4. Discovering Your Mission

Me:

Welcome to the conclusion of our series, The Bottom Line. For the last three Sundays we have examined four bottom line, main focus statements Jesus said. The one for today, might be the most important.

If you are new with us, this series is a part of a Spiritual Growth Campaign called Core52, where each Sunday, we zero in on one of the core verses that makes up the Bible. Guess what? Today we hit core verse 26. What does that mean? Yes, we are halfway through our journey! The good news is that we have some huge, challenging verses yet to cover…buckle in and let’s finish this last half strong.

You:

What makes someone successful? Is it their intellegience? They physical giftedness? Is it the family they were born into? Money? Education? What is it that makes a person successful? According to Zig Ziglar, businessman, author and motivational speaker here is your answer:

“Outstanding people have one thing in common: An absolute sense of mission.” ~ Zig Ziglar

Think about the prominent leaders that you know. Think about the successful, outstanding people that you know personally…isn’t true of all of them? They have been able to identitfy their mission, and then leverage their giftedness, skills and resources to accoomplish that mission. Think about some of the successful people in our world, from business leaders, politicians, author, inventors, and athletes. These people were able to find a mission and then lock in to do whatever it takes to complete the mission.

So, what is your mission? For some of you it might be to simply survive! Your mission is to simply get through another week. Is your mission to build a business, develop a successful career, have a family…or my simply live a happy life. A lot of people struggle to figure out their mission, even more so, there are a lot of people who don’t even know why they exist.

Why is it so important to know your mission? When you know your mission, all the other parts of your life fall into place. When you know your mission in life, you get clarity as to what if important and what isn’t important; what to say yes to and what to say no to. When you know your mission, you know how to better use your time, and leverage your resources. When you know your mission, you can better measure if you are making progress, finding success. When you have a mission you actually can live a more free life because you have clear boundaries to live within. When you know your mission, everything else in life falls into place.

So the million dollar question is this: What is your mission?

God:

Thankfully, Jesus has a mission for those who choose to follow him. Let’s take a look at what it is. If you have a Bible or device, go to Matthew, chapter twenty-eight. If you are using the YouVersion Bible app, go to the bottom right hand corner where it says “More”. In the new menu look for “Events”. In events, look for Iowa City Church and all of the sermon notes, Scriptures and details will be available for you.

At the close of Matthew’s account of Jesus’ life, we see Jesus wrapping up his mission. He has made disciples, died on the cross, and been resurrected from the dead. Mission is accomplished. However, before he exits the scene physically, he has a mission for his disciples and that is what I want us to focus on this morning…because it’s in their mission that we find our mission. So let’s look at Core verse 26 and also the verses where Jesus talks about our mission.

Matthew 28:18 NIV

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Because of Jesus death and resurrection, he now rules as king. He’s defeated sin, the enemy, and death. All authority is given to him over the seen and unseen. Jesus is King. If there is anyone who is able to give us a mission it’s the king. The one who has all the authority. In fact, would you want to get a mission from anyone else?

Matthew 28:19 NIV

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

If you don’t get anything else from this morning, please understand this one thing. The command of this verse is this: make disciples. There it is. There is the mission of the Christian, to make disciples.

What is a disciple? A disciple is someone who wants to become like their teacher. Jesus had twelve disciples, and he invested in them by living life with them, teaching them and modeling what it looked like to live life. Jesus is giving is disciples a clear mission, go make disciples, who go make disciples, who go make disciples. Guess what? They did, because here we are. Those disciples carried out their mission.

How did they do it? Well Jesus gives them a strategy to carry out their mission:

1. Going (It can also be understood, as you are going)

To be clear, sometimes God calls people to specific places in the region, country or world. In fact, we have people in our church who have been called by God to go to a specific country in our world with the express task of making disciples. Somes God calls because he knows you are the right person for the job. However, for the most part, our disciple making mission happens right were we are, as we are going about our life. The people that you are to be discipling are probably folks you would see during your everyday activities; a neighbor, friend, a co-worker, the person who always see at the gym or the store. These are people you probably already have a repore with, and probably people you already connect with…except, they aren’t following Jesus. The mission, make disciples. By leveraging our resources by connecting with everyday people who don’t know or follow Jesus. But here is the big point, making disciples is a part of our every day life.

2. Baptizing

I’m not going to do a deep dive into baptism here because in about 13 weeks we are going to spend the whole time talking about baptism in depth. However, let me mention three important reasons why baptism is an important strategy in making a disciple.

Jesus said so. Baptism and it’s role in following Jesus were his idea. That’s a good enough reason…if I’m being honest.

It’s a marker. We remember the day we exit the womb by calling it our birthday....and remember it every year. We mark our transitions from high school to college with a graduation and diploma. We’ve completed the work and now we are a graduate. We mark and remember the day when someone gets married. There is a ceremony, vows, pictures and marriage license. From that day forward they are married. Baptism gives you that same moment, that same marker.

It’s an identity. Baptism doesn’t mean that your perfect or that you have everything figured out. It’s actualy just the opposite, baptism is you signing up to become like Jesus can begin the journey of becoming like him. The mission is making disciples, and baptism is an valuable step in that journey.

Let’s look at the next verse.

Matthew 28:20 NIV

and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

3. Teaching

Here is where a lot of us get hung up. We feel like we don’t have all the answers…we just don’t know enough. I have a couple things I want you to think about regarding that statement.

1. Do Something About It. We really can’t go around using the excuse: Well, I can’t really carry out this mission because I really don’t know anything. If that’s your excuse, are you even a disciple yourself? A disciple of Jesus is one who is daily focused on becoming like Jesus. If you aren’t commitmed to a regular schedule of becoming like Jesus, then honestly it might be time to rethink things and renew your commitment. If I’m a disciple of Jesus, there are some basic truths that I know about Jesus.

2. The Basics Are Not Very Complicated. One of the reasons Jesus is such a good teach is that he liked to simply the basics. Here’s a classic example in Matthew 22. Jesus is being questioned as to which of the many Laws people should keep. Jesus simplfies in a brilliant way.

Matthew 22:37–40 NIV

Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Jesus says all of the Law and all of the Prophets hang on these two commands: Love God and love people. That’s it. That’s what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. Surely you can remember that! Our mission is to make disciples, and that means we need to pass along the information we have discovered about Jesus.

Jesus has handed out the mission. He’s given the strategy. But he concludes with some very powerful words we all need to hear: “And surely I am with you always , to the very end of the age.”

God is always with his people. But when you are on mission, Jesus says that he is right there…because Jesus’ mission is now our mission. Jesus is so invested iint thsi that he promises to walk with us through these moments of making disciples.

In one of my groups last week, one of the group members talked about how they had been at a church type camp with Junior High boys. During the last evening, when an invitation was given to accept Jesus one of the boys in his group got up. This indvidual was nervous, didn’t know what to do or say. However, when the time came, he started talking and God gave this person the words to say. He can’t explain it except Jesus was there to help with the mission. I know that that there are a lot of you here who want to grow in your relationship with Jesus or really expereince God working in your life. May I suggest that you get on mission and experience the power of Jesus in your life.

When Jesus’ mission becomes our mission, the rest of our life falls into place.

You:

So taking on this mission can seem really overwhelming, I know. Let’s break it up into some steps you can take.

Who Is Your One - Start by focusing on one. Start by asking God to direct you to the right person. Remember, God has the same mission. He cares about these people as well. Ask God, and then begin to look for moments, opportunities to have Jesus centered conversations with the people you see everyday. Consider inviting them to watch a service online or even joining you for Easter Sunday. There are a lot of people in our community, looking for help and seeking answers. Did you know that in our country, 96% of Christians will never lead another person to Jesus? That’s just not acceptable! Let’s change that…find your one, then roll up your sleeves and get to work.

Who Is Discipling You? (It’s Hard To Make A Disciple If No One Discipled You) - If you find yourself in this space of not knowing for sure what you believe or maybe you haven’t put your faith in Jesus then your first step is to get connected with some people you can trust who will help you on this discipleship journey. If that is you, please contact us here at the church.

Baptism - Maybe you are ready to take the step, begin the journey of identifying yourself as a disciple of Jesus. If you have never set yourself apart in that way and began the journey of becoming like Jesus I would like to offer you an opportunity to do just that. On Sunday, March 28 we will have baptism service following the worship service…for anyone who would like to take that step. Just contact me and I will put you on the list.

Here’s an example of what can happen when Jesus’ mission becomes your mission.

We:

Global missions expert Paul Borthwick shared the following story to demonstrate what happens when Jesus’ mission becomes our mission.

A young man named Peter reminded me of a modern-day Philip. I stopped in to a McDonald's in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and I noticed Peter working the counter. I recognized him from our young adult ministry at church, and I knew he had just graduated from Harvard University with a master's degree. I greeted him and managed to get him to break free for coffee together.

"What are you doing here?" I asked, knowing that Harvard master's degree students don't usually aspire to work the counter at McDonald's. "Well," he explained, "I graduated in May but I went four months without finding a job, so I said to myself, 'I need some income to pay bills.' So this is where I've ended up—at least for now."

"Sorry to hear that. It must be hard," I replied, but Peter cut me off.

"No. Don't be sorry. God has me here. This place is giving me awesome opportunities to share my faith. I'm on a shift that includes a Buddhist guy from Sri Lanka, a Muslim fellow from Lebanon, a Hindu lady from India, and a fellow Christian from El Salvador. It's awesome. I get to be a global missionary to my coworkers while asking 'would you like fries with that?'"

He laughed and so did I. Like Philip, Peter found himself in a setting he never would have chosen as part of his long-term plan, but his mindset of living as a sent person shaped the way he looked at his circumstances and at the people around him.

When Jesus’ mission becomes your mission, the rest of your life falls into place.