True Purpose (Lucas Reutebach, 10/12/24)

Happy Sabbath, everyone.

I need one of those little wireless mics.

I've got a question for everyone.

We got one of those.

Maybe somebody wants to pass it around for me.

Anybody like to volunteer to pass this around?

My question today for everyone here before we begin is what is the meaning of life?

That's a tough one, huh?

But if we have any brave volunteers, I'd like to maybe hear what some of you all might have

to say about that.

Meaning of life.

Anyone?

We got someone over here, someone over there.

Sure this is working.

Yep.

Okay, see.

I saw something the other day, read something that really resonated with me.

I was created for a purpose, and that purpose is to serve others.

Amen.

I like that.

It's really good.

We also, I think we had one over back here.

So serving others.

I like that.

It's really good.

As a Christian, I believe that my purpose is to serve God and to lead others to him.

Amen.

That's really good.

Maybe one more before we end, over here.

How many of us know what this model of the Salvation Army is?

I'm not sure.

Others.

Others.

Amen.

So I'm hearing service, serving Jesus, getting to know God, a focus on others.

These are all really good answers.

So this big question, right, what is the meaning of life?

We're not the only ones asking this question.

A lot of people in the world are asking this question as well.

Back in the 70s, there was this band called Supertramp, and they were really popular.

They released this song called The Logical Song.

And basically, it's this song about trying to find your purpose and all this.

Here are some of the lyrics.

There are times when all the world's asleep, the question runs too deep for such a simple

man.

Won't you please, please tell me what we've learned?

I know it sounds absurd.

Please tell me who I am.

Now I'm bringing up this random secular song because it was top ten in the United States

and in Canada.

So for some reason, a lot of people really resonated with this idea of like, who am I?

The whole song was about existentialism, which is, you think, that's not a very common popular

thing to talk about.

But a lot of people are really trying to figure out these big questions like, why am I here?

Where did I come from?

What is my purpose in life?

Who am I?

Fortunately, as Christians, we have the answer to these questions.

But the world outside of us tends to struggle to answer these questions.

So today we're going to be exploring these questions.

Why am I here?

Why are you here?

What has God called us to do?

And that's why the title of the message is True Purpose.

So before we begin, I'd like to say a quick prayer.

Dear Lord, thank you so much for bringing us all together here, the Sabbath.

I ask that you can re-sinner us as Christians and to re-sinner us in our true purpose and

to remind us now what your word says about our true purpose as Christians.

I ask these things in Jesus' name, amen.

So to get started figuring out what our true purpose is, let's go back.

Let's lay our foundation here.

Let's go back to this Ephesians verse we read.

For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves.

It is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast.

So the very foundation of our relationship with God is in grace that we accept through

faith.

This is a free gift.

This is a free opportunity of redemption and love and connection that God has given us

freely through His grace.

This is our foundation.

And understanding this, we're going to look at some of the things Paul says in Ephesians

3.

For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus, for the sake of you Gentiles.

So he's doing something for the sake of the Gentiles, and I want to dial in on this phrase

here, for this reason.

And he's saying for this reason, he's referring to this grace that God has given us.

In Ephesians 3, too, surely you have heard about the administration of God's grace that

was given to me for you.

This key phrase here, for you.

So this grace that we're experiencing in our Christian relationship with God, it's not

just for us to keep to ourselves.

God has also given this grace, this graceful relationship as He's made stewards of us.

He wants us to share this grace with other people, which leads into our first purpose.

This purpose number one, working for the salvation of others.

And a great way to work for the salvation of others is to be a steward of the grace

that God has given you.

He makes us stewards of His grace so we can pass it on to others.

Jesus came in contact with people in the Bible about 132 times, but only six were in the

temple and only four were in the synagogues, and 122 were with the people in the mainstream

of life.

And this kind of ties back into the message that the pastor preached last weekend about

us being fishers of men, but sometimes we get into this group where we're always fishing

in the aquarium, we're always fishing amongst ourselves, and never really wanting to get

our hands dirty and wanting to get out in the world and catch a catfish or two.

See when I was a little kid, me and my siblings, the only thing we ever wanted to do all day

was just play video games and watch TV.

And my parents were trying to figure out a way to get us to go outside more and to do

our homework and to be responsible.

So they came up with this bright idea called funny money.

Now parents don't get any bright ideas, but this is how funny money worked.

Funny money was this imaginary currency that my parents came up with.

And in order to earn funny money, you had to do responsible things.

You had to do your homework, you could go outside and play.

Anything that did not involve a screen, if you did that, you could earn funny money.

But you needed funny money if you wanted to do anything that involved a screen, computers,

video games, TVs, you had to spend funny money.

Okay, well let me tell you, we were rolling in the funny money.

I mean, we were filthy, stinking rich when it came to funny money.

We did all the chores, we did all the homework.

We had so much of it.

But the problem was is we were bored all the time because we never spent our funny money.

We were afraid to lose it, we hoarded it because we didn't want to have to do more chores to

get more of it.

But the problem with that was we never actually reap the benefits of all that funny money

we had.

And I think we can apply the same principle to our relationship where we are just so rich

in the grace of God, we are so rich in the light and the truth and all these things that

God gives us, but we hide behind it.

And we keep it to ourselves.

And a lot of the time it's because we are scared to be in the world.

And instead of being like this image, we should be more like this where we are opening up

this grace, we are being a steward, we are sharing this grace with others and we are

not just keeping it for ourselves.

We are not keeping ourselves in a state of sadness and disappointment by hoarding all

this grace that we have out, we are sharing it with others and we are connecting people

with God.

So that's our first main purpose, working for the salvation of others by being a good

steward of the grace that God has given us.

Ephesians 3, 8 says, although I am less than the least of all the Lord's people, this grace

was given me to preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Christ.

So here we have Paul, this man is so rich in Christ, he is in the truth, he is in the

light.

But take note of the kind of language he uses here, he is calling himself less than the

least of all the Lord's God's people.

And this touches on an important point that this grace has not been given us, even to

us to make us proud or haughtier or better than others.

When it comes to working for the salvation of others and fulfilling your true purpose

and getting your hands dirty, I can tell you from personal experience that if you want

to keep someone out of the church, it's to be a self-righteous Christian or to take a

moral high ground or to act as if this richness in spirit that you have has put you in a place

above this other person.

The Bible clearly lays that out, that our grace, we should be humble with it.

When I was a kid, my dad used to wrestle with me.

And somehow I had this superhuman strength where I was able to throw him across the room

and beat him up and whenever I punched him he'd fly.

But sometimes I would get cocky and my dad would start using a little bit more strength

and all of a sudden I couldn't throw him around anymore.

It was because my dad wasn't using his full strength.

He was using just enough strength for him to be playful with me.

And as a result I actually got better at wrestling as I got older.

And as I got a little bit older and I got a little bit bigger he used a little bit more

strength as we played.

So what I'm trying to illustrate with this principle is that there has to be give and

take with our interaction.

If we're in a position of power as Christians, which we are, because we have truth, we have

understanding, we know what true purpose is, we are in a position of power whenever it

comes to people who aren't in this light.

So the last thing we want to do is force our will upon this person, not allow there to

be any give and take or any interaction where they can't grow.

There has to be play, there has to be able to be some sort of challenge that isn't too

much or too little that can enable a person to grow.

And I think whenever we're trying to fulfill our true purpose and we're working for the

salvation of others we have to be very, very intentional about not being prideful or haughty

or being forceful with the grace that we have that God has given us.

It's an important point.

So now we're moving into our second purpose, purpose two.

Now this ties into this working for the salvation of others but it's a bit more focused on prayer.

Prayer is one of the biggest purposes you can have as a Christian and one of the first

things you want to pray for people is power.

Ephesians 3.16, I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through

his spirit in your inner being so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.

I've recently been getting into a really good habit of praying for the Holy Spirit on a

daily basis but I've also come to realize that you can also pray for the Holy Spirit

for other people and you can also pray for the Holy Spirit for people who may not even

be believers to help them triumph over the sins or the struggles that they may be having

with the devil that's preventing them from having a relationship with God.

I personally didn't join the church until I was an adult and as a young adult and as

a teenager I was completely in the world and I was not interested in God at all.

I was doing all the partying and all the things a worldly person would do but in the background

I had a lot of family that was actively praying over me my whole life and I seriously doubt

I would be right here right now if it wasn't for those prayers that were being sent up

for me and I don't want to stand up here and tell you that you can pray people into

heaven but I'm going to encourage you to try because I really don't think there's any hurt

in trying.

Your prayers do make a difference and your prayers may or may not be the reason somebody

responds to God.

It's a purpose to be, tying back into prayer.

So not only are we praying for people's victory and salvation, we're also praying that they

can actually come to an understanding of who God actually is and can actually have an intimate

experience and relationship with God.

Ephesians 3 17, and I pray that you being rooted and established in love may have power

together with all the Lord's holy people to grasp how wide and how long and how deep is

the love of Christ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled

to the measure of all the fullness of God.

So you know when you're praying for people you may notice that somebody's having a serious

issue.

You may pray that they overcome this drinking addiction or whatever it may be but the do's

and don'ts and the victories and the losses really don't mean anything unless this person

is actually able to have a real connection and a real experience with God that is centered

in the fullness of God, God's love, God's grace, that wonderful amazing experience every

Christian has had in their life where they have experienced the fullness, the joy of

God and has been able to taste God and know that he's good.

So that is the second thing we want to be praying for people.

So are we working and praying for the salvation of others?

Are you fulfilling your true purpose by being a good steward of God's grace that he's given

you?

Are you fulfilling your true purpose by praying for others, by praying that they may have

victory, that they may have understanding and knowledge of the goodness of God?

Because when you're doing those things you are fulfilling your true purpose.

You are being the person that God has created you to be.

Ephesians 3 20, now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine

according to his power that is at work within us, to him be the glory in the church and

in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever.

Amen.

You guys got the answer to life's biggest questions.

You've got the answers.

And never forget that.

And never take that for granted because you have an amazing opportunity and amazing privilege

to be an instrument for God and to be a steward of his grace, to disciple people, to pray

for them and to be the best version of yourself that you can be.

And that's in Christ fulfilling your mission as a Christian.

Dear Lord, thank you so much for bringing us together for another Sabbath day.

Thank you so much for giving us an opportunity to serve you and to be a part of your will

and a part of your kingdom.

I ask that you continue to bless us with your Holy Spirit and your presence and your wisdom.

I ask that you bless the special outing that we have for Potluck and you continue to be

with all of us and all of our loved ones and to fulfill all of our silent prayer requests.

Ask these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.