MISSIONAL LIVING - Aligning Your Whole Life to the Mission and Purpose of Jesus

The tyranny of the urgent can steal our joy. We easily become near-sighted (or is it far-sighted…) we get to a point where all we can deal with is what is right in front of us. Think about your work patterns in the office, or the breakdown in communicating with your spouse, or any number of other things. It is so easy to lose sight of the target, the mission and purpose of Jesus.

If we are not careful the details become the reason we are here, the reason why we do what we do, the purpose of why we exist… and then we are left one day realizing that we have lived our whole life without a clear sense of what was important.

In the midst of the details (life, work, church) are we maintaining a clear bead on the essential target - the Great Commission and the Great Commandment?

THE MESSAGES

February 7, 2010 - Targeted Life - Keeping Your Focus - John 8: 1-11, 28-32
Jesus set the standard for those who have chosen to follow him as disciples. He depicts in every way how we are to live our lives. He says in John's gospel, "I and the Father are one...I say what the Father has given me to say...I do what the Father has called me to do." At every step, Jesus kept his focus on the target. His mission and purpose was God's mission and purpose, and he never lost sight of that target in the midst of the details of his life.

Reflection Questions:

1. What is the mission and purpose of Jesus (the target)? If someone never heard about Jesus, how would you describe his mission and purpose in ways he or she would understand?
2. If you are a follower of Jesus, how are you actually living out Jesus' mission and purpose?
   
3. When you think about the Target, how are you aligning with the bullseye for your relationships, your job, your family, etc...?
4. How does the ultimate target cause you to think about how you need to change?
   
5. What is one place in your life that is out of alignment with the Target? What is one area where you have gotten it in line? What has been the impact in your life and others' lives?

February 14, 2010 - Targeted Life: Food that Sustains - John 4:1-42

Today we continue to keep clearly in focus the target: The Mission and Purpose of Jesus. Jesus says, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work" (John 8:34). Staying on mission with Jesus is not only about radical obedience, but it is about finding that deep center of our lives that sustains us in a mixed up, distracting and confusing world - a world that attempts to pull us off into different directions for lives.

Reflection Questions:

1. What foods do you like to eat? Do you eat more for comfort or nutrition?
2. When you are struggling in you walk with Jesus, where do you go for help? What role does worship play? Your small group? You closest relationships?
3. Jesus says, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work" (John 8:34). What do you think Jesus is talking about? What are the implications for your life and walk with Jesus?
4. What would need to change in you for you to stay on mission with Jesus? In your marriage? At your place of employment? In your recreation? In your church life?

February 21, 2010 - Targeted Life: Measuring by One - Luke 15:1-10

February 28, 2010 - Targeted Life: Embracing God's Economy as a Way of Life - Mark 10:35-52

Jesus asks James and John and blind Bartimaeus the exact same question. What do you make of it in light of the truth - In God's economy it is never about me or what I want. If it is reduced to "What about me (us)? then we lose."

What do you make of that?