Perspective & Purpose
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You only have one life.
What is it for exactly?
Or we could ask, What is the point of life?
How do we know that we are not wasting our life?
These are a few of my questions and fears
Today we will seek to answer this question through the lens of the Bible.
What is the point to my life as a Christian?
We will answer this question with the help of two very familiar passages in Matthew that will give us Perspective & Purpose.
I believe these two passages of scripture are a summary of the Christian life.
Perspective
Perspective
When I was younger, I would wander around aimlessly with no real goals in life outside of becoming a pro athlete or rock star.
In my mind, everything was about me.
I had built up this false reality that somehow this life was for me to make something out of myself.
This lackadaisical attitude did not lead me far in life.
As I began to get older, friends and loved ones have passed, I started a family, etc… I quickly realized that life was not all about me.
I was desparate to make something of my life, yet did not know wh
A lot of Christians are the same way, they have the wrong perspective when it comes to their faith.
Many believers have an it’s all about me mentality when it comes to Jesus.
We have the mindset that God revolves around us and our lives
When in reality, we revolve around Him.
I need to grow in m
Let’s look at a passage that I believe will lay out how simple (in theory) Christianity really is.
Let’s look at a passage
This passage will give you the proper perspective for how to navigate life.
34 But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together.
35 Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying,
36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38 This is the first and great commandment.
39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
Christianity can be boiled down to two simple commandments
Love God with all you heart, soul, and mind
Love your neighbor as yourself.
Let’s break this down a bit to understand how this will give us proper perspective.
Love God
Love God
The first and great commandment is for us to love God.
I know that you’re thinking, Mason, tell me something I don’t know.
But that’s the beautiful thing about Christianity, it’s not complicated.
Love God, it’s really that simple.
Matthew 22:
37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38 This is the first and great commandment.
Love Him with all your heart
or with your emotions
Love Him with all your soul
or with your inner self
That world for soul is a derivative of the word psyche.
Love Him with all your mind
Or with your understanding or intelligence
This means that we love God with everything that we are.
with every fiber of your being
The real question to unpack. How is a love for God developed?
How do you get to know anyone?
By spending quality time with them.
How do you get to know anyone? By spending quality time with them.
Bear with me, I promise this will all make sense in a minute, just need to connect a few dots along the way
2 as thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.
3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
Our eternal life is equated with intimately knowing and being known by God through the person of Jesus Christ.
The Bible says in that there is one mediator, or middle man, between God and men and thats Jesus.
We get to know God through Jesus.
In we see Jesus portrayed as the very Word of God.
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Skip down to verse 14
14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
Now, let’s connect a few dots.
Jesus tells us in that we are to love God with everything we’ve got.
We know that if we want to love God with everything we’ve got, then we need to spend time with Him.
Spending time with God is accomplished through the mediator between God and men, the man Jesus.
Jesus is the Word of God as seen in
Therefore, we can conclude if we are to love God with all of our heart, soul, and mind, then we need to spend time with Jesus in the Word of God.
When you begin to daily seek out the Lord, something amazing happens.
You start to grow in faith and love towards God.
17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Wanna grow in faith, then listen to the word of God.
One final note on loving God, ask God for a supernatural love for Him.
He will answer that prayer 100% of the time.
7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
8 for every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth: and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
9 Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?
10 Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?
11 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?
7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
8 for every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth: and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
9 Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?
10 Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?
Matthew 7:7-8
Jesus repeats the same statement twice. He means what He is saying.
Something really cool starts to happen when we love God with everything we’ve God.
Love People
Love People
Something really cool starts to happen when we love God with everything we’ve God.
We begin to develop a love for the things He loves.
Can anyone guess what He loves above anything and everything else?
People.
39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
In like manner to loving God, we are to love people.
God loved people so much that He sent His Son Jesus to die for us.
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
People are of eternal value to God.
People are of eternal value to God.
Loving people is incredibly hard for me. It is not natural for me to love people that do not also love me.
It is important to not the order of the commands, first we love God, in like manner we love people.
It is a natural progression, as we grow in love for God we will grow in love for the things He loves.
This is can been seen through relationship with friends or spouses.
When I met my wife I did not know her in the slightest.
As we spent more time together, we got more comfortable around each other and our love for one another began to grow.
We enjoyed the same type of food.
We started liking the same kind of music.
We had our own inside jokes that no one else finds funny.
Now we know each other inside and out.
Through spending so much time together we are extremely similar in a lot of areas.
I think we can all relate to this, the more time we spend with someone the more we become like them.
This is no different with our relationship with God.
As we follow Jesus we will naturally develop a heart for the things God loves.
Is there a place to fit in
This leads us to our next point, this is where a biblical Perspective on life gives you immense Purpose.
Purpose
Purpose
Question:
Why did God not take us out of here after we got saved?
because you were saved for more than just going to heaven.
Remember it’s not all about you.
gives us the answer.
18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
20 teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
We become Jesus’ representatives to the lost world.
Jesus commissions his followers to Go, Reach, & Teach.
This is where God’s heart for people is revealed.
God loves people so much that he chooses to use us to accomplish His mission of redemption.
I mean, what better way to reach a lost and dying world than to send the very people that needed salvation to the lost.
He sends the very people that needed salvation to the lost.
The power of God is on full display when He delivers a sinner from themselves.
And so it goes like this, we love God with everything we’ve got, in turn we develop a love for the things He loves, namely people. As a result, He sends us into the world to demonstrate our love for them through going, reaching, and teaching.
Before we jump too far into unpacking the mission, let’s first observe the key to the whole command.
18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
Jesus has all the power
20 teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
and He’s always with us.
Jesus makes it very clear that all we are to carry out this mission in His power knowing that He’s always with us.
This is a game changer
All pressure is off me
There’s no way I can screw it up because I’m going in His power.
The enemy wants you to believe that you are responsible for saving people and thats simply not true.
All that is asked of us is to Go, Reach, & Teach.
Go
Go
This would imply that you will have to move in another direction.
19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
Go as a result of the power of God in your life
He tells us to go. This would imply that you will have to move.
You cannot go and stay at the same time.
It is impossible to accomplish the mission on your couch… Unfortunately.
It is impossible to accomplish the mission behind a computer screen.
You get the picture...
Jesus tells us to go, therefore we go.
For some of us that means we go over to our coworkers desk at break time
For some of us that means we are going to move out of state
For some this means we are going to move overseas.
Going looks different for everyone
Just know that it impossible to accomplish the mission without going.
We go with a specific purpose, to teach them of Jesus and reach them for the sake of the gospel.
Look at
Reach
Reach
Now that we have gone, we share a very specific message.
The gospel of Jesus Christ.
The good news of salvation
18 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;
19 to wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
20 Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.
We have been given the ministry of reconciliation
or sharing the message of Jesus bringing us back into relationship with God
through His death burial and resurrection.
As we reach them with the gospel, if they receive it we are to baptize them into the godhead.
Matthew
19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
We are to immerse them in the fullness of the godhead.
T
Their baptism is a public proclamation that they now fully identify as a child of God.
Side point, the gospel of Jesus is for ALL people groups. It is not inclusive. It knows no boundaries, it is cross cultural, multi ethic.
There is no room for racial or cultural divide in God’s kingdom.
This is where a lot of people choose to stop, we’ve seen salvation and we think the job is over.
Not the case in the slightest.
the final element of the mission is crucial.
Teach
Teach
After we effectively reach someone for Christ, now we teach them how to follow Jesus.
20 teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
This is imperative.
Without discipleship spiritual growth will stagnate.
1 There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews:
2 the same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.
3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
4 Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?
5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
John 3:
Jesus equates the spiritual conversion to a new birth.
When you get saved you started the spiritual life as a baby Christian.
Just like with literal babies, you need someone to show you the basic necessities of the Christian life.
Example of Luka.
If we are not discipling baby Christians, there is a good chance their growth will be stunted.
If you have not been discipled, I strongly encourage you to consider it.
It is the backbone of this church.
I would not be up here today if it weren’t for the investment Tony made in my life when I was a baby Christian.
Discipleship is doing life together through the direction of God’s Word so that the disciple can get to a place where they become the discipler.
2 And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.
2 And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.
Paul discipled Timothy, who is to disciple faithful men, who are to disciple others also.
While this task of reaching the world may seem impossible, remember, we are going in the power of Christ with a supernatural love for these people.
As you follow Jesus this becomes who you are as opposed to what you do.
In closing:
I pray that you have the proper Perspective of what your Purpose is in this life.
To love God with everything in you, and love others by Going, Reaching, and Teaching.
Or by fulfilling the great commandment and great commission