Preserved for Purpose Part 1
Preserved for Purpose • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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God Has a Plan
God Has a Plan
One of the biggest money making industries that impacts all of our lives is storage. We all strive to save our stuff. We need to save our photos, our data, our files. We want to save our valuables, our memories, our treasures, save the whales, the ozone and our planet.
So we have storage warehouses, storage sheds, mini storage, hard drive storage, thumb storage, cloud storage and even storage wars.
Why? Because we have a misplaced sense of preservation. We are willing to lose our identities, our sanity, our children, our marriages, our families, our very souls to preserve that which is not eternal.
The world around us today seems to be drowning in godless insanity. Apart from identity through the Father, insanity ensues and false identities are assumed.
But God has given you a name. The word “name” in Hebrew is shem שמ meaning standing or reputation. To be named by God (qr’ shem קרא שֵׁם) means to be summoned or called.
In the church we talk a lot about our gift or calling. We put a lot of undue pressure or condemnation on people demanding that they seek out and know their “calling”. What does that really mean?
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”
We use this verse so often to speak of ones gift or calling. And we focus on the “prophet to the nations” part. And we assume that was Jeremiah’s calling. But it wasn’t. It may have been an assignment but it wasn’t his calling or qr’ shem קרא שֵׁם.
His calling, that for which God formed him in the womb was “to be consecrated and know God”. Without these, the assignment could not be fulfilled. So sift and shift your focus.
Before you can do anything for God you must first be consecrated to intimate relationship with Him. This is your life’s purpose. There is no task or assignment God could not find another to do for Him if you refuse. But no one can take your place of intimate consecration with Him. It is for this that you have been preserved to this day.
Most of you are familiar with the story of Moses in Exodus 2. How the Israelites found themselves as slaves in the land of Egypt. The days came when there was a Pharaoh who knew not Joseph or the God of Joseph and his people. So, he declared that all the newborn males be killed. Moses’ mother places him in a basket or tevah תֵּבָה which means ark. She places him in the waters which carry him down stream. There, Pharaohs daughter pulls him from the waters. She then finds a Hebrew mother (Yocheved יוֹכֶבֶד meaning YWVH is glorified) to tend to him. Some Rabbis taught that she told Pharaoh’s daughter that his name was Moses (Moshe מֹשֶׁה - meaning “saved from the waters or brought out”).
It is interesting to note that the same pitch that was used to seal, or make water proof the ark Noah built, is the same used to water proof the Tower of Babel (to escape God’s judgment if He flooded the earth again) as well as the ark Moses was placed in. Coincidental, I think not.
You see, the story of Noah’s ark was about God’s mercy to preserve you for God’s purpose. The story of the Tower of Babel is about man trying to preserve himself for his own purpose. The story of Moses is about God preserving an entire nation of people for a calling, a consecration, a personal intimate relationship.
In Genesis, Father was building family. With Noah and Moses, Father is preserving family. With Christ, God is restoring and preserving Father’s family.
This is what the Christ said about the days of Noah:
For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.
It is interesting that there are several words for the word “preserve”:
n’str נצר to keep watch, to protect.
sh’mr שׁמר to guard
h’yh חיה to revive, recover, return to life
p’lt פלט to save, bring out, be free
For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
“Freedom” - hopsit חָפְשִׁית separateness; consecration
Throughout Scripture man tried to preserve himself. Today, men try to preserve themselves and all they hold dear. But no man can save his life until he first lays it down to the Father.
Yeshua said in Matthew 16:25
For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
You may have been outside the ark, enslaved in a mess of sin, or maybe you have been drowning in a sea of confusion or despair. But you are here. The Ha Satan may have tried to take you out or destroy you. But you are here by the grace of Adonai. And Father has preserved you. He preserved you for a call. And that call is son or daughter. That call is run to the Father and be loved. Run to the Father and be made whole again. He has preserved you for His family. You are not a spiritual orphan. You belong and you were preserved for such a time as this.
The Psalmist declares:
Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life; you stretch out your hand against the wrath of my enemies, and your right hand delivers me.
For your name’s sake, O Lord, preserve my life! In your righteousness bring my soul out of trouble!
God has always had a plan. And He has a plan even now in these days for you. Let this be your hearts cry. For Your names sake, Oh God; for Your glory preserve me all of my days; help me walk in your righteousness Oh Lord. Deliver me from the troubles in these days that I might give an answer to Your call with my whole life.