Northside Church - Sydney
Cure for the Common Life Week 3: Putting “Purr” into Purpose
You're listening to another great message from Northside Community Church. Friends, when you love life, as I do, and as I'd like to think all of you do, when you really love life, then negative and cynical comments about life can be rather jarring, almost offensive. I'll give you a couple of examples. Remember Quentin Crisp, you old enough to remember Quentin Crisp, he was a colourful celebrity, I guess, of sorts back in the 70s and 80s. He once said that this was his description of life. You fall out of your mother's womb, you crawl across a violent landscape under heavy fire, and then you fall into your grave. He'd be a great party guest, wouldn't he? That was his explanation of life. And then an unknown writer has said, "We're born wet, naked, and hungry," and it's downhill after that, a troubled person indeed. Howard Nordberg is a US philosopher. He says, "Life is like a cement trampoline," I guess we all had days like that, but that was his definition of the whole of life. And then here's one, a more poignant one from Jim Carrey, the famous comedian. He says, "Everyone should get rich and famous and do everything they've ever dreamed of, so they can discover for themselves that's not the answer." Now with his wealth and with his notoriety, I think there's a comment we can really believe. And then you get a humorous quote like this one from Reba McIntyre who says, "In life you need three things. You need a wishbone, a backbone, and a funny bone. I'll leave you to work out how they all apply." The friends look, it's pretty clear that the apostle Paul, it's clear from that reading gets brought to us by James. It's pretty clear the apostle Paul would object strongly to any hint of cynicism and negativity when it comes to the purpose of life. I mean, look at his personal statement of purpose and mission in life. It's right here. In the 20th verse of the first chapter of Philippians, "Here's a man with more focus than a canon zoom lens. Here's a man with more intensity than a high-powered laser beam. Here's how he sums up his role as an apostle, as an evangelist, as a leader in the early church." Look at this. "My deep desire and hope is that I shall never fail in my duty, but that at all times—and especially right now—I shall be full of courage so that with my whole being I shall bring honor to Christ, whether I live or die, or can you sense the passion? Can you sense the intentionality? Can you sense the drive, my deep desire, at all times, full of courage, with my whole being?" He was a man who knew exactly why he was here on earth. He was filled with a sense of purpose and mission. Now, I don't want to shock anyone, but I can say that not everyone gets to experience that level of purpose and calling, really. And we're kidding ourselves if we think that we all do. Some of you are in jobs right now that you find mundane and boring. You didn't have a Damascus road experience before you took on that role. No, you are working primarily as a means to an end. You have to survive. I speak to people all the time who wish they were doing something different. But they're doing what they're doing because realistically, practically, financially, it's their best option. Now friends, here's the point. Under these conditions we need to remind ourselves that as followers of Jesus Christ, our worth, our value, our meaning and purpose in life are not defined by what we do. They are defined by who we are and who we are becoming. And there's a very big difference. This is a big topic. We're not going to be able to unpack all of this this morning, except to say that it must be. And it is a big topic among Christians, you know, purpose in life. What am I here for? What about my job? Why are I doing what's bringing me more satisfaction and fulfillment? All these things, why are I with a person who's bringing me more or a sense of full? This issue of purpose really, really comes up a lot in pastoral ministry. The book by Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life, is one of the most successful Christian books ever released, over 30 million copies sold. This is a big issue. And in that book, by the way, Rick Warren lays the spiritual and emotional foundation for discovering who we are and why we're here. He talks about the five purposes of life. I know some of you have read this book. And it's in the pursuit of these purposes. We discover who we are and why we're here, irrespective of our social, vocational or material standing in life. These five purposes are, firstly. To offer real worship, that's the first one. We're designed to worship something. Everybody bows to something. It might be money and materialism. It might be popular opinion. It might be pride and pleasure. It might be ego and power. Might be a hundred and one of the things, but everybody bows to something. What we say in the Christian church is, as people created in God's image, we only achieve our full purpose and meaning in life when we bow, when we bow to God, our Heavenly Father through Jesus Christ, His Son. So we're designed to offer real worship. The second of these is to enjoy real fellowship. And Rick Warren actually says that our spiritual family, our brothers and sisters in Christ, are in a sense more important than our earthly families because this family is going to last for eternity. If all of your family members are Christians, then that's the case there as well. But when you're mixing with the followers of Jesus Christ, this family is going to last for eternity. And we say it here at Northside, journeying with fellow believers, doing life together, being accountable to each other, these are vital components when it comes to finding our purpose in life. Rick Warren's got a third one, to learn real discipleship. More than just giving mental assent to what Jesus said, but really opening up to the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives, allowing ourselves to be transformed as per Romans 12 2, to take about cross-follow Jesus, to grow and mature in our understanding of His ways, to learn real discipleship. That's one of our overriding purposes, as is to practice real ministry. And by that, Rick Warren is talking about service, being willing to use our gifts and abilities, those things that God has given us, being willing to use them to relieve suffering, to fight injustice and to tackle inequality. And we're seeking to do that here at Northside through various avenues of service and witness. His final purpose, to live out real evangelism, a readiness to respond to opportunities that come our way, and they do all the time, to show people what Jesus is all about, to show the difference that He can make in our lives. Hopefully, as His light and love shine through us, this is not hitting people over the head with the Bible, this is looking for opportunities to explain why we live as we do, to live out real evangelism. Now, you look at a list like that, you look at a list like that. And as a Christian, even before we begin to talk about study, before we talk about career path, relationships, all these other things we normally associate with purpose, looking at a list like that, you realize these represent the essential purposes for which we have been created in Christ. These are not about what we do, they're not about who we're with, they're not about where we live, or how much money we make. These are about who we are. These are about who we are as people, and getting these right is an integral part of finding our purpose in life, getting these right. Being focused on these things draws us into alignment with God's plan for our lives at that foundational level. They give us a why to live for, they give us a reason for our existence. Friends, you've heard me say from this platform many times, when we have a why in life, we can bear almost any how. When we know where we're going in terms of our relationship with Christ, in terms of our connectedness with Him, our intimacy with Him, it doesn't matter too much, it doesn't matter too much about the events in our lives, job and career, living conditions, the highs and the lows, the successes and the failures, we'll manage how life goes because of our unshakeable sense of why, why we worship, why we serve, why we do life together, why we're serving and so on, why we're ministering and evangelizing and so on. You see friends, knowing our purpose in life at this foundational level has a number of specific benefits and they relate to our emotional and our spiritual health. They're really, really important. The first is this, knowing our purpose in life reduces the stress of indecision and the fear of wrong choices. I mean the baseline question for a disciple of Jesus Christ when making a decision doesn't always get down as sort of as easy as this, but at least the starting point is how does this align with my Christian faith and my values? Will going in this direction, making this choice, help or hinder my ability to worship, to do life with my fellow believers, to serve, to witness for Christ, to journey day by day as a disciple, knowing our purpose in life helps in that area, it also helps to eliminate the if-only's of life. Now we all have them, you know, if only, none of us are exempt from that, there's always a risk of us thinking that way, but the mere fact that as Christians you can be increasingly developing a sense of destiny and that's one of the blessings of being a disciple of Jesus, the creation within our hearts and minds of a sense of destiny and in that way the if-only moments are viewed as kind of like stepping stones toward greater maturity in Christ. They're not seen as failures, they're seen as defining moments when we experience more of God's grace, his forgiveness, more of his conviction about sin, whatever we need. I look back on some of the mistakes I've made in ministry, some of the wrong calls I've made and looking back I can see they're all part of the process. They're all part of the process of God building me into the leader, he intended me to become. I can see how they've fitted into his purpose for my life, I know many of you look back on some of your mistake moments and you don't have to beat yourself up on them, it's just like God thank you for bringing me through that and I have learnt and I am moving forward with you. Takes care of some of that. So discovering our purpose in Christ reduces the something's missing syndrome. I'm not suggesting for one moment that followers of Christ don't have their down moments. Our moments have set back in discouragement, some of you are going through that right now, some of you are going through your dark something's missing moment right now, it's the way it is in any congregation that's being real and it's not easy when you're passing through that time but as a follower of Jesus, as one whose destiny is tied up in who you are, not in what you do or what happens to you. You know the times of testing in whatever form eventually pass and you come in the calm of waters, you know that deep down, that's why you're here worshiping, that's why you're continuing to serve and hang out with believers because you know deep down, you haven't announced a failure going through a tough time but you know you'll get through. That's the way it is with our great God. Knowing your purpose in him reduces the something's missing moments of life. Well, finally, knowing our purpose in life frees us, liberates us from the need to compare ourselves with others. It's a very natural human tendency to compare ourselves with others. We do it all the time. And as Christians, we're not exempt from that temptation but again, just in case you've missed it, when we become convinced that our worth, our value, our purpose and our destiny are tied up in who we are in Christ, not in what we do, not in where we live, not in how many friends we've got, not in how much money we've got. When we know our worth and value is tied up in him, then the tendency to compare and the need to compare is greatly reduced, if not taken away altogether. Imagine the temptation for Paul. He left the ranks of the Pharisees to become a follower of Jesus. And the Pharisees were pretty well to do people in the main, based on their theology that God blessed those who were close to him and these guys were supposed to be close to him. That's the power and influence for the most part. Paul had left those ranks. Imagine how tempting it would have been for him to look back and say, "I've given up so much for this work I've been involved in now, those guys are still going down the club and they've got all the perks and all the benefits. Guys, I've given up so much, they've still got their positions of privilege and power. He was Paul at any one time on the verge of being thrown into prison, being beaten to within an inch of his life, his whole life totally changed when he became an apostle, a follower of Jesus. But what was his testimony? What did he say about all this? You know it so well, Philippians 3, 7, he says, "All these former things are counted as prophets." Once counted him as prophet and, "Hey, I'm a Pharisee, who are you?" He says, "I now count as loss, I now count as loss for the sake of knowing Christ." He says, "I don't even care less, I don't even begin to compare myself anymore, don't have to, totally free." Wow, what a testimony. I know you shouldn't argue from extremes, but I'm going to share with you a fairly extreme story to bring this message to a close this morning. I want to talk about a young man who in a spectacular way, a spectacular way, has proven that his purpose in life lies in who he is, in who he is, and not in what he does. He's Australian, he's now based in California, he's an evangelist, he's a motivational speaker. I'm sure some of you have been, have had contact with him in various ways. In recent years, he was on 60 minutes last year, his name is Nick Vachuzic, here's a picture of Nick right here, who's had some contact with Nick Vachuzic, Vachuzic, some of you. A man born with no arms and no legs. Recently in his story, I saw it on television, on the hour of power, he said that for the first opening weeks of his life, his mother was so traumatized, they hadn't picked this up at all, that she couldn't even hold him, and I guess we can begin to understand that. This young man is an amazing guy, like when you see the footage of what he, he watersky, he plays golf, he surfs, he dives from some amazing heights, he recently got engaged. This man is amazing and truly inspiring, I would love one of my dreams would be to bring him to the stage of Northside. I've been to a few churches in America where I've missed him by one week, but he mainly operates in that scene over there, I'd love to, this is him in a huge audience, somewhere in Latin America. Nick, amazing guy that he is, I love him for many reasons, inspires me, motivates me, gets me through a tough day when I think of a guy, you know, what does that man got to bear with and cope with? Well, he does so many things, but his life and witness addresses an attitude which some of us can easily fall into, I've had my moments in this zone, and I'm sure you have. It's the zone where we say, "Oh, look, I know God's given me purpose in Christ," but you know, wouldn't it be nice if I just had a few more ways of sort of him showing me how special I am, a few more miracles, a few more answers to prayer, like get that job I really want, get that home I really want, get that place of the city where I really want to live. Give me that person I want to be with, like, if only you'd do that, and people get all hung up about this, this is what Nick Vasuzic says, and I love this, "If you can't get a miracle, become one." Like this man is some things he just can't get, but he's become a miracle. If you can't change certain things in your life, if you can't change certain areas of purpose apart from these essential ones, then get God to change your attitude to how you handle those circumstances. Get God to change how you see certain aspects of your life, and refer back to those five basics that are the transcend all other things of who we are and what we do. They speak to who we are in Christ. If you can't get a miracle, then through Jesus Christ, become a miracle. The churches like Northside are set up. If you have a desire to do that, we are set up to help you become the miracle in your personal life God intends you to be. We're set up to do that. If you can't get a miracle, become a miracle, let's bow in prayer. Well Father God, we thank you for the witness of Paul who left no doubt whatsoever about his purpose and calling, he was a driven man, obsessed with his calling in you. Some of us are listening to that and thinking, "Well I don't really feel that in my work. I don't even feel that in many aspects of my life." Lord, hopefully we've been pulled back today to those top five essential components of a person who's being made new in Christ. Help us and remind us that our identity is not tied up in what we do, where we live. It's tied up in who we are in you. And that just transcends all the other measures by which we judge people. And so Lord help us, if we can't get miracles in certain areas, help us to become a miracle by the way we handle our circumstances. You can enable us to do that. There are so many examples of people who are doing that every day like Nick and so many others in this church whom we could call on if we had time. Draw us deeper into a knowledge of you and into your ways we pray through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Amen.