PDL: Your Purpose is Determined by Your Perspective
1. Introduction:
a. Review
i. Last week we looked at “why you need a purpose in life.” We examined some of the principles for having a purpose.
ii. .Things like
1. “we cannot understand or attain our purpose in life apart from God.”
2. God doesn’t make mistakes and no human being is an accident. God takes into account our sin and failure and still uses it to produce a destiny.
3. We learned that having a purpose gives meaning to our lives.
4. That having a purpose simplifies and focuses our lives.
5. And that having and pursuing your purpose prepares you for eternity.
2. Eternity (that’s what we are going to look at today)
a. The only time people think about eternity is at a funeral. By then, it is too late for the one who is gone.
b. And those on this side of eternity are too wrapped up in the pain of separation from their loved one to really grab hold of the truths that one passing from this life leaves behind.
i. Things like…
1. Don’t wait until its too late.
2. Stop living like there is a tomorrow
3. Tell someone you love them…today!
c. I want each of us to stare into eternity today and to think about what it is and what it means. The bible tells us to do that. Because it is very hard for a person to look at eternity and remain unchanged by it.
d. Most of us realize that this life is not all there is.
i. In fact, this life is said to be the “dress rehearsal” before the real performance.
ii. The truth of the matter is that we will spend far more time on the other side of death than we will here.
iii. This life is preparation for the next.
1. When you were in your mother’s womb, those 9 months were not an end in themselves. You couldn’t stay there. That time in your mother’s womb was a preparation for the next step in your life.
2. Death is the doorway to the next life. This life is just a preparation.
iv. Sir Thomas Browne said, “Your time on earth is but a small parenthesis in eternity.”
e. Eternity is a long, long time.
i. It defies our ability to even grasp its existence or meaning.
1. This is because we were created, and therefore have a beginning.
2. But we have no end. We will live forever.
3. Mathematicians cannot account for something not having a beginning, but they do have formulas for something having no end.
ii. But God defies all of us…He has neither beginning or ending. He has always been.
1. And He desires that we try to comprehend what it means to live for eternity.
f. The bible says, “God has planted eternity in the human heart.” (Eccl 3:11)
i. We have a desire to live forever, because God has made us with that desire.
ii. In fact, it was His original design when He created mankind (Adam and Eve)…but death became a reality because of sin.
iii. Our bodies will not last, they will die someday. Some of us know what it is to have a body that is wearing out already.
iv. But God tells us that it will be replaced by a new garment that will be our house for eternity, designed specifically for an eternal, spiritual existence.
1. “When this tent we live is – our body here on earth – is torn down, God will have a house in heaven for us to live in, a home he himself has made, which will last forever.” (2 Cor 5:1)
3. Living with an Eternal Perspective changes how we live.
a. When we are oblivious to the end of our lives and to the shortness of our days, we live as if there is no tomorrow.
i. Our values, our goals, our dreams, what we live for and how we live is affected by it.
ii. A Christian relief worker in former Yugoslavia says the war has made unbelievers "eternity conscious," He (Turner) was in Mostar, Bosnia, distributing medical supplies and thousands of copies of a Christian booklet "Help From Above". Although Bosnia is 44 percent Muslim, only three people turned down a copy of the book. "One thing that has intensified that urge to know God, is that they might see Him any minute,"
iii. Psalm 90:
1. 2 Before the mountains were created, before you made the earth and the world, you are God, without beginning or end. 3 You turn people back to dust, saying, "Return to dust!" 4 For you, a thousand years are as yesterday! They are like a few hours! 5 You sweep people away like dreams that disappear or like grass that springs up in the morning. 6 In the morning it blooms and flourishes, but by evening it is dry and withered. 7 We wither beneath your anger; we are overwhelmed by your fury. 8 You spread out our sins before you – our secret sins – and you see them all. 9 We live our lives beneath your wrath. We end our lives with a groan. 10 Seventy years are given to us! Some may even reach eighty. But even the best of these years are filled with pain and trouble; soon they disappear, and we are gone. 11 Who can comprehend the power of your anger? Your wrath is as awesome as the fear you deserve. 12 Teach us to make the most of our time, so that we may grow in wisdom.
iv. I hope that you heard it clearly is this Psalm. Our lives are very short, they are gone before we know it.
1. If we are aware of that reality, we will live differently.
2. When I was 15 or 16, I felt like I would live forever. Each day was still long, each event and milestone in my life felt like it was years away.
3. Then, as I have grown older…30, 40, now, approaching 50, I have seen how quickly the days pass by.
4. They are like the wisp of the fog that melts away under the sunlight.
b. But when we become aware of the short nature of our lives, how each day may be our last, those same values change.
i. If you ever get to talk to someone who has had a “near death” experience, you will find that most of them treat each new day as a treasure not to be taken for granted, but to be cherished in its entirety.
ii. The same goes for someone who has come very near to losing a loved one. The way they treat that loved one is changed by the present awareness that someday they may not be there any longer.
c. An eternal perspective affects our priorities. It reorders them.
i. The apostle Paul said, “I once thought all these things were so very important, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done.” (Phil 3:7)
1. He had developed an eternal perspective.
2. The reality of eternity had changed his attitude.
ii. You may have heard the saying, “today is the first day of the rest of your life.”
iii. It might be wiser to say, “Live today like it was the last day of your life.”
1. That would be living with an eternal perspective.
4. We must see this life as a temporary assignment in order to achieve our purpose.
a. Our days on earth are as transient as a shadow.
b. David prayed, “Lord, help me to realize how brief my time on earth will be. Help me to know that I am here but for a moment more.” (Ps. 39:4)
c. The bible even compares our life on earth with living in a foreign country.
i. Green Cards for visitors to our country, so that they can work “temporarily”.
ii. Christians ought to have Green Cards to remind them that we are here temporarily.
d. If we fail to adapt to this point of view, we will act just like the world we live in. (Rick Warren tells the illustrationJ
i. Imagine an ambassador to an enemy country. You learn the language. You can’t isolate yourself, you have to mix with the people, get to know them and their culture.
ii. But suppose you became so content and comfortable with this country that you fell in love with it, and you preferred it to your homeland. Instead of representing your homeland, you would be an enemy to it. You would be a traiter.
iii. Sadly, many Christians have betrayed their kingdom. They have made the assumption that because they live here it is their home.
1. Friends, this world is not your home, so don’t make yourselves cozy with it. Don’t indulge your ego at the expense of your soul.” (1 Pe 2:11)
2. It would be a TRAGIC mistake for us to assume it is God’s goal for our lives to have material prosperity or success as the world defines it. Those are temporary crowns that perish.
3. Remember last week, we said that “only 2 things last forever? The Word of God and the Souls of Men.”
4. Having an eternal perspective resets our priorities so that the things that don’t last don’t surpass the things that do last.
5. Would you want your first words in heaven to be, “Why did I put so much importance on things that were temporary?”
5. God’s Point of View:
a. Quote: Anais Nin, “We don’t see things as they are, we see them as WE are.”
b. Your PERSPECTIVE determines your purpose.
i. Just as a pilot sees the ground differently than a person walking on the ground sees it, a temporal perspective sees things differently than an eternal one.
1. The temporary view just sees life in the here and now, while the eternal view sees things from the point of view of the Big Picture.
ii. Ask people, “how do you see life?”
1. You get a host of cute answers…”life is a circus, a roller coaster, a bowl of cherries, a box of chocolate, a symphony, a dance, a carousel.”
2. These are “life metaphors” for how people see life.
3. What metaphor would you use?
a. We all have metaphors for life, and most of the time they are unspoken ones.
b. We express them through what we wear, how we act, what we own.
i. Like clothes, jewelry, cars, hairstyles, bumper stickers and tattoos.
4. Your “unspoken” metaphor influences your life and your choices more that you realize.
a. In a very real way, it controls your purpose.
b. It determines what your expectations are, what your values are, what your goals and priorities are.
c. For example,
i. if you saw life as a party, your purpose would be to have fun.
ii. If you saw life as a race, your purpose would be to race or be in a hurry.
iii. If you saw life as a marathon, you might value endurance.
iv. If you saw life as a game or a battle, winning might define your life.
iii. What is your view of life?
1. You may be basing your life on a faulty one. I think most people do. I think a lot of Christians have a wrong view of life.
2. But Romans 12: 2 tells us to replace the one we have developed over the years with one God has for us.
a. “Do not be conformed to the standards of the world, but let God transform you inwardly by a complete change of your mind. Then you will be able to know the will of God.”
b. THEN….you will be able to KNOW THE WILL OF GOD.
i. You cannot know or fulfill your purpose in life if you won’t submit to God for a changed heart, mind and life.
ii. You will be destined for a life of frustration and spiritual failure if you do not allow Romans 12:2 to become a reality in your life.
iii. The “then” is clear. You need a change.
iv. It requires surrendering to God’s plan for you, to ADMIT that your way is not God’s way.
6. Closing:
a. Are you tired of trying to just get by in life?
b. Do you want to achieve your destiny…your purpose?
i. What has to happen first is that you will have to reprogram your life.
ii. We erase the tapes that we have made and replace them with God’s tape, with what He says about us.
iii. With what He says about what our lives can become and what life is for.
a.
c. Three Gates - There are three huge gates that lead into the Cathedral of Milan. Over one gate there is an inscription in marble under a beautiful flower bouquet that says, “The things that please are temporary.” Over the second gate, there is a cross with this inscription: “The things that disturb us are temporary.” However, over the central gate, there is a big inscription saying, “Eternal are the important ones.”
i. Which gate will you walk through today? What will you allow to drive your life? Will you let your failures rule you? Your pleasures rule you? Or will you have what is eternal rule you?
ii. The choice is yours. Make that decision today. Let us pray.
d. Pray this prayer if you realize you have been following the temporal goals in life and have lost sight of the eternal:
i. Lord Jesus, master of eternity, you who are the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. You who always have been and always will be. Encounter me here today. I confess that I have been consumed by and controlled by the things that won’t last. I confess that I have not been surrendered to You. I have been running life on my own terms. I also know that I cannot know Your purpose for my life unless I surrender. Oh, God, I give up! I surrender. I want Your best for my Life. Not my own best, but Your best. Take my life and make it something You can use for eternity. In Jesus Name, Amen.
If you surrendered this morning, I would invite you to come up and let me know what you have surrendered to God today. Maybe you have decided for the very first time today to give Jesus your life. Let me know that.
