“Super Sized Life” part 2 (God’s amazing plan for my life)
Brian A. Moon
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. Those collegians 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. hockey team told his players, "You are born to be a player. You are meant to be here at this time. This is your moment."
That is a great story, but for most of us it is something we have a hard time relating to. While those hockey players might have been born to be players, and meant for that time and moment, we on the other hand are just ordinary people, nobody’s really. Have you ever wondered this question before, Why am I here? Why am I taking up space on this earth, what is the point to life? Feelings of insignificance are something we all are familiar with and tonight I would like to address these feelings.
Mark Twain shortly before his death wrote, "A myriad of men are born; they labor and sweat and struggle;...they squabble and scold and fight; they scramble for little mean advantages over each other; age creeps upon them; infirmities follow; ...those they love are taken from them, and the joy of life is turned to aching grief. It (the release) comes at last--the only unpoisoned gift earth ever had for them--and they vanish from a world where they were of no consequence,...a world which will lament them a day and forget them forever."
What a sad way to look at life, that we are here for nothing more than death, but that is how many of us live our lives every day. To add to this we are taught in school that we are but mere animals, evolving from lesser creatures and that the material world is all that there is. So now not only am I insignificant, I am also expendable. Life we feel sometimes becomes almost a curse… Is there a purpose to life? Do I have something that makes me valuable and significant? For some they think the answer lies in getting the most stuff. Have you ever seen the bumper sticker that says, “He who dies with the most toys wins?” That is the idea here that if we spend our whole life trying to make money and get stuff that when it is all coming to a close and we are old and gray that we will have won in life and found significance. Well, I like this bumper sticker better, “He who dies with the most toys, still dies!” No matter how much material wealth you could ever gain in 5 lifetimes, would ever come close to filling that void for significance and purpose in your life. So where do we turn for answers, does life matter, am I significant and why am I here???
Last week I mentioned that finding our true identity is part of the solution to finding a “Super Sized Life.” Or finding a life that is fun, and fulfilling, one that has significance and purpose, there was a statement Jesus made in the Bible that we looked at and I would like to share it again.
John 10:10 “I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance” Amplified Bible
A life that it is bogged down with feelings of insignificance and lack of purpose does not sound like a life that you can enjoy as it says in that verse.
And a life that has no clue as to why they are here does not sound like a life that is in abundance. All that sounds like is an abundance of misery! So how does Jesus Christ have anything to do with me finding significance, and purpose in life?
Remember back to when you were a little kid playing some game in your neighborhood or at school, lets say kickball, and it is that crucial and anxious time when the teams are being chosen. Everyone is lined up and the two captains are looking people over. You are scared to death because you are wondering if anyone will chose you, and then if you do get chosen when will it come? Will you be the last person picked, the one that nobody wants or will you be the person that the captains fight over to get first pick?
Those are the same feelings we are still facing today in our search for significance and purpose, when will we be picked?
Ephesians 1:4 – 5 “Long ago, even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. And this gave him great pleasure.” NLT
Circle the words “chose us in Christ” in that verse
You see God has picked you first, he has picked you to be on his team and because of his Son, Jesus Christ, you have been:
Chosen for a reason
Before the world was ever created, before the first plant, tree, or animal, God chose you to be on his team, he chose you to be in his family. Think about that for a minute. The God who made everything we see, the God who knows how to create a living cell, and form them in just the right way to make a human being,
The God who made the mountains and formed the oceans, the God who hung the stars in the sky and knows their number, this same God decided to look into the future and see you. And not only did he see you and love you, he chose you to be a part of his family. There was one problem though, we as human’s turned our back on God and brought a thing called sin into the world.
We ignored God and his perfect plan and brought evil and death into the world through our sinful choices.
But even though we turned our back on God he still said, “I chose you and I will make a way for you to be in my family.” So in the ultimate display of love God sent his Son, Jesus Christ to come and die on a cross so that all our sins could be placed on his shoulders, and he would take the evil and the death upon his back and die for you and me. This made the way for you and me, the ones God had chosen to become apart of his family, and to have eternal life with God one day, a life with no end.
1 Peter 2:9 “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people…” NRSV
Jesus Christ perfect life was now placed over ours and our sins were taken away from us, and we were made a part of God’s family, just like he had chosen for us to be! That is how significant you were to God, that is how important you were to him. He was willing to let his Son die so that we can have a life of significance and freedom, and fun! We can now have a “Super Sized Life.” But what about our purpose for being here? Why am I on this earth in the first place?
Well, not only have you been chosen, but you also have been chosen for a reason.
In the eleventh century, King Henry III of Bavaria grew tired of court life and the pressures of being a monarch. He made application to Prior Richard at a local monastery, asking to be accepted as a contemplative and spend the rest of his life in the monastery. "Your Majesty," said Prior Richard, "do you understand that the pledge here is one of obedience? That will be hard because you have been a king." "I understand," said Henry. "The rest of my life I will be obedient to you, as Christ leads you." "Then I will tell you what to do," said Prior Richard. "Go back to your throne and serve faithfully in the place where God has put you." When King Henry died, a statement was written: "The King learned to rule by being obedient."
You see God has not chosen you just so that you can walk around feeling good all day, but he has chosen you for a reason. He has placed you in this time period in history, in this country, in this state, in this city, in this room tonight for a reason. It is no coincidence that you were born when you were born, and no accident that you came tonight because God has an amazing plan for your life. Just like King Henry or the Hockey players I mentioned in the beginning, tonight God is saying to you, "You are born to be a player. You are meant to be here at this time. This is your moment!!!"
Ephesians 2:10 “For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.” NRSV
Circle the words “good works” and “prepared beforehand”
You live in a family, you have a set of friends, and you have a future that no one else in this room has.
And God has placed you here for “good works” that he “prepared beforehand” for you to do. God has a task, a job, a career, a ministry just for you, that only you can do. In the Bible it says that God has appointed the time we will exist and the places we would live… because,
God has a game plan for my life
Because of God’s choice to bring you into his family you now have significance and now your life is not meaningless, or purposeless, because God also has a game plan for each of us. There was a woman one time who could not conceive a child, she could not get pregnant. This made her very sad and women even mocked her because she could not have a baby and they could.
One day upset and crying uncontrollably a Jewish Priest asked why she was so sad. She told him that she could not have children and she was praying to God to give her a son. The priest sent her on her way and told her request would be given to her. Sometime after that the woman gave birth to a boy and she gave the boy back to God by giving him to the priest to serve in the temple. Not a very exciting beginning for this young boy, but fast forward many years and this same boy winds up being the one that God uses to pick the first two kings of Israel.
If this boys mother had given birth to him earlier, who knows he might not have been alive to pick the kings, And if she had not been forced to wait so long he would have never been given back to God and placed in the temple. This is a true story about Samuel from the Bible and through it we can see God was in control of this boys life from start to finish and he had a plan for his life. The same is true for you and me, God has a plan for us! We no longer have to wander around in the fog of purposelessness, or think our lives are meaningless. God says, “Hey, I chose you and now that I have made you a part of my family, I have a plan for you and your life.”
Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you,’ says the LORD. ‘They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” NLT
Circle the words “plans for good” and the word “hope.”
Like we have said, God has put you in a specific place for a reason and that reason is to do good things, things for God that will give you hope for the future.
So what are these good things, or this plan God has for me?
God’s has an unstoppable mission for me
I read about a court case that was lost because of the silence of an attorney. The distinguished lawyer Samuel Hoar (1778-1856) was representing the defendant. When it was time to present his case, he told the jurors that the facts favoring his client were so evident that he would not insult their intelligence by arguing them. The jury retired to deliberate and returned in a few minutes with a verdict of guilty. Samuel Hoar was astonished! "How," he asked, "could you have reached such a verdict?" The foreman replied, "We all agreed that if anything could be said for a case, you would say it. But since you didn’t present any evidence, we decided to rule against you." Silence had lost the case. God has a plan for each of our lives, some of us it might be a lawyer, or a doctor, maybe a gym teacher, or a fireman. But no matter what the planned occupation may be we all have been given an unstoppable mission by God.
2 Corinthians 5:18 - God has done it all! He sent Christ to make peace between himself and us, and he has given us the work of making peace between himself and others. What we mean is that God was in Christ, offering peace and forgiveness to the people of this world. And he has given us the work of sharing his message about peace.” CEV
Underline the words “given us the work of making peace between himself and others”
God has chosen you to be a part of his family and has a game plan for your life, which we said gives our lives amazing significance and purpose. God’s gift of salvation is the key to the “Super Sized Life” the life that we want so much, but not only are we given this gift to just hold on to and keep for ourselves, But we are given it to give away! God has given us the unstoppable mission of “sharing his message about peace” as this verse says. In other versions of the Bible it says we are given the word of reconciliation, or we are given the message of restoring people to a right relationship with God. That is the amazing game plan for your life! Once we have experienced the “Super Sized Life” we are not to be like the lawyer I just talked about, we are not to keep silent,
But instead we are to use that place that God has placed us, to tell those family members we have, that circle of friends and the future that only we have about how God has chosen us and given our lives a purpose. Jesus tells us that God is pleased when we do this, when we share this message of peace.
John 15:8 “My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit…” NRSV
Just like a fruit tree is supposed to grow fruit, we are supposed to share the hope we have in Jesus with others so that God can grow them into his children also. The questions of why am I here, and am I even significant can all be answered in Jesus Christ. He gives us salvation from death and evil, and he gives us the mission for our life. He gives us significance and purpose that can only be found in him.
Tonight though some of you may not have found this significance and purpose yet because you have never accepted that gift of salvation from God. That verse from 2 Corinthians we just read starts out saying, “God has done it all.” And that is the amazing.
We don’t have to wait until we are better people, we don’t have to have it all together, all we have to do is just come to God. If you need significance in your life, and you need a purpose for living, but more importantly you need to be set free from the emotional and physical weight of sin, you need salvation, then it is real simple. All you have to do is cry out to God as best you know how and ask him to come save you and give you significance and purpose. He has chosen you and wants to give you the “Super Sized Life” are you ready to receive it?
Prayer Time -------------
God we thank you for giving us a new life, a Super Sized Life that is full of significance and purpose. Thank you for choosing us even before we chose you.
If you have never found this life, you have never begun a relationship with God through Jesus Christ and you want this significance and purpose, then cry out to God as best you know how and tell him that you need him. Ask him to come and save you from your sins, and give you a new life that is free and full of joy. Tell him that you are sorry for your sins and need him to come and help you follow him. Thank him for giving Jesus so that all this is possible.
If that was you tonight then in the Bible God says he will give you the power to be saved. He has already chosen you and made the way possible and now he will keep you and save you.
God thank you for saving us. Amen.
