God’s mission is the starting place for understanding the church and its mission. God has placed mission in the DNA of the church. If we are to grow spiritually and numerically we need to understand God’s mission and understand that we have all been called into the royal priesthood of all believers to bring others into His marvellous light to be transformed. In simple terms disciples making disciples, This is evident within the Gospels, this is how Jesus set up the church and now it’s over to us.
Therefore to aid us in our journey we will be looking at Exodus as it helps us to understand the mission of God. It reveals to us the dealings of God and humanity and if we approach it in the light of Jesus’ death and resurrection it will help us to understand, what this all means to us as the people of God.
Through the calling of Moses, we will look at the heart of God’s passion and mercy, which is expressed in salvation and freedom and in response to that we are called into a different lifestyle of justice and hope which is all bound up within the cycle of worship and community which fulfils God mission.
Down below are the weekly readings and some comments to help us discover God’s mission and how we as a church can live it out. Please use what is below as a way to prepare for Sunday’s teachings.
Exodus 2:23-3:12 Passion
The mission of God, God heard God remembered, God saw and God is passionate about His people.
Exodus 3:11-22 Mercy
God shows mercy to His people (forgiveness)
Actions of a loving father who acts compared to the Pharaoh who did not.
God adopts Israel as His children.
Exodus 5:1-4 and 11:1-10 Freedom.
Freedom from slavery (sin)
God’s plan to set us all free
God chose us
God want us to have a heart of flesh not stone like the Pharaoh.
Exodus 5:6 – 6:1 Justice
God stands against the injustice of the Pharaoh’s regime
God calls us into a just lifestyle
Moses 3 times acted out against the injustice, that passion would be used for God’s call on his life, in God’s timing and God’s will.
Exodus 13:17-22 Hope
God calls us into a new and different future
Biblical hope compared to the hope we have for things Hope that unites us together, hope that we hold onto it during difficult times.
Exodus 14: 10-18 Salvation
God takes action and rescues His people. It’s by His own initiative they are saved.
They cried out, God acted now there’s no going back.
Now we are on a journey to the promised land.
Exodus 15:1-8 Worship
God freed His people not to just wander but to worship, love and honour Him.
To worship with our lives is more than just Sunday but acts of mission and mercy.
Mission starts with worship at its core so we respond out of God’s grace.
Exodus 12:1-3,21-28 Community
Identity, what sets us apart
A holy community to obey and worship God
What makes us a community as individual churches and within the wider Parish of Great Chesham?