Steven Malcolm - The Overflow DevoSample

Fire

Matthew 5:14 and 16: “You are the light of the world...let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (ESV).

Just as we share DNA with our biological Fathers, as sons and daughters of God, through faith in Jesus, we now share in His DNA. And God is a God of mission. The word mission comes from the Latin word missio which means sending. In the book of John, Jesus describes himself as the One sent by The Father 22 times.

God the Father sent His Son Jesus to earth as the first missionary. God’s mission was and is today, to glorify Himself and to redeem a people from sin and hell, for His own Fatherly possession. God’s “Plan A” (there is no “Plan B”) strategy to save sinners through Jesus is His Church. God’s plan includes more than pastors, “varsity” level “super-Christians”, or the missionaries you get postcards from for your fridge. As Christ followers, God our Father is inviting and expecting US (you and me) to be a part of His plan/mission.

Everything we do outside of Sunday matters in an eternal / supernatural way. God is calling us to more than just a few charitable acts around the holidays to check off our box of good deeds for the year. God is calling us to live daily with a purpose, living intentionally for His glory and for the good of our neighbors and city. God is in control, and is this very moment writing a story of redemption in you and He wants to continue to write more stories of redemption through you!

John 20:21a: “Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you’.”...

Jesus is sending us as He was sent by the Father. This means that our lives as Christ followers should be progressively looking more and more like the life Jesus lived on this earth. So with John 20:21 in mind, we must answer the question: How was Jesus sent?

Jesus made himself very uncomfortable to come into a sinful broken world.

Jesus humbly entered the darkest places to rescue sinners. Jesus was empowered by the Holy Spirit to complete the mission.

God sent Him on and to obey the Father.

Jesus intentionally pursued relationship with outcasts of society (the hardest to love) in order to serve them, love them, welcome them, feed them, help them, heal them, teach them, and show them a picture of God’s love through Himself.

The life of Jesus was NEVER about Him and ALWAYS about the Father’s Will and Glory. Jesus was a sent Savior and we are to be a sent people. The Christian Church is meant to be a giant neon arrow pointing the world to just how radically God our Creator has loved sinners like us through Jesus.

The reality of the Christian life is that all of us will fail (probably today) to ‘let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” When we do, there is no condemnation from God (Romans 12) because Jesus already received the condemnation we deserve on the cross. So when we fail and fall on our faces, we must turn again to Jesus, to receive God’s radical love and unending forgiveness and to get back up and try again. For His glory and our joy.