Ilife, Part 5

f you have your Bible, I’d like you to turn to the Book of Luke...Matthew, Mark, Luke...Dr. Luke. Luke chapter 5. We’ve been in a series called iLife and we’ve been looking at the simple, deeper questions of life. I think there comes a time in our life when we need to ask bigger questions: What the meaning? Why am I here? Why am I alive? What is my purpose? I had someone talk to me the other day in a counseling session and this person looked at me and said, Dino, you’ve gotta tell me, you’ve gotta help convince me that there’s more to like than what I’m living. I thought that was so interesting that she looked at me and said there has to be more to life than what I’ve experienced. I don’t think that’s an isolated case. I think that many times you can go through a season in your life where you’re trying to wonder, trying to figure out -- there’s got to be more meaning. I’ve got to discover why I’m on this planet. I’ve got to figure out why I’m alive, what I can contribute, what is my assignment, what is my mission? No matter what age you’re at, I believe there’s always that question we work through.

And so we’ve been looking at some of the deeper questions we can ask ourselves where we find the discovery of some of the purposes of God. Like, why I serve? Why do I reach? Pastor Mike did a great job last weekend. Why don’t we clap our hands for Pastor Mike? I know he’s around. He did a great job -- Why I give? Just really gave us a key to so many things in our life about the spirit of giving. A huge life-giving message. And then this week we’re gonna talk a little bit about why I build. You say, Pastor - help me through this for a little bit - You mean to tell me that there are discoveries about reaching, serving, giving and building where I can find meaning in my own life? Yes, because these are not man made values, these are the values of Christ. And our search for purpose doesn’t being with self-discovery. Our search for purpose begins with God Almighty. It all begins with Him. He created us, He has the blueprints so we look to Him. And so, we believe that there’s a 2-fold purpose to this series. One is been individually, we want to help you discover God’s plan for your life. We want you to be able to hear God’s voice; know the will of God for your life. And then the 2nd thing as we have been taking a behind the scenes look, personally as us as a church, as a faith community, about why we’re here. What’s our purpose, what’s our mission, so we’re gonna talk about that for a few more minutes today.

Lord, we love you, we thank you right now. We pray right now, Father, that you will help us to grow in everything you have for us. We love you so much. I thank you for these wonderful families. I thank you for every baby that was dedicated and those that were not that are here because Father, those are little treasures that you have a meaning and you have a purpose for them to discover. And God, I thank you that no matter what our age is, you want us to discover your purpose for us. We love you, Lord, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

One of the things I’ve enjoyed about this series has been one of my favorite series to talk about as we’ve looked in God’s Word is because we’ve made it personal, we’ve used it in a way to say, why do I reach; why do I serve? Mike made it personal last week about why he gives as an individual -- why him and Rachel are givers into the kingdom of God; we believe that when you reach and you serve and you give that’s gonna help you build. So I like making it personal: why do I build the kingdom of God? Do you know over and over again in Scripture, Jesus would run into people and He would remind them what the kingdom of God is about. Because, see, they would get tunnel vision about what they’re dealing with. How many knows sometimes in life you can get so tunnel vision on what you’re dealing with that what’s before you right now? You can’t think about the future; you can’t think about the big picture; the small picture has you consumed. When Jesus was always telling stories or parables or giving illustrations or giving a truth to groups of people, hey, hey, remember something -- there’s a bigger picture at work here and it’s called the kingdom of heaven; it’s called the kingdom of God. And He would talk about -- this thing is like the kingdom of God. If you want to know what the kingdom of God is -- it’s like this: and He would help his disciples to focus on building the kingdom of God...expanding the kingdom of God in their life and through their life. So I thought about that personally, why do I build the kingdom of God? Why do I want to build what God is building? Why do I want God to build in me His purpose, His plan for my life?