The Christian's Motivation for Missional Living

The Christian's Motivation for Missional Living - Psalm 67

SCRIPTURE (CSB)

1 May God be gracious to us and bless us; may he make his face shine upon us Selah

2 so that your way may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations.

3 Let the peoples praise you, God; let all the peoples praise you.

4 Let the nations rejoice and shout for joy, for you judge the peoples with fairness and

lead the nations on earth. Selah

5 Let the peoples praise you, God, let all the peoples praise you.

6 The earth has produced its harvest; God, our God, blesses us.

7 God will bless us, and all the ends of the earth will fear him.

PRAYER

INTRO

Apollo 13 is known for being a mission of failed success. Motivated to send a third crew to the moon, in April, 1970, NASA launched a crew of 3 Astronauts into space.

2 days into the mission, there was an explosion in one of the oxygen tanks which led Captain Jack Swigert to radio the command center with the message,

“Houston, we’ve had a problem here!”

The mission they’d set out on was now compromised leaving them to alter their course and abort their mission. The good news is they were able to make it safely home.

In similar fashion, because of the fall of mankind, our sin radio’s the command center in our hearts with the message,

“Humanity, we have a problem!”

Our problem is one of worship which has inevitably altered our life’s mission.

We were created by God, for God.

But because of sin, our mission in life is now motivated by things that do not honor and glorify God, nor satisfy us.

Sexually - motivated by sexual gratification.

Educationally - motivated by knowledge.

Financially - motivated by the love of money.

Emotionally - motivated to be liked and accepted.

Relationally - motivated by intimacy with others.

Family - motivated by having the perfect spouse & kids

What we notice about motivation is that it shapes the course of our lives. These things in and of themselves aren’t bad things. But they aren’t the ultimate thing.

C.S. Lewis writes that,

“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

See all of us are motivated by something. Many times what motivates us directly reflects our sinful condition. A conditioned that has warped our minds and polluted our understanding so that we are pleased too easily by lesser things.

All these things are not bad things in and of themselves, but living a life consumed and motivated to acquiring these things for personal and ultimate fulfillment shows the depths of our idolatry. So that, our lives often reveal the idolatry in our hearts.

So what is your life revealing about what’s in your heart?

We are motivated by the worship of self.

What if I told you that your life is not all about you?

But that as a believer in Jesus, you have been invited into a much greater mission. That the life calling for the believer is motivated by something much higher and much greater than temporary satisfaction. That it is and should be motivated by eternal significance.

So what does any of this have to do with ?

This Psalm is a petition for God’s blessing so that God would be praised by all the nations of the earth. Missions is the means by which the worship of God among the nations will be realized.

So this life that we are living isn’t merely a “saved” life, it’s a “sent” life.

We are saved by God to be sent on mission with God to our neighbors and the nations.

In this passage the Psalter gives us 3 things that ought to motivate us as we journey on mission with God

POINTS:

1. Grace (Towards Us & the Nations)

2. Gospel (Salvation for the Nations)

3. Glory (Worship Among the Nations)