Road Trip Week 1

Introduction

As most of you know by now, Elaine and I recently got married and we spent the past 6 months trying to plan a Road Trip, we have been trying to plan our honeymoon, Our first trip together as a married couple.

When we worked through where we were going and how we were going to get there, We focused in on 3 specific areas to maximize the Road Trip

1 - Purpose

We wanted to know why we were going, of course it was our honeymoon and it would be a golden opportunity to make memories, but we can make memories at Lake Eufala, so why would we go to Cancun Mexico and what was the real purpose behind our Road Trip, was it just to make memories or did it signify more?

2 - Journey

We had to figure out where we are going, how we are getting there, what we are taking, what time we would leave, what flight we would take, and so many other factors on our journey from Here to Dallas and then from the plane in Dallas to Cancun. On the Journey that we were on we had to figure out how to make it work to maximize the trip.

3 - Destination

We had to decide where we were going, without a clear destination we wouldn’t have the direction we needed to everything else planned to make the road trip possible.

Those 3 things were the inspiration for this series, because while you may not be planning your honeymoon right now, each of us were born into one of the wildest Road Trip’s we could possibly imagine and everyday whether we realize it or not we are making decisions that affect the purpose, journey, and destination of that Road Trip.

So today as we start our series, Road trip, those 3 things are exactly what we are going to try and uncover, starting tonight with Purpose, what is the Purpose of this Road Trip called life and why am I even here?

Quote On Life

Life can only be enjoyed as one acquires a true perspective of life and death and of the real purpose of life.

Spiros Zodhiates

Did you get that? That you will never be able to maximize this life if you don’t uncover the true purpose of this life.

So what is it? What is the purpose?

On an individual level there is a specific purpose for your life that God wants you to go to him to uncover. For me that was being a Pastor

When I was at a camp called super summer God revealed my calling to me of being a Pastor and a few years later I became the Youth Pastor here.

For you maybe that purpose or calling isn’t full time ministry, which is where i feel my Ultimate calling is.

Maybe it’s like what I do now, called Bi-vocational ministry which means I am a pastor and I also work another job.

Maybe your calling is something outside of the church, maybe you are called to be a coach or a farmer or in the oil industry.

There is a way that you can know your calling, I’ll tell you it just briefly, Pray to God and ask him to show you what field you can make the biggest impact for his kingdom in, think of different things that you couldn’t live without doing, and pursue it whole heartedly.

For me that was being a pastor, I prayed to God and felt him leading me that direction, when he pointed me there I realized that my natural gifts lend more toward that field and that I could make a bigger impact on his kingdom in ministry than I could in another job, I also came to the place where I realized that I couldn’t live without doing ministry. It’s my hearts passion, I work at an Air conditioning company when I am not here and I enjoy that job, it pays well enough, but if it came down between ministry and that I would 1000% of the time choose ministry, because i Can live without working there, but I can’t live without living out my calling. Then I choose to pursue it whole heartedly and allowed God to guide me in that journey.

Has God revealed your calling yet?

Is it clear?

Is it your passion?

Can you live without it?

I know many of you are still young, but it is never to early to start exploring those things, but today in our Roadtrip series I want to broaden it a bit from our specific purposes and callings and talk more about what is the purpose for the world to exist and what is the saved Christians role in that.

Read with me briefly in Isaiah 46:10-11 and grasp what God is saying about this life

Isaiah 46:10–11 CSB

10 I declare the end from the beginning, and from long ago what is not yet done, saying: my plan will take place, and I will do all my will. 11 I call a bird of prey from the east, a man for my purpose from a far country. Yes, I have spoken; so I will also bring it about. I have planned it; I will also do it.

Notice in this verse that God says essentially I have planned everything and I will finish everything, God is saying here that he is the creator of the universe and it flows through him. If you are a Christian right now take hope because God is in control of the world around us and will bring his plan to completion.

We take hope today because of what Christ did for us, we were born into this world sinful and rebellious from the ways of God, but by his love he freely sent his one and only son Jesus to die for each of us.

He sent his perfect son Jesus to die, so that we could be set free from the chains of our sin.

Jesus died on the cross and 3 days later, just as God had declared, Jesus would rise from the grave and be resurrected.

That’s why the Christian has hope today. Because he knows that God always delivers on his promises and will deliver again when he returns again someday.

The Christian has hope today because they know that Jesus is their saviour and because of him they have secured their eternity in heaven.

but listen if you don’t know that you are a saved Christian today, God being in control of the universe and bringing his plan to completion is still a very real reality.

Christ says to put our faith in him and we will be saved. The bible says that we don’t know the day nor the hour of his return and I want nothing more for you than to know that your eternity is sealed with Christ.

The universal Purpose of this life

The purpose of this life is to know God by becoming a saved believer in him and growing in your relationship with him.

For the believer, the purpose of life is also to make God known, Remember the great commission in Matthew 28:18-20

Matthew 28:18–20 CSB

18 Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

where God says to Go and make disciples.

This gospel truth that lives in our hearts was never meant to be kept to ourselves, but instead to be shared with the whole world! To be shared with your friends at school, your families at home, or anywhere you go with anyone you meet.

Conclusion

This is what I want to do today, Listen here just for a minute. If you don’t know Jesus and you are in the room today, realize you don’t know what tomorrow holds, you don’t even know what tonight holds. I want to give you just a moment to help you make sure you know the status of eternity and know without a shadow of a doubt that if somehow, someway it were all to end tomorrow you would spend eternity with Jesus your saviour!

I want to also take a moment and for those of you in the room who do know the status of your eternity, I want to ask you are you living out the second part of our purpose on earth, to make God known. We as a youth ministry have the opportunity to be the hands and feet of Jesus and share his name with a world that is hurting. The gospel is urgent. Are you sharing that urgent truth with the world?

Are you living out your purpose? Are you knowing God and making God known? If the answer to either of those questions today is no, realize it isn’t too late to get started, but with the uncertainty of tomorrow there is never a better time than now to start that journey.

Bow Heads, ask them if either of those scenarios is them that they raise their hand so we can take the next steps in that journey.

Pray