Missional Living

Do we have any big people watchers here?

You know where you will just be staked out somewhere at the park, at the mall, at a coffee shop or somewhere public and just watch people as they walk by.

Do we have any of those? Its okay be proud ( I am right there with you)

I will find a nice comfy couch at the mall and just watch people walk by.

But whenever I am people watching I always notice 3 different people.

I notice people who are on a mission to get what they want.

You notice

You know they run into the mall to get that pair of gloves and you can tell they are on some sort of mission and they are not getting distracted. (tunnle vision)

But then there are the people who have no mission.

and these are the people who just wonder around, talk, hangout and don’t really have a purpose of why they are there.

This is also me...

and then there are the people who are somewhere in-between and they might be on mission to get something or at least had one but then they kinda just hang out and if they don’t get what they came in for its whatever.

But when it comes down to it the people who have a reason to be there and are on purpose get so much more accomplished then the people like me who are there just to wonder around aimlessly in a store or the people who forget why they came in.

because when you are on a mission to get that one item you are going to make sure you get that item.

and you are not giving up until you do.

And today we are talking about being on mission.

because the truth is within the church (universal) we have the same 3 groups of people.

We have people who are on mission for Christ and moving where he is calling them.

We have people who sometimes seem to just be hanging around

and then we have a lot of people who are somewhere in-between (not really living a life on mission but they come to church, do good things occasionally and sometimes just hang around)

and often times we can reflect on our lives and see exactly where we fit in there.

there may have been a category you see yourself in.

and truthfully we should be striving to be the people living on mission.

and when we live a life on mission what happens is we are praying for God’s will to be done, we are ceasing every moment we have to further Christ kingdom and we are having meaningful conversations with people.

and if we are being honest, we fall short of this sometimes, (I fall short of this sometimes)

because we might leave church on Sunday being ready to live a life on mission but by Tuesday we forget about it.

and you can see this in the 21st century American church.

because the American Christianity has been in decline for long time.

and while there are multiple reasons on why this could be, I believe that one of the main reasons is that we as the church are not living a life on mission.

and often times we are being the the people who are just hanging out or being the inbetweeners group.

and today we are going to be finishing our sermon series “Centered” and we will be in and basically this passage talks about living a life on mission.

and Paul who wrote this passage realizes that living on mission is vital for the church universal to do, but it is also vital for our lives as well.

So once again turn with me to because Paul tells us how to live on mission.

It says:

(NIV)

Further Instructions

2 Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. 3 And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. 4 Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. 5 Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. 6 Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.

So Paul starts out telling us that the base of living a missional life is prayer.

and Paul here is not saying make sure you pray every-once in awhile or before you eat or get out of bed, but what Paul s saying here is for us to devote ourselves to prayer.

because if you look at that word devote in the Bible’s original language we do not have an english word that can really even translate it because the word has such a strong meaning.

One theologian writes that this word implies that we have a gritty determination not to give up praying until God’s response occurs.

Basically we keep praying until God answers our prayer with a yes or no.

and Paul places this first because he knows that Prayer is the base of everything else.

because if we do something on our own there is a good chance we are going to fail.

Do we have any Seinfeld fans in here?

because I was reading another Pastors take on this passage and he mentions how Jerry Seinfeld has a sketch where he is talking about how men think they are superheros.

and the reason he give is because if you have ever seen a man try to move a a mattress from one location to another, they will strap down the mattress to the car (which lets be honest a lot of times we question if we strapped it down correctly)

and then you will get in the car and with one arm they will drive and the other arm will be out the window holding the mattress as if their arm is going to be able to hold the mattress down if the straps break while driving 70MPH and keep it from flying away.

But the truth is thats what we do all the time when we do not pray.

because we are saying I can reach this person on my own

I can do this project without God

I can h

We are saying I don’t need God’s help with this.

And what happens is we sit here trying to open a door or accomplish something that often times we can only do with the help of God.

you know we cannot change lives in Buchanan without God’s hand on it

And thats why Paul tells us to devote our selves to prayer because when God opes doors for us (and he will) we have an opportunity to change lives.

and look at the end of verse 5, because when God does His work (Which He will) Paul tells us to do our Job which is to make the most of every opportunity.

Because God will go ahead and open up doors for us but it is up to us to recognize when that door opens and to impact and change lives when the door opens.

So when we see people in need we can help them

When we have an opportunity to reach someone for Christ… we do

When we have the opportunity to talk with a stranger we take it because we do not know where that conversation could lead and we don’t know what they are going through.

and we have the ability to impact or change that persons life.

One example of someone I was talking to this past week is Larry and Larry was telling me how he had the opportunity to talk with a nurse at the hospital and they ended up having a really meaningful conversation that lasted a couple hours, and he even got to share His faith with her a little.

But thats what a life on mission looks like!

We are ceasing every opportunity to reach someone for Christ.

And look at verse 6 with me because when we cease our moment we need to make sure that our conversations filled with Grace and it says seasoned with salt.

and really that phrase seasoned with salt is implying that when we talk with someone, our life which has been seasoned with Christ show’s through.

basically our past experiences with Christ and how He has moved shines through in our conversation.

It becomes natural.

Think about a fire because when you start a fire it starts with a small flame or spark and a lot of times you cant see it but that spark naturally spreads and eventually all the wood in the fireplace is on fire and you can definitely see it then.

But thats how it is in our life because when we accept Christ in our life it starts as a spark but He naturally engulfs our life and shows through us so everything about reflects Christ and he shows through our conversation.

But an issue a lot of us have where we don’t share what God has done for us in our life is that we think our testimony of howHe has moved is kind of boring

But if we believe in the Gospel of Christ, then it means that before we accepted Christ into our lives, our whole trajectory was different.

Because before we knew Christ we were stuck in our sin, heading toward a path that ultimately led to death,

but because Christ came down, dying for us on the cross but then raising from the dead so that if we choose to follow Him we can have forgiveness of our sins and because of that we no longer live a life stuck in our sin but we move death to life.

I don’t know about you guys but that is a testimony worth sharing.

and whats is amazing is when people hear how God has moved in your life they want the same for there own.

because if you struggled with something chances are someone else has also.

and we have a chance to have these seasoned conversations Paul talks about.

And I just want to end with this today because Paul tells us these keys to missional living (prayer, ceasing your moment, and being intentional sharing how God has moved in your life)

But we as a church and individually need to be living missionally

because when we introduce people to Christ we have the ability to break addictions in their lives, we have the ability to to heal families, and ultimately change lives

We cannot be living as people who are not on mission or in the in-between group because the Gospel of Christ has the power to end injustices, it has the power to heal families, it has the power to save people from their addictions and ultimately change lives.

I don’t know about you guys but when you put that in perspective how can we not live a life where we are making the most out of everything we do.

How can we not do that when We we are living in a world where people need this message of hope, and where we can help change lives in ways we cannot even imagine.

And maybe today you feel like you have not been living a life on mission for Christ or you sometimes do but you want to make a commitment to be sold out to the mission on Christ has called us to.

You want to make that commitment to devote yourself to prayer, to cease every moment for Christ, and to season your conversations

I would invite you to do that this morning.

and maybe you are realizing today that you are the one that needs Christ in your life because you have never fully accepted him or you have strayed away.

but regardless today would be an amazing day to turn to Christ and say I want to be sold out to you.

I want to live a life where I will follow you where you are calling me whether this is the first time or whether I am a life long Christian.

because I want both my life and the lives around me to be changed for Christ.

Will you pray with me?