Doing the Impossible for the Glory of God

We Have a Mission

As we open to I Thessalonians 4:1  may I remind you that as Christ's church we have a mission that Paul summarized as pleasing God. 

I Thessalonians 4:1 Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God; NKJV

Paul's teaching involved a continuous urging and exhorting of the believers in Thessalonica to stay on track with their mission in life of pleasing God at every level of their life.

Paul continuously reminded them they had a mission every day of life and that was to please God. Think about life today and each new day you start as launching out on a mission to please God all through the day and night, everywhere you are, and in everything you do. That was the mission that marked the New Testament saints.

Secondly, we find that Paul also taught them that their message was simply the gospel of the grace of God. The message was simple and easy to remember and repeat. In a confusing world with many false messages, they declared God's message. So like them: 

We Have a Message

As we turn to Acts, this mission is accomplished by the proclamation of a message Paul summarized as the gospel of grace.

Acts 20:24 "But none of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God." NKJV

The message of grace, that God did everything possible to be done for salvation and anyone can come to Him merely by faith, seems impossible. And as Paul says, it sounds foolish (I Corinthians 1:18). But the message of the gospel of grace, summarized by the cross of Christ, is what we are to share.

 The grace-energized life of Titus two is a road map for all who want their life to count. It is God's pathway of disciplines to choose each day in the power of the Spirit of grace, armed with the message of grace. God says

We Have a Method

God's plan to work in the world is His church. Christ's church may be described as a group of people, energized by grace, doing the impossible for the glory of God. A key insight into God's plan to reach the world through Christ's church is in Titus chapter two.

The verses of this chapter contain a call to First Century men and women energized by grace to live an extraordinary spiritual life in a very unspiritual culture.

When grace energizes us, we want to deny ungodliness in any form we find it cropping up in our lives. When God's grace energizes us, we want to mortify lust in any form in our lives.

We want to live life day-by-day and step-by-step in a way that pleases God. When energized by grace, we are useful to God. 

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