The Call to Follow
Mark 8:31-35
USA Today did a survey asking people, “If you could ask God any question, what would it be?” The number one response was “What is my life’s purpose?'” All of us in the church were blown away by Rick Warren’s book, “A Purpose Driven Life.” It sold more books than The South Beach Diet, President Bill Clinton’s book, My Life, and The Da Vinci Code combined, showing that there is a deep need in people to know why they were created.
You were made with a life purpose. The prophet Jeremiah put it this way, “I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.” You were born with a purpose and plan in mind and you’re wired to seek out that purpose and fulfill it. The late Pastor Bill Hinson writes, “There are two great days in a person’s life. The first is the day you were born, and the second is the day you discover what you were born for.” I remember the night in the Spring of my freshman year reading the Gospel of Matthew and asking God what He wanted to do with my life and hearing the call to become a minister. And my life has never been the same. I then knew the reason God created me. What about you? How many of you right now are sure of your life purpose? Some of you are still trying to clarify your life purpose. Our prayer is that this series will help you do that.
What do we learn about discovering God’s purpose for our life? First, you have to begin to see things from God’s perspective. In our Scripture today, Jesus tells the disciples of his coming crucifixion and resurrection. That was so shocking to the disciples to think that Jesus would die the humiliating death of the worst criminals of his day that I’m sure they didn’t even hear the part about the resurrection. Peter is so distraught that he took Jesus aside and told him he shouldn’t say things like that. Jesus then said to Peter very sternly, 'Get away from me Satan!'” Now there is nothing worse you can call a person than Satan. In that moment, Peter was looking at what Jesus was saying through the world’s eyes. If you’re ever going to discover God’s purpose for your life, you have to begin to see things from God’s perspective, not your point of view. That includes with how you look at yourself. You are a child of God. You are precious in God’s eyes. I don’t care who you are or what you’ve said or done, it will never change God’s view of you. Too often we live our life through the guilt and shame of our past. The world teaches us that we’re not worthy because of our past. But nothing could be further from the truth. Jesus died on the cross so that you might be freed from that. But more than that, God’s grace is so incredible that He can actually redeem the sins of your past and use them for His purpose. God created you with a divine purpose in mind and nothing can change that. You’re an integral part of his plan of redemption and salvation for the world. So stop looking at yourself through the world’s eyes and start looking at yourself through God’s eyes.
Second, you have to have the right motives. To discover God’s purpose, pray to God to reveal what He made you for because you want to live it. That’s a dangerous prayer! Not only can it can radically change your life but that’s when you begin to become a world changer. But you must have the right motives. Peter disagreed with Jesus dying on the cross because he didn’t want to lose Jesus. And who could blame him? But when Jesus’ reprimanded Peter, he was saying to him you keep approaching your life from the motive of self-interest, rather than looking at your life from the motives of God. As long as your life is focused on your wants, your ambitions, your goals, your security and your comfort, you will never discover God’s purpose for your life or the joy in living it. Jesus said you will find your life by losing it in the work of God. The only way you are going to find your life and the abundant life purpose God has created you for is not to use God for your purpose or fulfillment, but to lose your life in the work of God.
Jesus on multiple occasions pointed out that he was here to do one thing: to do the work of the Father who sent him. There was no other reason. He put it this way, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish his work.” That’s where we find abundant life…when our very sustenance is to every day live out the will of God who created us and to finish his work in the years we have here on earth. Again and again he said through the Gospel of John, “For the works that the Father has given me to finish, these are the works that I’m doing.” Every day Jesus was aligning his life purpose to what God was doing in the world - not asking God to put his blessing on what Jesus wanted to do in the world. We’ve got it backwards. We often think God is there to promote, provide and protect our self-interests, when we are there to promote the interest and work of God in the world. That is why Jesus said, “Lord, if at all possible, let this cup pass me by…but not my will but your will be done.” It’s got to be about God and not us.
Third, it’s about the journey and not the destination. In our Scripture today, Jesus tells the disciples about his journey to the cross. Too often we always have the end in mind when in reality, God is often more concerned about the journey along the way. Oswald Chambers writes, “We tend to think that if Jesus Christ compels us to do something and we are obedient to Him….that God is leading us toward a particular end or a desired goal, but He is not. The question of whether or not we arrive at a particular goal is of little importance, and reaching it becomes merely an episode along the way. What we see as only the process of reaching a particular end, God sees as the goal itself. What is my vision of God’s purpose for me? Whatever it may be, His purpose is for me to depend on Him and on His power now. If I can stay calm, faithful, and unconfused while in the middle of the turmoil of life, the goal of the purpose of God is being accomplished in me. God is not working toward a particular finish— His purpose is the process itself. What He desires for me is that I see ‘Him with…..no success, nor goal in sight, but simply having the absolute certainty that everything is all right because I see ‘Him… It is the process, not the outcome that is glorifying to God.”
Fourth, accept the cost. There is a cost to living the abundance of God’s purpose in your life. Jesus said (vs. 34), “If anyone wants to follow me, they must deny themselves, take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to live their life for themselves will lose their life.” If you want to be safe, if you want to be comfortable and avoid risks and danger, you’re going to lose your life because in the end of your life you may have a big bank account and a lot of possessions, but you are going to have nothing eternal to show for your life. But if you are willing to pay the price and lose your life for Jesus sake – oh, what an abundance you will find!
Mike Slaughter tells the story of going to Darfur, Africa to minister to the refugees. “It was the first time in my life I knew I was going into a situation with a probability I could die; a situation that was utterly dangerous. There were people with guns. We would be a1000 miles or more from a semi-safe haven. I’m 54 and I thought: I really believe this Jesus thing. Never in my life was I forced to say, “In following Jesus I am putting myself in a position where I might die.” Before I left, I organized some things. I put some items around my motorcycle that my son would find so he would know about the motorcycle. I headed off, saying to Jesus, ‘If my life will bring greater fruit for your purpose in the world, here I am.’ And then he writes, ‘There is nothing more transformational than when you come to that place where you say to Jesus, ‘If it means my life for the sake of your work in the world, take it, God, for your purpose.’ You’re free at that place; and not only are you free, you have come to such a place of abundant adventure.”
Fifth, expect opposition. For Jesus, the opposition in our Scripture today came from his most beloved and committed disciple. Here’s the thing about opposition. It’s not a matter of if it is going to come but only a matter of when and from whom. What our Scripture tells us today is sometimes it’s from within the church among the followers of Jesus and other times it’s from the world. Regardless, we need to expect opposition and sometimes sooner rather than later. After Jesus was baptized, the Spirit IMMEDIATELY led him out to the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Jesus set aside his own agenda for the purpose of the Father. He committed his life, whatever it took, to do the work of the Father. Immediately Satan was thinking: how do I defeat this? These are the most dangerous people on Earth who take no thought for their own well-being but only care about the work of the Father. Satan said, “I know what I will do. I will tempt him to take care of himself.” The three temptations of Jesus dealt with personal appetite, position and possessions. You will always be tempted to take care of yourself first. If I am living God’s purpose in my life, I have one responsibility: to seek God’s purpose and trust his provision.
Sixth, you have to get off the bench and into the game. What is one thing in the world you are willing to die for? In the 1930’s there’s were hundreds of thousands of people who sat by and let the Nazi’s try to extinguish the Jewish people. In 1964, Kitty Genovese was stabbed to death in Queens, NY while 38 witnesses did nothing to save her. In Rwanda in1994 the Hutu majority killed between 500,000 and 1 million Tutsis in a period of 100 days. Hutu friends, neighbors and co-workers of the Tutsi just stood by and watched and did nothing. What are you willing to do? Folks, when you find that thing in life you’re willing to die for then live for it! Give your life for it.
What one cause or people group gets you more excited than anything else? It might be volunteering at a school; it might be mentoring kids in your neighborhood. It might be attacking poverty. It might be ministering to victims of domestic violence. God has given you a passion and he has given you the spiritual gifts to serve, build up and make other people whole. It’s not about you and making your life more comfortable. There is always this temptation when God calls.
When you, by faith, step out into God’s calling, and you are willing to lose your life, God can do amazing things. There will be a miraculous, exponential multiplication of your life energy. Your life will take on new meaning and new purpose. You’ll become a world changer. Your life will be more fulfilling and joy-filled. It is amazing what God will do when you say, “Here I am. All I want to do is fulfill the reason, the work you have given me on Planet Earth.” God will miraculously and supernaturally multiply your life energy. I love the way Jesus put it in John 12, “I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone; but its death will produce many kernels of plentiful harvest and new lives.” We experienced this firsthand as the church, not the federal government, came down to with hundreds of thousands of volunteers and millions of dollars to help rebuild our damaged city after Katrina. We saw this last Fall when I put out the call to help provide an education for the children of Haiti and you provided scholarships for 53 children and then ‘Committed’ raised $2300 with their benefit concert to help improve the school. That’s the power of when God’s people come together to fulfill God’s purpose for their lives.
My responsibility is not to seek his provision, for he promises if I seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, everything else will be taken care of. Some people come to church seeking blessings when in reality we need to go to church to serve. We come together as the community of God’s people to be the door of service through which Christ can serve the world. And when we come together to discover our life purpose that’s when there’s the miraculous multiplication of our life energies…it doesn’t get any better than this. But it requires you first you to seek God’s purpose, to have the right motives of making your life about doing his will, to get off the bench and get into the game and to recognize each of us can change our own little worlds but together we can change the world for sake of the kingdom of God and the mission of Jesus Christ.
The only opportunity we have for impact is today. God sees your heart; and if in your spirit you’re saying yes to Jesus, then I invite you to stand. Here I am. Whatever it takes, wherever you call, wherever you go - here I am, use me. Today Lord, I say yes to follow you. I recommit myself your service to Your mission in the world in the name of Jesus. Amen.
