What's My Purpose (Part B)

Sermon Notes – Sept 22, 2019 What’s My Purpose? (Part B) Sermon Series: Marching Orders - #2 Psalm 16:11 Rev. L. Kent Blanton Review • Last week we explored the question, “What’s our purpose as humans?” • The Scriptures teach that our most intrinsic purpose is to glorify God: • “. . . Bring my sons from far away, and my daughters from the ends of the earth—everyone who bears my name and is created for my glory. I have formed them; indeed, I have made them.” Is 43:6b-7 CSB • So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God. 1 Cor 10:31 CSB • To glorify means to praise, to magnify, to adore, to celebrate, to proclaim, to extol. We glorify people we admire including, football quarterbacks, painters, and sweethearts • To glorify God means to feel, think, and act in ways that reflect his greatness, that make much of God, that give evidence of the supreme greatness of his attributes and the all-satisfying beauty of his manifold perfections. John Piper • We should glorify God for at least two reasons: • He is so utterly glorious. He is the absolute pinnacle of perfection, holiness, greatness, transcendence, importance, goodness, wisdom, beauty, love, and anything else you or I could think of that is true and right (Rev 4:11; 5:13). God is. (Ex 3:14) And all of God’s “is-ness” deserves and demands being glorified. • Because Jesus, God’s Son, glorified, and continues to glorify, God in everything (John 12:27-28; 17:1, 5). The driving passion of Jesus’ life was, and is, to glorify God. Questions our Purpose Raises about God • The purpose of our lives is to glorify God. But this also poses some questions: • Does God’s desire for glory mean he’s on a big ego trip? • Does God need our adulation to feel good about himself? • If so, is it right to glorify that kind of self-centered supreme being? • Quote by Jodie Sweeny, an atheist, about God being “insecure” because of his need for adulation • Why do we struggle with this idea of God desiring glory for himself? It’s because we don’t tend to like individuals that are focused on pursuing their own glory and drawing attention to themselves. • Our perception of individuals who seek their own glory is negative. Why is this? (2 reasons:) • First, because they are generally inauthentic. They live for, and seek to obtain, the compliments and affirmations of others to compensate for their own insecurities. • Conversely, we admire people who are composed, secure, and at peace with themselves rather than seeking affirmation; they feel no need to compensate for their deficiencies by seeking praise from others. • But God is not inauthentic. He has no deficiencies for which He needs to compensate. There must be some other explanation why he pursues our praise. • Second, they’re usually unloving. They have little or no awareness of the needs of others around them. • Love is not self-seeking. 1 Cor 13:5 CSB; God is love. 1 John 4:8b CSB • In light of these Scriptures, how can God seeking glory for himself be loving? The Second Part of our Purpose: Enjoying God • Westminster Shorter Catechism: The chief end of Man is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. • Scriptural support that we are meant to enjoy God: • You reveal the path of life to me; in your presence is abundant joy; at your right hand are eternal pleasures. Psalm 16:11 CSB • Rejoice in the Lord always. Phil 4:4 CSB • Take delight in the Lord. Psalm 37:4 CSB • Be glad in the Lord. Psalm 32:11 CSB • We also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received this reconciliation. Rom 5:11 CSB How does God’s desire for Glory display His Love? • God has not only created us to glorify him, but to enjoy him now and for all eternity. It’s in this second part of our purpose, enjoying God now and forever, that we find a reasonable answer to why the most loving thing that God can do for us is to seek glory or praise for himself. • Reflections about praise: When we receive a gift or are shown something excellent, beautiful, admirable, or awesome, what do we do? We praise it. • All of us praise what we admire and enjoy. Why? • Because praise is joy’s consummation. Enjoyment is incomplete without praise. • C. S. Lewis quote: • “I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment . . . It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till it is expressed. It is frustrating to have discovered a new author and not to be able to tell anyone how good he is; to come suddenly, at the turn of the road, upon some mountain valley of unexpected grandeur and then to have to keep silent because the people with you care for it no more than for a tin can in the ditch; to hear a good joke and find no one to share it with . . . Fully to enjoy is to glorify. In commanding us to glorify Him, God is inviting us to enjoy Him.” • What is Lewis saying? He is saying that the most loving thing that God could do for you and me is to give us himself and to mandate that we should glorify him. In doing so, God has made possible our highest joy and fulfillment, for it’s only as we glorify him, as we praise him, that our enjoyment of him can be made complete. • God’s desire for glory does not demonstrate that he is inauthentic or unloving. On the contrary, his desire for glory, for praise, is the highest possible expression of authenticity and love for us. Without glorifying him, without praising him, our enjoyment of him could never be consummated. We could never experience total fulfillment as human beings. • God’s desire for you is for relationship with himself and in that relationship to experience fullness of joy. The only way for that joy to be made complete is for you to praise God, to magnify him, to glorify him for the utterly glorious supreme being that he is. • God demonstrated the reality of his desire for relationship with you through the Cross. Without the cross you could not experience relationship with God. Without the cross, you could not enjoy God, now and forever. Without the cross, you could never experience the fullness of joy and total fulfillment that God in his great love desires for you. • Because of the cross, you can fulfill your purpose. You can glorify God and enjoy him forever. Application • Have you begun that journey? Have you come to the cross? Have you placed your faith and trust in Jesus and chosen to follow him as your boss and publicly professed your faith in him through baptism? If not, he is calling to you today, inviting you to vacate the throne of your life and invite him to be seated there. He is calling you to follow his Son, Jesus. • Others have begun that journey, but for some reason you have drifted away or become distracted from the narrow road called life. You’ve not been living a life that glorifies God and that experiences the fullness of joy he desires for you. • Jesus calls you back to the path of life of today. He will forgive you, cleanse you, and is ready to walk with you, again, if you will simply admit your failure and rebellion and surrender anew to his control in your life. • Others are earnestly seeking and making daily choices to glorify God. Your heavenly Father wants you to know that he is proud of you. He wants you know that he rejoices when you enjoy him. He loves you and delights for you to walk the journey of life with his Son, Jesus. He exhorts you to keep walking in obedience seeking kingdom priorities. As you do, you will experience fullness of joy and life to the max. • What’s your purpose? To glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Are you fulfilling your purpose? Are you following your marching orders? If you do, you will fulfill your destiny and experience an adventure more exhilarating than your wildest imagination could conceive.