"Stay on Mission" - Dr. Mike

In every mission, we must do what is necessary to accomplish it. Not everything that feels urgent is truly an assignment. With so many competing voices, we must remain focused on our priorities and protect the mission God has given us.

Each of us plays a different role, yet we are all part of one greater mission. No role is more important than another—true victory comes when we all succeed together. Though we are unique with different expressions and responsibilities, we must each ask: How am I faithfully carrying out my part of the mission?

Many of us are easily distracted by lesser things, but God is calling us back to a place of focus and clarity. Our mission begins with loving God wholeheartedly—heart, soul, and mind—and loving our neighbors as ourselves. Through Christ, we are empowered to fulfill this mission.

We must remain purposeful. There are people waiting on us to fulfill what God has called us to do. We cannot afford to lose sight of the mission. To stay aligned, we must recognize and avoid mission killers.

Transcript

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We have a pro empty. That is what we do.

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Welcome to Life Series, a podcast from King Garden Bay Baptist Church, where we gather together to experience God's love. Grow in God's love and give that love back to each other.

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That is what we do.

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If you're able to stand as we read God's word, uh the out of no matter where you are, if you're able to stand, stand up wherever you are as we read God's word together. Colossians chapter 3, verses 1 to 11. Colossians chapter 3 verses 1 to 11. We're reading from the New International Version of the Bible. And since then you have been raised with Christ. Set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden in Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you will also appear with him in glory. Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to earthly things, sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry, because of these the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways in the life you once lived, but now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these things, such as anger, rage, malice, slander, filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with his practices, and you've put on a new self, which is being renewed in the knowledge in the image of its creator. Here, there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian or Synthian, slave or free, but Christ is all and all. Amen. You may be seated. Although the clouds threaten to make you stay home, you pressed your way here. And I hope that you've gotten your blessing already. And we're looking forward to as we go into this Lenten season, as we go forward to give God thanks and praise. We are grateful for all things that we're doing. But before I start preaching, if you just let me a pastoral moment for a minute, uh, we are this Friday, this Friday, look at your neighbor say this Friday. This Friday, we are gonna be doing refuel on the road. It's our evangelism outreach. Uh, we're gonna be stationed at the market square um and soul gas station on the roundabout, and we're gonna be witnessing to people, we're gonna be giving our tracks and praying for people. Uh, but I want to say, here's a secret. Here's a secret. Also, uh, we'll be giving away$500 to$1,000. Look at somebody say$500 to$1,000. So there's a way that you're able to get the gospel. So everybody coming in from period of time that we're gonna announce on Friday when we're there, that when you drive into Soul Gas Station, uh, we're gonna give you a free coupon for pay for some of your gas. And when we pay for your gas, if you accept it, then you gotta accept our prayer and our ministry. Uh, so it is a way for us to reach people where they are. I see Joan is over there. Hopefully, he finished the shirts. Amen. Uh, the refuse on the road, and we're looking forward to it. And also, look at your neighbors say, Do you fall in a gap? Uh, there's a gap that's happening in our church that we are growing, but there's a gap. There's an ages of people, especially between ages 20 to 40, that you're not too, you're not so young, you're gonna go to uh to to revolution, uh, but you're not so old that you want to go to Oasis, amen. Uh, so you fall in that gap, and that gap means that you have a place for being able to be a young adult. Now, we're just so happy that we are launching a ministry in a small group just for you. Now, here's the great thing. You don't gotta worry about because I know y'all have so much things going on in your life, you don't have to worry about saying I don't want to drive from town of King Garden Bay in the middle of the week, it's gonna be dark, it's gonna be cold. God knows you drove on many of the best worst roads for sneaky links. Uh, but we are gonna keep it PG, amen. You've done worse. Uh, but every first Wednesday, launching on April 29th, every first Wednesday, April 29th, we will be meeting at the higher BVI uh conference room in Fish Bay every first Wednesday, and we have some amazing sisters and brothers who are making this happen, and we're gonna be able to grow for you because in that gap, so much things happen. You have to navigate school, navigate house, navigate money, navigate a family, navigate getting married, and sometimes the mistakes that we make fall in that gap, and then we spend the rest of our lives trying to replace it. You fall in the gap, let a friend know it's someplace there for you. Amen. Amen, amen, amen. Look at your neighbors say it's good to be here. Look at your neighbor say it's good to be here. It was we were way on family and travel, and then last week we were able to surprise our kids. Uh Ania, our eldest daughter, is on the elite volleyball team for St. Thomas, and she's traveling every month um all over the United States. And she traveled already to Washington, D.C., then she's gone to Puerto Rico last week. She's going to Atlanta, then Las Vegas, then Minnesota, then Orlando. And we want to give a big shout out to her. Um of almost a hundred teams, uh, they placed fifth, amen. And they were in a goal round. And we're looking forward to that. And she had, she I don't really big my kids up on the pulpit. I don't really big my kids up on a pulpit, but I want to give her a big shout out because I mean she got her height from me, amen. Everyone knows that God is able to do miracles, uh, and we're just so grateful for what God is doing. What God is doing. Look at your neighbor, say, stay on mission. In every mission, in every mission, there comes a point where you have to do what is necessary to accomplish the mission. But doing that along the way, you will find distractions. Many things will arise that may seem important. The problem is not everything that is important deserves your attention. Not everything that is urgent is an assignment. In this world, there's so many things pulling at us every day, so many different distractions, so many demands, so many voices. And if we're not careful, these things can take us away from what God truly called us to do. That's why our mission must remain our priority and primary in our focus. It must remain the thing that keeps us up at night and keeps us getting up in the morning. We must keep it protected. I want to remind you this morning that you must stay on mission and we must put ourselves in a place where we see our mission clearly every day. When we look at Colossians, what happens? We're reminded that these kinds of things can pull us off course, things that can draw us away from what really matters, and where we find things that we may seem to be our priority but not really important. We have to stay on mission. We're living in a world full of things that demand our attention, our kids, our families, our jobs, our priorities, our feelings. We need to stay on mission. Some of you maybe even find some of these things a little bit so deliciously proud and exciting that you sometimes you place God on the side, but you need to stay on mission. There's a statement often attributed to Aretha Franklin when she was growing up and she was blowing up and becoming faces, famous. She was being invited to all over the place to be singing and being able to do performances. In one moment, she caught herself and saying, I'm not on mission. She said these famous words, she may not be the first, but she made them famous. She says, Not because I can do something means I should do something. Sometimes you have to be able to stay on mission and live in mission-minded. Because you're focused now on the mission. You have to understand in every mission there are different parts. In a whole mission that we are in this world, we have a global mission to spread the gospel and spread Jesus' love and baptizing people in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. But we have to also understand that we serve different parts in the mission. There may be some people may serve on the west, and some people may serve in the east, some people may serve in the south, and some people may serve on the north. But all of us are part of this bigger collective mission. Everybody's mission is part of this bigger mission once we serve Christ. And nobody is more important than the other. If you drive the bus for church, you're on mission. If you greet people in the morning, you're on mission. If you usher, you're on mission. If you sing, you dance, you teach glow, you are on mission. If you go out and say God loves you, you are a part of the global mission of Jesus Christ. All of us have a responsibility on mission, and what we have to start to do and remember is that no mission is more important than the other. Because if you fail, I fail. That we need to collectively understand that our united mission and our united victory comes when we all win. We have to have the spirit of Ubuntu when we understand that no matter who we are, we thrive together. But we need to be able to spread the message and love of Jesus Christ. But we all remember we do it in different ways. One may preach, one may teach, another may encourage, another may serve, another may give, another may tithe, but we all have different expressions of said missions. So how do you love? How do you serve? How do you chair? How do you give back? How do you carry out your part of the mission? Because in the world today, many people are being distracted by the loudest thing in their life. They're pulled by the hardest thing and the most visible thing and the most demanding thing. But because something is loud doesn't mean it's your mission. We have to come back to a place of focus. We have to come back to a place of clarity. We have to come back to a place where we are centered on what matters most and what is that mission. I'm so happy that you come by and ask me. The mission was declared in the gospel, and it says to love your God with all your heart, with all your mind and all your soul, and to love your neighbor like you do yourself, to go out into all the world and preach the gospel and to baptize people in the name of the Father and the Son, and to let people know that there is redemption and hope from sin, and to let people know that through Christ they can do all things. That's the mission. Why is this so important? Because we look around, people are literally losing hope and losing focus and losing purpose. We have to remind this generation that no matter how loud it gets in the world, no matter how dark it gets, that you need to stay on mission. But God even says, no matter in the darkest hour, don't lose sight of the mission. Even when you think that the plan has gone awry, don't lose sight of the mission. Even when you struggle in the midnight hour, don't lose sight in the mission because there are people waiting for you to fulfill your mission. And God says, I'm able to redirect what seems to things to be falling apart into a master plan. I want you to stay focused. So now, Colossians, as you know, as Paul was writing from prison, he was writing through these groups of disciples who were just formed in the church of Colosse, and he they were being distracted by all the noise that was happening. And he was reminding them essentially, stay on mission. They're gonna be coming things that you're now a new church and a new Christian. You need to be able to stay on mission. Uh look at your neighbor and say, Stay on mission. But see, in this scripture, in particular, uh he identified things that are mission killers. Uh, you want to be able to do exceeding above all you can ask, hope, or think, then you need to avoid the mission killers. I know sometimes that you might feel a little uncomfortable, uh, but if you feel uncomfortable, just shrug your neighbor and just be able to say it's gonna be okay. Uh it's not Dr. Mike, it's the scripture. Uh see, you have to be able to know that Paul wanted them to succeed. And he says, I don't want you to go along with the false teaching and all the stuff, but I also need you to guard yourself because you have a mission. If you you allow these things to come in your life, you have to know that they're gonna kill your mission. Look at your neighbor says, You know, kill your mission, they'll kill your mission. No matter how much you want to go through this life, you have to be mindful of these mission killers. Paul now prefaced this and told them, he says, You have now taken on a new self. Being a Christian and accepting Christ, you are being transformed. The old self, uh, old things need to be passed away. I know it might take some work, but you need to be mindful. So, Paul now, now I can imagine now he says, at this point, I need to say this. I said all the fluffy things in the first two chapters and the first two months of this whole series on mission and being different and being deeper. Uh, but if you're gonna go deeper, you have to make sure that you're utilizing the right things. So, Paul now tells them, he opens up and he says, Listen, he says, Listen, listen, listen to me. No matter what you do, uh, since then you are with Christ, I want you to do some things. Uh, they're mission killers that happen. Look at your neighbor said, they're mission killers from the outside, the mission killers that you see on the outside. These mission killers are from the outside are are basically the mission killers from the outside of what he says in this verse. Now he says, put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to the earthly nature. These are the outwardly mission killers, these are the things that people see. Look at your neighbor, see these are the big things they they will see them, these are the things people see. He says, Whatever belongs to the earthly nature, he says, sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil, desires, and greed. These are the things that people do outwardly, and these are the things that you see in behavior, these are the things that these now let's break it down. Don't get uncomfortable. McGinnabis says it's okay, it's gonna be fine. We're gonna get through it. He says, sexual immorality. These are mission killers. It shows that men who are in business or who are successful and who want to continue to be successful, most of them lose their fortune when they start engaging in sexual immorality. Amen. Lights, it's so good that you're here with me today because the church done got empty and everybody got silent. So, lights, just so you know, I want you to tell your friend lights, the long bulbs, the LED, the fluorescent lights, and when they blow up and light up, be careful for sexual immorality because it will cause your light to go out. Oh, that's how I get a clap and talk to the lights. All right. So lights, impurity and lust. Stop looking at the other lights and saying how nice they look. Because you are gonna be distracted on your mission and you're gonna be looking at other lights, and you're gonna bump in and crack your ball. Lights stay clean because if you become so impure, you'll be dark as everybody else, and your purpose of being able to shine light in this church will become dark, and nobody will know that you're real light because you just blended with the darkness. Lights, please stay clean. Thank you. Lights you want to get distracted, lose focus on sexual immorality. I know it's hard. The reason it's in the Bible, and the reason people struggle with it, and the reason it's mentioned, because it's hard, it's a struggle, but that's why you have to put it and act. You don't can't act like, oh, I'm so holy, this doesn't bother me. Okay. David was holy. David was doing real good in his kingdom, he was doing good until he went up. God, why did he go up? He went up on that porch and saw Bathsheba taking a bath. David forgot he was king, he forgot his army was at war, he forgot all the wives he had, and he zoned in on Bathsheba. If you better than David, I guess you are, but I know that sometimes you need to just look away. David didn't look away, his eyes got him. Bathsheba now, Bathsheba looked like she was bad because Bathsheba got David's attention. Okay, David now gave way to sexual immorality and lust. Because he could have gone up and saw Bathsheba on that porch and been like this. And then you know what we try to justify our sexual immorality? So he's up there trying to get an extra stare. I wonder if that water is filtered or not. Is that a loofah or a wash rag that she's using? I don't I wonder how much bubbles are there. And then his sexual immorality caused lust. His lust led him to impure acts that caused him now to compromise his kingdom. His sexual immorality, his lust, and his impurity caused him to sleep with someone's wife and then had to cover it up and had a child. And how he had to cover it up was send his leader of his army to the front of the battle so he could kill him. And then God had to end up and turn around and kill that child. And David then had to weep. And now David, now, because of his sin, lost focus on the initial mission. Look at somebody say stay on mission. Oh, if you you want to be mad at David, oh, what about Samson? He was real strong. He was real strong until he met Delilah. This is a this is this let me tell you, man. Let me just say this, man. Can I just say this to y'all? Can I just say this to y'all? You know how you stay out of sexual immorality and situations? You know how you do it? You know how you do it? Ask me. Lights, you know how you do it? Thank you, lights. You know how you do it? Is you stay away. Don't act like you so holy that you say that that somebody called you to their house at nine o'clock to pray for them. You ain't that strong. God, stay away. What but you you failed? Samson failed the first time he got into bed. You're done. Done. I don't care how long it took. You're done. When you take the number, you're done. When you like too many pictures on Instagram on one day, you're done. That DM comes back and you hit the thumbs up, done. You gotta be strong enough to run away. Don't fight unnecessary battles. I'm telling you. And the more famous, the more anointed, the more you're out there, the more successful you are, the more you have taken pictures with your wife, the more you're being out there, the more danger is gonna come to you and your life. The more you serve God and God puts his glow on you, that's when you're gonna be attracted. Honey attracts bees and flies. Amen, lights, and evil desires, evil desires. We see what evil desires is playing out now all over our world, that the world is erupting in war, evil desires, outward actions, mission killers that have now deterred where we are moving in the world, now back to someplace archaic, that we are now having conflicts erupting all over the world because of evil desires. Last night I was thinking how one man and one policy changer is literally, almost single-handedly retracting every progressional thing that has done to been done to unify the world single-handedly, one person, evil desires. And before we go off, the other mission killer that he realized in here was I know this one's gonna sting. So before I know how y'all gonna act, and because this is gonna be on a podcast tomorrow, and I need somebody to clap, hey, lights, the last thing is don't be greedy. You shine your light in this direction, they will shine their light in that direction. Stop trying to take their light, their light, their light, their light. That's greed. And here's the thing outside of all these mission killers, only one of them was called idolatry. Which one was it? Greed. Because greed replaces the place where God is supposed to be. See, a lot of people get high in the high horse. Oh, well, I'm not sexual, I'm not lusting, I'm not doing this, but you're greedy. You're greedy. I'm not talking about greedy that in Thanksgiving and Christmas, you're the one there with the fourth plate. You're hungry, maybe a little bit greedy. But we know everybody knows that food was so good that gluttony is a sin, but not mentioned here. Amen. The greed that causes Colossians 3:5 and mention this, but Ephesians 5 and 5 always says, because it shifts your ultimate trust, love, and devotion from God to material possession. God has to be first. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all his righteousness and all other things will be added onto you. We are now replacing our love for people with material possession, greed, mission killers, and also mission killers from the inside, mission killers from the inside. It says inward acts. Look at your neighbor, it said inward acts. It's not just the stuff you do that people could see, but some of us have the stuff on the inside that are killing in our mission. You used to walk in these ways in a life you once lived, however, but now you must also rid yourself of all such things as these. Look at your neighbor, it says, as these say it after me. Anger, rage, malice, slander, filthy language from your lips. Cussing, just say somebody cussing, cursing, and it also says, don't lie to each other since you have taken off your old self with your old practices. I'm gonna preach a whole sermon series on this. But these are mission killers. Anger, you want to get off mission, don't be able to control your anger. You get so mad that you lose sight of what's so important, but you also get rage. Like you anybody ever seen somebody I know before, before you got gave your life to Christ, uh you you know when you used to get real angry? Anybody ever had a bad breakup? Anyone and you got real angry, don't raise your hand because you you might be single and looking for somebody right now, so they might be seen, and they may be thinking that you're not fully changed, and they looking around. Who raised their hand with the rage? Oh no, I was gonna ask them for their number after church. Uh, but Pastor, I just bought that car. I can't deal with no snickers and snat in my car. They're gonna scratch the sides. I'm not so I'm just saying the rage and anger, what you're doing, you have to understand that that can't have a place in your current life. You have to have control over what you do. Malice. You're literally waking up every day, seeing how you can be able to bring down someone else. Malicious thoughts and actions, that you prey on evil somebody else. And this is where, as a society, we're going that we need to understand that you might not be doing the outward things, but on the inside you're angry, you're rageful, and you have all this hate, and you're malicious. But you still call yourself a Christian, but you're malicious. You see, I'm tired of being in a church and churches where people always just want to talk about, I'm not saying it's any worse than the other, or want to just talk about your sexual immorality and all those things that you do, and having a child and this, that, and other. Those things, those things are wrong, but I just don't like that some of us are better hiding that stuff, and but here's what we hide that stuff, uh, but we are filled with anger, rage, slander, and malicious thoughts, and don't talk about the people that lie. I'm sorry, I don't mean to make you uncomfortable. The the the people that lie, and it says, Paul said to them, don't lie to each other since you've taken off your old self with your practices and have put on a new self, renewed in the image of Christ. If you're part of the creator, why you're out here lying to people? That is not in the image of Christ. These are the traits that distinguish us from others, these are the traits that are killed. But if you want to stay on mission, you have to make sure you watch for these mission killers on the inside and the outside. Look at David says mission killers on the inside and outside. Now you have to understand why this is important. I want to be able to tell you why that you need to be able to stay on mission. You have to be able to stay on mission because the cost was paid in advance. Somebody paid it, it was paid in advance. Meaning, uh, when the scripture now Paul writes and tells them that there is no Jew, no Gentile, no priest, is because he was reiterating what Christ did for us. You have to understand no matter where you are, you have to stay on mission because God wants you to be able to be a representative of his love throughout the world. But how can you represent God's love throughout the world when you're falling into outward mission killers and inward mission killers? When people look at your life, they can't see God's love, God's spirit, they can't see nothing new. You're out there lying on your job, lying to your kids, using slander and anger, you're lusting after everybody. How can God see your love in his life? And how are you representing the mission of spreading the gospel throughout the world? Amen, lights. I know it's tough, but sometimes we need to be reminded that if you no matter how smart you are, no matter how prayerful you are, no matter how much you want to do good for God, if you don't pay attention to these mission killers, your life will just be paved with a road with good intentions. Look at your neighbor says, It's okay. He got four minutes left. You're gonna be comfortable, four minutes, you'll be okay. But you need to stay on mission because you're gonna be advanced. I want to remind somebody in here that life is gonna be a little bit tough, and times in your life are gonna get hard. In addition to the outward mission killers and the inward mission killers, uh, there are gonna be situations that come in your life who want to distract you, but don't you dare give up and don't you dare give in. I know that there are things and purposes that you have in your life that you're praying for and fasting for, and I know sometimes you may feel like giving up, but I want to remind you after you've checked your inward and your outward self, I want you to stay on mission and be encouraged. Because someone went before you and paid in advance. The reason why Paul was able to say that there's no Jew nor Gentile, no circumcised or no Philistines, no Synthian or nobody else, because he said someone paid the price in advance. I want to be able to remind you that you have to be able to stay on mission. There were people in the Bible that were able to be able to be called off mission, but they stayed on mission because they fought the inward battles, or they fought the outward battles, and they fought all the temptation around them. I want you to stay on mission. I know we're living in 2026, and there's so many things that want to take you off mission. It's a mission of being a good person, the mission of being a Christian, a mission of spreading God's love throughout the world. But I want to remind you, there might not be a lot of people around you spreading love, being a Christian and living right, but I want you to stay on mission just like Nahemiah. When they try to get him off the wall, he says, I am on this wall and doing a good work, and I will not come down. He said, I'm gonna stay on mission. Paul the Apostle, as even though he was being beaten and thrown in jail, he said, I'ma write these letters, even when I'm beaten and bruised, I'ma stay on mission. You see, they understand that Moses leading people through the Red Sea, no matter how much they had to say about it, he says, I'ma keep walking, even though it's supposed to take me a couple days and it took me 40 days and 40 nights, I'ma stay on mission. Daniel, living and operating a corrupt government, he says, I'ma pray three times a day because that's my mission, and that's to my God. They put me in a lion's den. I must still pray. I must stay on mission. Joseph stayed on mission, David stayed on mission, Ezra stayed on mission. But I want to be able to remind you a reason why Paul can say that there's no Jew and Gentile. Because early, what happened is that Jesus now also stayed on mission. Throughout his whole ministry, for 33 years, he lived on this earth and stayed on mission. There were Jews, there were Gentiles, there were people who hated on him, there were friends who deceived him, there were neighbors who said, I don't believe that you truly are the Messiah. But I stayed on mission. He stayed on mission even when he was hung from a cross. He stayed on mission. And because he stayed on mission, we are able to stand here on the March 22nd of 2026 and say, Because God stayed on mission, I have hope. Amen. Lights. No matter where you go, no matter how difficult you feel life is, stay on mission. There's a reason, there's a purpose to stay on mission. That's all I'm saying. No matter where you are, if you just want God to remind you and encourage your heart and spirit to stay on the mission and purpose, we're gonna pray wherever you are. If you want to come to the altar, you're free to do so. We're gonna pray for you wherever you are right now. You can just risk your hand to heaven and says, I want to stay on mission. You see those hands, you see those hands, we see those hands. Your hand is an extension of your faith because life is not easy, but we have to stay on mission. See those hands. So, God, with the hands lifted, you know what you've called them to do, how to be, and how to act. You've equipped them, but there are battles happening, raging on the inside and the outside that wants to take us off mission. But God, I want you to reach down into the secret places of their heart and their mind and encourage them and say, I am still with you even until the end of the earth. They may have felt like giving up, may have felt like their mission wasn't important, but you've come to say, not today. Today is not the day you give up, today is not the day you throw in the towel. God wants you to stay on mission and you have a purpose that's beyond your current aim. So, God, now bless us, your children. Life is sometimes difficult, but we will stay on mission, we will spread the gospel, we will spread love, we will forgive often, we will care for the poor, we'll feed the hungry, we will be the light and the salt of the world. And when someone asks, Why are we so different? Well, look and tell them, because I'm on a mission for Jesus Christ, Lord. Renew our hearts, sanctify us, and where we've fallen short, forgive us because we are all in need of your forgiveness. Your grace is sufficient for us. But we need to be mindful of the mission killers. Give us the strength to overcome. In the name of the Father, in the name of the Son, in the name of the Holy Spirit. All those believe say amen. All those who believe say amen. Amen, lights.

SPEAKER_00 38:01

Thank you for worshiping with us today. If you like to grow deeper in your walk with Christ, we invite you to contact us at 284-442-4222. Or email us admin at cgbbc.org. Visit our website at cgbbc.org. Be sure to subscribe and share this podcast so others can be encouraged and blessed as well.

SPEAKER_03 38:28

We have a pro act. That is what we do. We have a full act game.