This Is Not A Club, We’re On A Mission!

People move from relationship to relationship because they don’t really know what they are about. We change jobs and partners because we don’t really know what we have been called to do and as a result we end up wasting energy and not achieving what we have been called to do. We meander through life and end up with regrets because we don’t know what we really are about.

What do you want to be known for and what are you standing for? This series talks about the unique role that God has called us to as His people. What do we stand for as a family? GOD WANTS BIG THINGS FOR YOU! We are interested in you becoming the fearless infuencer that you were created to be. This will happen within the family of God’s people. We are starting a new series today. We are a family. And you are a part of this family! Our intention is that you would be known for something. There’s a great story in scripture where God defines what His family would be known for…

Three things that many people think church is about:

• It is nothing more than a social space where you can be entertained
• It is a place where you can view the latest in women’s hairstyles and fashions.
• It is a place where you can listen to warm fuzzy sermons that make you feel good

In other words, some people come because its entertaining, for fashion or for comfort. It is understandable if you came for those things. But today we want to close the doors, or the flaps and tell you the truth. As we start this series today I want to ask what do we stand for as a family?

This passage sheds some light on what the family of God stands for.

Exodus 3:16-22

What do we learn about what we stand for?

God’s family in Egypt had a very clear brief: First, they were to GO to the King of Egypt and TELL him what God had said. Second, they were to take a journey and WORSHIP God. They were about worship and declaring who God is. Beginning with the encounter with Pharaoh, the family of God’s people was to tell the nations about God and to walk in relationship with him.

Just like the Israelites, we exist to do two things:-
1. to enter into relationship with God (worship)
2. to tell the world about Him (witness)

Sounds like a simple brief! BUT, certain challenges stand in the way for us, just like they did for Israel…
1. A Defeated Spirit -The mere thought of going to tell Pharaoh that God had said he should let them go had to take a HUGE shift in thinking- a COMPLETE new mindset. The Israelites were slaves in Egypt. It was as though your house help were to come to you and say: The Lord has said give me your title deeds, transfer your funds to MY bank account. You also need to call the movers to take the furniture to MY new house. What would your reaction be? It was a completely different way of thinking! Most of the Israelites had resigned to their fate. The Israelites were used to being slaves.Their past worked against them.  It’s hard to thrive when you have a defeated spirit! And yet for many of us, our past will work against our thriving as part of God’s people.

2. Convenience: Could it really have been that simple for them to tell their neighbors and employers that they were LEAVING A LIFE THAT WORKED, to go to ‘a land that God would show them’? For the Israelites, life in Egypt was working for them – it may not have been the best, but it was working (People owned homes, ate, had friends and family near them, conducted business etc.) There are all sorts of comfortable things they could have been doing in Egypt. Many of us live by the maxim, better the devil you know, than the angel you don’t know. There must have been resistance! It’s hard to thrive when you’re stuck to the familiar. And yet that’s where many of us are coming from!

3. External Resistance: Pharaoh was not at all inclined to let the family of God’s people go. The plan of God for his people was not convenient for him. He was a cunning and shrewd leader, determined to hinder the family of God’s people from becoming what God wanted for them, because it did not serve his ends.  His agenda was to confine and arrest God’s people and keep things as they had always been.It’s hard to thrive when you face external resistance! And yet many of us will face resistance if we choose to thrive with God’s people.

What if the family of God’s people had decided not to to take a stand?

What if they concluded that the freedom God was offering was a good deal, but it was not worth the inconvenience of uprooting their entire lives to plunge into an unknown future? What if their fear of risking Pharaoh’s wrath, intimidated them into staying the way things were?

• The entire nation of Israel would have been derailed.
• The plan of God for that generation would not have been accomplished.
• They would have continued enjoying the comforts of Egypt, but they would have missed out on the HUGE plan that God had for them as His people.

If we choose to stick with the status quo of the familiar, we too stand to miss out on the big things that God has in store for us!

There are many other places in life where we see people taking a stand to achieve big things. Imagine a world without mother Teresa, St. Augustine, Martin Luther, William Wilberforce, Mandela, or Steve Jobs? What would the modern world be without facebook; or forget facebook, the microwave?

As the family of God’s people we are about something

There are all sorts of things that the Israelites could have been striving to do in Egypt. They could have been striving to set up good businesses, selling straw for the constructions that Egypt was famous for. Imagine the multiple business opportunities that come up wherever construction is taking place: The food vendors, the transport providers, etc. But that is not what all God wanted for the Israelites and it is not what he wants for us either. God wanted BIG things for His people!

So what do we stand for as the family of God?

Here at Mavuno the mission statement God has given us is ‘Turning Ordinary People Into Fearless Influencers Of Society’. That is what we exist to do. What does that mean for you?

Life is not about a good existence, it’s about being what God is calling us to be. If we fail to see a mission beyond serving our own needs, we fail – we don’t understand what God called the church to do. Church is a mission organization. Compared with the natural body and what the different body parts do, the body of Christ also has parts that serve different missions. Are you part of this mission or not? We are a mission organization. If you are complaining and griping, the problem is you / Other churches all exist to accomplish a specific mission

This Is Not A Club, We’re On A Mission!

Mavuno is not here to make you comfortable. The mission of Mavuno is – Turning Ordinary People Into Fearless Influencers Of Society! Here at Mavuno we will push you to get so uncomfortable that you do something about your world’s situation. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to be the fearless influencer that God intended for you to be!

• Example of ‘Freedom Behind Bars Initiative’ – started by a fearless Mavunite and his lifegroup. Today the result is a group of fearless influencers who are transforming the lives of hundreds of prisoners in our city and having an impact on our prison system! This Is Not A Club, We’re On A Mission!

PRAYER
1. Salvation – choose to stop looking in from the outside. Join the family!
2. Stagnation – choose to stop being a consumer and ‘church hopper’ and become a value adding member of whatever church God has called you to settle in. Commit to being a committed part of the family!

BLESSING
I speak progress, advancement and breakthrough to every area of your lives, in Jesus mighty name.
Father raise up the right people to help us at the right time and in the right places
In Jesus name I declare this year, the year of your fruitfulness, achievement and enlargement.
Father thank you for blessing us and enlarging our territories.

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