Fulfilling your life purpose

Uvod

Dobar dan i Božji blagoslov, svima! It is a great pleasure to be here with you once again. The last time was a few weeks ago, at the end of the 10 days of prayer, and I was already missing it. Dorothea sends her greetings from Buzet, where she has the sermon today.

Before we get onto our sermon, I would like to just say a few words about the earthquake we had this week in Turkey and Syria. As you probably saw, the situation is quite delicate. There were a lot of people who unfortunately died and many others who were injured. Our Adventist charity, ADRA, is already on the field, identifying the needs, working with their partners, and trying to help in the best possible way. If you would like to donate specifically to help ADRA in their efforts in Turkey and Syria, you can follow the instructions on the screen. The poster will also be up at the end of the service. But right now I would like to remember all of our brothers and sisters in Turkey and Syria who might have been directly or otherwise affected by this earthquake, and I would like to offer a prayer for them. So, I would like to invite the Church to stand as we pray for them.

Dear God,

This morning we remember all of those people in Turkey and Syria who were affected by this earthquake.

We can’t even begin to imagine the suffering that they are going through right now.

We sit here in our church, thousands of kilometres away, and we feel powerless.

We feel that there is little we can do to help them.

So, this morning, we would like to ask you that you may intervene.

That you may be the one helping them.

Please use all of those who are working on the field in the best possible way to diminish the pain and suffering the people are going through right now.

Please keep them safe from possible replicas.

Please use the ADRA volunteers to bring a glimmer of hope to those in pain.

And please allow the people in those countries to overcome this situation as best as they can and as quickly as they can.

We pray for all of this

In Jesus’s name

Amen

The title of today’s sermon is: “” and it is based on the text of Luke, chapter four (4), verses sixteen (16) to thirty (30). So, I would like to invite you to open your Bible texts, wherever you may have them, and follow the reading.

Tekst

Luke four (4), sixteen (16) to thirty (30). The text says the following:

16 Zatim je otišao u Nazaret, grad u kojem je odrastao. Na šabat je, kao i uvijek, otišao u sinagogu i ustao kako bi čitao. 17 Pružili su mu svitak proroka Izaije. Odmotao ga je i našao mjesto gdje piše:

18 »Na meni je Gospodinov Duh.

Ovlastio me da kažem Radosnu vijest siromašnima.

Poslao me da objavim slobodu zarobljenima

i povratak vida slijepima.

Poslao me da oslobodim potlačene i

19 da proglasim godinu milosti Gospodinove.«

20 Zatim je smotao svitak, vratio ga poslužitelju sinagoge i sjeo, a oči svih prisutnih bile su uperene u njega. 21 Rekao im je: »Danas su se ispunile ove riječi, koje ste čuli svojim ušima.«

22 Svi su govorili sve najbolje o njemu i bili su zadivljeni ljepotom riječi koje su izlazile iz njegovih usta. Govorili su: »Nije li to Josipov sin?«

23 A on im je rekao: »Naravno, sada ćete mi navesti onu uzrečicu: ‘Doktore, izliječi samoga sebe!’ Sve što smo čuli da si učinio u Kafarnaumu, učini i ovdje, u svom gradu!« 24 Potom je dodao: »Istinu vam kažem, ni jedan prorok nije prihvaćen u svom zavičaju. 25 Istina je i ovo: u Ilijino vrijeme, kada tri godine i šest mjeseci nije bilo kiše i cijelom je zemljom zavladala velika glad, bilo je mnogo udovica u Izraelu. 26 No Ilija nije bio poslan ni jednoj od njih, već jednoj udovici iz Sarfate, u sidonskom kraju. 27 A u vrijeme proroka Elizeja bilo je mnogo gubavaca u Izraelu, ali nije bio iscijeljen ni jedan od njih, nego Naaman iz Sirije.«

28 Čim su to čuli, svi su se prisutni u sinagogi razbjesnjeli. 29 Ustali su, izbacili ga iz grada i odveli na rub brda na kojem je bio sagrađen grad. Htjeli su ga baciti s litice, 30 ali on je prošao između njih i otišao svojim putem.

Propovijed

Did you ever watch The Lion King? For those of you who didn’t, The Lion King is an animation movie about a young lion and his struggle to step into his father’s shoes and become the king of the jungle. It’s one of the best Disney movies ever, and it’s still today the traditional animation movie that has generated the most amount of money in History. In my opinion, it’s one of the most captivating stories ever. And to show you how captivating it is, I would like to show you a video this morning, that I’ll ask the media team to play on the projector now.

So, just in case you didn’t understand it, that was a video of our dog, Nola, sitting on the sofa, and watching the new digital animation version of The Lion King. The story is apparently so captivating that even a dog watches it.

Of course I’m kidding here. But I do think think the story is quite captivating. I remember when I watched it for the first time in my life. The movie had just come out in a video-cassette format, and my parents bought it for me and my brother. That first week after they bought the video, I watched it around thirty (30) times. I am not exaggerating. I was just completely fascinated by the movie.

And the question is: why is The Lion King such a fascinating story? Some people would probably tell you that it has something to do with the songs. Other people would probably tell you that it is so fascinating because of the cartoons. For Nola, probably this is a very fascinating story because it involves big cats being displayed on a big screen. But I personally think that the biggest reason why this story is so captivating is because it is a story about life purpose.

It’s a story about this small lion called Simba who was destined to be the new king. There is a scene in which we find the still young Simba, lying on the floor of the desert, completely defeated and close to death. And it takes a very very long time for Simba’s friends to help him heal from the trauma and for other friends to convince him that he needs to go back to his homeland and fulfil his life purpose.

So yeah, for me, the reason why The Lion King is so captivating for us is because it is a story about life purpose. And we humans always love a good story about life purpose.

-x-

The story we read a few minutes ago from Luke, chapter four (4), verses sixteen (16) to thirty (30) is also, at its core, a story about life purpose. And I will explain why a bit later. But let me start by saying this: this is a bit of a weird story, isn’t it? Jesus is in the synagogue in his home town of Nazareth on a certain Saturday, he gets up, takes the scroll of Isaiah, reads from the text, puts the scroll back, sits down and then says: “this has come true in your midst right now.” And the other people in the Synagogue apparently are like: “Yeah, Jesus!” And then Jesus continues speaking, and the people all of the sudden are like: “kill him!” It’s so strange, isn’t it? I mean, what is happening here? How can the mood of the crowd change so starkly and so quickly?

Theologians have proposed a couple of possible explanations about why this happened the way it did. The first one is that, in this story, we are dealing with the issue of Jesus’s own identity. That basically Jesus was saying here: “I’m not just a simple human, I am more than that. I am somehow divine.” And that the people of Nazareth — his home town — the people who knew his parents and had seen Jesus grow up, got upset at him because they thought that this ordinary man was trying to take the place of God. They considered a statement like this to be blasphemy.

While this may be the case, I think it’s a bit of a forced explanation. Unlike other theologians, I don’t necessarily see anything here that amounts to a possible blasphemous statement of identity. So, I am not sure that this explains the reason why the crowd reacted the way they did on that day.

The other explanation, which makes a bit more sense to me, is that the problem was not related to his identity but was instead related to his calling. Or, to be more precise, the way he presented his calling before the other people. You see, at the beginning of chapter four (4) of Luke, Jesus had started his ministry in Galilee. And, as we can read in verses fourteen (14) and fifteen, “Isus se vratio u Galileju pun sile Duha, a vijest o njemu proširila se po cijelom kraju. Počeo je poučavati u sinagogama i svi su ga slavili.” In other words, at the very beginning of his ministry, Jesus got really famous. Not only did he get famous, but he was received very well by all people.

So, that day in the synagogue in Nazareth must have felt like the return of a local hero. The people who had seen Jesus grow up knew that he had become famous. And now, here he was. The local boy. The local hero. They probably thought that he had come back to settle back in his hometown. That he would do amongst them all of those great things that he had done somewhere else, and that he would work for them from now onwards.

Initially, that seemed to be the case. Jesus had taken the scroll of Isaiah and read precisely on the part that spoke about all of those great miracles. And then he had said: “This has come true in your midst.” But then Jesus mentioned the widow of Sarfata and Naaman, and then they understood what he meant.

What Jesus was really saying by mentioning the names of those two famous Gentiles was basically: “Sorry, guys, but I am not gonna stay here in Nazareth doing the same kind of things you heard I did elsewhere. Sorry, guys, but my calling is not to minister to those who already belong to our people. Sorry, guys, I need to go and minister to those you like the least. To those who are foreigners and Gentiles. To those who are social outcasts.” In other words, what Jesus is saying here is: “My purpose in life is not to stay in my hometown and work for you guys. No! My purpose in life is to minister to those throughout the whole country who you wouldn’t like me to minister to.”

I think this is precisely the reason why the tone of the crowd changed so much and so quickly on that day in the Synagogue. Jesus had a clear purpose for his life. But his purpose clashed with their desires. They wanted him to stay but he needed to go. They wanted him to work for them, but he had been called to work for those who they despised the most.

And that is the reason why they reacted the way they did. That is the reason why they so quickly went from “Yeah, Jesus” to “Kill him.”

-x-

Now, I don’t know if you ever went through something similar in your life, but I did.

Do you know that there was a period of my life in which I thought I wanted to become a doctor? I didn’t? Well…my dad is a doctor and, for many years, he openly said that he wanted both me and my brother to becomes doctors too. And so, he kept on pressuring us and, at first, we both seemed to want to become doctors too. My dad tried to encourage us as much as possible. He talked about building a clinic we would then be able to lead after he got retired. He payed for me to study Spanish because getting into medical school in Spain was easier than getting to medical school in Portugal. And he even took me to watch a surgery in the operating room.

Funny enough, that surgery was a big part of the reason why I stopped wanting to become a doctor. Seeing all that blood and the instruments, etc. That wasn’t for me. And all of this was happening at the same time that I started feeling the call to become a pastor.

As you can imagine, my dad wasn’t very happy with the news. For me, it was quite clear, from a certain point in my life, that my life purpose was not to become a doctor, but to become a pastor. But my dad had a strong desire for me to become a doctor. And, for a while, there was a clash. His need against my purpose. It got to the point he told me that he would never support me financially in my Theology studies.

Nowadays, we are good, and he is actually is quite proud that I became who I became. But for a while I really had to struggle in order to get his support and be able to go and study Theology. All of this because he was putting his needs in front of my life purpose.

But, despite the challenges, there is one thing I learned from this experience: the God who created us and who puts in purpose in our life is also the God who helps us overcome all challenges to achieve that purpose.

-x-

My friends, I don’t know exactly where you are right now. Maybe, just like Simba in The Lion King, you are feeling that you lost your life purpose. Or, alternatively, that you haven’t find it yet. Maybe you are facing the same of type of resistance in your attempt to fulfil your life purpose as Jesus felt on that day in the Synagogue in Nazareth. Or maybe, just like Jesus, you know exactly what your life purpose is and what you need to do in order to achieve it.

Whatever situation you are in right now, I want to encourage you. Our God is not only the God who created us, but he is also the God who gave you, or who can give you, a life purpose. He is the God that is willing to fight by your side in order for you to overcome all challenges. He is the God who is willing to help you fulfil the life purpose he has placed in your heart. So, wherever you are right now, may you always place your trust in him. And, by doing so, may you also turn your own story into a very captivating story about how you fulfilled the life purpose that God has given you. This is my wish and prayer for all of us today. Amen.

Molitva

Dear God,

Thank you for being the God who places a purpose in our lives.

Today we want to ask you that you may intervene in each of our stories.

If we are still struggling to find our life purpose, may you help us find it.

If we already know what our life purpose is but we are facing challenges in our attempt to fulfil it, may you help us overcome those challenges.

If we already feel like we have a life purpose, may you help us fulfil it in the best possible way.

And, by doing so, may we always be able to touch the lives of those around us.

Not for our own honour or glory,

But for your honour and glory.

We pray for all of this

In the name of Jesus

Amen.