Do you ever feel like the MISSION we’re part of, the mission we’re called to live out as Christian people, as followers of Jesus – is IMPOSSIBLE? Is this MISSION IMPOSSIBLE??
That’s what we’re thinking about for the next three weeks, three different looks at this IMPOSSIBLE MISSION in front of us, what seems like an IMPOSSIBLE MISSION >
What is that mission?
Things like loving God and loving other people, like taking up and carrying our cross, like being a living sacrifice… just to name few > what do you think of when you think of our mission, God’s mission in the world??
It might seem like an IMPOSSIBLE MISSON at times, of sharing the gospel with others, that people from all nations would be baptized and made disciples, that those who don’t know Jesus in our local area, in our own family and circles of friends, would come to know Jesus… Let alone how we’re going ourselves, how we’re working together as an ‘outpost of God’s mission’ right here!
All these things we’re called to do, all things we’re meant to be on about as church, looking inward and looking outward > but is it all too hard? Can any of it actually happen??
Should we just let all that go and just do the easy thing of not worrying about that stuff, let’s just stay in our comfort zone and make sure we’re looked after – we know Jesus has what we need, let’s just go with that. Very tempting to go down that track, much easier, we can look after ourselves but other people are a whole different ball game.
A temptation we all face there, taking it easy and doing the Christian life on ‘easy mode,’ even avoiding questions we face into the future as church and what that looks like.
But we’re not here just to chill out, to take it easy – we’re here to be in a living and growing relationship with Jesus, with each other, to learn more about him and to share that journey in community, all really good things that happen in many different ways!
So it isn’t bad news, it’s actually really good news, it’s a call to be part of something more, something deeper, something better than the world can offer.
If you’ve seen the MISSION IMPOSSIBLE movies – there’s a few of them – you’ll know the premise of what the hero Tom Cruise has to deal with, he’s a ‘messiah’-like character actually if you think about it.
He gets a message – that always self-destructs after he reads it – asking him to accept a new mission, as part of his job in the IMF, the ‘Impossible Mission Force.’
Sometimes being a Christian person feels like being part of the Impossible Mission Force! Do you ever feel that, like it’s all too hard, it’s not going to happen?
Now I’m not going to go any further into the Mission Impossible series, it’s just a way to get us thinking about God’s mission, about the challenges in front of us, the mission in front of us that is to be and do church where we find ourselves today, reflecting on what’s gone before and heading into the future together as well, being part of the local and the wider church, the body of Christ, part of God’s mission in the world.
We’ve got some very good help in this mission, help that goes with us into the seemingly impossible mission field that is the world out there, even in our own lives and with the people around us.
In the same way Paul helps Timothy in his mission, God helps us in our mission > and we know it’s the same mission, it’s God’s mission that we get to be part of.
Paul lays out some really important things here about how we can set ourselves up, the posture and mindset we can have as we check out how we’re going to do this mission together > and that’s an ongoing question and challenge for us too, to even be on the same page together as church as we think about these things.
What’s the best foundation we can build on, the best basis and source for faithful living available to us? God’s word of course, this is what we need to work on together if we’re going to have any idea of who God is, who we are and who we’re called to be.
So let’s jump into that now, let’s look at this together as a church community, this applies to all of us:
3 things to look at today as we step out into this seemingly IMPOSSIBLE MISSION in front of us:
- Paul encourages Timothy in verse 6 to ‘fan into flame the gift of God’
- Don’t stamp it out, fire it up! This is a good fire, the type of fire we want to keep going!
- When this fire is going we can see how God is working among us, and other people can also see God at work > a great image for the Holy Spirit at work, we see the fire burning in each of us and then other people can see that fire and maybe they notice that something is going on there… This actually happens, I can tell you I’ve seen it happening here across our community, and I’m sure you’ve seen it too, signs of the Holy Spirit at work in people so other people can see it…
- This fire is fanned in many different ways, large scale and small scale, intimate and personal to grand and universal…
- What are some practical examples of ‘the gift of God being fanned into flame?’
- We might see it through simple acts of service like being kind to someone we don’t know, helping someone in need, asking how someone is going and listening to the answer, and those rare moments that happen where a non-Christian friend asks you something about faith or church or Jesus and a door opens up to a really interesting conversation…
- We also see it in what’s happening right now in worship! Mission is NOT just ‘out there’ but it’s also IN HERE > Hearing from God’s word, praying together, confessing our sins and our faith, receiving forgiveness through God’s word and the flesh and blood of his son Jesus, a few signs of God’s mission happening among us. And all that as part of the life of a child of God, who has been baptized into God’s family.
- God’s mission is dynamic and multi-faceted and it reaches us in ways we can see and ways we can’t > there’s a key difference between what we might think OUR OWN mission is as opposed to what GOD’S MISSION is > we don’t always know what he’s planning or what he has in store!
2. Secondly Paul says what TO do, and what NOT to do – NOT being or timid or ashamed, but being ‘filled with the power of God,’ with love and also with self-discipline.
- Power, love and self-discipline or self-control… Things Paul has a lot to say about, things that keep coming up!
- Do you ever feel timid or ashamed of your faith? I do at times, I’m sure you have at some point.
- Sometimes we might find ourselves in spaces where it’s very unpopular to be a Christian, where everyone else around us has a different idea of this Jesus stuff or even no idea at all, where we might even feel unable to be our true ourselves.
- But Paul encourages Timothy here – there’s a hint for what we need to do for each other, encourage each other and build each other up so we have a network of support and a foundation to lean on when we come up against those unfriendly spaces – to trust not in your own power or love or self-discipline but to trust in GOD’S. His power, his love, Jesus’ self-discipline that he would die on the cross for you and me and every person. That’s powerful, that’s loving and that’s self-disciple right there.
- Without God’s strength we are weak, we are unloving and we are loose in control and discipline. Out of God’s strength is where we operate from, where we come from and where we return back to time and time again.
3. And lastly Paul says we are ‘called to a holy life’
- Holy life means ‘set-apart’ life, a life where we are identified as children of God. A life where we are known by name by the one who made us, who has forgiven us and given us new life in him that goes beyond our earthly life.
- That’s the life we’re called to, and that means we’ve got something pretty serious to offer other people doesn’t it! We can tell them about this, we can live this out among them, the simple truth that Jesus knows us and that he is the way, the truth and the life. Nothing else is, only him.
- We can get help from our church community around us when life gets hard, we can celebrate with our church community when good things happen, we can walk alongside each other and do the journey together > that’s why God made us this way, that’s what he’s doing among us, in our places with our people.
Verse 9 says, ‘God has saved us and called us to a holy life – not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace.’
God’s purpose and God’s grace are at work among us. Whether we see it or not, whether we know it or not, that is what’s happening if we go by what God’s word says.
So when it seems like an IMPOSSIBLE MISSION in front of us at times, we know God is a God of possibility, who sees more than we can and does more than we can do, and he has called us to holy life as his children. We put our hope and our trust in him, so he can renew our hearts and minds and lead us on into the calling he has given us as his people.
Lord we thank you for setting us apart through the gift of your son, for calling us into the mission of your work in the world and that it’s not about our power, our love or our self-discipline but it’s all yours, you are the one who calls us and sustains us. Continue to lead us to be your people in this place, in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
Tom Kitson 