What’s My Purpose?
Created for Significance- Week 1
March 7th, 2021
Scripture-Luke 14:1–24
Today we're going to start a journey in discovering one of the most important things you need to know for your life.
One of the reasons we have so much disfunction in our culture is because most people wander through life without purpose, so they are willing to latch onto anything that gives them a reason for being.
This is why so many end up walking down a road that God never intended for them and they end up shipwrecking their life.
Before I became a Christian, I placed much of my identity in what I did for work.
But never found satisfaction in any of them.
A few of the positions I’ve held in life
Assistant restaurant manager
infantry soldier
mechanic soldier
nuclear biological chemical warfare soldier
a brief stint in radio as an intern
gas station attendant, mailroom at a newspaper, electronics assembly and repair, call center supervisor and quality control person.
Paramedic
Firefighter
Pastor
Soon to be RN
Before I became a Christian, I looked to my career to find fulfillment, and it was never enough
Like a song from one of my favorite secular bands- U2 says- “I still haven’t found what I’m looking for”
And you could see that in my life. Even though I had jobs, I was still wandering through life, no real plans, living day by day with no eye on the future.
It was because I didn’t recognize a simple fact- I was created for a purpose, and that purpose is significant both to me, and more importantly to the God who made me.
It’s my hope that over the next several weeks we will all learn to discover that God has a plan for your life, and it’s not too late to find it and start living for eternity.
That’s the core of what we will be studying over the next few weeks. Today we will look at a few things that might hinder us from discovering the future God has for us.
I want you to keep that idea in the back of your mind as we go through the message today. It begins with Jesus being invited to a party.
[Read Luke 14:1–6.]
Luke 14:1-6
One Sabbath, when Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee, he was being carefully watched. 2 There in front of him was a man suffering from dropsy. 3 Jesus asked the Pharisees and experts in the law, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?" 4 But they remained silent. So taking hold of the man, he healed him and sent him away.
5 Then he asked them, "If one of you has a son or an ox that falls into a well on the Sabbath day, will you not immediately pull him out?" 6 And they had nothing to say.
NIV
Prayer
There's a whole lot wrong with this isn't there?
The Pharisee’s invite Jesus to a Sabbath meal- something in their culture that was a pretty common way to honoring a guest.
But in this case, they use it to try and trap Jesus into breaking on of their rules by also inviting a very obviously sick man to the dinner so that Jesus might be tempted to heal him- breaking their interpretation of the Sabbath Day law by “working” on the sabbath.
First thing I want to say- That's pretty dumb isn't it?
I know many of us think we're pretty clever but you're not smarter than God.
You can't outwit him because he knows what you're going to think or do before you're going to do it. You can't beat that. The only thing you can do is bend your knee and worship and say your will not my will God.
But the Pharisees give it a shot here- they're thinking maybe if we can catch him breaking our rules we then have a reason to try him, jail him or put him to death.
Jesus doesn’t fall for it. He does what is in the heart of His Father- heal this man and bring relief to his suffering.
The Pharisee’s are probably thinking- “Got ya!”, but then Jesus flips the situation on them by saying if there was a great need on the sabbath- like a valuable animal or a son in danger, you would work to save them.
I don’t think it’s a random example- I can’t say this with certainty, but knowing Jesus I think he was describing a recent event. I think it probably happened the previous Sabbath, and Jesus is pointing it out to expose their hypocrisy.
I was thinking to myself, “Go get ‘em Jesus,” when God’s Holy Spirit said to me, “Find yourself in this story.”
So I did, and I invite you to imagine this scene with me (close your eyes)
Try to imagine this with me-
One Sabbath day, Jesus gets invited to a party. As he strolls up the front walk, he notices that all the other guests have arrived early.
All these guests are waiting for him out on the front lawn
In the dead center of the semicircle is a guy who’s not like the rest of them. He’s not dressed as nice, so he’s probably not from the same social class as the rest of them.
As he gets closer, Jesus notices that his legs, arms, neck, and cheeks are all swollen. The man has edema, or dropsy, as the text says. His body’s tissues have been absorbing excess fluids, probably because of kidney damage, so he’s all puffy. He’s obviously in pain, and he’s obviously going to die soon if he doesn’t get some help.
Can you picture this in your mind?
All the religious leaders are arranged in a half circle, with one sick guy out front, and way out front is Jesus.
God said to me, “Find yourself in this picture.”
Well, instantly I said, “I’m certainly not Jesus.” He was perfect, and I am far from that.
I wondered for a second if I was the sick guy. But I quickly reasoned that I wasn’t that guy, either.
And since there were only three kinds of people in the picture, I had to take a careful look at the ring of robed guys rimming the back.
These guys were Pharisees. They were highly educated, devoutly spiritual types who held positions of responsibility within the religious community.
They had each spent years reading and memorizing large parts of the Old Testament, the Bible of their day, and knew all of its rules and regulations, all 613 laws by heart.
They tried their best to live their lives by those laws. And they thought little of people who didn’t do the same.
As I looked at that picture, it was like God’s Spirit said to me, “This is you; you are a Pharisee.”
I sat there in stunned silence and thought about that for a minute. Then I read some more.
Jesus continues to expose their hearts by pointing out their need for recognition and honor among the people-
Luke 14:7-11
7 When he noticed how the guests picked the places of honor at the table, he told them this parable: 8 "When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. 9 If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, 'Give this man your seat.' Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. 10 But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, 'Friend, move up to a better place.' Then you will be honored in the presence of all your fellow guests. 11 For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."
NIV
A lot of times, we pastors can teach from a scripture like this and use it to beat up on people listening.
But, I can’t really do that.
I know a lot of people think that pastors have it all together. But I'm pretty self-aware and know how messed up I am and I've been around pastors for over 20 years and I know how messed up they are in comparison to Jesus.
I know you hear me say this over and over again, but it's true-everyone who has ever existed, including and especially spiritual leaders, is just dirt having a spiritual experience.
In Jesus’ day, the pecking order was very blatant. The more important you were, the closer to you sat to the host.
The kingdom of God is the opposite. Jesus shows them that when he says-
“Don’t seek the best seat. Seek the place of humility, and then let God exalt you when it’s appropriate.”
If you want a life of significance, surrender your ego, your plans, your need for recognition for advancement to Jesus, and let HIM handle your future.
Jesus continues His teaching- Paraphrasing Luke 14:11-13
“When you throw a party, don’t just invite all the nice, safe, beautiful, cleaned-up people who are already part of your social circle. Instead, whenever you throw a party, use the opportunity to invite some not-so-cleaned-up people. They might be dirty, messy, and not act right all the time.
In fact, they might even be like you were before you came to salvation.
I read about a church that wanted to start a homeless outreach. The idea was to go down into the inner city find as many homeless people as they could , bus them back to church and during the first service give them a meal and some supplies to help them , and then they could go to the second service.
Initially the church embraced this vision from the pastor.
But then reality hit when the people in the second service had to sit next to a person who may not have bathed in a few days.
That person may be:
a little strung out because they haven't had their drug fix in awhile.
They may use language that's not appropriate or talk about things that make good Christian people blush.
Suddenly, no one wanted to come to second service. By the way, guess which service the big givers came to?
2nd service.
All kinds of pressure came from people in the congregation to cancel the homeless ministry because it made them feel uncomfortable to be around “those people”.
The pastor stuck to his guns, and lost about 1/3 of his congregation, including many of the people who gave large amounts of money.
This is why these lessons in Luke 14 are so important to us today.
What are those lessons?
1. God’s Word is powerful. He speaks to us through it. It penetrates to the dividing of soul and spirit, joint and marrow, it judges the thoughts and attitudes of our hearts.
If we let it.
2. Prayer is powerful. As God’s word speaks to us, we should be praying about what HE is saying and how it needs to affect our lives.
3. It’s easy to become a Pharisee; to get to the place in your life where you think you know what the rules are and then start living as if the rules matter more than people do.
4. This church, not only CCC, but the church in general does not exist just for us. It exists for them (motion outside). God always wants outsiders invited to his party.
I hope you’ll embrace those lessons with me.
There is a second part to this message I want to get into before we close today, and it starts in Luke 14:15
Luke 14:15
15 When one of those at the table with him heard this (about the poor/lame/blind being invited to God’s kingdom), he said to Jesus, "Blessed is the man who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God."
NIV
For first century Jews, just the mention of a banquet brought on thoughts of heaven.
Because in a prophecy in the Old Testament, the Bible describes a banquet that will take place in heaven, and all Jewish people anticipated this. It says, in Isaiah 25:7-8
Summerize
On this mountain the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples,
A banquet of aged wine – the best of meats and the finest of wines.
On this mountain he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples,
The sheet that covers all nations;
He will swallow up death forever.
The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces;
He will remove the disgrace of his people from all the earth. (Isa. 25:7–8)
So when Jesus talks about who to invite to a banquet, one of the guys at the table thinks about this prophecy and blurts out, “Blessed is the man who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God!”
Translated, “I want to be at that banquet. I want to be at that party!”
Jesus responds to this man-
Luke 14:16-24
Jesus replied: "A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. 17 At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, 'Come, for everything is now ready.'
18 "But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, 'I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.'
19 "Another said, 'I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I'm on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.'
20 "Still another said, 'I just got married, so I can't come.'
21 "The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, 'Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.'
22 "'Sir,' the servant said, 'what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.'
23 "Then the master told his servant, 'Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, so that my house will be full. 24 I tell you, not one of those men who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.'"
NIV
It’s kind of a colorful story. But it takes on a whole lot more color if you know just a few things about first century banquets, one of which is that only great people put on great banquets.
Commoners might have a friend over now and then, but only important people, only noblemen invited large groups of people. Couldn’t afford to throw the big parties.
So then the rich, important people sent you an invitation to their party, it was a huge deal. You also were expected to RSVP if you were coming.
It was expected that if you said you were coming, you are coming.
You’d given your word.
That first invitation would come several days before the banquet, the host would total up the number of attendees and order up the appropriate amount of food.
Just before the meal was actually served, the host would send out a second invitation. As the meat was being cooked, he’d send his servant around to your home to say, “Dinner’s almost ready. Time to come.”
Jesus is very careful in the words he chooses in this story.
The servant says, “Come, for everything is now ready.” Every person around the table the day Jesus told this story knew that what he was describing was the second invitation. And that everyone who was invited had already given their word that they would be there.
So then Jesus described the people who refuse the second invitation. The first is a guy who says, “I have just bought a field and I must go and see it. Please excuse me” (Luke 14:18).
Bible Commentator Kenneth Bailey said this about this excuse:
The statement is a bold-faced lie and everyone knows it. No one in the Middle east buys a field without knowing every square foot of it like the palm of his hand.
The springs, wells, stone walls, trees, paths, and anticipated rainfall are all well-known before a discussion of the purchase is even begun.
I would add to why this is a such a horrible excuse. They would also need to know a list of the prior owners, because this field might need to go back to that family soon because of the Year of Jubilee rule in which all ancestral lands are returned to their original owners.
Do you know the phrase, “You are insulting my intelligence?”
This is what this excuse is doing- trying to insinuate you are a fool if you believe me”
This guy is responding to the host by saying- “I have some dirt that is more important to me than you are!”
The servant goes to a second home. And at this home, the guy says, “Oh! I can’t come, either.” His response is, “I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out. Please excuse me” (Luke 14:19).
Again, a blatant lie.
A yoke of oxen refers to two oxen, who were matched up and trained to work together. So the guy is saying that he’s just bought ten oxen and he needs to go check them out to see how well they work together.
Now almost everyone in the room this morning has farming experience. To those people, I ask this question-
Do you ever by livestock without seeing them and knowing everything about them?
Same thing in Jesus’s day.
In that case, at the edge of the marketplace, there would be a small field where prospective buyers could test the oxen. If they couldn’t pull together, they were a worthless team.
To put this in our modern language, this guy was saying to the party thrower, “I know I said I’d come, but I just bought five used cars, sight unseen, and I have to take them all for test drives.”
This insult is even worse than the first because land was considered precious, whereas oxen were to a Jew, an unclean animals. The guy is saying, “Unclean animals are more important to me than you are!”
The third excuse giver says this, “I just got married, so I can’t come” (Luke 14:20).
Whereas the first two pretend to be gracious by saying, “Please excuse me,” this one doesn’t even offer an apology. He just says, “I can’t come.”
Again, everyone at the dinner table with Jesus would know that this is a lie.
In the 1st Century, Marriages were announced a year in advance, and no one would schedule a party for the same time as a wedding because weddings involved the whole village. If you scheduled a party during a wedding, no one would come.
In Jesus’ story, the great man who is in charge of the party says, “Fine, insult me if you want to, but I’m still holding my party.” And he sends his servant to find hurting and needy people to come to eat what he’s prepare.
So the servant rounds up all the street people and still there’s room for more.
“Sir, what you have ordered has been done, but there is still more room” (Luke 14:22).
So the master opens up the party to people outside the city, on country roads and such.
When Jesus describes this part of the story, what his hearers heard was, “God rounded up the riffraff of Israel to invite to his party and there was still more room. And he also invited people outside of Israel, gentiles, into his party.”
What Jesus was saying to those religious leaders was, “Some of you are going to reject God’s offer of a banquet in heaven. You can do that if you want to. But know that it’s going to be very hurtful to GOD, because he will see through every excuse you offer.
The meaning I want you to understand in the second part of this message is this-
And God will fill heaven with or without you. He is on mission to fill heaven and he is going to do it.
With or Without You. Another great song by U2
That’s the final lesson from Luke 14:
5. God’s purpose is to fill heaven with people from all walks of life.
Earlier I described a church that wanted to ministry to the down and outs, and many people, too comfortable in a form of religion that they couldn’t be bothered, left for greener pastors. No pun intended.
I don’t want to be that person
I don’t want to be that church
I want Coulee Community church to be a hospital for the sick, not a mausoleum of dead people thinking about days past.
Max Lucado has a great way of summarizing this idea. In his book, “When God Whispers your name” he says this-
“And if we never agree, can’t we agree to disagree? If God can tolerate my mistakes, can’t I tolerate the mistakes of others? If God can overlook my errors, can’t I overlook the errors of others? If God allows me with my foibles and failures to call him Father, shouldn’t I extend the same grace to others? One thing’s for sure.
When we get to heaven, we’ll be surprised at some of the folks we see. And some of them will be surprised when they see us.”
? Max Lucado, When God Whispers Your Name
All Rise
God has a life of significance for us. Not just us as a church family, but you as a person. I hope in the next few week as we go through this series you will begin to discover it for yourself.
Prayer
