Our Purpose

The other day I had the opportunity to talk with a couple of great young men

- About their understanding of the Christian life

- I was trying to get them to articulate

- How their faith influenced their lives

- Day to day

- I wanted them to tell me as best they could

- How their faith influenced the way they made decisions

- The way it influenced their relationships and actions and decisions

I don’t know if you have given it much thought

- But those questions are important

- They form our faith framework

- Around which we organize our lives

- The trouble with many of us

- Is that our faith is in one box

- And our daily lives are in another

- Or maybe we carry our faith with us

- But only use it on Sunday mornings

I want to look at some Scriptures and ponder this issue

- Having an understanding of your worldview or faith framework

- Can help you see

- What is important

- And what is not

- Much clearer

- It also might show where our lives don’t match up with our faith

Well, my conversation with these guys stumbled along

- As they searched to verbalize answers to these questions

- So I turned to some verses

- And asked them to consider what they meant to them

- We started with Matt 9:16-17

Matt 9:16-17

16 And who would patch an old garment with unshrunk cloth? For the patch shrinks and pulls away from the old cloth, leaving an even bigger hole than before. 17 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. The old skins would burst from the pressure, spilling the wine and ruining the skins. New wine must be stored in new wineskins. That way both the wine and the wineskins are preserved."

NLT

Patches on an old garment?

- Old and new wineskins?

- What does that have to do with the things we are discussing here?

- Well, we used to be old wineskins

- We were what we had become as those who did not know Christ

- We were full of old wine

- The wine of the world

- The ways of the world were what fill us up

- It was what we held inside

- But then we met Christ somewhere along the way

- And He made us new wineskins

- To hold a new wine

- Not the wine of the world

- But a new wine of Heaven

- The wine Jesus said He would drink new with us in Heaven

- If we tried to put the new wine in an old wineskin

- What would happen?

- Yep, we would have a big rupture

- And lose both the skin and the wine

- That is why we have to become new creatures

- When we come to Christ

- The old cannot hold the Spirit and the new life

- He puts in us

- He makes a new skin to hold the new life and Spirit

What kind of wineskin are you?

Turn to Ephesians 2:10

Eph 2:10

10 For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so that we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.

NLT

-

- We are a masterpiece

- Not just any masterpiece

- But God’s masterpiece

- He created us anew in Christ Jesus

- New, a new wineskin

- Not a reconditioned or retread wineskin

- But a brand spanking new one

- We are not junk either

- We are His masterpiece

- Not a make over Oprah-style

- But new work of excellent quality

- Reflect His glory

- Look around and see what God has done

- Of course if you look at the outside only

- You might miss the beauty and perfection of God’s work

- He works inside, in the heart

- And He did this so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago

- We were made new for a purpose

- For His purpose

- A purpose He established long before we knew Him

- When we were still old wineskins full of the world’s wine

- Did you realize you are a masterpiece made for a purpose

Look at 1 Cor 2:12-13

- And see what kind of wine he has put in us

1 Cor 2:12-13

12 And God has actually given us his Spirit (not the world’s spirit) so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us.

NLT John 8:12

- He has given us His Spirit

- Not the world’s spirit

- Not the ways of the world