Living on Mission – Character and Fierce Pursuit

Living on Mission – Character and Fierce Pursuit

Our character has a deep impact on our fierce pursuit of God and others. Christlike character is winsome and attractive, while un-Christlike character can be off-putting and offensive to others. The lack of good character sometimes causes us to run away or hide from God instead of running toward Him. The lack of character also distances us from others when we are made to pursue them.

As we focus on increasing the following character traits this week, let’s look for ways these could be of use as we fiercely pursue Him and others:

Hospitable

Hospitality involves several qualities: being interested in people, being receptive to having guests, being generous and being fond of people, especially strangers. Hospitality is essential in evangelism where –when we hope to persuade our unbelieving friends to come to Jesus– no action speaks louder to our friends than being invited into our home. (John 1:38-39)

Creative

Creativity is the God-given ability to bring about something new, something that has never existed before. In evangelism, it means to follow God’s leadership in creating what is required for our unbelieving friends to have an Aha! experience with God. (John 1:1-5)

Consistent

Consistent is a quality marked by harmony and steady continuity. To be consistent in evangelism means behaving as Jesus would in each relationship with non-Christian friends while remaining true to our God-given call to fulfill the Great Commission and to live a holy life. We are helped in developing consistency when we apply the “one another” commands for relationship. (John 4:34)

Let’s add these to character traits from previous weeks:

Intentional

Intentionally building character means that we resolve to develop Christlike character: that is, we actively engage in putting certain character traits into our lives. In evangelism, being intentional means developing relationships with non-Christians. (Matthew 16:18)

Gracious

Being gracious stems from having our lives and relationships with others marked by God’s grace – His steadfast, unconditional love. In evangelism, this means that our thoughts, emotions and behavior toward non-Christians are marked by graciousness as we seek to bring them to Jesus and commit to serve Him as King. (John 1:14, 16-17)

Focused

To be focused on something simply means that we concentrate on it. Evangelism depends on focus, and the task of evangelism becomes much easier when we develop a credo (guiding belief) based on our unique personality, natural talents and spiritual gifts. (John 4:31-34)

Pure in Heart

To be pure in heart means to live with a single-minded purpose of living for the praise of God rather than for the praise of fellow human beings. In evangelism, God uses the pure of heart to clean out wounds resulting from sin, to help others see God at work. (Matthew 5:8)

Buoyant

Buoyancy is that irresistible quality that puts a smile on the face of perseverance and allows you to follow the move (wave) of the Holy Spirit in all its forms. Our non-Christian friends are drawn to us because of it; and without it, evangelism becomes perfunctory, tedious and often abandoned. It proves we are “for” them and that we are not simply enduring them. (John 14:12-14)

Wise

Wisdom is knowing the right thing to do and then doing it. We gain wisdom through our experiences with evangelism, and we are wise to apply patience to this process. (Matthew 4:18-19)

Patient

We know that patience is the ability to endure. In evangelism it involves enduring through the process of persuading our unbelieving friends to follow Jesus as King with their thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. (John 3:8)

Empathetic

Empathy is the capacity to enter into another’s ideas, feelings, and desires; first in listening and then in offering an appropriate response. The most effective evangelists learn to listen before speaking, and in so doing they encourage their non-Christian friends. (Luke 10:38-42)

Reflective

Christians become reflective as they pause and look back on their life experiences to see how God’s redemptive presence has shaped their lives. It’s especially helpful in evangelism to reflect on how God brought us to salvation, what we were comfortable with in that process and what we were not. When we have identified what worked for us, then we can confidently use what we’ve learned to evangelize our non-Christian friends. (Mark 6:41, 44)

Insightful

Insight is the power of seeing into a situation or into someone’s life. Insight follows reflection. It’s a necessary quality in evangelism because the Gospel of Jesus ultimately deals with issues of the heart and the true nature of what every human being experiences. (Luke 2:47, 52)

Let’s practice Living on Mission and consider how these Christlike character traits might impact our witness and our Missional activities as we fiercely pursue others, and how closely we must abide and fiercely pursue God in order for them to grow.

Pastor Angela