God Gave You a Mission: Will You Dare to Live It?

Introduction

Some lives hit you hard enough to force the only questions that really matter. Sarah Marvane opens this message by telling the story of Harriet Tubman, born a slave in Maryland around 1822. One night, this woman escaped alone, following the North Star all the way to Pennsylvania. She reached freedom. But instead of savoring it, she went back. Again and again. Through the Underground Railroad, she guided dozens of enslaved people north without losing a single one. They called her "Moses." When asked if she was ever afraid, she answered: "No, I had God and my mission." This message puts you in front of the same equation: do you have God, and do you have your mission? Because Jesus did not forgive you just to add your name to a list in the book of life. When God forgives, God commissions. When God adopts, he sends.

Message Outline

1. Two options, one true freedom

• Harriet Tubman used to say: "I had a right to liberty or death. If I could not have one, I would have the other." Sarah Marvane puts you in front of the same choice, no longer about physical chains, but about the chains of sin.
• Jesus states it plainly: "Most certainly I tell you, everyone who commits sin is the bondservant of sin" (John 8:34). Sin isolates, condemns, and shuts you out of the Father's house.
• We often think sin does not concern us because we are "not a murderer or a pedophile." But "all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). It is not a tally of wrongs, it is the very nature of humanity.
• Picture a sick tree: pulling off the rotten apples one by one does not heal the tree. Until the roots are transformed by the One who is the tree of life, you will keep bearing bad fruit no matter how hard you try.
• No sin is too big, no chain is too thick. This, today, is your Pennsylvania.

2. "I have God": everything starts with an encounter

• Before the mission comes the encounter. Harriet said "I had God" first, then "my mission." You cannot reverse that order.
• "If you remain in my word, then you are truly my disciples. You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free" (John 8:31-32). Only truth sets you free.
• So many wrong ways of thinking come from not knowing the Word. Make the Bible your most precious treasure. All the knowledge you need to live and to carry out your mission is found there.
• Jesus is the Word made flesh. The more you dive into Scripture, the more you know him personally, and the more his Spirit in you does what no one else can do.
• Harriet Tubman walked toward freedom with, as her best ally, one who guided her steps. Jesus is no longer physically at your side, but he has sent you his Spirit so that you would never be left as an orphan (John 14:16-18).

3. "And my mission": when God forgives, God commissions

• Sarah Marvane drives it home: "When God forgives, God commissions. When God adopts, he sends." He did not just add you to a list, he made you his son, his daughter, and he wants to work hand in hand with you.
• Picture a family business: a carpenter grandfather teaches his grandson how to use the tools, hands him small projects, then bigger ones. God delights in shaping you and entrusting you with ever greater works.
• God does not need children who just sit on his lap by the fire listening to stories. He wants his children to become part of his story.
• A gallery of the biblically sent: Jesus (the cross), Adam and Eve (fill the earth and rule over it), Noah (the ark), Abraham (leave his country), Moses (bring the people out of Egypt), Joshua (conquer the promised land), John the Baptist (prepare the way), the apostles (proclaim the gospel), Esther (rise to royalty to save her people).
• A gallery of the modern-day sent: Harriet Tubman, Reinhard Bonnke (seeing Africa washed by the blood of Jesus), Mother Teresa (serving Jesus among the poorest), Martin Luther King (preaching justice according to the love of Christ), Marie Durand (imprisoned for 38 years in the Tower of Constance at Aigues-Mortes for refusing to renounce her faith).
• The question becomes personal: what is your mission? Not someone else's. Yours.

4. Obedience, not just consumption: the Word is meant to be practiced

• The mission is only discovered by putting the Word into practice. "For it isn't the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law will be justified" (Romans 2:13).
• Sarah Marvane plays on the word "hearer": you can feast on message after message, prophecy after prophecy, and become a spiritual overeater without ever moving. We are not called to be well fed, we are called to be obedient.
• "For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man looking at his natural face in a mirror; for he sees himself, and goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was" (James 1:23-24). Hearing without doing means forgetting your own face.
• Showing up at church on Sunday and then living the rest of the week however you please will not lead you to live your mission. Staying in hearing alone means living out a barren faith.
• Watch out for the "sin of religiosity," the one that pushes you to criticize, condemn, judge, and go from church to church like a spiritual food critic. Once you have found your mission, you no longer have time for that.

5. "Now go": God has entrusted you with a unique mission

• Maybe you are called to be a businessman or businesswoman, a person of influence, in a field where others are searching for light through dark paths. Maybe an artist in a world of glitter and depression. Maybe a doctor among an isolated people, healing bodies and bringing the bread of life.
• Sarah Marvane does not claim to know your mission, but she affirms one thing: God is calling you. His word presses you: "Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to me... Come now therefore, and I will send you" (Exodus 3:10). "Be strong and courageous... for Yahweh your God is with you wherever you go" (Joshua 1:9). "You must go to whomever I send you" (Jeremiah 1:7). "Who knows if you haven't come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" (Esther 4:14). "The Spirit of the Lord Yahweh is on me... to heal the brokenhearted" (Isaiah 61:1).
• When you live for your mission, you no longer live for yourself. You exist for others. And there is no more beautiful life than that one, whether you are poor or rich, you are the happiest.
• Refuse to stay permanently dissatisfied. Refuse to point out everything that is wrong. Roll up your sleeves. Sweat for his kingdom right where he has placed you.
• May you one day be able to say in turn: "I am not afraid, I have God and my mission."

Key Takeaways

• True freedom does not begin with your own effort, but with an encounter with the only one who can transform your roots: Jesus Christ.
• "I have God" always comes before "my mission." Without intimacy with God through his Word, you will not find what you were made for.
• When God forgives, God commissions. He did not just write your name in the book of life, he entrusts you with a unique work to carry out with him.
• Hearing the Word without practicing it turns you into a "spiritual overeater." The mission is revealed through obedience, not through accumulation.
• Your mission is unique: in your work, your family, your neighborhood, or across the world. Refuse the posture of the critic and rise up.

Personal Application

1. Are you today "free or enslaved"? Which chain, visible or hidden, is Jesus inviting you to hand over to him so he can transform the roots of your life?
2. Can you honestly say "I have God"? What place does the Word actually hold in your days, beyond Sunday morning?
3. If you had to name one mission God has entrusted you with today, in your family, your work, your surroundings, what would it be?
4. Are you more in the hearing or in the doing? What recent message is God waiting for you to finally put into action this week?
5. Is there an area where you have become a critic rather than a servant? What could you replace it with, starting tomorrow, through concrete commitment?

Verses Cited

• John 8:31-34 (WEB)
• Romans 3:23 (WEB)
• Romans 2:13 (WEB)
• James 1:22-24 (WEB)
• John 14:16-18 (WEB)
• Exodus 3:10 (WEB)
• Joshua 1:9 (WEB)
• Jeremiah 1:7-8 (WEB)
• Esther 4:14 (WEB)
• Isaiah 61:1 (WEB)

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I know what my personal mission is?

Sarah Marvane does not offer a magic formula, but a path: "I have God" always comes before "my mission." Remain in the Word, let the Holy Spirit shape you, put into practice what you already understand. The mission is revealed while walking, not while waiting for the scenery to fall from the sky. God "knit you together" in your mother's womb (Psalm 139) with a story already written; it is by obeying in small things that he entrusts you with greater ones.

What should I do if I feel more critical than engaged at church?

The message names this trap "the sin of religiosity," the one that pushes you to judge, condemn, and go from church to church like a spiritual food critic. Sarah Marvane is direct: these people are bored, and because they are bored, they criticize. The remedy is not to argue better, it is to find your mission. When you are engaged for the kingdom, you no longer have time to pick apart Sunday's menu.

Am I really a "sinner" if I generally do good around me?

Sarah Marvane answers with the image of the sick tree: pulling off the rotten apples one by one does not heal the tree. Sin is not first a tally of serious wrongs, it is a damaged nature, present in each of us from birth. "All have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). The good news: Jesus wants to take the place of your roots, so that your life can finally bear good fruit, no longer through effort, but through him.