Moving From Survival Through Success To Significance

Moving From Survival Through Success to Significance

(Acts 1:8-18)

Rick Warren recently told Charlie Rose in an interview on Public Broadcasting Television. "Most of the world struggles to survive. The majority of Americans are striving for success. Yet, few people ever achieve a deep sense of significance. He told Charlie, I want to give the rest of my life in helping all the peoples of the world find signficance."

Warren writes: "The P.E.A.C.E. Plan is a massive effort to mobilize 1 billion Christians around the world into an outreach effort to attack the five global, evil giants of our day. These are the world’s biggest problems, affecting billions, not just millions, of people: spiritual emptiness, corrupt leadership, poverty, disease, and illiteracy.

These five global giants ravage the lives of billions of people worldwide and all work together to constrain them and cut them off from knowing the saving grace of a loving God who sent his son, Jesus Christ, to die for their sins allowing them eternal hope and security. There is no organization or government that can effectively eradicate these giants. The only successful solution is the global Church of Jesus Christ.

"The Scripture shows us that Jesus shared the Good News, trained leaders, helped the poor, cared for the sick, and taught the children," Warren said. "Our P.E.A.C.E. Plan will just do the five things Jesus did while he was here on earth."

P.E.A.C.E. is an acronym that stands for "Plant churches, Equip servant leaders, Assist the poor, Care for the sick, and Educate the next generation," Warren said. The emphasis calls for church-based small groups to adopt villages where spiritual emptiness, selfish leadership, poverty, disease, and ignorance keep people from experiencing the kind of life God wants them to have, he said.

’WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF ...?’

"There are thousands of villages in the world that have no school, no clinic, no business, no government -- but they have a church," Warren said. "What would happen if we could mobilize churches to address those five global giants?"

Warren’s "Purpose Driven" movement is an ideal vehicle for launching such an effort. A combined 23 million copies of his books -- The Purpose Driven Church and The Purpose Driven Life -- have been sold, and more than 400,000 pastors in 162 countries have been trained in the "church health" principles that took Saddleback from seven to more than 20,000 members in 25 years. His approach organizes congregations into small groups that focus on the five biblical purposes of the church: worship, fellowship, discipleship, ministry, and evangelism.

The following are some ways of deciphering what Jesus meant in the great commission (Matt 28:18-20) to accomplish His purpose for our lives and the world that He so loved that He gave His only Son. (John 3:16,17)

1. MEANING - Many people lack a sense of meaning, purpose or significance because they are yet to find God’s plan for their life. It begins by what Jesus said in Luke 10:27, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind and your neighbor as yourself. For all the law and the teachings of the prophets are summarized in this statement." We find meaning when we love God and we seek to exude that love by serving people. Jesus said, "My food (satisfaction) is to do the will of Him who sent me and to accomplish His purpose. When Jesus said, "It is finished." He meant that He had paid for the penalty of the sins of the whole world." WE find our greatest meaning when we present Christ as the spiritual solution that plagues every human being. Their need to find forgiveness and eternal life by receiving Christ as their Savior. That meaning is their developed, appropriated and discovered fully by allowing the fruits of the Spirit to be expressed in all kinds of service to Christians and non-Christians in the world.

2. MANAGEMENT - The Lord Jesus wants to be our manager, boss and the authority in all areas of our life. When we refuse to allow Him to manage our assets, time, or agenda we are saying to Him that we think we can do a better job than HE can in making the most of our lives. No wonder so many people are living without a sense of complete significance. As C.S. Lewis once said, "Jesus was either a liar, lunatic or Lord." Let us let the Lord of the universe operate in HIs rightful place in our lives, families and vocations so that we can see best manager make the most of our time.

3. MOBILIZER - The Lord Jesus said, "As you are going (the present participle of Go) indicating that there is a natural assumption that true discples will be actively going to the lost, needy and unreached people groups of the world. Make disciples of all the ethnic groups of the world. It is not enough to be in motion, we should be mobilized for His cause, church expansion and Christ like activities.