Our Purpose Is The Reason
Genesis 6:1-22 2 Corinthians 5:16-21
If you were going to build a huge ship, where would you most likely start to build it? God wanted to build the largest ship, the world had seen to date. He had a purpose, which was to save a remnant of the life God had created. God called Noah to build this ship. Noah lived in a desert area, with no large body of water anywhere around him. God spoke to Him to build this ship.
Noah started to build because he had a purpose. He desired to obey God. This was not a typical boat or ship in design. It was more like a huge block. It was longer than a football field, it was twice as wide as this sanctuary, and it was three stories high. When people asked Noah what on earth he was building, and he told them, they laughed.
They laughed for three reasons. 1) What good is a boat without any water to float it in? 2) They laughed at the idea that God would destroy the world because of their wrongdoing. 3) They laughed because they had never heard of this thing called rain. Before the flood, the earth was watered by a mist coming from the ground. Noah ignored their laughs and ridicule because he had a purpose. He built this huge ship exactly has God told him to build it.
It was a joke to see him, his family, and all the animals go into the ark without a drop of water in sight. But then God shut the door. For seven days nothing happened. People partied, laughed and carried on. But all of a sudden on the 17th day of the second month, Geysers of water shot up from the land, and clouds formed in the sky releasing a torrential down pour.
People came running to the ark, but it was all in vain. The flooding was nothing like the world had ever seen. It poured rained 24/7 for for forty days. The water from under the ground continued to shoot up for 110 more days. It was 150 days before the rain came down.
Why did Noah pour all this time, money, and labor into this project. He had a purpose. He had faith that God was going to do exactly what God said he would do. God said judgment is coming upon this world, and people needed to be prepared for it. His purpose was to save humanity. In doing exactly what God told him to do, Noah saved his life and the lives of those closest to him.
We live in a world very similar to the one of Noah’s day. The bible says of his generation the Lord saw how evil and disobedient people had become with their hearts constantly on not only doing wrong, but finding new ways to do it. Jesus said, they were living under the delusion that life was going to go on forever as it had always done, right up until the day, the flood came.
Have you ever seen a situation in which someone did something wrong to someone else and it made you so upset if you could have did something to the one doing the wrong you would have? God has placed within each one of us the notion of their being a judgment for wrong that has been committed. Each one of us has a responsibility to live a life, that will be judged by God. The bad news is that all of us have already enough sin or wrong doing , to face God’s judgment which will take us to death and ultimately to the lake of fire.
The good news is that simply by having faith in Jesus Christ, who was and is the very Son of God, we can become a new person and fall under God’s love and mercy. Even though we still have sin, we have someone else who will pay the penalty for the wrong we have done. In becoming a new person, God expects our lives to change now. God’s desire is for everyone to experience this change.
That is why in our New Testament reading it says 2 Cor. 5:18-20 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.
Basically, God has made it possible for us to have a real relationship to Him, and God has given us a ministry to let others know the same is possible for them. We are called ambassadors. An ambassador can only do is job, when he or she is sent to the place to which he or she has been appointed. Where do you expect to find the American Ambassador to Nigeria. The ambassador represents the country from which he or she comes from.
You are an ambassador from Jesus Christ. You determine what people think about Christ. You are an ambassador for Glenville New Life Community Church. The way you live causes people to think a certain way about our church. You are an ambassador for us. People judge us, based on the way you live.
Pastor Toby was down at the Justice Center for a sentence hearing for a person who had done a number of criminal things. She told the judge, the person had been coming to our church for about a year and a half and that lately there’s been a real change. The Judge said, “a year and a half. Some of these things happened during that period.” Pastor Toby said, “your honor I said she had been attending our church, I didn’t say she was a faithful member for a year and a half.” The judge was beginning to think not so hot of our church.
You cannot escape the job of being an ambassador once you’ve given your life to Christ, once you’ve joined the church, or once you’ve claimed us as your pastors. Your only option is to notify everyone that knew of your former position and inform them that you are no longer associated with Christ, with the church, or with the pastors. Otherwise the relationship continues in their minds.
Now God had a purpose for Noah, and God had a purpose for the ark. God likewise has a purpose for each of us, and God has a purpose for our church. At our last leaders retreat with the elders, deacons, lay pastors, pastors and heads of organizations, we developed our current purpose statement. Let’s say it together, “Our purpose is to enter into a right relationship with God and be equipped for the ministry of Jesus Christ to make a difference in the lives of others.”
We are being challenged to do three things. The First is to get to know God. The second is to be equipped for ministry. The third is to make a difference for others. How do we go about entering into a right relationship with God? Do we walk in and say, “Hey God whass sup.” No we begin to enter into a right relationship with God by accepting what God has to say about us. For most of us this is not an easy thing to do. Why?
Most of us have a much higher opinion of ourselves than God does. We believe we are basically good and nice people. Sometimes people get on our nerves and that’s what causes us sometimes to get mean, nasty, and darn right out of control. But basically if people knew us they would see what wonderful people we are.
We would consider ourselves honest basically, trustworthy basically, and the kind of person you would want as a friend basically. I say basically, because most of us will admit to having a few areas we could use some work on. We know that God would be glad to have us on his team, and even if Jesus had not died for our sins, we would basically deserve to go to heaven. Hell if there is one, was created for people a whole lot worse than we are.
God’s opinion of us is quite different. God says “I see inside your hearts, that you are full of deceit, arrogance, pride, unfaithfulness, envy, jealousy, lust, greed and a whole lot more. Your mind thinks of new ways to do evil. Your nature is bent toward selfishness. There is a little in you that seeks to obey my commands. If others knew your heart, as I know you, they would be terrified of you.
You deserve death and hell because of your rejection of Me. But even with my full knowledge of who you are, and all that you have done, “I have loved You and called You to be Mine. I want to give you life and give it to you abundantly. Without me, Your life will be lived in vain and You will lose your soul.”
Now if you’re unwilling to accept what God has to say about us, then our purpose statement makes no sense. But if you accept what God says about us, then you recognize the true predicament we are in without God. Our own human nature is the real problem in all of our relationships. The only one who can truly change that nature is Jesus Christ. He does it, by killing it and replacing it with Himself.
So the beginning of a relationship God ends with a willingness to die to ourselves. If there is no death, then there is no new life. That is why you can have a person say I invite Christ into my life, and there is no change. There is room for only one Lord in your life. If you are not willing to die, then you must either kill off Jesus or keep him locked in some other room.
Our purpose is to enter into a right relationship with God. When you enter into something it means that you left something else behind. You cannot be inside the house and enter into it. To enter the house, means you left the outside. To enter into a right relationship with God, means you are leaving some other kind of relationship behind that was wrong. There is something you were doing, that you’re not going to be able to do.
We want everyone to make a quick confession of faith in Jesus, but Jesus was not so eager for people to do that. You see we want members, but Jesus wanted disciples. Jesus expected disciples to be ambassadors. One day, Jesus had an extremely large crowd following him. He could have built a large church with that group. He could have taken up a large offering.
But instead he says , Luke 14:26-27 "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters--yes, even his own life--he cannot be my disciple. 27And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.”
A right relationship with God begins with the realization that your commitment to Jesus has to be stronger than your love for anyone else. He’s not saying you actually hate the person, but it seems like it because anytime there is a conflict between what Jesus requires of you and what the other person wants you to do, you always are to choose Jesus’ call.
Then there is the issue of when you do not want to do something, or you just don’t feel like do something that God wants you to do, you tell yourself, “Self I do not care what you think, I’m going to do what God requires of me.” When we get to that point, we know we have died to self.
There are many of us who claim to be disciples, when all we’re doing is following Jesus like the crowd was. They were not in a right relationship. They were just there. The moment a tough choice has to be made between what they want to do, and what God requires, their true colors will show. Part time Christians are the greatest threat to the work of God in the world. Part time Christians are really full time workers for the devil.
Notice our purpose is to be in a right relationship. Is there anybody here who has been involved in a relationship? A healthy relationship involves two people communicating together with each other. There is a sense of joy of being together. There is a desire to strongly please this other person. You do not mind spending your energy and your resources to build the relationship. There are good relationships and there are bad relationships.
A relationship is defined by more than simply rules. If the only relationship you had with the love of your lives consisted of the other person showing up each week with a list saying 1. I did not call my former boyfriend. 2. I did not go on a date with anyone else. 3. I did not kiss anyone else. 4. I thought about you twice. 5. I brought you this little gift. 6. I’ll be here for two hours. Oh yeah please forgive me for a few things I did do, but I know should not have done.
Now if you do nothing to nurture a relationship does it get better or worse? If you had been getting calls 3 times a day and they stop coming, does that improve the relationship? If the other person tells you, they really love you, but are too busy to see you, what does that do for the relationship? If the other person spends a lot of money on others, and treat themselves to the finest of restaurants, but only takes you to McDonald’s for dinner what does that do for the relationship? A relationship does not just get better by itself. You have to do something to make it happen. If you had a relationship with someone and they disappeared for 6 weeks,
And suddenly showed up again with no explanation, how would you feel.
A relationship should be something that is alive, important and worth your time and energy. Our purpose is to enter into a right relationship with God. When God talks about a relationship between Him and His people, God continually goes back to the image of the husband and the wife in the Old Testament and to Christ and the church as His bride in the New Testament.
This tells me that God wants to be in an intimate relationship with us. When you’re being a good husband or a good wife, you recognize every decision you make in some way or another is going to impact your spouse. Therefore you ask the question how does this affect my relationship to my spouse.
As a believer, every choice we make has some bearing on our relationship to God. In order to have genuine intimacy in a marriage, there has to be a wholeness or oneness in the relationship. That wholeness or oneness is broken, when we hurt each other, misunderstand each other, deceive each other, when we hold a grudge against each other, or anytime we refuse to forgive each other. Now the marriage is still in effect, but the oneness is missing.
You bring back the oneness by admitting your error, asking forgiveness for what you have done, and changing your behavior. Without doing all three of these things, the oneness will be lacking. That is why you have a lot of dead marriages, because the intimacy is lacking. This full sharing and giving our yourself to the other person.
To enter into a right relationship with God, means that we are coming out of something that has been broken and need to be fixed. Most often we have done something and have not lived up to the wrong we have done. We’ve tried to sweep it under the rug by a general confession such as “and Lord forgive me for anything else that I might have done.” We then hope to enter into this intimate relationship with God in worship by singing praise songs and telling God how great God is.
No, if we recognize the need to enter into a right relationship with God, we should recognize the need for a real repentance on our part. Suppose I did something or said something that really hurt my wife’s feelings. I know she’s hurt and she knows that I know she’s hurt. Does it do much good for me to tell her how beautiful she was in the red dress last week, and how great the meal she cooked yesterday was, and how fine of a mother she is to our kids. Will these things restore the intimacy? They might help, but what she really needs is my apology. Few things hurt worse than a refusal by those we love to apologize for the hurt they have caused.
To enter into a right relationship with God for us as believers and as a church should start with confession and repentance on our part. Service should begin with repentance rather than praise. The repentance gives us the reason for the praise, which leads us to the worship, which allows us to experience the intimacy and worship with God. If we do not see the ongoing cleansing that God is doing in our lives, we will be deceived into thinking we have reached a holiness and righteousness that we do not possess.
It takes a lot of work, character, and humility to be able to continually enter into a right relationship with God. It’s not something we do one time and that’s it. We have to do it daily in our individual lives and weekly in the life of the church. How often do we confess what we did not do in the church that we should have done during the week or during the service. Did we genuinely try to care for the body of Christ, or did we simply not think about it.
For us to enter into a right relationship with God as a church means we have to look at each other in a different light. Is the church a place where I expect to serve God or a place where I expect to be served. A church is to be filled with disciples, but often times there are far more consumers than disciples. Jesus didn’t die to make us consumers, He died to make us disciples, so that we can enter into a right relationship with God.
Sermon Outline Pastor Rick
Our Purpose Is The Reason
Genesis 6:1-22 2 Corinthians 5:16-21
A. Building Plans For The Future
1. God, Noah, & The Ship
2. The Size, The Location, The Ridicule
3. The Rain, The Judgment, The Price
4. Our World & Noah’s
5. Born With Justice Inside
B. We Have A new Mission
2 Corinthians 5:18-20 (NIV) -18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:
19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.
1. The Call To Be Ambassadors
2. 3 Way Ambassador
3. You Determine What Others Believe
4. Pastor Toby & The Judge
C. The Meaning Of The Purpose Statement
“Our purpose is to enter into a right relationship with God and be equipped for the ministry of Jesus Christ to make a difference in the lives of others.”
1. Threefold Purpose In The Statement
2. Know God, Be Equipped, Make
A Difference
D. Enter Into A Right Relationship
1. Our Exalted Opinion Of Ourselves
2. God’s Accurate Opinion Of Us
3. God’s Unfailing Love
4. Somebody Has Got To Die-You
5. To Enter—You Must Leave
6. Jesus Challenges The Crowd
Luke 14:26-27 (NIV) 26 "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters--yes, even his own life--he cannot be my disciple. 27 And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
1. The Meaning Of Right Relationship
2. Can You Make Him Number 1
3. Have A Talk With Self
4. Part Time Christians
E. Getting Involved In A Relationship
1. What You Enjoy About It
2. The Time, Energy, Resources
3. Relationship Not Defined By Rules
4. You Can’t Just Leave it Alone
5. It Must Be Important.
F. God The Husband—The Bride Of Christ
1. The Desire For Intimacy
2. What Is Oneness & Brokenness
3. Three Steps To Restoration
4. Admit, Ask Forgiveness, Change
Behavior
5. Recognize What’s Broke With God
6. Be Sin Specific
7. Enter Is An Ongoing
8. When You Hurt Someone’s Feelings
H. Intimacy With The Church
1. Service Should Begin With Repentance
Not Praise
2. Relationships Require Work.
3. Looking At Each Other Differently
4. Consumers Vs Disciples
5. Which Am I.
