If God can, will you?

Introduction

Introduce Self

Dismiss children

Finishing out our missions month with a final message in the series “Who’s your one?” It’s my desire for you to see the personal nature of missions through this 2 week series and today I hope this passage will help you to stop making excuses to not be missional in your life and walk away with a renewed spirit and vitality for sharing the gospel message with those around you.

Character: Someone with an aimless life

Last weekend I travelled up to Maine for the first time. Evan and I go to go up there and enjoy some time away to attend a wedding. I have heard a number of things from people in Connecticut about the people of Maine.

I honestly didn’t know what to expect. What I found those was an area and what appeared to be a people group that remind me of the place and people I grew up around in the South. Wide open spaces, slower pace, kind and friendly, and cautious drivers....that is not something I experience in Connecticut.

While driving to the wedding I was driving like I always do, by faith, and as I was coming up on a car on this 2 lane road they put their signal on. I noticed they were getting over to the right and I assumed they were goinn to a house there. So I did what every other red blooded American would do and passed on their left.

I then look in my rear view mirror to discover that they were not stopping, they were just letting me pass them.

I haven’t had someonne pull over to the side to just let me get by them in a long time.

It reminded me of what we called “Sunday drivers” in TN. Ever been behind one of those? Someone who is just driving aimlessly and enjoying the ride more than they are trying to get to a destination?

That’s not a bad thing. Many of us, including myself, could probably use a Sunday drive more often.

A purposeless time on the road enjoyinng the company and scenery around you.

Sounds like this new trend Gen Z discovered. Have you heard about this? Craig shared it on facebook. It’s called, silent walking.

It’s truly a novel idea. They go outside for a walk and while they are walking around they don’t have their ear buds in. Acccording to the news report their hve ben young people speakingn to how life changing this is...

The purposeless time on the road isn’t a bad thing. A purposeless time with friends to enjoy life, who God has given you, and what God has given you isn’t a bad thing.

However, we can’t life our lives in this constant state.

I read an article reccently that read

Having a purpose in life means having a sense of direction and meaning. It means knowing what you want to achieve and why it matters. Research has shown that people who have a sense of purpose are happier, more resilient, and more successful than those who don't. They are also more likely to contribute positively to society and the environment.

One study found that people who identified a clear purpose in life had a lower risk of developing Alzheimer's disease, even with other risk factors such as a family history of the disease. Another study found that people who had a sense of purpose were less likely to die prematurely than those who didn't.

(please place this link in nucleus notes)

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/importance-having-purpose-life-organizations-dr-glenn-hole-ph-d#:~:text=It%20means%20knowing%20what%20you,to%20society%20and%20the%20environment.

As followers of Jesus we don’t define our own purpose though, He does.

Proverbs 19:21 “There are many devices in a man’s heart; Nevertheless the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand.”

It’s in living out His purpose for our life we find fruitfulness and fulfilmnet.

‘I was teaching our next steps seminar last week and said that most people I speak to who walk away from God didn’t walk away from the God of the Bible. They walked away from people, they walked away from someone trying to impose their purpose and walk with God on them when their journey was different.

It’s when we know God and we live from the purpose He has we have the impact He desires for us to have

Problem: An unknown or unlived purpose

Many belivers dont’ know their purpose or they have generalized it. They find their purpose in their church rather than living ou their purpose through their church.

You can’t find your purpose in your serving, becuase of your purpose you serve.

You can’t find your purpose by living like someone else here on earth. You find your purpose by being with and living like Jesus.

If we don’t know our purpose though, we will just be going through life on a Sunday drive. God didn’t plan a Sunday drive for you. He planned a life of adventure.

When I teach on communication and preaching, I tell leaders “You want to take them on a journey, not an adventure.” A journey is a walk through the forest down a path whrer you can show them where they are going, they understand it, and follow you along the path to an expected end with minimal twists and turns.

An adventure is mroe like watching the Lord of the Rings or the Hobbit. Stuff popping out of no where. Changing character viewpoints and an emottional roller coaster.

While there may be a time and place, it’s not the bet way to communicate everything. But it can be a reflection of our life.

A phone call, text, email, conversation, car wreck, really every day is an adventure and something can change at any point.

What keeps us going though? Purpose.

When we don’t know our purpose, we can be tossed to and fro, we can find oursevelves aimless and tthat will lead to a lot of the problems we see people face today.

Agitated: Depression, Anxiety, Worthlessness, negative impact on those around you

Depression from feeling worthless and not needed. Maybe even like a failure. When you don’tt now where you are going you will envere get there and wheny ou don’t know why you are going it’s even to give up when the adventure happens.

Anxiety can flare up because there is no standrd guiding you and there is nothing keeping you going.

The people around yyou will be negatively impact by all of this which can often has it’s roots in you not knowing or not living out who God made you to be.

Impacting the world around you starts with allowing yourself to be impacted by the God inside you.

Solution: Determine Purpose and live it

If purpose is that important then what should we do?

Find our purpose and live it.

The purpose of a follower of Jesus is to live with and like Jesus.

Knowing that to be true then we should find what Jesus’ purpose was:

Luke 19:10 “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

Jesus sums it all up here in Luke. Everything He did…teaching, healing, preaching, traveling, serving, loving, was all so that that which was lost may be found and return to the Savior.

Guide: Jesus, His Word, our church

This is where Having a personal relationship with Jesus comes in. Finding purpose from Christ starts with knowing Christ. It starts with having faith in Him for salvation, continues with learning more about who He is according to His Word, and then living from the identity He gives you and not for anyones identity.

This doesn’t happen alone either. The command we have been given to impact the world for Christ is to great to be accomplished alone. It must be done through the local assembly God has given you.

And it’s not just to get you involved in outreach programs or efforts. It’s to support you as you are on this adventure of life. To have hard conversations, to love on you, and care for you as you seek to live out the purpose God has for you.

Church does not give you identity and purpose, it is the community God has given you to live out your identity and purpose.

And not only church but your job, your family, and your friendship circle. That’s where the men in our text are living out their mission. With their friend.

Journey: Living and impacting those around you by living out your purpose

In Luke 5 we encounter Jesus teaching in a home and some men that knew their purpose

Luke 5:17–18 “17 And it came to pass on a certain day, as he was teaching, that there were Pharisees and doctors of the law sitting by, which were come out of every town of Galilee, and Judaea, and Jerusalem: and the power of the Lord was present to heal them. 18 And, behold, men brought in a bed a man which was taken with a palsy: and they sought means to bring him in, and to lay him before him.”

Jesus is in this home and teching the religious elitte of the day. They have filled this home and on the outside trying to get in are some men with a friend who needs to be healed.

They knew their purpose was to bring their broken friend to the one who could heal him. The only one that could solve his problem. They knew their purpose and they decided to live it out.

Why? Just knowing your purpose doesn’t mean you’ll live it out.

If I know that my purpose is to be a professional football player. I have to choose to go to the gym, workou on the field, go to practice, execute in a game.

Why?

Because I don’t only know my purpose, I believe that it can happen.

Have you ever heard the term limiting belief?

A limiting belief is something that you believe is true that keeps you from living out or accomplishing your purpose.

If I believe my purpose is to play professional football but I believe becuase I’m 5’8 I can’t do that, then because of ym limiting belief I will not puruse my professional football career.

Do you have any limiting beliefs that are keeping you from living out the purpose God hs called you to? God has called every person that believed in Jesus to share the message of the gospel.

Just as these men had a sick and broken friend, you know someone or can easily interact with someone on a daily basis that is sick and broken with sin. They need the same person this man did…Jesus.

And you are in their life to deliver that message.

I mean…why wouldn’t you share Jesus with someone? Eternal salvation, Hope during hopeless times, comfort and peace that pass understanding…Why wouldn’t you want them to have that.

I’m sure you do. Anyone would. That’s not limiting you from sharing the message of the gospel.

Is it becuase you don’t believe Jesus can save them? He saved you. What makes them different? You don’t thinkn your better than them right? So tthat’s not a limiting belief.

Ah, I think I got it. You don’t think they’ll listen. You don’t think they’ll accept the gospel becuase your not good enough at sharing it. You don’t have all the bible anwers. You don’t think they will like you if you decide to live on mission and make Jesus apart of your conversations? Is that it?

Your mission is not to save the lost, that was Jesus’. Your mission is to ttell them about Him. The Holy Spirit will do the work and they will have to respond. Your mission is to go and tell.

The mission of these men was to bring him to Jesus becuase they believed He would see them. They believed, that Jesus would heal him.

And during their journey to get in the door to Jesus…they encoutnered obstacles

Luke 5:19 “19 And when they could not find by what way they might bring him in because of the multitude, they went upon the housetop, and let him down through the tiling with his couch into the midst before Jesus.”

I don’t know if you have figured it out or not, you will encounter obstacles in your life as you live with and follow Jesus.

You will encounter obstacles as you seek to be loving to people. They will be unloving. You will face obstacles as you seek to share Jesus, they will be unkind. You will face obstacles as you push against the culture that opposes the biblical worldview and way of life. That has been happening since the beginning.

The question is what do you do when those challenges come? I love coaching. I love coaching sport, I love coaching leaders, I love coaching people to help them go to the next level God has for them in life. It’s a wonderful thing.

Yesterday I was on the field with our little league team and a young man was playing second base. We got down by a few runs and our pitcher was having trouble dialing it in.

He then stops getting ready on the wind up like we had taught him. A runner takes off from 1st to second and he doesn’t move.

He was focused on winning the game and then when the challenges came he did what some of us could do.

give up. Stop praying. Stop getting ready for when opportunity comes.

Stop sharing the gospel entirely becuase one person didn’t listen. Stop talking about Jesus becuase some people may be upset.

You know what happened to that young man that stopped getting ready, who stopped putting in the effort when things got tough. ? He had a ball hit to him and he missed it.

If you give up just becuase life, people, or the circumstancces you face seem impossible for you t be able to witness for Christ, you will miss the divine opportunity God will place before you.

When you are living with and for Jesus. When you are sharing the good news. When you expcct God to work. When you push through the obstacles, you will see excciting results.

Luke 5:20–26 “20 And when he saw their faith, he said unto him, Man, thy sins are forgiven thee. 21 And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, Who is this which speaketh blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone? 22 But when Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answering said unto them, What reason ye in your hearts? 23 Whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Rise up and walk? 24 But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power upon earth to forgive sins, (he said unto the sick of the palsy,) I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy couch, and go into thine house. 25 And immediately he rose up before them, and took up that whereon he lay, and departed to his own house, glorifying God. 26 And they were all amazed, and they glorified God, and were filled with fear, saying, We have seen strange things to day.”

Did you hear that?

He not only got His sins forgiven, He got the ability to walk back. I’m not telling you that if yoyu trust in Jesus as your Savior your physical ailments will go away. What I do want oyu to understand is that following Jesus, especially in our culture, not only ensures your sins are forgiven but I believe tthat if you live your life according to scripture you will find other problems you have begin to either not bother you becuase you are dying to yourself, loving others, and not being selfish person that makes your life and your Christianity all about you.

It’s so sad when followers of Jesus make things about themselves and not others. This happened in a very public way recently.

Ever heard of the tattoo artist Kat Von D.?

She was into the occult, tattoos all over her body of things that aren’t very Christianesque.

She got saved recently and shared her baptism video. People mocked her. Not just people. Christians…Christians mocked her.

Becuase she didn’t look like them. Becuase of the life she had lived before Christ.

She’s now blacking out the tattoos on her body that no longer align with who she is in Christ.

Christian and non-Cchristians are mocking her for it.

Here’s my questtion…when did her walk with Jesus beccome part of their business?

That’s selfish Chrsitianity. Selfish Cchristianity looks at the paralytic and says “I can’t get you to Jesus through the front door like I want to so Im’ not going to do anything to get you to Jesus.”

The Selfish Christian says “This i a job for the person in full time ministry, isn’t that what they are paid for?”

The selfish Christian says “Someone else can help get him there because I’ve got too much going on.” I wonder if these men had busy schedules? Wives at home? Kids around?

I wonder if they had jobs? I wonder if they had other plans to get him to Jesus?

What if they hadn’t sacrificed their own will to the will o the Father? They would not have been apart of what Jesus was going to do.

Instead they knew their purpose, they surrendered their will, and in doing so became apart of this mans story in a great way.

Resolution: Lives changed, personal satisfaction

It’s hard to be depressed when your being used by God. It’s hard to be angry when God is using you to impact lives. It’s hard to be selfish when your being selfless.

When you live out what God made you for, you will see lives changed…not because of you but because of Jesus in and through you.

Who do you know right now that coudl use some encouragement? That you could personally share your story of following Jesus with that would encourage them? That could see them come to know Jesus as their saavcior.

Remember misions is personal and you have a personal mission from Jesus to reach people with he message of the gospel. Will you?

Impact: Negative: Aimless life, unfulfilled Positive: Renewed spirit, vitality, and lives changed

You can continue relegating your faithfulness to Jesus to someone else. You cn continue looking to me, our staff, our missionaries, nd others to obediently following Jesus in not only sharing the gospel but in connecting with people in the local church and discipling them. You can do that. You will face battles of stress, anger,anxiety, and frustration because you will be living as a selfish Chrristian. You’ll findd yourself talking behind peoples backs about them rather than coming alongside them. And that doesn’t work. Beccause God chastises those he loves and he loves you.

Or, you can choose to live out your purpose in Christ. You can choose to expct God to do great things even if there are obstacles like a these men faced. Even if it doesn’t look the way you think it should, like going through the roof instead of the door.

becuase when you choose to surrender your self to your Savior, supernatural things happen that will excite you.

Time of Response