The 1980 The Blues Brothers movie centered on a quest to raise property tax money to save an orphanage from being closed down.
Though targeted by a homicidal mystery woman, Neo-Nazis, and a country western band, and relentlessly pursued by Illinois State Troopers, they repeatedly reminded themselves that they were on “a mission from God.”
They were not going to be distracted from their objective.
Jake and Elwood Blues cannot be mistaken for good role models; however, saving an orphanage from being shut down by the tax man is certainly a laudable mission.
But what about us and our mission from God?
Many people in today’s culture forget that God calls them on a mission. To be honest, I even forget at times. It is way too easy to get distracted by life. Yet there are those around us who are wondering what the purpose of life is. They are asking, “What’s my mission?”
1 Corinthians 6:20 tells us that we were bought at a price… in order that we glorify God.
God Himself bought us, saved us, and cleaned us up to prepare us for the mission He has for each one of us. Ephesians 2:8-10 says,
“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”
We are redeemed – bought with a price through the broken body and shed blood of Jesus – and made alive for His purpose!
The Apostle Paul points out that the redeemed of God once walked according to the ways of this world and that we were dead spiritually, pursuing our own desires.
He tells us that by nature, we were children of wrath.
Now, some well-meaning people foolishly parrot the saying that “we are all God’s children.”
No, that is NOT true.
Paul tells us that before receiving God’s grace by faith we were children of wrath. In John 1:12-13, we are told that the redeemed of God become children of God through faith:
“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”
Ephesians 2:8-9 summarizes the Good News of the Gospel in two verses, stating that we are saved by God’s grace through faith in Jesus’ perfect life, death, and resurrection. We cannot earn God’s grace apart from that. There is nothing we can do. No matter how good we are, we will always fall short of God’s perfect standard.
Faith is the act of trusting in Jesus Christ, the finished work He accomplished (“It is finished”) on Good Friday, and His victory over death on Easter Sunday.
Once we accept this free gift of God, we become adopted “children of God,” and we have a new mission. Some of the tasks in this mission are unique to each individual.
Other obligations, we all share. For example, God wants us to reflect Him and be His witness in this world. The Apostle Paul uses the phrase “Christ’s ambassadors” to help us understand that we should see ourselves as representatives of God.
God wants us to live our lives as a model for the world to see. And He wants to use us as His hands and feet to show His love to others. 1 Peter 2:15 tells us,
“For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men…”
These foolish men are those who live in open rebellion to His love, mercy, and grace.
But how do we know HIS Perfect will in our lives? Remember that in Ephesians 2:10, we are told,
“…we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”
To be clear, good works are not something that we do to earn salvation. Rather, they spring up as a result of our salvation. When we are saved by grace through faith, we are given a new heart and a new desire to do good.
When we do good works, we are not only glorifying God but also helping to make the world a better place through sidewalk counseling, prison ministry, volunteering at a pregnancy center or food pantry, praying fervently for God to work in the hearts and minds of government officials, etc.
Take a look at Romans 12:2:
“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. THEN you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is — His good, pleasing, and perfect will.”
I believe that the key to learning God’s will for our lives is to be ready for the times when God wants to use us in special ways to bless, comfort, confront, or encourage others. We can do this by renewing our minds and understanding how God thinks by:
- Reading and meditating on the Word of God.
- Attending church.
- Fellowshipping with other Christians.
- Going to Bible studies.
- Mentoring younger Christians.
- Immersing ourselves in Christian conferences, videos, books, and events.
- Thanking Him for all His blessings.
- Praying:
- For the Lord to guide you and guard your mind.
- Asking God to search you and try you so that you
know what to put off and what to put on in your life. - For the Lord for help in taking captive wrong thoughts
and attitudes. - Scripture back to God.
In other words, we must soak God’s thinking into our minds.
That’s exactly how some of the great men and women of the Bible prepared themselves for God’s purpose.
Remember, David prepared for that confrontation with Goliath long before that fateful day. As a boy, he had spent his days out in the fields watching his father’s sheep and meditating on the law of God “day and night” (Psalm 1:2).
So involved in this activity, David began to write songs that spoke of the glory of God found in Scripture, which he later brought into the court of King Saul to ease Saul’s tortured mind. Thus, when David went out into the field to battle Goliath, he had long been prepared by this constant exposure to God’s mindset and was able to say with confidence,
“You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.” –1 Samuel 17:45
David had allowed God’s thinking to TRANSFORM his own.
But there is a kind of thinking that competes with God’s.
Our post-Christian culture constantly tries to conform us to its way of thinking with books, social media, news media, movies and TV shows, music, peer pressure, and even the video games that we play.
We’ve got to be careful and discerning about what we allow into our homes and our minds. In Galatians 6:7-9 the Apostle Paul warns us,
“Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.”
Why am I emphasizing Paul’s warning against deception? Because it is possible that we could MISS OUT on God’s will!
The Bible says I can miss out on God’s will by:
- Conforming my mind to the pattern of this world (Romans 12:2).
- Putting myself first – thinking more highly of myself than I ought to (Romans 12:3).
- Believing lies (2 Thessalonians 2:11).
- Keeping bad company (1 Corinthians 15:33).
By contrast, Paul talks about the kind of thinking that will ALWAYS allow us to be in God’s will. In 2 Corinthians 8:3-5, he praises the actions of the churches in Macedonia:
“For I bear witness that according to their ability, yes, and beyond their ability, they were freely willing, imploring us with much urgency that we would receive the gift and the fellowship of the ministering to the saints. And not only as we had hoped, but they first gave themselves to the Lord, and then to us by the will of God.”
In other words, the churches in Macedonia were doing the will of God BECAUSE they put God first in the choices they made.
The churches in Macedonia were doing things beyond their abilities BECAUSE they prioritized the things of God, and as a result, God made great use of them.
I have zero doubt: if we put God first in our decision-making, He will use us. And the opportunities in this polarized culture abound. The contrast between good and evil is getting clearer and clearer.
Jesus’s calling and mission is for you, and it’s for me.
He tells us: Follow ME. Seek Me. Love ME. Conform to My image.
What greater purpose or calling could we possibly heed?
