In keeping with God’s saving actions revealed in the gospel the ends does not justify the means but rather the means determines the ends – for even the salvation of sinners does not justify the sacrifice of God the Son. The primary means of making a difference was through engagement since God became one of us, for us.

Let us now consider the Spiritual Mindset’s motivation for making a difference in ministry and mission before moving on to considering something of the manner with which the Mindset of the Spirit will engage with others.

The SPiritual Mindset makes a difference because its hope is in riches and power!

This is what the gospel places before us as the highest motivation for our lives! Now I know that some of you will say, “What is so original about that!” Cynical observers might say that much of the last 2000 years of Western history could be collected under the heading of churchman striving for riches and power. How can I reconcile such a proposition with Jesus’ statement, “blessed are the poor and the meek”

The Motivation for Ministry and Mission begins with God’s Calling. Paul encourages us to live a life worthy of the calling we have received– but to what have we been called?

Eph. 1:18 I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe.

We are called to hope, which Paul explains is the riches of God’s glorious inheritance among the saints and his incomparable power for us who believe. So a life that makes a difference is one worthy of the riches and power that God has given us, but let us remind ourselves once again what that actually means.

The hope that Paul speaks of here is not wishful thinking or groundless optimism – plenty of people wish for riches and power – in fact Australians gamble more than $18 Billion dollars a year in the hope of getting rich. The hope that Paul describes to the Ephesians is more like promise:

Eph. 2:12 remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.

Here Paul describes life for the Gentiles before they came to know God in Jesus as being without hope in the world because they were cut off from the promises that God had made to his people Israel. So we might say that Paul wants us to live in a way that is worthy of the promise to which we have been called – the promise of riches and power