Made for a Mission
The Purpose-Driven Life, part 6
Wildwind Community Church
David K. Flowers
November 18, 2007
Well, today we come to the fifth of God’s five purposes for our lives. For those of you who are newcomers today, I want to welcome you. We have spent the last few weeks learning, or being reminded, of why God put us on this earth. It’s incredible to me how many people have learned to live in this world every day with no idea why they exist. They act like the careers and automobiles and restaurants and paychecks and promotions actually matter. Do you realize that if you don’t know what your actual purpose is, you will automatically live for some other purpose? Human beings can’t go on without hope, without belief in something, so if we don’t believe in God, or don’t know why God put us here, and we don’t know God’s purposes for our lives, then we will automatically live for some other purpose. I remind people all the time of Bob Dylan’s words, “you gotta serve somebody.” One way or another, you will adopt some kind of purpose in life and the purpose you adopt will determine the kind of person you become. If you decide life is about getting all you can for yourself, that will determine how you treat other people. If you decide life is about making money, that will determine how you use your resources. If you decide life is just about having fun, that will determine what you do with your time.
What I’ve been talking about these last few weeks are the purposes that God created you for. There are lots of ways to live, but I think the best way to live is according to how you were created to live. Can you use an automobile to crack an egg? Yep – but it will be messy and clumsy and probably very frustrating. Can you use a fork to drink milk? Yep – but it’ll be way harder than it needs to be. Can you use a chainsaw to make music? Only if you redefine what music is!
You can live your life however you want. You can live for yourself; you can live for money or power or love or booze or nature – whatever on earth you want – there are tons of things you can live for. But it only makes sense to me that until we find out how we were created to live and actually begin living that way, things will always be a bit out of whack. So my purpose in going through this series over the past few weeks has been to help you make sure you are fully in whack! I don’t mean wacko or whacked out, I mean in whack – the opposite of being out of whack!
Let’s review quickly. God’s first purpose for your life is what? Worship – to know and love God. The second purpose is fellowship, that’s learning to love who? Each other. The third is learning to become like Christ, a word we call what? Discipleship! And the fourth, the one we covered last week, is learning to use our abilities to serve God. Today I want to talk to you about your fifth purpose. See, you were made for a mission. God has a specific mission, or task, that you are to use up your life in completing.
In the book of Acts, Jesus said:
Acts 1:8 (NIV)
(8) …you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
Just before Jesus left earth to return to heaven, he gave his disciples (that’s you and me) this task of serving as witnesses to Christ’s life and teachings, other words, just sharing with people who Jesus was and what he taught. And where did he say he wanted that to happen? The short answer is everywhere! First in Jerusalem, in their hometown. Right there in the place where they lived. Second, in Judea and Samaria – in other words in surrounding communities. And third, to the ends of the earth – in other words, all over the world. So Jesus wanted them to share who he was and what he taught in their own world (their hometown, among people they knew), just beyond their world (with strangers), and in the whole world (which would require going to places intentionally). That’s still God’s desire for us today, that we share who Jesus was and what he taught with people in our own communities, with people just outside our own communities, and then with people all over the world.
Now we’re going to look at each one of these individually, but before we do, I want to look at what Jesus did not say. Jesus said “You will be my witnesses,” he did not say, “You will be my lawyers.” God does not need us to defend him. We often think as Christians that it’s our job to defend God. After all, if we are God’s mouth, God’s hands, and God’s feet, should we not speak up and defend God when someone attacks him? Shouldn’t we bravely venture into the dragon’s jaws to defend God from all criticism? In a word, no.
In Matthew chapter 10, Jesus sends out his disciples to heal and teach in the surrounding towns. Now if I did that with you – if I gathered a group of you here after church and said, “I want you to go out into the community of Grand Blanc and tell people about God, and pray for them,” wouldn’t you want a few words of training on exactly what to do and what not to do? Of course! So before he sends them off he gives them very detailed instructions about what to do. I need to skip most of that today, but I want to draw your attention to this one intriguing thing.
Matthew 10:12-15 (MSG)
(12) "When you knock on a door, be courteous in your greeting.
(13) If they welcome you, be gentle in your conversation.
(14) If they don’t welcome you, quietly withdraw. Don’t make a scene. Shrug your shoulders and be on your way.
(15) You can be sure that on Judgment Day they’ll be mighty sorry—but it’s no concern of yours now.
Did you see this? Jesus gives instructions for how to approach people, what to do if they are receptive, and what to do if they are not receptive! How are we to be around those who do not know Christ? Always courteous! We see that when we are welcomed, we are to be gentle, and when we are not welcomed, we are to quietly withdraw without making a scene. In other words, gentleness is always the rule. “Sure,” Jesus says. “Ultimately those who will not hear will be accountable before God,” but look at this – “that’s no concern of yours.”
My friends, God does not need us to defend him. A day is coming when every person on the planet will stand before God and give account – when each person will be a defender of himself or herself. It is not God who needs defense. God is not the one who will stand before us, but we will stand before him. We see in the words of Jesus here that a person’s receptivity to hearing about God should be used as a basis for deciding whether or not to say anything. We are given a direct command that if a person is not receptive, we are to withdraw quietly. In other words, for that person who constantly speaks badly about God and about Christians, if that person is not willing to listen, is a mocker and does not want to hear what you might have to say, remain quiet. Jesus makes it abundantly clear that we are not to charge in and start preaching to those who have no interest in hearing. If more individual Christians and churches heeded this, more people in our country today would be receptive. It’s perfectly fine to remain quiet about God around a person who has made it abundantly clear that they do not wish to hear.
So we’re not to be lawyers for God – we’re not here to make God’s case for him. We’re just to be witnesses. We’re just to tell people what has happened in our own lives, how Christ has made a difference, and – if they want to hear – how he could make a difference in their lives too. The pressure’s off! When you are a witness to a car accident, all you do is tell the officer what you saw and walk him through it.
When you tell other people who God is and what he has done, the Bible calls that evangelism. Evangelism is a scary word, but it just means sharing with others, being a witness. Okay, having established what it means to be witnesses, let’s talk about that, because your first job is to share with those in your world. This would be sharing God with your friends and your family and the people you work with and are close to. This is your immediate circle of influence. God wants you to be a witness for him among these people. Some of you have friends and family members and work associates you are praying for, and God just wants you to remain faithful in praying and sharing gently and as they are ready to hear. Some of you here today perhaps ARE the friends and family who are being prayed for and shared with! I want to take a moment to give you a special welcome today. Thank you for coming and I hope you feel free to relax and ask questions as you hear this message. We are here for you and will do whatever we can to help you on your journey. I want to tell you that I can’t stand it when churches do stealth evangelism! If you do not know Christ today, if you have not committed your life to God and decided that you’re going to live your life for his purposes, let me tell you exactly what we’re up to. We believe what I said earlier, that everyone will live their life for one purpose or another. We believe God created us somehow and that he created us for reasons we can come to understand. And we believe that if we conform our lives to why we are here, that’s where we will find ultimate peace and contentment and happiness. Our leader, Jesus, told us several times that he wanted us to spend our lives telling people how different life is when it’s lived according to his teachings. And we want to do that faithfully. Frankly there are times we’ve done a lousy job of it and caused people to ultimately move even farther away from God as we have presented God loudly, rudely, and judgmentally, even though Jesus clearly said that what happens between a person and God on judgment day is none of our business!
And so this morning, on behalf of all believers at Wildwind and all Christians everywhere who sincerely desire to be faithful to all Jesus taught, I apologize for those Christians who have hurt you, judged you, and made your search for God way more frustrating and complicated than it needed to be. It is my hope that at Wildwind you will find a different approach – not because we’re perfect by any stretch – but because we’re trying to balance the urgency of the message with the urgency of God’s love for every single person, regardless of where they are on their spiritual journey. So welcome today.
Back to our believers. Why do we often not share with the people in our world? Two reasons. The first is because we often believe people aren’t interested in spiritual things. I want to tell you, this is simply not true. Interest in spiritual things has never been higher than it is in America right now. People are very open to spiritual things but many are no longer looking to Christianity because so many Christians have succeeded in taking what I believe is the greatest message about the greatest love in the universe and made it into a petty list of rule-following, and then added in big portions of criticism, judgmentalism, and hypocrisy to the mix. Really, why WOULD people look to Chrisitanity?
There’s an answer to that – a reason why people would still look to Christianity. People will look if God’s witnesses are gentle and faithful, like he said we should be way back when. People will look if they see something in your life that they wish were in theirs. People will look if they suspect that what they see is God. People will look if they believe you love them and care for them enough to walk with them on their journey and don’t try to control everything but let God’s Spirit lead them. They will look if they see that you are not afraid of science, of philosophy, of the knowledge that is in our world today, but that you recognize all knowledge of every kind comes from God. It’s simply not true that people are not interested in spiritual things. What they are not interested in is clichés, pat answers, heads in the sand denying things like evolution and global warming, and moral superiority. If God is real, we don’t have to resort to any of those things.
The second reason we don’t share with those in our world is that we lack patience. My wife is a Christian today because her senior year of high school a Christian friend of hers invited her to church every week for almost a year. It took Christy that long to run out of excuses. When she finally showed up at church she had not told the guy who invited her that she’d be there that week, and he was scheduled to run sound back in the booth. So he took her up front and introduced her to a couple friends of his and asked if she could sit with them. One of those friends was me. And the rest is history, my friends. See, that friend or family member who keeps finding excuses not to come – God has them on a journey you know nothing about. You just don’t know what God might want to make of that person – or how brightly they will shine when they finally allow God to find them. This requires patience. If you invite someone to church and encounter hostility, let it go. But as long as the person stays open, stay with them. After all, God is with them – don’t you want to be where God is?
How do you share with people in your world? Two ways. First, learn to share the gospel. Write down how you found God and how you began your relationship with him and what it means to you. Learn how to guide someone through a prayer to ask Christ to forgive their sins and lead their life. Second, practice the strategy of Invest and Invite. Invest and Invite. Invest in relationships with people who are open to God and don’t know him, and then invite them to church. Be up front with people – don’t trick them into things. God will guide! Invest and Invite. Invest and Invite. Do you already have relationships with people that you are investing in? I’ll bet you do. Have you invited them to church? If so, are you being patient? Are you letting God guide?
So you must share with those in your world. Second, you must share with those beyond your world – with people you do not know. One way of doing that will be through Wildwind’s food giveaway this month – I hope you have registered for that because it’s going to be an incredible day of meeting people’s deep needs and getting information to them about a church that loves them and will care for them. (That’s us!) Another way of doing it, again, is through Invest and Invite. You might consider intentionally building a friendship with someone who doesn’t know God and then, if they are open, sharing God’s love with them or inviting them to church. And if they are not open, what do you do? You gently love them anyway because God loves people and they are not just projects for evangelizing. Another way you share with people is through partnering with your church in evangelism. As you are building relationships, consider inviting some people over for a game night and make sure some of your Wildwind friends are there. Relationships matter in this more than anything. Wanna turn people off to God permanently? Introduce them to a few “Christians” who are arrogant, self-righteous jerks. That’ll probably do trick. Wanna help open people up to God? Introduce them to a few Christians who are humble, gracious, loving, and fun!
Not only must you share with those in your world and with those beyond your world, but you must take the final step and share with the whole world. Yesterday Wildwind finished collecting boxes for our annual Operation Christmas Child project to share Christmas gifts and the love of God with children all over the world. Right now on our back table are pictures of children that need to be supported through International Childcare Ministries of the Free Methodist Church. We talked about that earlier this morning and I’d encourage you to consider that. It’s one way to make a global impact. Another obviously is through missions giving and mission trips. This year Wildwind is giving $2315 to the Yost family, friends of Christy’s and mine and former pastors in our conference who went to Mexico as missionaries over a year ago. In the coming months Wildwind will open a fund for you to give specifically to support the work of missions all over the world. Another way is by going on a mission trip yourself. Wildwind will be organizing some of these trips and providing opportunities to do that in the coming three-five years and if before then you have a chance to go with another organization, we urge you to do so. You won’t regret it. We have some other opportunities we are exploring and are getting excited about and will be presenting to you. What I know is that as a church, and as individuals, we must embrace Christ’s call for us to impact not just our family and friends, not just our communities, but the whole world.
A few months ago I shared with you my passion that Wildwind be a church with an individual, community, and global impact. It just so happens that this is not only my heartbeat but was the heartbeat of our Lord as well. Share here in Jerusalem, he said. Then in the surrounding towns of Judea and Samaria, and then in the whole world! I want to finish a bit differently today – by asking God a question, and by asking you to ask God that same question with me. Here’s the question. “God, how do you want me to reach the world?”
Five years ago I had a vision to start a different kind of church. We did it, and Wildwind is a growing ministry with flourishing programs for children and teens and adults. So we did what we started out to do. I’m thinking God must have something new for us to do, or else my heart wouldn’t still be beating. Have you thought about that? The only reason your heart is still beating is because God still has a use for you!
You were planned for a purpose – to love God through worship. You were formed for God’s family – to love the church in fellowship. You were created to become like Christ – to be like Jesus through discipleship. You were shaped for serving God – to do ministry in the church through service. And you were made for a mission – to share these five purposes and God’s amazing grace in your world, beyond your world, and in the whole world. Will you pray this prayer with me.
God thank you for where you have led me and led Wildwind so far. But God, I ask you, what do you want to do now? We have begun to see our church making personal impacts on lives. How do you want us to keep moving forward and making community and global impacts, sharing with those beyond our world and with the whole world? We know you have a great purpose for us and one we are specifically meant to accomplish. Lord, would you show me, show us, what you would have us do, and then would you give us hearts to be faithful and obedient? Amen.
