Make God Your Mission
6. As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him,
7. Rooted and built up in Him, and established in the Faith, as you have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.
Colossians 2:6-7
Mission-less Lives
One of the TV programs I enjoyed watching growing up in the late 1960s, was the old version of Mission Impossible. It was always filled with adventure, fast action, and suspense. The team was assigned a task to rescue someone, prevent an evil plot, or to deliver something to its intended destination. The person in charge would always tell the mission leader, “Your mission is …” Then the one assigning the mission would say, this message will “self-destruct …” How this relates to our Christian mission is that many are allowing the message to “self-destruct” before being carried out. No, God’s Word is not self-destructing, but the Christian mission is falling by the wayside.
As Christians we must understand that we have a mission from God and our Mission is God. This involves three critical elements: Worship, Work, and Witnessing in a dying world. Sadly, the Church, in the Biblical sense, has become a Mission-less program focused on fund raising, or political action, or entertainment, or well-intentioned community projects to make a “name” for the organization. No wonder, the younger generation is struggling to find relevance in the Church movement. The Church must identify its worship, its work, and its witness as God’s agency on earth.
This starts with the individual believer. Each person must understand their need for and their role (mission) in worshipping God, working for God, and witnessing for God. Paul provides that guidance in this critical verse of Colossians. As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him. There is not a problem of whether or not Christians identify with Christ because many will acknowledge their identity with Jesus Christ. As a matter of fact, according to the Pew Research Center, nearly 63 percent of the U.S. population say they are Christians. (US News, Danielle Haynes report Dec. 2021). The report also cites a decline of 14% from 2007. This definitely points to a problem for the Church to have such a steep decline in its movement over the last 14 years. Something is wrong and I think it points to the problem of Mission-less living.
The Bible speaks of a great falling away from the faith in the latter days. (see 2 Thessalonian 2:3). Does this “falling away” from the faith mean that the Church is no longer responsible for carrying out its mission? I think not. Now, more than ever, the Church of Jesus should be committed to fulfilling its mission. It all starts with Mission Living.
Mission Living means Living for God
In Charlotte and Halifax County, Virginia, there is a significant population of Mennonites. They believe in God and are committed to a simple way of life. Here is the point, despite the rise in modern technology, they still dress a certain way and ride in horse and buggies. Their style of worship is the same because they believe in their mission. One of the tenets of their faith is “separation from the world.” They live in the world, but they do not live like the world. Regardless of what you or I think of the Mennonites, they have proven to be hard working people committed to their faith.
It is going to take commitment by the Church if we are to live out our faith and to live out our lives to the Glory of God. Rather than creating a list of what we are against we need to develop a list of what we are for. There is one definite statement that says it all when it comes to Christ. “For me to live is Christ.” Philippians 1:21. It is as simple as that. We must make living for God our highest and purest priority. So, lets make God our mission.
There is no doubt that the Apostle Paul was sold out to God. That is without question. But how did he make living for God his mission? Each believer must determine to carry out their assignment. As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him. How did we receive Christ Jesus the Lord? We accepted Him by faith. We believed in Jesus to the point that it changed us from the life of sinner to saints in Christ. John 1:12, but as many as received Him, (Jesus) He gave power to become the children of God, even to them who believe on His Name. We trusted Jesus enough to save our souls, so now we must trust Jesus to walk in His path of Truth. It really boils down to two major focus areas in Christ. First, to know Jesus Christ for ourselves. Go further in Christ to the point of knowing Who He is as well as knowing what He did and what He means. Reach the point of saying as Peter did, You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God. When we know that as a Truth in our lives, it will drive us to the second focus: Make Jesus known to everyone.
When we are admonished to so walk in Him, that means our daily living should reflect what we believe. Back to our Mennonite friends, you will know them by the way they live. The Christian must cease their attempts to look and act like the world and start living and acting like the One they represent. As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him.
The Apostle Paul adds another layer to this Mission Living for Christ. Being rooted and built up in Him, and established in the Faith, as you have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Dr. David Jeremiah says that when we come to Christ, we come empty handed and having nothing to offer God. But when we are filled with Christ, we not only have something to offer God and the world, but we are also the offering. That is a great thought to say that we are the offering of God. So, the mission then becomes living as an offering to God. We are built up in Jesus Christ. We are established or rock solid in the Faith of Jesus Christ and our life is a living example of thanksgiving to God. The Apostle Paul paints a picture of what that looks like in Romans 12:1. I beg you brothers and sisters, in view of God’s Mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, for this is your true and proper worship. We are to live it out in our worship, in our work, and in our witness.
Let me give several examples of living out our mission through worship, work, and through our witness. While there are some view worship as a style of music and praise, it may include that, but it is much more. To live your worship is to imitate Christ. We have all probably seen some Elvis Presley impersonators and commented how much they looked like, acted like, and sang like Elvis. Why can’t we be Jesus impersonators? Now you are moving from believing in Jesus to practicing Jesus. You must know His Words. You must practice His interactions with people. You become so captivated with Jesus and you worship Him so much, that you literally impersonate Him. That means you are taking your body and becoming the living sacrifice to God. Rather than being offered on an altar, you are living each day to please Jesus. That is true worship at its best according to Ephesians 5:1, imitate God, therefore in everything you do, because you are His dear children.
We also demonstrate mission living by our work. As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him. Our faith is not what we say or tell others, our faith is demonstrated in our actions. It has a lot to do with Christian attitude.
There are a lot of Christians who are working for the Lord, but they have poor attitudes, and it is turning people off. Some Churches are filled with people doing things that they care so much about what they are doing that they drive others away from the faith. It has to do with attitude. What kind of attitude did Jesus have about the work of God? Jesus was joyous. Jesus was loving and kind to those who needed help. That same attitude of Christ should be carried out in our work. It is God’s mission that you are fulfilling.
Get rid of that nasty attitude because it give Jesus Christ a bad reputation. Put on that joy and peace even when things go wrong. Put on love even though people may spitefully use you and persecute you. Remember who you are working for, and it will keep you from getting upset over how you are working for the Lord. Actually, it is not you doing the work but rather the Holy Spirit that is working through you. So, stop embarrassing the Holy Spirit with your complaining and murmuring.
Finally, we must witness for Christ if we are to fulfill our mission. Most of us think of this as getting in someone’s face and telling them how to live. But a witness is a legal term, it is an advertisement term, and it is a lifestyle term. It is a legal term in the sense that you have been called by God to take the witness stand. You have been called by God to testify to the world why, what, and how you believe in Jesus Christ. Tell what you know and tell it with joy. On the advertisement side of witnessing, we are displaying the Greatest Gift ever given to the world. Be a good salesman and show how people how Jesus works. They will look at you for the evidence of whether or not the Gift works. Be a good salesman for Jesus and share with the world the wonders of God Almighty. Lastly, it is a lifestyle term that needs no words or bumper stickers. People will take one look at your lifestyle, and they can determine whether God is real in your life or not. So, I close with this question. If you could use no words, if you had nothing else to show but the way you live, what would your life say about Jesus? Make it your mission to live and give all the Glory to God.