[Gary Petty] Anyone who has read about the life of the apostle Paul has been inspired by the amazing things that he did, and that he was such a driven man – I mean, he was shipwrecked, he was arrested, he went to different places where sometimes he was greeted, sometimes he was stoned. And yet he kept moving. He was a man on a mission. He had a mission in life. When you read his writings, you see a man who wanted to share that mission with others, and he did that, one, by sharing a vision. He had a vision of the kingdom of God, the return of Jesus Christ. And he saw his mission as to prepare disciples for that event. And so he was driven by a vision that he then turned into a mission.

Now what’s very interesting – just take any of his books. I’ve just taken Philippians. Let me read you a few quotes from the book of Philippians, or the letter that he wrote to the Philippians. And you can see this vision and this mission, and he shared it with others. He says, “Being confident in this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6). You see the vision of Christ’s return, you see the mission. “Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, that you may stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel” (Philippians 1:27). Look how he’s trying to instill a mission into the people that he was teaching.

Another quote: “Fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind” (Philippians 2:2). In another passage in Philippians, he says, “Let us walk by the same rule, and be of the same mind” (Philippians 3:16). He wanted to unify these people with a vision of what God was doing, and the mission to complete it. And that mission had to take place in their lives. They had to be prepared by becoming disciples. They had to be of one mind with Christ and then with each other. And that tells us a lot about Christian leadership – how we have to have a vision that God gives us, and then we have to make that a mission – a mission to overcome everything. It didn’t matter, the shipwreck. It didn’t matter, the times he said that he went hungry. It didn’t matter, the times he said he had to fight animals in the arena – you know, the Romans put him there. He didn’t mind that people – he didn’t mind that people tried to kill him. He kept moving forward with his mission to fulfill the vision.

It’s amazing, when you share a vision with people, so they also are motivated by the same vision to do a mission. In that mission, what they’ll be willing to do is sacrifice today because of the rewards of the future. That’s what he kept telling them about, the future, about Christ’s return. You need a vision in your life, but you need a mission. You need a mission to have God complete in you the work that He has started in you, and for you to share that with others.

That’s BT Daily. Join us next time.