What To Do With Your Life

People ask a very important question. What am I here for? What is my purpose for living? Some will say I want to make something out of my life. But what do you want to make out of your life? Some may say they want to make a lot of money so I can live a comfortable life. What do you want to do with your life? The Negro College fund had a slogan which said, “A mind is a terrible thing to waste”. But a life is a more terrible thing to waste. I saw a study yesterday that said more people in their 40’s and over are going back to college. They may still be searching to make something out of their lives. I suppose if we asked each one here to write down what you want to do with your life we would get many different answers.

But if there ever was a man who knew what to do with his life it was Jesus Christ. He knew what his purpose in life was without a doubt. But there was a difference between what Jesus perceived his purpose was and what others thought it was. In the verses just before our text Peter had made a remarkable profession of Christ. In response to the question as to who Jesus was, Peter said that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God. Jesus commended Peter for giving the correct answer. But the more important question was the purpose of the Messiah. What was he to do and to be? Starting in verse 21 of our text, Jesus explained what the Messiah had to do with his life. He had to go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders, scribes, and chief priests. He would killed and be raised on the third day. We know this was necessary to save the world from sin. But Peter no doubt speaking for himself and the other disciples said, “This can’t happen to you. You are the Messiah. You are to bring hope, freedom, and liberation for our nation. This can’t be.”

But Jesus said a strange thing to Peter. He called Peter a devil. As far as Peter was concerned, Satan was using Peter as a temptation for Jesus to forsake his purpose for living. Jesus knew what he had to do. He knew what he had to suffer. He was determined to fulfill the purpose for his life. But the devil was using Peter to persuade him to take the easy way out. The devil was using Peter to focus on human desires and designs for Jesus rather than God’s plan for his life. Peter was looking at things from a human perspective rather than from a divine perspective.

Then Jesus began to tell them that they had a purpose for their lives too. You have a choice to make. You can follow me or you can go your own way in deciding what to do with your lives. But, he says, if you want to follow me you are going to have to follow my purpose for your lives. I am the example. I am the model. I am the way. Follow me and you will have a purpose for your life. What did Jesus say to the disciples as to what they were to do with their lives? But even though we live in a different time and era, what Jesus told the disciples can be applied to us today. There are a lot of things in the Bible not written directly to us, but are written for us. What Jesus said to the disciples also pertains to us today.

What did he say that the disciples and we are to do with our lives? We know he included us because he says whosoever desires to follow me must follow this purpose for your life. So what do we do our lives? First of all, we are to discipline our lives. Jesus said you are to deny yourselves, take up your cross and follow me. To deny your self means to discipline yourself. By nature we desire to please and satisfy ourselves. We are born that way. Sin means the desire to satisfy ourselves rather than to please God. That was the original sin of Adam and Eve. They wanted to have their own way rather than obeying God. We can see this in a newborn baby. A newborn baby doesn’t care about anything but getting its needs met. He wants to eat. He wants to be changed. He wants to be held. Everything is centered on his needs. This is natural. A newborn infant is born that way.

When I served a church up in the rural area of Western Penna, we were having a Bible class. During one lesson the topic of original sin came up. A young man who recently had become a father could not accept the fact that his cute, adorable baby girl was born in sin. That couldn’t be. She had done nothing to sin. But sins are a focus on self rather than on God. A baby has to focus on itself. That is natural. We are born that way. But if we want to follow Christ and his purpose for our lives, we must leave our baby and selfish desires and focus on God’s purpose for us. But it takes a lot of discipline to deny ourselves that way. It doesn’t come easy.