Life On Mission

It's the New Year! 2015...when people carry cell phones in their pockets to ensure that they are constantly reachable, buy cars that can drive themselves, and watch tv on televisions that are smarter than their human operators. In an age with so many modern conveniences, do you ever wonder why we are so busy, so tired, so worn out, stretched so thin?

Think about your New Year's resolutions - did you make any? I admire people who make resolutions: lose weight, save money, exercise, spend less, spend more time with family, go to church, read the Bible, get organized, read more. So many admirable goals...I wouldn't last until January 7th! I'm keeping it simple this year by sticking one goal in my little head, and honestly, it's not new. This year, I want to live my life on mission, which means I will share the gospel more. That's it. So I'm going to try my goal out on you, dear reader. Ready?

This is today's Precious Promise - Romans 10:9-10 says "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." Thank you, Jesus!

1. We're all sinners, you and me and Mother Theresa. We do bad things that go against God's perfection. (The Bible says in Romans 3:23 that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.)

2. Sin separates us from God. Because of our sin, we deserve eternity in hell. But the good news is that Jesus died so we don't have to pay that price - he paid it for us with his death. We can now spend eternity with him! (That comes from Romans 6:23, which says that the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus, our Lord!)

3. The way to "get saved" from that awful punishment of hell is to believe that God sent Jesus to pay the price for our sins and to follow him with your life, making him your boss. (Because if you confess with your mouth, Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. That's Romans 10:9-10.)

It's that easy...so why, oh why do we resist? If the GOSPEL, which by definition means GOOD NEWS, is in fact, good news, why do we hesitate to share it with others? I asked a group of ladies that very question and it came as no surprise that their answers were the same as mine. "It's awkward." "I don't want to be seen as a fanatic, a holy roller." "I don't know how to turn the conversation around to it." Do you want to know my biggest reason for not sharing the gospel with people I know? I think they're already saved. Well, he goes to church...She's a really good person...He grew up in this town...Her parents were founding members of this church...Everyone in his family goes to church...SO THEY ARE OBVIOUSLY SAVED. Wrong.

The root of all of these excuses we use for not sharing the good news? We think that this life is all about us. Oh sure, if we are in Sunday School, we know all the right answers. We know that life is about glorifying God, walking with him, prayer, Bible study, being active with the church. But how do we live in real life, Sunday at noon when we walk out of the church doors until the next Sunday morning when we walk back in? That's the evidence. How we live shows what we think this life is all about: my marriage, my kids, my grandkids, my house, my car, my money, my health, my clothes, my church, my vacation, my plans, my dreams, my goals. Newsflash, my friend: LIFE IS NOT ABOUT YOU.

I read a great book by Dustin Willis and Aaron Coe called Life on Mission. In it, the authors say, "The first step in living a life on mission is a step toward the Father. If our souls are satisfied in him, we can turn our eyes away from ourselves. By grace we can stop being self-absorbed. Instead we will identify people who desperately need the hope of Jesus." How can we pour ourselves out, in the name of Jesus, into the lives of those around us if we haven't first been filled up by the Father? Drawing near to Him guarantees a shift in focus from ourselves to Jesus Christ, who promised to give us everything we need to love others.

My cabinets are filled with Christmas cards, featuring pictures of perfect, smiling children with their loving, happy parents. These cards always make me think of the American dream- a happy marriage, a big beautiful house, a nice car or two, several beautiful children, maybe a dog and a cat. Your dream might look a little different. Just think about the things you desire, the list of things you’d get if you could place your order for the exact things you wanted. When we acquire these things on our “list”, we bow our heads and pray and thank God for all of our blessings. But quite often these "blessings" are the things that actually distract us from our walk with the Lord. Our "blessings" distract us from sharing the Gospel because we focus on the gifts, rather than the Giver.  That doesn’t seem like much of a blessing! That seems more like a burden. Have you ever thought of your blessings as burdens before? Most of us wouldn’t consider our children or our spouse or our grandchildren as burdens.  And I’m not saying they are either – the Bible says that children are gifts. But go with me for a minute – consider all of those things in your life to be a burden to you – a distraction that keeps you from fulfilling God’s purpose in your life. After all, in Phil 3:7-9 Paul writes that everything that was to his profit he now considers loss (TRASH!) compared to knowing Christ. He says, “But whatever was to my profit, I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things.  I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ- the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.” In Matthew 5 Jesus didn’t preach “Blessed are those with big houses, Blessed are those whose kids make your Christmas cards look good, Blessed are those who took awesome vacations this year, Blessed are those who have great health. ” NO! He says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit...blessed are those who mourn...blessed are the meek...blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness...blessed are the merciful...blessed are the pure in heart...blessed are the peacemakers...blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness..." Jesus' definition of blessing sure looks different than the American Dream.

Last year our church read the book, Autopsy of a Deceased Church by Thom Rainer. The author did a study of churches that had died, closed their doors and ceased to function as a church. He looked for common denominators among them in hopes of helping other churches that were declining and headed toward the same fate. In his book he says, “The deceased church, somewhere in its history, forgot to act upon the Great Commission.  So they stopped going.  And making disciples.  And baptizing them.  And teaching them…Perhaps it is more accurate to say the church decided not to act upon Christ’s command.” The Great Commission is not a choice! It’s not a suggestion! It’s a COMMAND! We must go, but we really don't need to go far.

Here’s the test that will show us if we are living life on mission: Let’s put our relationships on a target. Those people closest to us are in the center of our target. These are our best friends, our immediate family. The next ring of the target is for our good friends and family, people we know and love, but not our very best friends. The next ring is our acquaintances. We know these people by name or by face, but we may not have ever had a meaningful conversation with them. We couldn’t tell you much about them and they couldn’t tell you much about us. We say hi when we see them, but that’s about it. The final ring holds all of the strangers, all of the people we run into that we don’t even know.

So think about your target, especially the rings closest to the center – your close friends and family, your good friends and family and even some of your acquaintances. How many people on your target have a relationship with Jesus? All of them? (Time to get closer with some new people!) None of them? (You’ve gotta get busy!) More importantly, have you ever even thought about how many of them know Jesus? Most importantly, have you ever shared the gospel with them? OUCH.

So what do you do? How do you start to live life on mission? Through the years, churches have adopted many different ways of encouraging people to share the gospel – going door-to-door used to be a big thing, but in 2015? Knocking on someone’s door unannounced and uninvited would be considered by some to be very rude. People in 2015 are generally very private people. (Thank God we don’t necessarily have to knock on any more doors!) So where do you start in your efforts to join God in His work and be a disciple-maker? Willis and Coe say, "The short answer is to start where you already are. Go where you already go. Just go with new eyes." Well that sounds easy enough.

 We all have many people that fall into each of the sections of our targets. Willis and Coe wrote, "God has placed us in our environments with these people because he wants to use us to reach the people around us. He is already at work there. Being on mission is not about going to a specific place – it’s about being intentional where you are." Acts 17:24-28 says that he places each of us in the exact places and times he wants us to live so that we would seek him. So what does that look like?

Think about the people in your closest circle on your target. Start there. Does your husband walk with Jesus? Do your children? Your grandchildren? Your sisters and brothers? God has placed you right where you are in your family so that you can share the Gospel with them. It may sound something like this: “Honey, I know you see me going to church all the time. I want you to know that I want to share that part of my life with you. Knowing Jesus has made such a difference in my life. He has changed me in so many ways and I want you to know him too.”

Now think about the people in your next circle.  Do your good friends know Jesus? Your co-workers? Your extended family? Here’s how it might sound for you to share Jesus with them: “I’ve really been enjoying my Bible study group that meets every Wednesday night. I’ve been learning so much and I love the ladies that are there. We’ve been talking a lot about sharing our faith and it always makes me think of how I never really talk about what I believe. I just want you to know that I’m going to try to talk about that more – Jesus has changed my life and I want other people to have a chance to know him too! So if you ever have any questions or want to come with me to Bible study, just let me know.”

Now think about your acquaintances. That cashier at the grocery store that you see all the time – does she know Jesus? Your mailman- does he know Jesus? Your neighbors down the street – do they know Jesus? This is where we can get a little creative. Why not bring a batch of homemade cookies to your neighbors' house? Or leave a gift card in the mailbox for your mailman with a little note inside? Little acts of kindness can open the door for you to have more meaningful conversations about Jesus. But don’t let it end there.  Use your small act of kindness as a doorway to share the gospel with that person.

Don’t forget that inviting someone to church is NOT the same thing as sharing the Gospel. Now, hear me say this- inviting people to church is a GOOD THING! But it won’t save them.  People need to hear about what Jesus has done for them – the GOSPEL. If they place their faith in Jesus, HE will save them! They might do that at church, but most people will make that decision because of a relationship that they have with YOU. Another quote from Willis and Coe..."As we invest in the lives of people, we help them continue to take the next step toward Jesus, with the hope that one day they will become a reproducing everyday missionary as well." A reproducing everyday missionary - what if the world was full of those? There would be a lot less people worried about their Christmas card pictures, that's for sure.

"When we combine our natural rhythms and passions with the gospel and use them to build relationships, powerful things can happen." (Willis and Coe) Take this example: Our family decided to participate in our local soccer league this year. Chris loves sports and he loves to coach, so we signed the twins up for pee-wee soccer and we signed him up as the coach. We were excited about the season, but the driving force behind our participation was an interest in building relationships with the moms and dads of the kids on our team. To our delight, we were placed on a team with another family from our church who was equally excited about the possibility of building relationships with those families. During and after the season our two families had many experiences to witness and minister to the families on our team. None of them have come to know the Lord because of us (yet!) but God knows which seeds were planted in our community.

Who has God placed around you that He may be calling you to be on mission with? Think of specific names. Are there ways your passions or natural life rhythms may focus God’s mission for your life? What group of people is God leading you to focus your mission efforts on? Growing in the gospel will move you from identifying those around you who need the hope of Jesus to investing your life in theirs.

I've learned an incredible lesson over the last few years. My skull is thick and it's taken a long time for me to get the idea, but I've got it now, for sure. Every year, Chris leads teams of people from our church on mission trips. He's been to China. He's gone several times to Germany to do baseball camp. One time he texted me a picture of himself at the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris on a long layover on the way to Dusseldorf. At the time, I was less than amused as I sat at home, literally covered in little children. Last year, he took a team to Tacoma, Washington, where my brother and his family serve as missionaries, to serve along side The Pathway, the church my brother pastors. I was so jealous that he got to go and I didn't. Four of our kids are small right now and because we have so many of them (six!), one of us really needs to keep the home fires burning. Obviously, that's me. God showed me last year that this is no small task. I have little people living in my house that know a lot about Jesus, but they don't KNOW HIM yet. I tell them every day how much he loves him. They pray every night, thanking Jesus for dying on the cross for their sins. But they don't KNOW HIM yet. So what better mission field for me than the one down the hall from where I sleep every night? I'm right where he wants me, right where he's working, and I don't even have to put my shoes on! If we are not living life on mission every day, right where we are, we are really missing out, and so are the people around us. God has placed you right where you are, right around the people you know, in this very time, in order for you to share Him with those very people. Liveyour life on mission!

Coe, A., Willis, D. Life On Mission: Joining the Everyday Mission of God. Chicago, Moody Publishers, 2014. Print. Get "Life On Mission" on Amazon

Rainer, Thom. Autopsy of a Deceased Church:12 Ways to Keep Yours Alive. Nashville, B & H Publishing, 2014. Print. Get "Autopsy of a Deceased Church" on Amazon