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WHAT DRIVES MY LIFE?
Well, hello everyone and welcome to The Journey. So I’m glad you’re with us today. I want to welcome those of you who are in our Manhattan location as well as those of you are who are joining us new at our brand new Jersey City location. So we welcome you as well. Of course, we have just hundreds of people around who listen to our podcast, so we welcome those of you who are listening on the podcast today as well. Well, today we are asking the question, “What drives your life?” I think this question is worth thinking about. What does the Bible have to say regarding right drivers and wrong drivers? And somebody who was in the earlier service today, they were like “wrong drivers”. The first fill in, just so you know, was not woman. That’s not the first fill in of wrong drivers. That’s what somebody was trying to say to me. Not that. Instead, I want to look at the four wrong drivers that often get into the driver seat of our life. And I just want to qualify these wrong drivers—in a sense these things that I want to give you. They are okay in your life, they are just really bad drivers in your life. You will see what I mean. Let me give you the first one. The first wrong driver that often gets into the driver’s seat of your life and mine, is:
FOUR WRONG DRIVERS
1. Possessions.
We are driven to have more. We are driven to have more toys. To get more stuff. I mean, we always have to have the latest. And some of you are really into this kind of deal. You have the latest gadgets. And your big fear is that you are going to get a new cell phone, and then another new cell phone is going to come out after that cell phone, but you are still stuck in your contract for the old cell phone, and so you get into all this envy of electronic envy when it comes to this area, because sometimes possessions drive our life. It’s like that old bumper sticker about—he who dies with the most toys, wins. That’s sort of the mantra for the person who is driven by possessions. I always think, you know, he who dies with the most toys is, well, dead. You know. That’s just the reality of how that works. Possessions, it’s okay to have possessions, just don’t make that the driver of your life. A second drive we also have in the driver’s seat of our life is:
2. Popularity.
We are driven to be popular. We are driven just to go along with the crowd. We are driven to see how many people know us and how many people we are known by. We are driven to be famous. And certainly here in this metro area, the idea of being driven by your own fame, to have your name in light. Of course, this is a big drive in our society. There are people that are just known for being known. Think about that. What has Paris Hilton ever really done? Other than she is just known for being known. I mean, she is popular in this field. It’s about getting to the top of your game. And there is certainly nothing wrong with being popular. There is nothing wrong with being liked. But again, if you let this be the primary drive of your life, you are going to find that life is empty. Then many people are driven by:
3. Power.
They are driven by power. And they want to be in control. They want to have the power over people. They want to have power over corporations. They want to have the power over business. They want to be the captain of their own faith, ruler of their own lives. And they want the trappings of power. They want the elegance of power. They want all the things that power can bring. And many people who are powerful, they aren’t driven by popularity at all. They would rather be the behind the scenes power. The person that moves the market versus the person who is up front. People can be driven by this. Finally, people can be driven by:
4. Position.
They can be driven by position. They are just trying to work their way to the top. It’s all about the title. Have you ever been around the title dropper? I was recently around someone who was the title dropper. Like within two minutes, talking to this person, they dropped like three titles. Well, I was the vice president of this. And I was executive vice president of that. Now, I’m the president of this. I mean, I’m like, I don’t really care about your titles. Okay. Who are you as a person? I’m not even sure I like you yet. You’re not winning me over. But people are into this game and we have all at one time or another be driven to have those initials after our name. You know, those initials. I’ve got them. You know, the BA, the BS, the M whatever, the D, and all this other stuff. And we can fall into this academia. We can get so driven to get the titles after our names, and we do whatever it takes for us to graduate, or whatever it takes to get through that. And there’s nothing wrong with education. There is nothing wrong with having a title. There’s nothing wrong with being the leader in an organization. But if you are driven by that, you are going to miss out on the whole point of life. You see, the reality is, every person here is driven by something. I’m driven by something. You are driven by something. What’s driving your life? When you look at what God has to say, He says there is only one legitimate drive. There is only one right driver. You might want to write this in—that is, the driver of:
Purpose. Purpose is the proper driver. So you have to know the purpose of life. A lot of people let possessions, popularity, power and position to become their purpose in life. And they miss out on so much. You see, all of these wrong drivers, they are really just temporary things. They are things that are not going to last. But purpose lasts. Purpose is my vehicle and your vehicle to make a difference for eternity. Look at what the Scripture says in II Corinthians 4:18. It says, “There is far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow.” That’s what happens with those wrong drivers. Here today and gone tomorrow. “But the things that we can’t see now last forever.” I don’t know about you, but I want to invest my life in something that is going to last. I am now old enough to realize that my life is pretty brief. I mean, even if I have another 40 maybe 50 years at this thing, and I hope I might even have 60 years, at this thing or beyond. I mean, people are living longer these days, but that is really a brief time. So I want to use the brief time that I have to live my life for what’s going to last. I want to make a difference, not only now, but for eternity. So purpose is the vehicle for you and I to make a difference.
Now when you look at what the Bible says about purpose, the Bible is very clear that there are five eternal purposes. There are five purposes that are going to last forever. So I want us to examine those today. So turn over in your notes and you see it says, “Five Proper Purposes of a Driven Life”. That’s a little bit of a tongue twister. Five proper purposes of a driven life. But I want to give these to you.
Purpose No. 1: Connect with God personally
Here’s the first proper purpose of a driven life. The first purpose is going to last for eternity. It is, to connect with God personally. This should be the number one driver. The first driver. And rightfully, we put this at the top of the list, because it’s about knowing God. The first proper purpose of a driven life is to connect with God personally. And say—God, the primary purpose of my life is to know You. And this requires some awakenings. You have to awaken to the fact that God created you. That God loves you. That God knows you better than you know yourself, and then you wake up to the fact that your primary purpose is to know God in return. This requires wisdom. It’s the wise person who gets to know God. You know, I want to take you to I Chronicles, it’s a look over in the Old Testament. I Chronicles 28. If you get a chance, you might just want to read this whole chapter when you get home. Some of us have been reading it through the Bible challenge that we have been into and we read it a few months ago. This is a really interesting chapter because it introduces you, for the first time, to Solomon. You have probably heard of Solomon before. You probably know a little bit about Solomon. But do you know who Solomon’s dad was? Did you know that King David was the father of Solomon? And King David, many of us know his story. King David had great ups and downs in his life. He was a shepherd boy who was picked to be a king of all of Israel. So he went from the low man on the totem pole to suddenly, the highest person in the land. He was a poet as well as a warrior. He was a major artist, as well as a major man’s man, and that kind of deal. As if those two were in opposition. But never mind, forget that. You can be an artist and be like a man’s man. I didn’t mean it that way. Just forget it. Stop digging. That’s the first rule when you’re in a hole. Look. He was like this great accomplished guy. Extremely rational in ruling kingdoms, and he was in touch with his emotions when it comes to playing the harp. Now, I’m done. That was King David. We all know David. But he had some really highs and he had some real lows. Remember, one time he committed adultery with a person named Bathsheba. And this was a real low. And then he created this whole deal to get Uriah, her husband to the front of the lines so that he would be killed. I mean, this guy had his ups and downs in his life. In other words, he has really lived. But do you realize that at the end of his life, God said this about him. God said, “David, you are a man after My heart. You are a man who really, with all of your ups and down, you still want to know Me.” And it says that David served His purposes in his generation. David served God’s purposes. Think about that as an epitaph. You fulfilled God’s purposes in your generation. And so here we have in this passage, in I Chronicles 28, David is talking to his son, Solomon. He is passing down all that he learned. Look at what he said, “Solomon, my son, get to know the God of your ancestors.” Would you underline that phrase? Get to know the God of your ancestors. David says, the most important thing that I can tell you is to get to know God. Get to know God personally. Make this is the driving desire of your life. Worship Him and serve Him, it says. Continuing on in the Scripture, “with your whole heart and with a willing mind. If you seek Him, you will find Him, but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever.” David said to Solomon, the most important thing you can do is to be in pursuit of God. To get to know God personally. Now, do you remember what happened with Solomon? As Solomon grew up he became King Solomon, and as you know, he was considered the wisest person who ever lived. He is still considered that today. He wrote all of the Book of Ecclesiastes and most of the Proverbs in the Old Testament. And his pursuit was to know God. And in pursuing God, he became the wisest person who ever lived. He became a person of great possessions. He was also the richest man who ever lived. If you look at all that he attained in his life, he makes Bill Gates like a beggar. I mean, he was rich beyond all measure. He had a position of power that heretofore was unknown in the ancient world. You see, he got some of the things that we were talking about. He got some possessions. He got some popularity. He got some power. He got some position. But the driver in his life was the purpose of knowing God. You see, this leads to a great principle that you and I have to understand which is this: true happiness in life is found in knowing God. True happiness in life is found in knowing God. It’s only when you make the drive to connect to God, the number one purpose in your life that you are going to find happiness. You aren’t going to find it in any of those wrong drivers. Those wrong drivers are ultimately empty. But sometimes in pursuing God, you get some of the other stuff, sometimes you don’t. But I know this. If you don’t pursue, you are never going to be happy. You see, every person here, no matter where you are from. No matter where you were born. No matter the level of your education. No matter if you are very popular or not popular at all. Whether you have a lot of possession or little possessions. No matter whether you have a big position or you are just starting out in your career, no matter what, if you have any of those trappings, you still have a purpose. God says, He created you so that you could know Him. And it’s only until you know God, that life is going to make sense. And this has been God’s unchanging plan all along. God’s plan has been to adopt you into His family so that not only does He know you, but that you know Him. Look at Ephesians 1:5. “God’s unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ.” Would you circle that phrase—through Jesus Christ. And this gave Him great pleasure. I love this verse. It tells us exactly how we can connect with God. The way that you and I connect with God is through Jesus Christ. Did you catch that? God smiles when we do this. God is happy when we do this. It gives Him great pleasure when we connect with Him. You see, God’s not out to get you. God wants you to know Him. God wants you to be in touch with Him. God wants to show you what life is all about. It pleases God when you connect with Him. And you connect with God through Jesus Christ. This is calling becoming a follower of Jesus. But now let me say something about connecting with God personally. When you examine what it means to connect with God, it means that you connect with God at a point and then you connect with God as a pursuit. Connecting with God personally is both a point and a pursuit. Let me explain. There is a point in your life, when you decide to connect with God for the first time. In other words, we live our lives naturally apart from God. We live our lives separated from God. But there comes a point where we make a decision to say—God, from this point forward I am going to follow You. And you do that by becoming a follower of Jesus Christ. Because it’s through Jesus Christ that you connect with God. Think about that. Many of you have already done that. There was a moment, sometimes you call it when you were saved. You call it the point of salvation. You say, it’s when I became a Christian. It’s the point where you became a follower of Jesus. Before that you were not following Jesus, but after that point, you were. And then that point is not the end of the story. Instead, you become a follower of Jesus, and now you are in pursuit of following Jesus. You see, it’s a point and a pursuit. You know, every week in our church there are dozens of people who make the decision to begin to follow Jesus. They start that point. They come to a point in their life where they say—from this point forward, I am going to follow Jesus. People do that all the time. And then many people every week, and many of you today, will make the decision to continue to pursue God. And you take steps now to spiritual growth. The first is a step of salvation. The pursuit is a step of spiritual growth. And so you continue to grow and to know God. And so I want you to understand this that once you connect with God at that point, doesn’t mean that you stop connecting with God in the pursuit. And so, as you are in pursuit of God, you are driven to know God more to connect with God through His Word. To connect with God through His church. To connect with God through prayer. As a matter of fact, we just did a whole series on prayer and the vertical series back in February and March when we talked about how we could communicate with God because we are in pursuit. And our church is designed to help you take that step of a point of salvation and a pursuit of connecting with God throughout your life. And you know, I can honestly say that the driving purpose of my life is connecting with God. I mean, I want to know God. At age 17, there was a point where I said yes to connecting with God through Jesus Christ, and then since then, the rest of my life as now I am in pursuit of God. Of knowing Him more. You know, as I am in this pursuit, it’s natural that I would want other people to connect with God as well. I mean, if I found what makes life matter, if I found the number one purpose in life, I should share that good news with other people. And so that’s called evangelism. It’s when we tell other people—here’s how you can connect with God. Come to church with me. Let me share some Scriptures with you. Let me tell you my story. That’s helping others connect with God. That’s part of this purpose as well. And you guys do this so well. Week after week, maybe you are here today because a friend invited you. One of the reasons why they invited you is so that you can understand this purpose, because they have found something that they wanted you to find as well, the good news along the way.
That’s purpose number one, connecting with God, helping others connect with God, it’s all wrapped up in that purpose.
Purpose No. 2: Commit to God’s church. You know, the church, the only organization that God left behind, and God says if we are going to fulfill His purposes for our life, we have to do that through a local church. Do you realize that it’s impossible to fulfill God’s purposes for your life apart from the local church? You know some people say—I don’t need the church. There is actually a whole movement out there right now of people saying—we need to separate ourselves from the church. When you separate yourself from the church, you separate yourself from the life giving element that God has placed in the church. I mean, the church is a place where we come together and we celebrate the purposes and we grow in the purposes and we align our lives with the purposes. And your being here today is part of that. You are saying—God, I’m committed to Your church because I want to connect with You. And these two go hand in hand. As a matter of fact, all of these purposes that I am giving you today, they build on one another. You know, a lot of people say they attend church, but few have made the commitment to church. So, it’s not just enough to say they attend, it’s to commit to God’s church. And you see, when you make the commitment to God’s church, what you are doing is you are committing yourself to be on this path to spiritual growth. You know, we say around The Journey sometimes that we have a lot of people here at The Journey who are just dating our church. It’s an interesting deal. We have a lot of first time people. A lot of you are here today for the first time. You should be dating our church. You are here for the first time. It’s like the first date. You came, you are kind of checking us out. We are trying to figure out who you are. You are trying to figure out who we are. You know, you are doing all that stuff you do. It’s even legitimate to go on a second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, maybe even a fifteenth date. But there comes a point in dating a church, like there is a point in a dating relationship with another person, where you need to have to have the conversation. Anyone ever have the conversation when you have been dating someone, the DTR conversation? You know, where you have to define the relationship. It’s like—are we just going to continue to date or is there more here than just us hanging out together. Us doing our thing together. Are we going to commit? I mean, there has to be some kind of give and take. You know, so it is with the church. It’s okay to date the church for a while. But you can even date the church for a long while. But after a reasonable period, shouldn’t you just have this defining conversation? You see, a lot of people like to date the church because it keeps them positioned as outsiders. They are up there in the stands, they aren’t down in the game. They are just consumers. They’re not contributors. They are observers. They aren’t participants. So a lot of people like to stay in the dating area. We have a lot of people who like to double date the church. They like to date our church while dating other churches. We need to have that DTR relationship, and say we are now going to be exclusive. They like church hoppers. And they are like fast food type Christians. They come to The Journey and they get a milkshake, or a Krispy Kreme Donut. And then they go to other churches and they get burgers. And then they go to other churches and they get fries. And then they will go to other churches and they get a fila-o-fish, as if there is any fish in that. And then you know, they will do all this little stuff. Great, now I have ticked off McDonald’s, Geeters and Artis. They just go around. They don’t want to commit. And there comes a point in your spiritual life to where it’s good for you to have the spiritual conversation and say—God, what do You want me to do? Look, if you are waiting to find the perfect church, you are never going to find it. There is no perfect church, because churches are made up of people and there are no perfect people. But in the midst of this imperfection, God has somehow called you and I to be a part of a body of believers where we can commit, commit to one another, commit to spiritual growth, commit to connecting with God and helping others connect with God. That’s what the church is all about. You know, the early church, they modeled this. Acts 2:42. Notice what the early church did. This is the very first church after Jesus left the earth. The beginning of the early church, Acts 2. It says, “They committed themselves.” They committed. You might want to underline that phrase. This is a deep commitment. They didn’t sit on the sidelines. They didn’t wait. They committed themselves to the other believers and devoted themselves to the Apostles teaching and fellowship, sharing in the Lord’s supper and in prayer. This is what they did. They committed themselves to worship and to prayer and to one another and then in the Lord’s supper. You know, there is nothing in the Bible that says how often you should celebrate the Lord’s supper, but from time to time as a body of believers, we should do that. And we are going to be doing that at The Journey over the next few weeks. And they prayed together. I don’t fully understand why God made the church so important in people’s spiritual lives, but this is the way that He set it up. You have to commit to a church if you want to become all that God created you to be. And so our goal at The Journey is to make the path of commitment as clear as possible. One of the ways that we like to do it is we like to do it on a Connection Card. If you still have that Connection Card handy, if you look on the front side there is a little box and it says—first time guest, second time guest, regular attender and member. And what we like to show you is this is the path of commitment in our church. So it starts out as a first time guest. Many of you are first time guests. Some of you are second time guests. Once in a while, someone will write in third time guest, fourth time guest or whatever. They will write that in. Our thought is after a while, you become a regular attender. And a lot of you are regular attenders. But then after you have been a regular attender for a while, it’s now time for you to commit and to be a member. You say—what’s the difference between regular attenders and members? You know regular attenders can do a lot of things at the church. Regular attenders can serve in our church. They can give. They can participate. They can invite their friends. They can do a lot. So what’s the difference between a regular attender and a member? The difference is between dating and marriage. It’s one of commitment. It’s a commitment, so when you move from a regular attender to a member, you have stopped dating the church, you are now committed to the church. And you know, we take this commitment very seriously. We try to do everything we can so that you can make an informed decision about the church you are committing to. For example, in our membership class, we have membership classes offered on a regular basis. Those of you who are regular attenders, you can come to that membership class. By the way, we don’t let you come to membership class unless you have been attending for two months. We think that’s the minimum amount of time you need to date before you can make the commitment. So we kind of set that up in church, probably longer in real life, but that’s the way it is in church. So you come to that membership class and we spend about two and one-half to three hours, we have some food together, we share the history of our church. We do the best we can to explain to you what it means to be a member. There is no high pressure sales pitch. We aren’t trying to lock the doors until you commit. If anything, we are trying to talk you out of committing because we want you to know what it means to commit. Just like you say the vows at a wedding, we want you to know what it means to commit to membership. Then at the end of that class, you can say—yes, this is what I want to do. Or I need to wait. I need to be a regular attender a little bit longer, or I didn’t know that about The Journey, or whatever, and I need to go somewhere else. We think those are legitimate responses. The DTR conversation. And you know, when you get to that class, one of the things that surprises people is that we call membership class, Class 101. You probably never heard that term, we rarely say that in a public setting like this. But we call membership class, Class 101, because we don’t think that membership is the end of your spiritual journey, it’s not the last destination, instead, it’s just the beginning. It’s just Class 101. It’s just the beginning of your spiritual growth. Just like in college, 101 level classes. That’s what you take your freshman year. If you are still taking 101 classes in your senior year, that’s like you are Pastor Kerrick or somebody, that’s not how it works. You have to move along the journey with us. It’s committing. So here’s what I would like to ask you to say on this purpose. You just ask God and say—God, what do You want me to do? I’ve been a regular attender for a while. God, do You want me to go to membership class. Do You want me to explore it? If you are new, don’t feel any pressure, but if you have been around for a while, just ask yourself that question. And maybe it’s time to commit. And then as you are in the church, you are a member, you maintain those commitments. Some of you either need to make the commitments, some others of you just need to manage the commitments that you have already made. If you are member, you just keep managing those commitments. You just keep moving forward in purpose number 2.
Purpose No. 3: Cultivate spiritual habits.
You know spiritual habits. I have been using that phrase a lot lately. We talk about spiritual growth a lot around The Journey, but I really decided that the best way to grow spiritually is to cultivate spiritual habits. You have probably heard that quote before that says, if you sew a thought you reap an act. If you sow an act, you reap a habit. If you sow a habit, you reap a character. If you sow a character, you reap a destiny. And so what’s the missing piece in all of that? The missing piece in all of that is habits. If you want to become a person of character, you have to have habits. If you want to grow spiritually and grow more and more like Christ, you have to develop spiritual habits. And you know, the best place that I know to cultivate these spiritual habits—there is really two. One is here, and that’s what we are doing on Sunday. The other is in your growth group throughout the week. And then you put stuff around that. You go to church on Sunday. You go to growth group during the week. You read the Bible. You pray. You memorize Scripture. You put these habits around these two anchors, and you are going to start to grow spiritually. Let me tell you the number one thing that I know about spiritual habits when it comes to The Journey. The number one reason why people in our church don’t grow spiritually, is because they haven’t made time to grow. I mean, you want to grow. That’s the reason you are here at church today because you want to develop these habits. But have you made the time to grow. Spiritual growth doesn’t just happen by accident. You have to schedule it. You have to make time in your calendar. Look, we’re all busy. I’m busy. You’re busy. But if we are going to become more and more like Jesus Christ and fulfill His purpose, then we are going to have to schedule time to cultivate these habits. To go to work on ourselves. To go to work on our spirit. It’s amazing to me so many people work so hard on their minds when it comes to academia, or they will work so hard when it comes to their emotions. But then they won’t work very hard on their spirit. You see, we are all three. We are intellect, emotions and spirit. And you have to work on that. Ephesians 4:15 tell us the goal of our spiritual habits. It’s our memory verse. Let’s read this verse out loud together. Here we go. “We hold to the truth in love, becoming more and more in every way like Christ.” I don’t think you can underline it, but maybe just below it you would write it—more and more like Christ. You are never going to become “a Christ”, but you can become Christlike. You are never going to be perfect like Jesus Christ, but you can pursue Jesus Christ. You are never going to be God, but you can become Godly. See, this is what it’s all about. This is what spiritual habits are all about. So, would you be willing to carve out time in your schedule to cultivate spiritual habits. Maybe you need to get signed up for a growth group and just say—I’m going to carve out 90 minutes, and I am going to be around other people, and I am going to study God’s Word and read these books that help me understand God’s Word so that I can cultivate these habits. You see, life is busy. If you wait until you get around to it, you are never going to get around to it. If you don’t make time to grow, you are not going to grow. So, am I cultivating these habits? That’s a good question for this purpose. In my spiritual life, becoming more like Christ or less like Christ, am I gaining altitude in becoming more like Christ, or am I losing altitude and becoming less like Christ? Am I more like Christ today than ever? Or am I less like Christ than I was a year ago. It’s that altitude. It’s really helpful to me. I think about a plane. My life is like an airplane and I am flying along. Am I’m gaining altitude and getting closer to God, becoming more like Christ, or am I losing altitude? You know, I have to go to work on it. If I feel like I’m losing altitude, I have to look at my schedule and then I schedule spiritual habits. Maybe I’ve let my devotional life down. Maybe I haven’t been getting involved in the group or I’m not attending church as regularly. But we are cultivating these habits. See cultivating spiritual habits leads to character. And character is the only thing that is going to last. You know, people aren’t going to ask about your trophies when you are gone. People aren’t going to remember your accomplishments when you are gone. But they are going to remember your character. Because your character is going to go with you into eternity. And the way to develop character is develop more and more like Christ. And that requires, purpose number 3, cultivating spiritual habits.
4. Care for God’s people.
As you write that in. Let’s quickly review where we have gone today. Purpose number one, to connect with God personally, that’s evangelism. It’s what it’s sometimes called. Purpose number two, to commit to God’s church, that’s fellowship with a body of believers is what it is sometimes called. Purpose number three, to cultivate spiritual habits. That’s sometimes called discipleship. Then purpose number four, to care for God’s people, that’s often called service, or ministry. You see, when you are driven by purpose, when you are driven in these areas that we are talking about, it’s natural that then you would take concern for other people. You get outside of yourself and you start focusing on others. So that’s what a proper drive is all about. Not to be driven by what can I get, but how can I serve others. We talk about serving all the time around The Journey. Then many people are involved in serving. Just today, there are so many people who served us so that we could do this service. There are people downstairs in Journey Kids and they are serving our children and helping them grow spiritual habits so that we, as adults, could be in here, so that we could grow and cultivate these habits. It’s natural for us to live out what we say we believe. You know to say that we love others, and then not to live it out, that’s just empty. You know, the early church, they committed themselves to one another, but I want to show you just one example of how they lived it out. It’s probably the most powerful example in Scripture of how the early church cared for other people. It’s found in Acts 2, it’s just a couple of verses after the verse we read earlier, it says this in verses 44 and 45, “And all the believers lived in wonderful harmony. Holding everything in common. They sold whatever they owned and pooled the resources so that each person’s need was met.” Think about that. They cared for each other so much that they put their money where their mouth was. They said—look, we are going to make sure that every person is cared for. You know some people have read this, Karl Marx read this verse and he said—that’s communism. That’s the Bible’s proof for communism. No, that’s not the government dictated. They did it willingly. They did it cheerfully. It’s not communism. It’s Christianity, lived out. It’s taking care of one another. It’s a drive. You see, this is not the only thing that they did. This is just one powerful example of how they went to whatever extent necessary to care for one another. The church wasn’t about pooling their resources. They did more than that. They showed love in practical ways. They took care of the sick. They took care of the widows and orphans. They took of the people that needed a place to live. They watched over each other’s physical needs and emotional needs. They watched over each other’s spiritual needs. If someone was missing for a while from the church, they checked in with them. They held each other accountable. You know, what would it be like if we fulfilled this purpose. I mean, if my passion was to care for others, and I was driven by this and I was constantly getting outside of myself and thinking of others. You see, God wants to cultivate character in my life. And to do that, He puts me in a position to care for others. And if you think about it, it’s really other people that help you develop character. You can develop character alone, but character gets fast tracked when you are around other people. Because if you decide to take care of others, it teaches you to love. It teaches you to be patient. It teaches you to be kind. It teaches you to have the characteristic of peace because you’re not worrying so much. You have focused on others and that’s character development. Character development, cultivating spiritual habits and caring for God’s people they go hand in hand. As a matter of fact, all of these purposes build on each other. When you connect with God, you want to commit to the church. When you want to commit to the church, you want a place where you can cultivate habits.
As you cultivate spiritual habits, you begin to care for each other. Then that leads us to the last purpose. Which is when all these come together, in true worship to God, we then:
4. Celebrate God’s work.
Now this is the Biblical purpose of worship, if you are honest. Worship is celebrating God’s work. Celebrating who God is, celebrating what God has done. Some people think that worship is just about singing. You can sing. You can worship while you sing, but worship is more than just about singing. Worship is celebrating what God is doing and how God is working. So if you want to now if you have a heart for worship, if you want to know if you are fulfilling this purpose number five of celebrating God’s work, then ask yourself—am I happy about the things that make God happy? Do I get happy about the things that make God happy? We learned back in purpose number one that God takes great pleasure when someone connects with Him personally. So do you get happy when someone makes a decision to follow Jesus Christ for the first time? Do you get happy when you see God working and Christians are mobilized, and they go take care of one another? Are you happy when someone in your growth group prays for you, or prays for other people? Are you happy to seeing people coming to church on Sunday? Are you happy about what God is happy about? This is called worship. God, I am happy when you move. I am happy when you work. I am happy when you work on me. Sometimes when God works on us, it doesn’t make us feel very happy. God is trying to shape character. God is trying to call us to get rid of some sin. But we can still celebrate that. We can say—God, You’re alive. You’re working. And we can be happy about that. See how all of these come full circle? I started out earlier, I said—knowing God is the only path to happiness. Look at Psalm 37:4. Notice what it says. It says, “Take delight in the Lord and He will give you your heart’s desires.” How do you get your heart’s desires? How do you live a fulfilled live? How do you live a happy life? You take delight in the Lord. You are happy about the things that God is happy about. This is what worship is all about. Taking delight in the world. And being happy over God. God’s work.
Now look back over the list, just real quickly. Which of these purposes do you need to go to work on? Do you need to go to work on purpose number one? Maybe you need to say “yes” to that point, maybe you need to come to a point where you say “yes” to knowing God personally through Jesus Christ. Maybe you need to align some of your purposes and say—God, no, it’s really about knowing You more. Maybe you need to commit to God’s church. Maybe you are a regular attender, and you need to become a member. Maybe if you are a member, you need to review your commitments and manage the commitments that you made during membership. Then there’s purpose number three, maybe you have been losing a little altitude in your spiritual growth and you need to get back on track. Pull the throttle back and pull up and cultivate some spiritual habits. Get into a group. Memorize Scripture. Take the Bible challenge. Whatever it is. Purpose number four, care for God’s people. Maybe there is someone you need to reach out to. Maybe someone you used to see in church but you haven’t seen in a while. Maybe you need to care for someone. Maybe you heard about something this week and you need to offer prayer for that. Caring for God’s people. Then, celebrate God’s work. You say—God, my heart’s grown a little hard. I’m not celebrating You like I used to do. God, I want to celebrate it when someone gets baptized, or someone becomes a Christian, or people join my growth group. Or whatever. There are all kinds of ways that you can do this. You know, this is living by purpose. This is living with eternity in mind. So I leave you with this last verse from Ephesians 5:15. It says, “I say this to you, so then be very careful about how you live. Don’t live like those who do not know the meaning of life.” Who are they? They are the people driven by positions, power and possessions and popularity. Don’t live like them, but as those who do. You now know the purposes of life. God’s five eternal purposes. Will you say—God, I want those to be the drives of my life. That’s the life that will last.
Let’s bow our heads and pray together.
I just want to pray a prayer, I just want to talk to God myself. Because I want to live this kind of life as well. Maybe as I pray, just in your mind, you just want to say, God, me, too.
God, I thank You for that point in time when You allowed me to connect with You through Jesus Christ. God, for me it was at age 17 and I give You thanks that I can know You. And God, I want the pursuit of my life to being knowing You more. So, God, help me to do that. Help me to know You more, tomorrow, than I do today and more the next day than I do tomorrow. Then God, as I make the commitment to Your church, help me to fulfill the commitments of membership. To be a good member, to treat Your church as it truly is, the bride of Your Son, Jesus. Then, I want to cultivate spiritual habits. Forgive me for when I get so rushed and so busy that I don’t make time to grow. God in the ways that aren’t realistic, just in a way that brings honor and glory to You, I want to carve out time to grow. So help me to do that. Then, God, forgive me when I get so self-centered that I just ignore others. Help me to be less selfish in the coming days, and put more of a focus on caring for others and to reach out. And whenever I see a need, God, help me to do all that I can to meet that need. Finally, God, I want to celebrate what You celebrate. I want to be happy about what You are happy about. So, God, help me to worship You, not just on Sunday, but with all my life and to learn more about these purposes. God, I commit myself to living out Your five eternal purposes.
Maybe as you pray you would just say—me, too. I need you God. So if you are here and you have never come to that point where you have said “yes” to following Jesus, to knowing God, connecting with God personally, by becoming a follower of Jesus, maybe today, you are ready and say—
Dear God, today I’m becoming a follower of Jesus from this point forward. I want to live for You. Thank You for forgiving my past. Thank You for giving me purpose for my present. I look forward to eternity with You in Heaven. Today, I am following Jesus. In His name we pray. Amen.
This sermon transcript is a free resource provided by Nelson Searcy and Church Leader Insights. For other resources visit www.ChurchLeaderInsights.com.
Nelson Searcy is the founding and Lead Pastor of The Journey Church in New York City. The Journey is an innovative, multi-cultural, multi-site church in Manhattan and Jersey City. The Journey is one of the fastest growing churches in the United States and was recognized by Outreach Magazine in 2006 as one of the Top 25 Innovated Churches in America. The church is recognized for its creativity, media and relevant approach to life changing teaching. Nelson is also the founder of www.ChurchLeaderInsights.com - a website devoted to resourcing pastors and church leaders.
