Grace: HERE ON PURPOSE: Finding Your Purpose

Introduction

Let me begin with a discipleship question: how will you follow Jesus in prayer and dependence on God this week?

Main Points

In this lesson shaped by Calvary Boise's teaching on HERE ON PURPOSE: Finding Your Purpose, Christ invites us to receive truth with humility, practice repentance, and walk in faithful obedience.

Grace and Justification

you are the light of the world city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden and nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket but on a lampstand and it gives light to all who are in the house let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father in heaven welcome as the video just kind of introduced we are going to be really considering this concept of the purposes of God and we're gonna spend the next three weeks starting this Sunday and then we'll take it to the park and then finally in two weeks from today we're gonna consider the purposes of God answering the question while here what are we up to what are you doing what is God doing in your life and what are his purposes in all of that we're gonna start this week with a message that I'm simply calling finding your purpose and it's one of the most important messages for you to grasp that you are made with a purpose and that God has a plan for your life before we get into the scripture I'll share with you the theologian Mark Twain and what he says about purpose because it works very well for the purposes that we have this morning he says the two most important days of your life are the day that you were born and then the day that you found out why now if you're a believer this morning you know that goes one step further and the concrete the fulfillment of that concept is it's the most important day of your life is the day that you were born when God gave you physical life and then the day that you were born again when God breathed his life into your being to give you life more abundant everlasting and we're going to talk about why he did that and why he's calling some of you to receive that for the first time even this morning to do that we're gonna go into what this video just introduced which was Matthew chapter 5 Matthew chapter 5 is the beginning of what is often called the Sermon on the Mount it goes from Matthew chapter 5 all the way through Matthew chapter 7 and it talks to us as we listen to the words of Christ about the kingdom that Jesus came the purposes of his kingdom and then the people who dwell in it the purposes that they have within the kingdom and we're gonna look specifically at just the very first part of Matthew chapter 5 this morning and as we think about the purpose that God has for your life for our church for the believer before we look at Matthew 5 I'm going to also remind you of one of the great purpose verses of the Bible it's an Ephesians chapter 2 verse 10 it says for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them that is a verse for the believer to keep very close to your heart because it keeps you on track and the purposes of God in your entire life that you are made by God you're his workmanship he's making you into something continually for his glory that you should walk in it your purpose is not something that you have an understanding of it's not some theological knowledge that you require and then you get to heaven and you cash it in your purpose is your life's momentum now and you walk in your purpose and the reason I start with that is because as we look at Matthew chapter 5 it begins with what many people call the Beatitudes Jesus is going to list eight characteristics of those who have received the kingdom who are now part of his kingdoms purposes and many people will look at these eight characteristics as steps walking with Jesus and we're gonna look at the first step this morning finding your purpose starts as Jesus brings his disciples clothes we're gonna look at this very first step in the purposes of the kingdom starting in verse one to set the context it says in Matthew chapter five and seeing the multitudes he went up on a mountain and when he was seated his disciples came to him and then he opened his mouth and taught them saying this blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven the very first step is you approach your relationship with God and finding your purpose with God as you listen to Jesus speaking to his disciples is that you would be poor in spirit what does that mean how is it that the poor in spirit received the kingdom and as we answer that question with the time that we have in the word this morning I want to broaden the scope of what Jesus is about to teach his disciples because your first step is to be poor in spirit where does that take you where is Jesus taking his disciples as he preaches these blessed attitudes of the believer what does that get you what is the mindset now of those of you who desire this poor in spirit blessing well it is an upside-down kingdom that Jesus is inviting you into happy or blessed are the poor in spirit doesn't always sound like what you would think intuitively and now we're going to take it even farther because the poor in spirit get riches that go far beyond their poverty and it will go on in the teachings of Matthew chapter 5 Jesus will say things that we need to understand for our full purpose it says in verse 16 let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father in heaven part of your purpose walking in this good works of Christ is that your life is now a reflection of the glory of God and Jesus is going to take this even farther now verse 20 this is where the message will get challenging and the poor in spirit will begin to understand why this is such an important qualification for the kingdom he says to his disciples unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees you will by no means enter the kingdom unless you are more righteous than the most righteous of their day the scribes and the Pharisees represented that most the best representation of the law completed they were the teachers of the law and they were the examples of the law lived out and Jesus takes his disciples away from the temple away from the holy place of the day he takes them to the mountains he pulls them away from religion and says if you really want the kingdom your righteousness has to be greater than the best version of righteousness that you can see and then he goes one step even further as the Sermon on the mountain takes righteousness not just to the letter of the law but to the heart of man he says at the very end of this chapter therefore you shall be perfect as your father in heaven is perfect this is a passage of scripture that probably isn't taught on enough because it's scary to think about it can come across very heavy-handed for you to come to church and say one of the teachings of Jesus is you to reflect the perfection of God but the reason we go here and the reason this comes up in the preaching is because if you really want to find your purpose in the kingdom that Jesus is the king of what Jesus is teaching is that far too often we look for our purposes in ways that are way beneath the glory of God and when we think about finding our purpose in Christ those good works that we were made for in Christ I'm challenged with three things as I read this Jesus is going to say to us that we have to aim higher in our finding of purpose and in aiming higher we must go lower to actually receive it and in going lower we must live blessed this is the finding of purpose given to us by the teachings of Jesus we must aim higher we must go lower and we must live blessed now why does Jesus say to the poor in spirit who are going to receive the kingdom you need to raise the heights of your aim look at the Pharisees and go even higher what Jesus is helping them understand is that they were made for the perfection of a relationship with the perfect God you must be perfect as your father is perfect you are made not just for religion and the best that religion can make you're not made to sit in church and hear a little bit about God you are made to go higher than all of that you are made for the glory of God you're made in the image of the perfectly loving perfectly gracious perfectly kind perfectly compassionate perfectly long-suffering God and Jesus is saying make that your aim your purpose is found in God you long for the perfection or as other parts of scripture will say the holiness of God is what you were made for and if you really want to live in the kingdom your aim must actually be the king of the kingdom God who has made you and called you is part of your purpose to know him and to love him and that's how we begin to make sense of this challenging verse Matthew chapter 5 verse 20 that says unless your righteousness exceeds the Pharisees now how is that ever going to happen the Pharisees were the example of righteousness and their day except they miss one thing because Jesus says the fulfillment of the law their attempt to perfect the law lacks one major component and it is something that makes your aim even higher Jesus was asked what is the greatest commandment and what are you saying the greatest commandment is that you would love God and love your neighbor as yourself in that hang all of the law of the prophets if you have the law without a love for God the law will become a burden if you have church without the worship and the pursuit of the glory and the perfection of God church will be a burden you were made for the perfection of God and any other pursuit that tries to be your purpose will become a burden when you look for perfection in anything else than the only perfect one God Himself your pursuit of holiness and perfection that you longed for and that you crave will become a burden and that is why Jesus says that these Pharisees these teachers of the law lay heavy burdens on the people and don't do lift one finger to help them because the law without God is a burden and how many of you have felt the burdens of your pursuits because they lack the perfection that you were made for how many of you have ever felt the burden to have a perfect marriage the burdens who have this ideal marriage and when you make that your pursuit what you realize is that your marriage cannot be perfect unless your marriage is a pursuit of the perfect God who called you to be together how many of you felt the burden it to be the perfect husband or wife how many of you felt the burden to be the perfect student the burden to receive that 4.0 GPA and if that's you know how crushing a b-plus can feel it will crush you and it'll make you cry it'll make you feel like your life is ruined because the pursuit of purpose in school will make you think that you need to be perfect and anything less will crush you were made for perfection and it's only found in God how many of you have felt the burden to be a perfect parent and felt like such a failure when your child acts out breaks the rules hits and slaps that's my version of it breaks curfew maybe that's your version of it a pursuit of perfection outside of God means your aim is too low and what Jesus says is you want to find purpose look at what you're aiming at if it's the law go one higher go to the lawgiver if it's your marriage go one higher go to the one that your marriage is a reflection of and that's Christ and his bride if your aim is actually to excel in school go one higher and realize that the of all wisdom and knowledge is God and it is only when you heighten your aim that you will ever start to begin to find your purpose and here is why this is such an important part of understanding poverty in your spirit if your aims are not heightened to God you may think that you can actually achieve them on your own you may think that you could maybe someday be that perfect person that you're setting out to be but it is only when you realize the glory of your creator and when you draw close to him and you begin to pursue the glory and the perfection you were made for that is only in God it is then when you will realize how far off you are there are so many examples of scripture that as people pursue God or have an encounter with his presence or they actually interact with the Living God most of the time that message and that presence comes with a messenger to say don't be afraid because it is so glorious and so intense in our human nature it's frightening to get that close to God one of them most famous examples of this we see in Isaiah was one of the great prophets that we have in the Bible Isaiah was a man of great talent great wisdom and knowledge a poet a great speaker and in his day he was able to move in the hearts of kings and warm people through prophecy and pen things we read to this day that still sound brilliant and profound and be the Prophet that would tell of the coming Messiah he was labeled the prophet with a silver tongue he's one of the great heroes of the Bible and yet in all of his talent and all of his wisdom and all of his skill in light of who God is he is nothing if that's true of Isaiah how much more is that true of us look what happens in this interaction that Isaiah has with the glory of God Isaiah chapter 6 in the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting on a throne high and lifted up and the Train of his robe filled the temple above it stood Seraphim each one had six wings with two he covered his face with two he covered his feet and with two he flew and one cried to another this picture of beautiful worship the angels in heaven crying holy is the Lord of hosts the whole earth is full of his glory and the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out and the house was filled with smoke this is the radical glorious frightening presence of the perfect God come to earth in a vision this is what you long to experience this is the future of the world that God has made he is coming again in all his glory with his angels it's the day we all long for as the bride waits for the bridegroom and this is what you were made for and when you get a glimpse of heaven like Isaiah God when you get a glimpse of the power of God that some of you may have had as we worshiped and sang his praises this morning when you get a glimpse of the wisdom and the beauty and the majesty of the Lord as the word is preached or it's consumed as you seek him in the word here's what happens to you listen to what happened to Isaiah the smoke fills the temple a representation of his glory filling the earth and he says woe is me I am undone for I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of people of unclean lips for I have seen the Lord the King the glory of God shows you the poverty of your spirit because before such glory think about what we're talking about this morning the creator of the heavens and the earth if you believe in God that's who you believe in he spoke the worlds into existence with his word he raises the dead to life that's who we believe in and when you think about that kind of glory and we approach him we realize we have nothing to offer him this is the beginning of the poor in spirit and this is why this is the very first step to the approach of God that begins to walk with Christ in finding your purpose you were made to know this God and in his love and in His mercy and in His grace he made knowing him something that isn't frightening at all he made knowing him that is actually something that you can achieve this morning and you can know him more and more and more and here is what you need you need to be poor in spirit to be willing to set aside all attempts to reach the heights of heaven on your own to set aside all gifts and talents that you think make you worthy of life apart from God to be poor in spirit is the beginning of approaching this loving God who wants to give you everything and so now we look at the second aspect not only must we aim higher we must now go lower and this is what the poor in spirit means the poor in spirit defined this morning is to recognize your poverty before God and this is an important distinction that we are all poor before God because sometimes we compare ourselves not to our Creator but to fellow creations and when we compare ourselves to fellow creations brothers and sisters in Christ or to the sinning world there's ways for us to think well maybe I do have a little bit more than the next guy there's someone here this morning right now who is the richest among us in this economy there's someone here who is the most talented who's the most gifted in your natural skill I don't know who you are but simple math says you're here among us and so when you compare yourself to others you may think I have something to offer but that's not what we're talking about this morning what we're saying is in light of who God is in light of who God is we have nothing to offer your riches will pave the streets of heaven that's who God is your talents will be nothing to the God who creates with a word that's who God is and to the poor in spirit they realize that they aren't comparing themselves to each other they now approach God and say God your glory humbles me three things for the poor in spirit this morning you know you have nothing and because you have nothing you are willing to ask and because you are willing to ask blessed are you because you will receive the kingdom and it's briefly look at those three aspects because I hope we are at poor in spirit Church and I hope you are a poor in spirit believer and that begins with the daily reminder that as Jesus taught us to pray he said give us our daily bread His mercies are new every day and we need them afresh every day there's nothing that we have to offer him remember what we taught last week as we thought about wisdom and leadership there's a qualification for the leaders among us and it is that you bring nothing to the Lord other than what he gives to you here is what we looked at as we thought about the unlikely leaders that God uses 1st Corinthians chapter 1 verse 26 for you see your calling brethren or your purpose that not many wise according to the flesh and not many mighty not many noble are actually called but God chose the foolish things of the world to put to shame to the wise God can do great things in the lives of people who have empty hands who come to him with nothing but what he can do in and through them there is a saying of a pastor that used to preach at this church he's now gone on to planted a Calvary Chapel across the valley still close friend of mine and he said something to me that has always stuck with me and it's created a tension in my life it's not something that I love to remember because it requires me to do something that my flesh hates and so now let me share that tension with you he said if you ever have an opportunity to be humbled run to it this is the poor in spirit the rich or the flesh the person who thinks that they don't have any need for God they don't love to run to humility because it reminds them of their utter need for someone to come along and help them but if you poor in spirit believer have an opportunity to be humbled run to it and see what God does I share my own example in this I enjoyed so much my time away to be with my family on paternity leave one because we got to welcome this son into our fold what a joy it was but number two the more honest reason I had four weeks where I was not preparing sermons and as much as I love to preach it was a relief because every week God calls me to do something that uh turley humbles me have you ever heard the saying that two greatest fears if you pull a majority of people that the majority would say their two greatest fears are public speaking and death and it's in that order that most people would rather die than give a speech that doesn't really go away just because you're a preacher what it does is it requires you to run to humility and every week I have to open the word and say Lord you have called a fool to proclaim wisdom you have called someone who is weak to be glorifying your strength and the only way that I can preach that is ever a blessing to you as if it is because God has used my humility to strengthen me with his wisdom now that's my version of this but what is it for you in those categories that we talked about that become the burdens of perfection apart from God has given you an opportunity to be humbled because you desire to be a holy wife or a holy husband run to your weakness let God strengthen all the insufficiencies of your marriage runs of the humility that requires you to ask for forgiveness to ask for strengthening so that you can be patient and kind when you don't want to be students run to humility that requires you to be an eager learner not just of academia but of the wisdom of God in all of the ways you feel burdened your burdens become opportunities for humility run to them and for those who admit they have nothing but what God provides you are now in the perfect ability to do the second thing that the poor in spirit are always doing and it's true of poor people how do I know who the poor people are of our city how do I know that poor people of our church there's one easy way to tell more people are always asking as you leave church this afternoon you go into the streets of our city the first way you'll be able to find someone who's Poor's because they're gonna be asking for help their sign will say all clever sorts of things to say at the end of the day I need your help poor people are always asking it's true of our economy and it's true of the spiritual economy if you want to have a relationship with God where you actually allow him to strengthen the emptiness of your need it means you're asking and if you're not asking you're walking down a dangerous road of religion because the pursuit of holiness without brokenness will make you a legalist the pursuit of holiness without brokenness will make you a legalist listen to the warning that Jesus gives through this parable in Luke chapter 18 it says two men went up to the temple to pray a Pharisee a religious person and a tax collector someone who's far off the Pharisee stood and prayed within himself god I thank you that I'm not like other men extortioners unjust adulterers or even as this tax collector I fast twice a week I give tithes of all that I possess in other words in light of other people on the back but poor in spirit it doesn't matter what you look like in comparison of other people the question for the poor in spirit is Who am I before God and that is why we have this example the surprising upside-down example that Jesus shared to shock his audience and it shocks us now it isn't the religious person that gets what they're looking for it is the person who is asking God the tax collector standing afar off would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven but beat his breast saying God be merciful to me and Jesus says I tell you it's this man who went justified what are you asking god for what are you pleading with him for what are your needs because wherever your needs are that you bring as requests to the Lord they turn into the blessing of his provision and wherever you take your needs and you carry them they turn into a burden they turn into bitterness and they turn into pride because you think that somehow you can do better with your life then God can and that is why we listen to the wisdom of Jesus again he said blessed are the poor in spirit because not only do they know they have nothing and not are they not only are they able to ask but also they're able to receive blessed are the poor in spirit because theirs is the kingdom of heaven and that is the surprising use of the blessing here heaven seems like something that would be promised for a far off when we think of heaven we think of the day that we go to meet the Lord face to face the day that he calls us home and yet Jesus says it's today yours is the kingdom of heaven the blessing is today for the poor in spirit and there's a couple reasons why one remember t

Conclusion

We return to the opening teaching: discipleship is not just information, it is transformation through faith and obedience to Jesus. If we receive His Word and walk it out, He will shape us into people who endure and bear fruit.

Lord Jesus, help me hear Your Word, obey it with faith, and grow as Your disciple. Amen.

Conclusion

We return to the opening teaching: discipleship is not just information, it is transformation through faith and obedience to Jesus. If we receive His Word and walk it out, He will shape us into people who endure and bear fruit.

Closing Prayer

Lord Jesus, help me hear Your Word, obey it with faith, and grow as Your disciple. Amen.