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January 16, 2005
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The Purpose Driven Life
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Pastor Brian Shimer
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"What on Earth am I Here For?"
Ephesians 1: 15-22
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“For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the SpiritŁ of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. 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, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way."
NIV
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- What on earth am I here for? That is such a great question. I think the fact that this little book by Rick Warren has outsold the Bible in America and has been on the NY Times best seller list for a very long time is not because it is Christian drivel, or because it is a new paganism touted by a Christian pastor, but because of this question.
People want to know the answer. "Why am I alive?" "Is there a God and does that God know me and have a purpose for me?"
The answer is that God does have a purpose. The Bible talks about it and the 88 verses quoted by Rick Warren in this week's chapters describe it. Rick Warren contends that the purpose people seek will not be found in self help books, not in looking inside ourselves, not in money, nor success, nor power, nor sex, nor sin, but in Jesus Christ.
We noted that reality last week saying that the only way to be a recipient of the blessings Paul wrote about in Ephesians 1 is to be IN Christ, and we found that to be included in Christ meant to hear and believe the Gospel. We got to take it in and there will find our purpose.
But some people live without discovering what they are here for. And I am certain some people could even read this little book, do the daily study, be involved in a group even and miss it. They could end the study and still be living their lives for themselves not for God. They could miss the benefits of knowing and living out of the purpose God had for them.
- So before we define "what I am here for," how can we help one another really live the answer? This book is not about me doing it for me because it is all about me. It is about us as a body doing something.
When Paul was writing his letter to the church in Ephesus, he knew they grasped faith and love but in explaining God's fuller purpose did not want them to miss out on how they were living for the praise of God's glory. So, did what I want us to do: he prayed for them.
That is my first little message today: I need your prayers and you need mine.
Say that with me: "I need your prayers and you need mine." Say that to the person on the left and on the right.
How can we pray like Paul - by using his prayer.
A. First, friends, Paul says he is thanking God for them and just remembering them in his prayers. This is not a big exercise. It is a matter of saying, "Jesus, I want to thank you for Jeanine. I remember her, her joy in you, her love for you and for Don and her tender heart." Now that took me less than 10 seconds, but it made an eternal difference in Jeanine's life.
Remember, I need your prayers and you need mine.
B. Next Paul prays for something that he continually asks: "that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation so that you may know him better." What a good prayer that they may know God better through the presence of God's Holy Spirit. So, when you pray this, say: "Father, I ask you to give Jeanine the Spirit of wisdom and revelation that she may know You better." Again, it does not take long to speak a prayer, but what a difference it will make in Jeanine's discovery of her purpose.
C. Finally Paul prays they will have their eyes enlightened so they may know three things:
The hope to which God has called them.
You and I have a calling in Christ - a purpose for which we live. The hope of that calling is the fact that it is a present calling and a future joy. We are praying for one another to KNOW this hope in this calling.
The riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints.
Here God speaks of God's inheritance in the saints -- he has spoke of our inheritance through redemption, but here what riches God receives in us!
That incomparably great power for us who believe…
Pray we will know hope, riches and the resurrection power of God!
"And Lord I ask you to enlighten Jeanine's eyes that he can know the hope to which you have called him, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints and the incomparably great power for him as he believes in you."
Paul knew that the Ephesians were battling principalities and powers which seemed bigger than they were. They were battling wickedness in the heavenly realms and he wanted them to know that the power which was in them was greater than any power brought against them.
Have you ever been up against something that was too big for you? Of course, but this passage says, do not fear Goliath for there is no Goliath bigger than your God.
So the first part of the message has been to have you. Remember, I need your prayers and you need mine in order to walk in the purpose God has for us.
- That is part one, but we must still answer the question: What on earth am I here for, if this life takes prayer to accomplish, what is it?
Last Tuesday night Joyce Krull and I sat waiting for the other members of the Worship Committee to arrive, while I was looking through a prayer book I had thought had a great opening prayer for our time together. Instead I came across a sentence penned by the author in confessional prayer to God and being struck by it, read it aloud. It said, "Have I today done anything to fulfill the purpose for which Thou didst cause me to be born?"
"That's a good question," I said, and wondered if I had I done anything in line with God's purpose for me that day, and could not think of a thing.
Joyce on the other hand, sat there quietly for a moment and then looked up and said, "Yes."
By then I had forgotten about the question, and said, "Yes?"
"Well," she said, "I completed reading day 7 in the Purpose Driven Life this morning and in that chapter Rick Warren tells how I am created to bring glory to God. He says that I do this through enjoying God, loving others, becoming like Jesus in my character, using my gifts and sharing with those around me." Well today I have so enjoyed God, worshiped, studied the Bible, and served so know that I have been walking in fulfillment of the purpose for which God created me."
I was stunned, actually. Here I had not thought of anything, (see how much I need your prayers!?), and she had immediately connected to that morning's study, and seen that indeed she had fulfilled his purpose that day. But as I looked back I realized I had also.
What is the answer to the question, "What on earth am I here for?"
You and I are here to manifest God's glory, whereas the heavens declare God's glory and all the creatures around us share in God's glory by being fully who God made them to be, people fall short of God's glory. However, we are to make the weight and value of God's presence known, we are to make manifest the beauty of God to others.
Author Max Lucado writes of a friend suffering with cancer. Many of this man's other friends had told him in no uncertain terms that if he just had enough faith he would be healed. But in contrast Lucado came and said, "What if your illness is a showcase of your faith in Christ, rather than a demonstration of your lack of faith? What if God knowing you had enough faith God is allowing you to be here, in order that through this illness you may radiate the presence and beauty of God here to nurses and doctors and others." Such a burden rolled from this friend's shoulders as he began to find purpose even in his season of suffering. Suddenly he could believe perhaps he had enough faith that God entrusted him with even this cancer to showcase that very faith to others.
What on earth are you here for? The glory of God. Truly we can milk a cow to the glory of God, for it matters not what we are doing but for whom we do it. God is glorified as we are living fully alive - which happens as we put faith in Jesus.
Yesterday while visiting Estelle Medearis I was talking with her about her purpose in life - just in being herself, reading the word even though she cannot remember it; praying; resting; being fully alive at this stage of 90 years.
- Remember Brother Lawrence?
He was a man who lived during the 14th Century in France and believed he was the lowliest and worst of all people, so eventually became a monk for he was not worth life in the world. And still because he believed he was of such little worth he took the lowliest job in the monastery, which to him was working in the kitchen (no offense to any of you who like kitchen work, but to him it was the worst place). And so in the kitchen he said, "God, I am worth so little, I just want to enjoy you while I am here. I want to practice the fact that you are with me in this place." In day 8 of the study we learn that to live just to "enjoy" God is to worship!
Well, this man began to see God's glory in all the little evidences of that kitchen -- through the rainbows on soap suds, the stained glass window visible in a thin slice of cucumber held up to the sun, the curled peel from a potato, everything began to shout to him of the presence and beauty and majesty of God. Well, the more he saw the more he rejoiced in the presence of God. And the more he rejoiced, the more the presence of God was known through this man's life.
When he exited the kitchen, people would seek him out for counsel and prayer. People began to be healed when he prayed for them. People began to travel from all over France to come and visit Brother Lawrence and many wrote him letters asking him to explain his secret.
What was going on? Brother Lawrence was purpose driven -- his sole passion was to practice the presence of God and that is what it means to live by the purposes written of in the book we are studying, simply to enjoy God, to seek to know God, and allow the presence of God to flow through your life in service, love and witness, this is the purpose driven life. What on earth are you here for? to live for the glory of God!
- So,
I need your prayers and you need mine so that I can fully live for God's glory and you can too. That's what I am here for and that's what you are here for. May your heart be blessed as you live for His glory day by day.
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