DRIVEN BY PURPOSE

(Let’s move on to Purpose # 5)

You weren’t designed, by your creator, to be a taker… the image of God in you, was supposed to fashion you into a giver.

You weren’t put on this earth to take all you can from life… but to give all you can to life!

You were created to become servants….God determines greatness by how many people you serve, not by how many people serve you!

Your example is Jesus.. The One who’s image we are being changed into:

It’s only when we forget ourselves that we do things that deserve to be remembered.

Let’s move on to Purpose # 5:

Military people understand the idea of mission… receiving a specific set of orders… carrying out those orders until he task is done.

Ministry people like myself understand the concept of calling… taking on a task for life, not because you feel like doing it but because you have been picked by God to do so.

In fact when I look up the word mission on my computer dictionary here is exactly what shows up:

mis·sion [mísh’n] n (plural mis·sions)

Question is: do military types get missions and do ministry types get callings and everybody else is left to just do what feels right?… or is everybody called? Does everyone have a divine mission to carry out?

If you really believe that you were specifically and individually created… God’s eternal purpose for you includes shaping you into the character of Jesus, building you into a reflection of God’s glory, bringing you into the family of God, and creating a serving and giving heart in you…..

All of these first four, by the way, are characteristics that God starts in you here on this earth… then carries over into eternity. Someday we are going to be reigning with Christ (whatever that means)…. the characteristics built into you here are going to be used there… for the next billion years.

When you go through some test here and God brings you through with a deeper faith and trust in Him, and more Christ-like character… somewhere in your future… 20 million years from now… you are going to be using the characteristics the depth of character God built into you here. (Isn’t that a wild thought?)

The last purpose, I’m going to talk about here is in few minutes, is for the here and now. If you have a mission, it’s something you are supposed to accomplish in this life.. Before you move on to eternity.

By the way, I haven’t emphasized in this series, but just so you know: These five purposes are not just plucked out of the air. There wasn’t a hundred white balls popping around in an air filled chamber, and some overly exciting voice says: the first number is… Glorify God with your life. These five are based on two important statements of Jesus: The Greatest Commandment where he wrapped all of scripture up into two sentences and the Great Commission where he gives Believers their:

Com-mission

Matthew 22:37-40 Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

Matthew 28:18 Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

From these two key passages we have developed our church’s purposes:

Glorify God in Worship

Reach the world in Evangelism

Act on God’s Word in Service

Commune in Love in Fellowship

Educate the Body in Discipleship

You may notice that these five purposes for our church and the five purposes we are talking about for your life are similar. Obviously if there are five main goals for my earthly existence, and a bunch of us get together in a local church; our live purposes are going to spill over into our Church’s purposes.

That said let’s get back to you and your personal mission…

I am intrigued by the focus in Jesus life. He came from eternity and He understood that he was returning to eternity and He knew that his years here, on this earth, were designed to accomplish very specific purposes. Man.. I wish I had even the slightest bit of His kind of focus on reality.

Age 12: Luke 2:49 And He said to them, “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” (NKJV)

Luke 4:18 "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed.. (focus!!!)

What is finished? His mission! He came to this earth to do something specific… He did it, He finished it. He went back into eternity to wait for us to arrive.

Think with me…. You’re created in His image and likeness. During your time on this earth you are having the distorted image replaced and the character of Christ installed…

Does anybody really think that he would put us here on this earth just to do that distortion fixing thing (sanctification) or does it make more sense that he would, in conjunction with our sanctification, give us a very specific set of tasks to accomplish?

Turns out Jesus addresses that very thing:

John 9:4 All of us must quickly carry out the tasks assigned us by the one who sent me, because there is little time left before the night falls and all work comes to an end. (NLT)

What do you know?? Jesus comes here all focused on completing a very specific task designed to reconcile mankind to the God they had rejected. When he says “My part is finished” and leaves for heaven…He has the full expectation that we who will spend our 80 years on this earth, once we have received our reconciliation to God, will focus ourselves on helping others to get reconciled as well!

We will have all eternity to “rule” with those who have been reconciled to God, but we only have this one lifetime to reach others with the message

The disciples were getting all focused on the wrong thing and Jesus instantly corrects them. They wanted to know how and when the end would come… sound familiar. So many people are so locked in to wanting to understand every detail of how the end times will unfold. Jesus abruptly tells the disciples that that is not to be their focus…

Acts 1:7 The Father sets those dates," he replied, "and they are not for you to know. 8 But when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you will receive power and will tell people about me everywhere--in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

Don’t spend your energy worrying about what the end will look like. Spend your energy getting as many other people, as you possible can, ready for the end. After all, that’s what I spend my time and focus on while I was visiting temporarily earth.

You’re visit on earth is temporary too. It’s just a brief time. Eternity come later… Get focused. I didn’t put you on earth to coast. I put you there to carry out the work that I began. I finished phase one, now you all are phase two. Don’t take your eye off the ball!

Luke 9:61-62 Then someone said to Jesus, "I want to go with you, Lord, but first let me go back and take care of things at home." 62 Jesus answered, "Anyone who starts plowing and keeps looking back isn't worth a thing to God's kingdom!" (CEV)

I had an image come into my mind this week that I haven’t been able to shake. Each morning billions of people stretch themselves awake all the way around the world. Each person, once awake begins to think about what is in store for them that day. Plans are made, carried out, 16 hours, or so, later everyone is climbing back into bed with another day complete.

Many of those people are unbelievers, their plans for the day are in no way connected to God’s plans for that day. On the other hand, millions of those waking up each morning are believers, they have been reconciled to God.

There sins have been forgiven, they are being formed back into the undistorted likeness of God. Each has been called to attach themselves to the body of Christ in service and each has been called to become a servant to their fellowman. On top of it all every-one has received a specific mission in life to accomplish something for the advancement of the kingdom of God that no one is uniquely designed to do.

Yet I’m struggling with this contrast, in my mind of what I can imagine are on God’s list in th4e must do column for the day, and what his “redeemed ones” are putting in their must do column.

It’s not hard for any of us , who know anything about the Bible to come up with

A list of what would be in God’s ‘must do today column.

Yet in so many of these areas, God has limited the success of getting his must do’s done to whether or not his “reconciled ones’ have put any of God’s “must do’s on their list.

I wonder how much of what we all did this week was actually on God’s list of things that needed done…. eternally. I have this fear, particularly for us Christian in affluent countries, that 90, or 95, or maybe even 98% of what we do has no connection to what our Heavenly Father has planned for our lives.

I picture Jesus, waking up, each morning with his head filled with actions His Father was calling him to get done that day that were a vital part of his mission on this earth…. Then setting out systematically to make every motion count eternally. And then I picture my day and there is a huge difference.

I used to be a roofer… a good one…., when I was much younger. When I was in my early 20’s I could put a whole roof on by myself in a day. I learned to make every move count. When I nailed on a shingle I laid the gun on my right foot and with one fluid action I would step forward, reach for the next shingle with my left hand, slide it into place with my right hand and my right foot would automatically bring the gun into exactly the place for my right hand to grab it while my left hand was reaching for the next shingle.

If only I lived my Christian life that way! That’s how focused Jesus was with his kingdom actions.

Every action was leading to the next reaction that would bring an eternal result!

I realize that none of us are going to be able to shift into the gear Jesus was in, but it wouldn’t be a bad idea to shift out of first gear. You know what I’m talking about. You try to hit drive and you absentmindedly shift into second or first gear. That’s how many of us are living out our mission for God….grinding along with little power and little forward momentum.