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Intro
Good morning and Happy Father’s Day to all the men here this morning.
I say all the men because even though you may not have any biological children, there are others who are looking up to you as the example of what a man or father is supposed to be.
I know because I am one of them.
I come from a divorced home where my dad wasn’t around much, in fact he lived in Texas and we lived up North.
The last time I seen him alive was when I was around 13.
He passed on in 2001.
So I look up to the men in the church for an example of how to be a good father and man of God.
This morning I want to share a message called “Man with a Purpose”.
While this is a Father’s Day message, the ladies I believe can apply this to their lives as well.
Opening Illustration
I want to open this message with a short story that took place awhile ago.
I read of a story of a psychologist who was studying productivity.
He hired men at eight dollars an hour to cut wood in his backyard while he observed their behavior from the house.
The only requirement to be paid was that they had to cut the wood with the back side of the ax!
One fellow was banging away in the backyard, and the psychologist went away from the window for a minute to get something.
When he returned, he heard a commotion in the backyard.
The man was wildly cutting with the edge side of the ax.
The psychologist ran outside and said, “You are disqualifying yourself from getting paid.
You are using the sharp side of the ax.”
The man replied, “I don’t care if I am getting paid or not— I’ve got to see some chips fly!”
How many here today have ever felt this way before?
Where you feel as though you are just chopping away at life and not seeing any results?
Your kind of are just hitting life hoping that at some point you will make some progress, but you are not going anywhere, and you are not being fulfilled.
Today I want to talk to you about “purpose”.
Purpose is defined as - the reason for which something is done or created or for which something exists.
Each and everyone of us here this morning has a purpose.
If we do not know what that purpose is, we will not be fulfilled.
Even though we are working and filling our lives full of activities, without purpose being the driving force, the activity becomes mindless, boring, and depressing.
God & Others
So what exactly is that purpose?
What is the purpose supposed to be in my life?
Simple.
Live for God and Others.
I have found in my own life a purpose that helps me get through the mountains and valleys, through thick and thin – that purpose is to live for God and others.
When you live your life for God, the second part of this will flow from you supernaturally.
Here is something we have to get a hold of – our life is short and when we die it isn’t going to be about the date we were born or the date that we died, but what did we do with the dash in between.
How did we live out the time that God has given to us which James described as:
I read of man who lived in Mexico.
His name was Daniel Ost.
Danny, as he was known nationwide, had a huge radio audience and planted gigantic Faith, Hope, and Love Centers that seated up to five thousand in the cities of Mexico.
When Danny was buried, he had requested to be buried on a hillside in Mexico City where thousands of unmarked graves were the final resting place for the poorest of the poor.
Every day an average of fifty bodies were laid in nameless graves in that burial ground.
Danny was buried there under a large white cross, under a huge gravestone engraved with the name of his church and telephone numbers to call.
Inside the small fenced-in yard around his grave was a rack full of gospel tracts kept stocked by the church members.
At any given point in the day, you could see a crowd of mourners gathered around Danny’s grave, reading the gospel literature to be saved.
Talk about a man with purpose!
His life was so full of purpose that it even continued on after his death.
I could give you more and more examples of men who had a purpose, but I want to share with you one of the GREATEST examples – Jesus Christ
Jesus Christ Example of Purpose
Christ is the the GREATEST example of a man with purpose.
Jesus main purpose was to live for God, but also OTHERS.
Because His whole life was revolved around God, He lived for others.
His life’s purpose was to live for God and in that He reached out to OTHERS with the Gospel message.
His purpose moved Him towards His divine assignment which was to be crucified for the sins of mankind.
He wasn’t afraid or timid about it, in fact he marched ahead knowing His own life was going to be taken.
His purpose was more important than His comfort in this world.
Paul felt the same way.
Listen to the words of Paul.
Acts 20:17–24 (NASB95)
17 From Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called to him the elders of the church.
18 And when they had come to him, he said to them, “You yourselves know, from the first day that I set foot in Asia, how I was with you the whole time,
19 serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials which came upon me through the plots of the Jews;
20 how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you publicly and from house to house,
21 solemnly testifying to both Jews and Greeks of repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.
22 “And now, behold, bound by the Spirit, I am on my way to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there,
23 except that the Holy Spirit solemnly testifies to me in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions await me.
24 “But I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, so that I may finish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God.
From both Jesus and Paul, we can learn that our purpose will drive us forward into our divine assignment.
Our purpose as men, not just the men but every Christ follower, is to live for God and to live for others.
When we live for God on purpose, we will be driven to reconcile this world to Christ Jesus.
The word ministry used here in the Greek means “of those who by the command of God, proclaim and promote religion among men.”
What is that religion?
It is not a religion that we think of today.
It is not about a list of do’s and don’ts that we are to proclaim.
What we are to proclaim is RECONCILIATION to the world.
Reconciliation simply means the “restoration of DIVINE favor”.
Paul is telling us that God Himself reconciled (restored divine favor) the world through Jesus Christ, so we as men of God can go in/through Christ and reconcile the world back to God!
The relationship you cultivate and experience with Jesus becomes the lens through which you face the world each morning.
Through your relationship with Christ you will see that this is the purpose that Christ has given to you and THIS is the only PURPOSE that will fulfill your life.
You can fill your life with activity after activity and you will be left wanting more and never be satisfied.
Why?
Because that is not your purpose.
Your purpose is to act as a representative for Jesus Christ.
Purpose = Priorities
With this new found purpose, there is something else we need to understand.
Purpose is about priorities.
When you find your purpose, you need to be focused on it.
Otherwise you will disconnect from it.
Author Larry Stockhill put it this way:
“A Wi-Fi or cellular signal can easily drift in and out so that you are suddenly disconnected.
You have to recall or reconnect to your party and platform.
Similarly, without priorities and purpose, you may drift for days, months, or even years, wasting the precious moments God has given you on the earth.”
Focusing on our purpose, live for God, and live for others as men of God, should become a priority in life.
The priorities we set in our life determine the direction we will take.
We are either living our lives to please ourselves or we are living our lives to please God.
Let me illustrate this using two trees.
Tree of Self
Finish this sentence for me: “If we are not living our lives for others, then we are living our lives for…our self.”
This is the first tree…the “tree of self”.
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