What's My Purpose

Today, we begin a new series called Created for Significance. Each of you are important for the Kingdom of God. Each of you have a ministry purpose. It is up to us to spend time in prayer to see what God is calling us to do.

My message today is called What’s My Purpose?

If you were to look up what the word significant means you would find:

Significant - Extensive or Important Enough to Merit Attention

God believes you are significant for His kingdom and the work that He needs done. God believes that you are important enough to merit attention. So, God speaks to you and He reveals His plan to you. We just have to follow that plan.

During this series we are going to be looking at 5 different parables that Jesus taught during His time here on earth. If you want to read ahead, we will be in Luke 14, 15, & 16. The first parable we will look at today is in Luke 14. If you have your Bibles go with me there.

My text this morning covers verses 1 -24. I’m not going to read all of it to you, just different parts. Take time when you get home and read it. If you are following our reading plan this chapter was actually our reading for yesterday. So please, take a moment this week and read all three chapters that we will be talking on the next few weeks.

Here in Luke’s Gospel, all 24 verses of this conversation takes place at a prominent Pharisee’s house. This means that this gentlemen was one of the rulers of the Pharisees. Jesus had been invited to his home. We don’t know why Jesus was invited, but when you read this passage it makes it seem like he was asked there so that they could frame Him for something. Luke tells us in verse one that Jesus was being carefully watched. And because it was the Sabbath, they might have been trying to catch Jesus violating their Sabbath rules.

It is at this dinner party that I believe Jesus was trying to teach the Pharisees some important lessons. I believe that it is these lessons that you need to put into practice in order to find God’s purpose for your life. If you have ever asked yourself the question, what is my purpose in this life? Then today I hope to answer that question for you. God has a purpose for each of us. Like I said a few weeks ago, if you are a business man, you were not called to be a business man just to make money. God had a higher calling for you. If you are a teacher, you are not just called to be a teacher so you can have summers off. You are called to be a teacher for a higher purpose. God is calling each of us for a higher purpose. What is your higher purpose? If you are not growing in your spiritual walk with the Lord, then you need to reevaluate your life.

So, here are four requirements for you to find your purpose in this life.

1. Your Purpose Requires You to Care About People.

Look at verses 2 - 6 again.

Luke 14:2–6 NIV

2 There in front of him was a man suffering from abnormal swelling of his body. 3 Jesus asked the Pharisees and experts in the law, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?” 4 But they remained silent. So taking hold of the man, he healed him and sent him on his way. 5 Then he asked them, “If one of you has a child or an ox that falls into a well on the Sabbath day, will you not immediately pull it out?” 6 And they had nothing to say.

One thing you need to understand about the Pharisees is they were completely devoted to the exact observance of the Jewish religion. If the law said to do something a certain way, then they did it exactly. They would even possibly go overboard to make sure that it was done a certain way.

Jesus comes along and He would push their buttons. First of all, they didn’t believe that Jesus was the coming Messiah. They thought He was an imposter. Secondly, they didn’t like the fact that Jesus would perform miracles on the Sabbath.

Jesus never broke the commandments of God, but He often offended man’s traditions that surrounded and extended the commandments of God. The commandments of God are enough, and we should never make the traditions of man—even good traditions, equal to the commandments of God. Look at what Jesus said in Mark 7:8-9

Mark 7:8–9 NIV

8 You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.” 9 And he continued, “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions!

Just because we do something that is a tradition doesn’t make it Godly. We church people get caught up in the traditions of doing certain things that they can become ungodly. That is what the Pharisees did. They let their traditions get in the way of doing the right thing.

Jesus taught them in this moment that doing the right thing is what mattered. Caring about people is the right thing. But the Pharisees didn’t want to admit that it was okay to heal a man. Or if you want to think of it this way, care about a man on the Sabbath. Jesus was showing them that we ought to care for people. Don’t let your traditions get in the way of fulfilling the purpose that God is calling you to.

2. Your Purpose Requires You to Humble Yourself

After Jesus gets no answer from the Pharisees, He moves into the fact that they were all trying to get the best seat at the table.

During Jesus’ day, the seating arrangement at a dinner showed a definite order of prestige or honor. The most honored person sat in a particular seat, the next most honored person in another seat, and so on down the line.

Jesus uses a parable of a wedding feast to teach them a lesson in humility. Jesus wasn’t just picking on the Pharisees here, but in Luke 9 he talked to His disciples about this as well.

Luke 9:46–48 NIV

46 An argument started among the disciples as to which of them would be the greatest. 47 Jesus, knowing their thoughts, took a little child and had him stand beside him. 48 Then he said to them, “Whoever welcomes this little child in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. For it is the one who is least among you all who is the greatest.”

Jesus wanted to teach them to humble themselves, even to the extent of being willing to serve the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. Jesus was encouraging the people to refocus their sights, from exalting themselves to exalting and serving others.

Jesus is calling us today to do the same. We are to humble ourselves before the Lord and seek to serve others.

If you want to find your purpose, then you must learn to humble yourself. It is not about the position that you hold, but it is about the way you conduct yourself in that position.

As you move up in a leadership position there are some rights that you lose in order to keep that position of leadership. God is wanting to take you to a higher place. He has something greater for you than you ever imagined and that requires you to learn to humble yourself in order to fulfill His purpose for you.

3. Your Purpose Requires You to Accept Everyone

Look at what Jesus said to the guests that was at the Pharisee’s house.

Luke 14:12–14 NIV

12 Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. 13 But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, 14 and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

Jesus was telling the host not to be exclusive in their invites. He was trying to teach them to do something and don’t expect something back. Friends, neighbors, and those that are well off probably would invite you back. But, extending an invitation to those that wouldn’t necessarily have the means to do it probably couldn’t invite you to their party because they wouldn’t be able to afford a party. He was teaching them to be inclusive.

When God’s people can do good, without expecting reward or repayment, they will have truly served God unselfishly. God will reward us some day in Heaven. When we include everyone, we are mirroring God’s generosity. God offers His kingdom to everyone. It seems that many of those that accept His offer are often the ones that seem to offer so little value to the world. Yet no one at God’s banquet, no matter their status or power on this earth, can possibly repay what God has done.

The last thing that Jesus was trying to teach the people at this dinner party was...

4. Your Purpose Requires You to Not Make Excuses

Jesus closes out our passage by giving them another parable. This parable is called the Parable of the Great Feast. Let’s read it one more time.

Luke 14:15–24 NIV

15 When one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, “Blessed is the one who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.” 16 Jesus replied: “A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. 17 At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ 18 “But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, ‘I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.’ 19 “Another said, ‘I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.’ 20 “Still another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t come.’ 21 “The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.’ 22 “ ‘Sir,’ the servant said, ‘what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.’ 23 “Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full. 24 I tell you, not one of those who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.’ ”

In Jesus’ example there were two invitations that were sent out. The first invitation was to let the people know about the banquet that was going to happen. They had plenty of time to make preparations. Then the second invitation was sent telling the people that the feast was now ready. This meant that originally these people had accepted the invitation. They had RSVP to the event. They had made their reservation, but when the time for the feast had come each of them began to make excuses for why they couldn’t come to the banquet.

And each of their excuses were lame. The first one said, “I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.”

Who buys land without seeing what you are buying. Yes, it is possible but highly unusual because the actual inspection would normally have been before it was bought, not afterward. At the very least, this material concern is more important than the obligation to attend the banquet. This excuse was very lame because at best they could have put off the inspection for at least one day.

The second excuse is again a financial purchase, this time it is “five yoke of oxen.” This guy had to have been a large landowner. The average farmer would own a couple of yokes at best. And again who would buy oxen without testing them out first. Most of us would never buy a new car without test driving it first.

The third excuse is more lame than the first two. He says, “I just got married, so I can’t come.” The crazy part about this excuse is that during Jesus time, marriage ceremonies lasted about a week. So, this would be known before the first invitation was accepted. It was common for such meals to be for men only, and the Torah allowed marriage to excuse a man from war. Everyone would assume that the reason was to procreate, and again this would be taken as an extremely flimsy excuse. In fact, men were not to speak of such things publicly, and this would be seen as the most brazen excuse yet. Men would scarcely talk about their wives, and to use them as an excuse like this was contemptible.

All three excuses would have come across as a rude and deliberate attempt to insult their host. The host’s forthcoming reaction would have been understandable and appropriate. Jesus is clearly portraying the Jewish reaction to this gospel invitation, with similar studied rejections and insults coming from the leaders and the crowds.

During this time a feast would take weeks to prepare. They would have to kill an animal and it would be a specific animal according to how many would be there. So, for these people to not attend would be costly for the host. So, that is why the master would send out the servant to go out to the streets and alleys and invite anyone they find.

Jesus uses a word in verse 23. He says, “Compel them to come in...”

Jesus said compel to indicate God’s desire to fill His house, and because these wanderers and outcasts needed to be convinced that they were welcome, compelled by love.

In this parable, many people turned down the invitation to the banquet because the timing was inconvenient. People today can also resist or delay responding to God’s invitation, and their excuses may sound reasonable—work duties, family responsibilities, financial needs and so forth. Nevertheless, God’s invitation is the most important event in life, no matter how inconveniently it may be timed.

God has a purpose for all of us and it is time to stop making excuses on why we will not follow his purpose for us.

For me, I make no more excuses. I want God’s purpose for me. I want to live my life the way Jesus wants me to live it. God has created me for a significant purpose. I need to follow that decision. I will follow Jesus. And I will not turn back but I will move forward and pursue His purpose for my life.