differently this morning.
For a few moments this morning we're going to pretend that archaeologists have found an excerpt from Peter, Jesus’ disciple. We will read from his diary describing Jesus feeding the 5000.
I’ve been following Jesus for over a year now and I still don’t understand HIM or why He does what HE does.
Today Jesus was teaching for an entire day. A couple of us casually approached him to mention that the people were probably hungry, and they still had a long walk back to their villages. Jesus turns to us and says, “You give them something to eat.”
Jesus should know that we don’t carry that kind of food around with us, so we were left wondering how HE expected us to feed these people.
Then someone brought this kid to Jesus. Apparently, his mom packed him a couple small fish and some bread for his lunch. Jesus takes it and turns it into enough food to feed the over fifteen thousand people there counting the woman and children. You should have seen that place—people were in awe. Anything Jesus would have said at that point the people would have done. He had them eating out of the palm of his hands…literally.
I’m thinking, wow, our little crusade, or little church movement here is about to grow from 12 followers to over 15, 000 if you include woman and children in one afternoon!
Then a bunch of people approach Jesus saying that they want to join our group.
Peter Continues- Now I’m excited! Think about all the possibilities for our little ministry. The people are coming to Jesus begging him to let them join our group.
I’m stunned when Jesus comes back at them with some pretty harsh responses.
He tells one guy that if he comes he will be homeless.
He tells someone else that if they need to go back and say bye to their family then don’t even bother.
Person after person gets turned away. Finally they stopped coming- they found the cost of following Jesus to be too high.
What Peter didn’t know then, is Jesus was just being honest with people.
What today’s lesson is going to boil down to is this-
Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. When we talk about becoming a follower of Jesus- or bring saved, it’s not just an emotional decision on our part. Jesus doesn’t want an emotional decision. Jesus says he wanted them to count the cost for following him, because this mission he is calling us to is not for the faint of heart.
I want that to be in the front of your mind this morning as we focus our spirits on this mission HE has called us to.
The last time we met we discovered that every person has been called by God for a mission.
That thought brings me a great deal of peace.
It brings clarity to things that I’ve gone through in life.
It puts all the hardships, all the pain, all the disappointments, and all the rejecton we have face in life into focus- it was part of our basic training to prepare us to live on mission for God.
Last week we talked about God dreaming of you from eternity past, before He said “let there be light” he thought of you! Not only did he think of you but he thought of the mission that you will have in your life for his Kingdom.
This calling and this mission he has for us assures us is that you are not an accident or fluke but instead God’s masterpiece created for a specific purpose.
Our big point for last week is that “We are all called.”
Ministry is not for a select few but for all Jesus followers.
Look to your left and right- those people you looked at are all called by God into His mission to do ministry.
And guess what, those people you just looked at, were all looking at you the same way- you are equally as called as they are.
If that’s the case than the obvious next question should be, “So, what am I called to?” or “What is my mission?” That’s what we are going to talk about today.
Jesus had some strong words about this to his followers that we will be looking at this morning-
If you have a bible turn to Luke 9. As you turn there, let me open in prayer.
Prayer
Read Luke 9:51
As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem.
This verse doesn’t describe a man just wandering through life wondering what is going to happen next. Jesus set his eyes and his heart on God’s will for his life. Jesus was a man on a mission. He resolutely set out to lay down his life to for the sake of others salvation. With great intentionality and courage, he knew where he was going and that his life was bigger than himself.
Read Luke 9:23
Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.
Jesus made it clear that the mission of those who would follow him was the same as His.
Followers must lay down their lives on a daily basis for the sake of others being saved. This isn’t just a onetime event; this is the mission of our lives on a daily basis from now till Jesus returns.
A cross is not a comfortable thing to carry- it’s a symbol of death. Let’s be honest- Sometimes, this mission isn’t very comfortable or convenient neither.
But this is the price that we have decided to pay for following Jesus.
This has been shown us very recently as we celebrated Pastor Roger’s life. What a legacy he left the world- his life multiplied the Kingdom of God in ways that we may never fully understand this side of eternity. Sons in the ministry, grandchildren and great grandchildern following Christ, church’s founded and pastored, 63 years of ordained ministry for the Kingdom of God and the savior he loved and proclaimed to anyone who would listen.
When we talk about things like mission, I know what some of you are thinking. “Well that might be your mission, but that’s sure not mine.”
Let me just say, I get it.
When I first walked into a church and sat in the back row hoping no one saw me, I was just amazed the church roof didn’t collapse from me being there.
Ministry wasn’t even a distant thought in my mind. If someone would have walked up to me that first Sunday and said, “27 years from right now, you’ll be a pastor in a church in West Central Wisconsin, I’d have first fallen over laughing, and then probably never returned.
But God had a different plan. He looked forward 27 years to see me standing before you today telling me the same thing my pastor told me then- that today can be huge for you.
God’s not just inviting you to come to church on Sundays and worship and give some of your hard earned paycheck to him each week. He’s actually inviting you to join Him in His massive mission where He is already at work all over the world.
-If you’ve been following Jesus for a while and would consider yourself a Christian you might be nodding your head thinking, “God’s mission is my mission. Got it. What’s next?”
-Maybe You may have gotten to the point of intellectually accepting that your primary mission is to join God in what He’s up to, but practically your life would say something totally different.
So what keeps us from our mission?
I think one of Satan’s most powerful tool to get Jesus follower’s off mission is the weapon of DISTRACTION.
If you have a cell phone would you pull it out for a moment. Come on, I know most of you are glancing down at it every 30 seconds to check the time or complain on Facebook that Pastor John’s taking too long.
Packer’s aren’t playing until this afternoon so don’t try finding out the scores while you have it out.
Now that we have them out, let’s talk about Some stats on smart phones-
-The average person checks their smartphone 110 times a day. That works out to 9 times an hour or once every 6 minutes.
-55% of phone users text while driving; which is 6 times more dangerous than driving drunk.
-84% of worldwide cell users report not being able to go a single day without their phone in their hand.
-50% of teens admit to being addicted to their cell phones, that it is something that they could not live without. The other 50% need counseling about lying about not being addicted to their cell phones.
-Here is the ultimate test to see if your cell phone might be a distraction or even an addiction for you: Before I had you pull out your cell phone, Have you checked your phone during church?
I’m not trying to embarrass anyone, because if I was listening to a sermon, I probably would be using it for bible, or notes, or just to check email. I can be just as guilty as anyone when it comes to cell phone addiction.
I use this example to show you how we live in a distracted culture?
A great saying- write this down and triple underline it
If Satan can’t make you bad he will make you busy.
He is going to use whatever he can to get you off the mission that you were made for, even if that means you are busy but not productive for the Kingdom..
Let’s be honest, for many of us- he’s winning.
In a recent survey but out by Lifeway, 80% of church-goers said they believe they have a personal responsibility in sharing their faith BUT 61% say that they haven’t in the past six months. So the majority of us know what the mission is and the importance of it but somehow it doesn’t impact the way we live.
At the beginning of the message, we said Jesus had a few challenging words for those who wanted to jump on his bandwagon and go along for the ride after he fed the 5000. Let’s read exactly what HE told them.
Read Luke 9:57-62
As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”
He said to another man, “Follow me.”
But he replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”
Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”
Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.”
Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”
From this passage, Jesus identifies and calls out 3 Distraction Missions that will pull you away from the mission Jesus has made you for.
1) The Mission of Comfort
A man walks up ready to follow and Jesus just simply says that this mission may lead to homelessness. We don’t hear how the person responds but it’s heavily implied that this was a game stopper for him. He was totally into following Jesus as long as it didn’t take him out of his comfort zone.
The only problem is that Jesus doesn’t just pull His followers out of their comfort zones, he obliterates our comfort zones them.
Just think about all the things Jesus had his disciples do. Jesus routinely sent them out for weeks at a time with no cash, extra clothes or fall back plan.
Ultimately Jesus would model this “No Comfort Zones” life by dying on the cross through six hours of excruciating pain and torture.
Quick question- When you are taking a trip, how many of you ask God for protection on the trip?
That’s not a bad thing.
But I want you to think about that when it comes to our calling and mission.
What if we keep asking for comfort and safety, but Jesus is more about making us a dangerous follower of him and less about keeping us safe all the time.
Let me illustrate the importance of this in very practical terms-
If you have consistently followed Jesus for more than 20 years, hold up your hand.
Question for those with your hands raised.
When did you grow in faith the most- during the good times, or the hard times? Isn’t it when you are most uncomfortable that you were the most reliant on God?
That idea completely flies against our modern mindset.
You see if everywhere. Go to Walmart tomorrow and see how many items you can find that simply exist to make your life more comfortable.
One of the best ones I found- an alarm clock combined with a coffee maker that automatically brews your cup of coffee so all you have to do is take it and go.
Another proof that God loves me!
All humor aside
What happens when comfort becomes a bigger deal in your life than Christ?
You’ll chose comfort over Christ.
This is why Jesus stresses to his followers, and that includes you and me that we need to count the cost before following him.
Comfort is the first distractions, here is the second
2) The Distraction of Commitments
Jesus turns to another person and initiates the conversation. He says “Follow me.” But the man replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” Jesus says back to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”
At first this seems like a pretty harsh response from Jesus that requires a little bit of context that I found awhile go in some commentaries to understand.
This man isn’t asking to simply go to a funeral- he wanted to wait until after his father’s death, which might have been years away.
Most likely, the reason is because he wanted his share of the estate and wanted to make sure he wasn’t cheated out of it by his other siblings.
The meaning for us is this- Jesus clearly conveys that there is an urgency to the mission that he’s called us to. It’s not something we pick up when our schedule finally has some breathing room but instead becomes our first priority.
In the Sermon on the Mount at one point Jesus says the famous words, “Seek first His kingdom and His righteous and ALL THESE THINGS will be given to you as well.” Jesus promises that if we place his Kingdom first in our lives then He will take care of all the other things we love to stress about.
Question and challenge for us- Are there anything you have told Jesus “yes, but first let me…” Maybe you have said or thought-
I’ll serve but first let me get through this busy season.
I’ll give but first let me get this promotion.
I’ll share my faith but first let me get more comfortable in my own walk with God.
I’ll spend time reading my Bible in the morning but first let me push the snooze button a few times.
While many of the commitments you’ve made may be really good and honorable, Jesus still tells us that His mission must come first.
The third distraction mission the enemy throws in our path is-
3) The distraction of Competition
As Jesus continues to walk along another man approaches. “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.” Jesus turns to him and replies, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.” Once again, a seemingly harsh response from Jesus, right?
I can’t imagine dropping everything to go on a mission trip with a man I just met without letting the people in my family at least know. That sure seems like it would be incredibly irresponsible.
This was a world before cell phones or social media so he can’t text or even post a message from the road.
Even so, if husbands, if you get called for a mission’s assignment, please please please call your wife and talk it over. Don’t do it by text message.
The problem with what this man is saying is that what he means is this-
Jesus, you let me go do this or I won’t follow you.
Have you ever heard this saying- in a sentence, everything before the word “but” is a lie?
“But” is a deadly word to us spiritually when it comes to obeying God.
Think about it.
What if someone told you-
I love you…but…
I’m be there for you…but…
I won’t cheat on you, but
I’ll follow you…but…
Let me illustrate this another way-
How many groan on Monday morning when the weekend is over and we have to go back work?
Often, I think that carry’s over into how we see God’s calling on our lives, and that’s why we often fail at putting God first.
We need to change our mindset about this thing called mission.
The mission that God has called us to must be seen as a reward and not another chore. He wants to step forward into his calling with his confidence his joy.
Paul told the church at Philippi
“Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. –Philippians 3:13-14
Paul had found something most people never find. The answer to the question- what is the meaning of life.
It’s not money
It’s not success
It’s not possessions
It’s not safety or comfort
It’s not being admired or being popular.
All those are satan’s counterfeits to keep you off mission
Jesus’s calling and mission for you is not about creating a following,
Jesus wants followers.
That’s your mission in life- To follow Him.
Count the cost, pick up your cross, and follow Him!
All rise
For our prayer time, I want you to ask God these three questions-
1. Is my desire for comfort and ease interfering with following you?
2. Are there things competing for my time that cause me to be distracted from picking my cross and following you?
3. Am I using all my time, talents, and treasure to see your Kingdom come in my life, and the lives of those you have placed before me.
Altar call
Let’s pray
