Today I want to preach on purpose!
Williams tells a story of someone “lost his purpose” --
it is the story of Jacob Brodzky.
a shy Russian Jew whose father owned a bookstore. The older Brodzky wanted his son to go to college. The boy, on the other hand, desired nothing but to marry Lila, his childhood sweetheart.
She was a French girl as passionate as he was passive.
A couple of months after young Brodzky went to college, his father fell ill and died.
He returned home, buried his father, and married his love. They moved into the apartment above the bookstore, and Brodzky took over its management.
The life of books fit him perfectly, but it cramped her.
She wanted more adventure -- and she found it, she thought, when she met an agent who praised her beautiful singing voice and enticed her to tour Europe.
Brodzky was devastated. At their parting, he reached into his pocket and handed her the key to the front door of the bookstore.
"You had better keep this," he told her, "because you will want it someday. Your love is not so much less than mine that you can get away from it. You will come back sometime, and I will be waiting." She kissed him and left.
To escape the pain he felt, Brodzky withdrew deep into his bookstore and took to reading as someone else might have taken to drink. He spoke little, did little, and could most times be found at the large desk near the rear of the shop, immersed in his books while he waited for his love to return.
Nearly 15 years after they parted, at Christmas time, she did return.
But when Brodzky rose from the reading desk that had been his place of escape for all that time, he did not take the love of his life for more than an ordinary customer.
"Do you want a book?" he asked.
That he didn't recognize her startled her. But she gained possession of herself and replied,
"I want a book, but I've forgotten the name of it." Then she told him a story of childhood sweethearts. A story of a newly married couple who lived in an apartment above a bookstore. A story of a young, ambitious wife who left to seek a career, who enjoyed great success but could never relinquish the key her husband gave her when they parted. She told him the story she thought would bring him to himself.
But his face showed no recognition.
Gradually she realized that he had lost touch with his heart's desire, that he no longer knew the purpose of his waiting and grieving, that now all he remembered was the waiting and grieving itself.
"You remember it; you must remember it -- the story of Lila and Jacob?”
After a long, bewildered pause, he said, "There is something familiar about the story, I think I have read it somewhere. It comes to me that it is something by Tolstoy."
Dropping the key, she fled the shop. And Brodzky returned to his desk, to his reading, unaware that the love he waited for had come and gone.
His purpose had left…
there is an old country song that George Jones covered after his divorce from Tammy Wynette…
There goes my only possession There goes my everything I hear footsteps slowly walking As they gently walk across a lonely floor
And a voice softly saying Darling, this will be goodbye forever more
There goes my reason for living There goes the one of my dreams There goes my only possession There goes my everything
As my memory turns back the pages I can see the happy years we had before Now the love that kept this old heart beating Has been shattered by the closing of a door
There goes my reason for living There goes the one of my dreams There goes my only possession There goes my everything
He recognized that his purpose had slipped from him…
I wonder today how many can relate those lyrics to their walk with God?
You may not be backslidden, but you know something has changed…
You may be faithful, but your not as strong as you once were…
you may love God, but know that its not as it was…
prayer
purpose
noun
1.
the reason for which something exists or is done, made, used, etc.
In the fairy tale Alice in Wonderland.
Alice asked Cheshire Cat, "Would you tell me please, which way I ought to go from here?" "That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," said the cat. "I don't much care where," said Alice. "Then it doesn't matter which way you go," said the cat.
Many of us have lived our spiritual life like alice…
pointless, having no purpose, drifting on the sea of life… if we are down, we mottle through… if we are up we thank God and seem to live at ease… But do little to effect either extremes…
We don't have spiritual purpose…
we have a purpose, but A purpose changed day by day, hour by hour, sometimes minute by minute…
you woke this morning with a purpose, what was it?
Making it to the house of God? How do I know? You are here?
You woke up, took a shower, brushed your teeth, combed or brushed your hair…
you didn't show up this morning in your pajamas, look at your neighbor and ask,”How did I get here?”
you purpose in your mind to be at church..
Purpose is powerful!
Purpose will cause you to reach deal and press hard…
In February 1980, the U.S. Olympic hockey team slipped its foot into a glass slipper and walked away with a gold medal at Lake Placid, New York.
They had shocked the world by upsetting the powerful Soviet team, and then they grabbed the championship from Finland while the crowd chanted, "U.S.A.!"
Before his team's victory over the Soviet Union which advanced them to the finals, the coach of the U.S. team told his players,
"You are born to be a player. You are meant to be here at this time. This is your moment."
let me echo these words in my text…
Esther 4:13-16
King James Version (KJV)
13 Then Mordecai commanded to answer Esther, Think not with thyself that thou shalt escape in the king's house, more than all the Jews.
14 For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?
15 Then Esther bade them return Mordecai this answer,
16 Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day: I also and my maidens will fast likewise; and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law: and if I perish, I perish.
Everything Esther had accomplished up till now was done on purpose…
When she went before the king, She purposed to look her best…
When She was chose, She Purposed to hide that she was a Jew…
Everytime she went before the king she Purposed the do so according to the law…
But let me show you were it all changed…
The greek word for Purpose is “Telos”, it means “end or Goal”. we can just combine those two words…END GOAL!
It was at this point that Ester recognized the difference in purpose…
her life shifted from Purpose, “the reason something is done” to, “end goal”
She achieved what we struggle with…
She went from being ON purpose, to being IN purpose!
when she begin to live in purpose, she begin to grow in her faith…
When she was living on purpose, she would not approach the king in a way that was not according to the law…
But when she began to live in purpose, she began to act in what others would deem a careless manner…
Anyone looking in from the outside would think she was crazy approaching the king in a non-traditional manner…
Whats wrong with her? Has she forgotten how this works?
Didn't she hear what happened to the last queen?
Who does she think she is?
Some of us struggle in the court of the people, their thoughts and opinions destroy us…
thats because we are living on purpose, not in purpose…
When your in purpose, you don't need mans approval or praise…
In purpose living will make you do things that go against tradition…
it will make you think out side the box…
Go where the Spirit leads, even if it goes against the grain…
it will caused you to make decisions never made before, try things never tried before, act ways you have never acted before…
worship
Thats where we need to find ourselves today…
transitioning from on purpose to in purpose…
it will change how you approach things…
some of us are doing bible studies on purpose, what will happen if it is done in purpose….
coming to prayer meeting on purpose…
fasting on purpose…
We arrived here on purpose, what if we left in purpose…
worship
the bible is full of examples of this transition….
Our text, Esther came to the palace on purpose by her uncle… but moved into purpose and saved her people…
Legend came to Jesus on purpose, dragging a legend of demons with him… he left in purpose… first missionary dispatch by Jesus…
the adulterous women was brought to Jesus on purpose, thrown down naked at his feet by her accuser…, but left in purpose…
The blind man Came to Jesus on purpose, Jesus though son of David, have mercy on me… But he left in purpose…
the 120 came to the upper room on purpose… Holy Ghost fell… but they left in purpose…
How about you today? are you ready to move into purpose, a banding on purpose…
Altar Call
