Dead Man Walking II, Living Life On Purpose

I probably need something like that, yeah, that'd be great. How's everyone doing? Good. Good, well, probably better than I am. At the end of the day, ask Pastor Dave sometime when he teaches on Sunday morning and then comes back and does the evening. I have 20 years on him, so you've got to factor that into it. But it's great to be with you, and it's great to sense the vitality of our coming before the Lord, you know. I mean, actually, we're here for Him. And that's what we're here to do. And we're here to hear from Him and hopefully to respond to His Word to us. Did you all get your outline when you came in? So that's all set? All right. I looked at this when I was handing it to him, and I said, my gosh, this is like a two-hour message. Fear not. It won't be the case tonight. But I just want to share, continuing in the series that Dave's begun out of Ephesians. So let's turn to Ephesians chapter 2. And if you're new to Kairos, you may not know that, more often than not, he teaches exegetically through books of the Bible, which is kind of a healthy way, because that sort of requires you to face what God says in His Word as it comes, rather than pick and choose the things that you want to hear, which is kind of the criticism of the way I teach on Sundays. So, you know, I'm just kind of balancing it all out for you. You get it thematically in the morning and expositionally in the evening. We're in Ephesians 2. And Dave talked at length last week about grace and the implications of grace. Isn't grace awesome? What would we be without grace? What recourse would we have to save ourselves? And how would we relate to other people without grace? And one of the verses that Dave read and jumps out at me, reading in Ephesians 2, in verse 3, All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature, and following its thoughts, desires, and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. That would not be a pleasant theme for the message tonight. And most of the time, the essence of what we talk about is the good news, which is God's redeeming grace. But friends, the fact of the matter is, outside of God, outside of His grace, outside of knowing Christ, we are, did you read what that said? Objects of wrath. And there is a huge element that's missing in our culture that does not understand our conditions outside of God. And it lays really, in my estimation, at the feet of the church. We've stopped talking about it. And of course, most of those of you who are in Christ knew that, but we don't want to tell people stuff they don't want to hear, so we don't talk about it. But the fact of the matter is, the world is in much worse condition than it knows. If you're an object of wrath, your future is bleak. It says this, God didn't leave us there. Look at verse 4. Because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions. How much did you have to do, if you do know the Lord tonight, how much did you have to do with it in terms of taking the first step? How many steps can a dead person take? The astonishing thing about this is, God's saying that we were dead, we were helpless, unable to do anything about our condition, and God reached out to us while we were yet dead in our sins. And as Mike was leading us in praise, the reason why passion is appropriate in praise is because our condition was so desperate. If you have difficulty being passionate in praise and worship, it's because you didn't realize how bad off you were before the fact. And if you get fired up just a bit during praise and worship, it's because you realize the great thing that's happened to you as a consequence of God's work in your life. That's the genesis of it all. Two things, it's not just loony people trying to create emotion. And number two, this is important, it's not just our style at North Way. People hop from church to church and say, well, that's their style. Wrong. I want to challenge people, look at what the Bible says about how God has revealed that He wants praise and worship to be offered. And then line yourself up. And if anything happens that's not in the book, then throw it out. And if what's in the book's not happening, you might want to keep looking. Are you with me on that? Important. This isn't my sermon. And if you're looking at your notes, you're in trouble. Where is he down here? Is this the tiresome part? I'm just getting a little bit warmed up, but I know I've got to keep under control. Although I was here three weeks ago and Dave went 55 minutes. I was running the clock on him. 55. Because I was late for my date with my wife. As a result, I gave him some heat about that. So I can now go officially until 10 minutes of 7, Mike. There's grace. Fear not, I promise I'm not going to do that. I just can't read this without getting a little bit stirred up. It's been by grace you've been saved, verse 6. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus. Does that sound like a done deal? Are those past tense verbs? This is one of those things, folks, we haven't quite yet experienced it all, but it's fact in the spirit. And one day, you know, when God peels back the blinders of our eyes, we're going to see this incredible thing beyond comprehension. First Corinthians chapter 2 says, It's not entered into the mind and heart of man what God has in store for those who love him. Man, you think yesterday was a neat day? 76 degrees, leaves changing, gentle breeze, sunshine. I thought it was a cool day. I have my top down, Mike. I mean, I was tooling. This is a gorgeous day. But it can't come close to what God has in store for those who love Him. And this is all part of the package that Jesus comes to bring us. Look at this. In order that in the coming ages He might show the incomparable riches of His grace expressed in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus. In other words, as we're going forward, this grace that Dave talked about last week is going to be increasingly revealed beyond what we've ever known. Possibly to other beings. Certainly it says here in ways in the coming ages that we've not known. God's going to reveal just how incredibly dramatic was His work in those of us who are His church. And then it becomes personal. For it is by grace you've been saved through faith. And this is not from yourselves. It is something you work for. What does it say? It's the gift of God. Not by works. Say that with me. Not by works. What kind of works? What kind of works that people look to traditionally to help secure their standing with God? What kind of works have people traditionally hung to, to say, I'm acceptable to God if I do this work? For example. What kind of work? Charitable act for somebody else? Missions? Helping old ladies across the street? Showing up on Sunday. How many of you grew up in a tradition where if you just went to church, you know, and maybe told the right people the wrong things you did and those kind of things, you were considered to be acceptable. And the list goes on and on. And many people strive their whole life, pathetically so in my mind, to try to come to some assurance that in the end God's going to accept them. It doesn't work that way. It's a gift of God. Not by works. So that what? No one can boast. James can't get in front of God and say, hey, you know what? I was a little bit better person than Mark. And I was a whole lot better person than Chris. I helped a lot more people across the street than Chris. No one can boast in front of God's throne and say, hey, it's because I was a good guy. I was a great guy. I'm here. Lord, you ought to be glad you got me. There was a lot of competition for my eternity. Not going to happen. No man can boast. I have a feeling, folks, and who knows how to boast better than Americans? I mean, we've made up this, you know, I'm not even like try to pretend I know how to do the shuffle and the stride, you know, and the salute and all the other stuff we do in sport. I mean, we can boast like nobody can boast. God said, there's going to be none of that in my presence. It's all a gift. Not by works. No one can boast. And here's verse 10. This is what I was assigned to talk about. For we are God's workmanship. One translation says God's handiwork. I love that because it sounds like he just, you know, he fashioned this a certain way. Created in Christ Jesus to do good works. Now, wait, I thought good works didn't count. Didn't say that, did I? What did I say? I said you can't be saved by your good works, but you've been created to do good works. And there's a huge difference. If you don't have good works flowing out of your life, and that's what we're talking about, you're going to be a frustrated person. And you're certainly be unfulfilled because you've been created for them. But the good works do not present you before God as worthy of salvation, no matter how many good works you might achieve. In fact, these good works, look at the balance of the verse. God had prepared them in advance for you to do. Is that cool? In other words, there's something waiting for you when you leave here tonight that's a good work that God's already prepared for you to do. You just have to find it. Maybe the old lady's waiting right out across the street for you to walk across, Chris. Now, what's this talking about? Well, there's so much in this one little verse that I could go on, but I'm going to condense it down and streamline a whole lot out of this thing. Because what this is about to me is about destiny and about ministry. Ministry, good works, really, that's the ministry that God's given you to do as part of the workmanship that he's created. It's the reason why you're here. I'm not going to ask you to put your hand up, but do you know why you're here? Have you found your reason for living? Do you know what God's put in you to do that you can't do without? Now, years ago in my own life, and this normally happens right around college days or shortly thereafter, when you're trying to sort out, what's my career about? And for some of you, that's still happening right now. You're 48 years old and still looking for your career. Who knows? But I know for me, I went through a huge struggle right after college. I was looking, what am I supposed to do? And I had a plan. I mean, it's always good to have a plan. I ended up going to work for the college as an assistant dean. You all figured that one out. But I had a real job. My dad was glad about that. A real job. And this was in 1969 and 1970. And anyone remember, way back in ancient history, what was going on in 1969 and 1970? It was called Vietnam. That's right. It was a very real war and it was a very scary time to be a kid. And a lot of my friends, my fraternity brothers, high school friends, had gone overseas. And I'll never forget, driving along in 1969 in the fall, after I graduated, now I had this nice job, a fishy job. And the only way that they could figure out who was going to go is they had a lottery. A national lottery. And if your draft number corresponded to one of the earlier dates that they picked out of the lottery, you knew, no question about it, you were heading over. And I was riding in a car with four guys and we were going to announce something I did on this side. I played basketball in college and so when that was over, the NBA was close called, didn't quite get in there. So I was going to do some announcing of a college game down in Richmond, Virginia. I was driving across the state. And that was the day that they were pulling the little balls out with your birthday and your birthday corresponded. If they pulled out May 15th first, that was number one. And number two, whatever, September 15th, whatever. And up until about number 160, 170 or so, you knew you were going. My birthday is April 21st. It was selected number 66. I knew what that meant. What a bummer day that day. Serious stuff. But as God would have it, you see, he knew what he fashioned me for. And I kind of worked through things just a bit emotionally and all that stuff. And I said, OK, Lord, then you better show me where to go. And I won't get into all the details of it, but I ended up going in the Marine Corps and having a lot of training. I figured if I could get as much training as possible, the longer I could get trained, the less likely that war would be going on when I was done. That was pretty smart, wasn't it? So he kept on going, and after 18 months of training, the Marines were coming out. So I didn't have to go. And I was saddened by the fact that there were people who did go and lost their lives. But I didn't have to go. I ended up having all this training and then doing some serving and all that kind of stuff. But you know what? That wasn't my destiny. That was a, in my mind, a detour along the way. But you know what God did? Along the way, he used that experience to prepare me for ministry. In fact, the most fulfilling thing that I did for those 18 months in the Marine Corps was to work with high school students at Quantico down in Virginia. And then out west with my wife, when we were transferred out there, working with kids on the base. I did that in my spare time. And people started saying, hey, you're pretty good at this ministry stuff. Why don't you think about this for a career? Now, I'll tell you what. It was not in my plan. I wanted to get an MBA and make a lot of money, you know, and do all that kind of stuff. And people kept saying, this ministry thing. God was preparing me for the good works he'd already prepared for me to walk in. That became clear to me that he had a destiny for my life. And here's what I want to tell you. If you're hungry to know what God wants you to do, you can't miss it. Why don't you write that somewhere on the top of that outline? Just write, I can't miss it. If I really want it, I can't miss it. People are saying, I don't want to miss God's will. I don't want to miss my destiny. If you're hungry to know it, you can't miss it. God won't let you miss it. You say, well, what if I'm a foul-up? What if I've made a lot of mistakes? Look at the second verse that I put up there. It says David, that's King David in the Old Testament, served God's purpose in his generation. Was David a perfect man? No. In fact, David was one of the all-time foul-ups in Scripture. And I know Pastor Dave's talking about him, but here's a guy that did some wonderful things. He was a great war and all that stuff. But he had a man killed because he'd slept with his wife and the whole thing. I mean, pretty gross stuff. So even if you're a foul-up, you can still serve God in your generation. And I want to say this. There isn't just one thing that you're called to do. And this is kind of a little dicey. Some of you may not agree with this, and it's okay with that. We can have a discussion if you want. I don't think that everyone's created just to do one thing. How many of you think there's just one person in the world you could marry and be happy? If you're with them right now, you might want to say, of course. Yeah, Mike, good move, Mike. I'm glad you did that. She told you to. She said, put your hand up. Hurry, hurry. Some people believe that. I don't tend to believe that. I tend to believe there's probably a few people who could put up with it. I found one that's been pretty good for 29 years. Likewise, I'm not of the conviction there's just one thing you can do to be fulfilled in the will of God. I believe there's a number of things. There's a lot of ways that your life can go. But there's a certain sweet spot. Any tennis players here? Golfers? There's a certain sweet spot where you hit that thing just right and you know it. Well, that's what God wants your life. He wants you to hit the sweet spot of your destiny. So you kind of know that you're in the place, if you will, the core of what he designed you to be. If you don't know the purpose of life, let me just whip through these real quickly. Life seems useless. Why get up? You don't know why you're here. You don't know what you're about. Stay in bed. I will sleep in a lot. By the way, these are all out of the book of Ecclesiastes, which is a great book for anyone that's wrestling with what's life about. Read the book of Ecclesiastes in the Old Testament. It's right after the book of Proverbs. It's a great commentary on someone who had it all and it still didn't make sense to him. Next, life seems tiresome. You get up, the sun rises and goes down. The wind blows around and around and back again. Every river flows in the sea. Then the water returns to where the river began and starts. Sounds like a song, doesn't it? Everything leads to weariness. How many times do you come home from work and you say, man, am I tired? You get to the end of the week and you say, man, I am. No, silly, you don't say that. If you're on staff, you come home and say, man, I'm pumped up. What a week this was, right? Oh, yeah. Well, OK. In Business Week recently, the question was asked, this is in a survey. How are you doing? Number one answer, I'm tired. Fatigue really is settling in on Americans because we're working more now than we ever did. Got more balls in the air than we ever have, despite all of our technology. And fatigue is setting in. And if you don't know your purpose, life can be increasingly tiresome. Life seems unfulfilling. All the stuff that we have, all the entertainment options, all the things there are to do. The average person will click their remote. This is a great little statistic to talk about. How many times do you think in a lifetime? Huh? Pretty close. A million and a half for guys. It's about 600,000 times. And women a few times less because they're not quite as jumpy. They'd rather just get into the story. I mean, we just jump around. We're looking for something that's going to fulfill. And we just keep bouncing around, looking for things. Life really doesn't have a lot of fulfillment if you don't know your purpose. Next life seems insignificant. Obscurity tends to move in. And let me just say, as a person that's just a little bit farther along, it is very easy for you. And a lot of folks, you know, you hear the classic, quote, midlife crisis thing. What that is, is a recognition that you don't know where you're going. A person who's in the will of God and knows his destiny. I mean, I didn't have a midlife crisis. Because I know the purpose of God in my life. And I'm hungry to keep going. And every day I'm up just asking God for what's next. Doesn't mean I don't have bad days. I don't want to mislead you. It's God's purpose. And, you know, it's great. How many of you are starting to catch some of your class reunions? Anyone hit your 10th reunion, 15th reunion? Those are great, aren't they? What a nightmare. I mean, it's so humbling. You know, the heroes back then are the zeros today. You never find that out. And the geeks are the ones that have all the money and are in powerful positions. And everyone's getting fat, bald, and stuffy. And that's just the women. I thought I'd bail you out, Mike. I thought I'd bail you out. Anyhow. And life seems uncontrollable. You know, the reason there's so much anxiety, why so much medication is dispensed for anxiety today, is because people are just losing a sense of control in their life. They're wondering, you know, I can't make this relationship work. I can't fix this problem. Things are really going downhill. You know what? The major things in your life you can't ever control. When you were born, most things about your health, a lot of your circumstances, a lot of your relationships with other people, things happen to you, are out of your control. And you just are kind of forced to learn to do the one thing that's the hardest for us all to do, and that's to trust God. To trust God. But in the midst of all, you don't want to miss your destiny. You don't want to miss it. Now, I know that Kairos loves to show video clips. I scramble for this one, Shelley. I hope it's okay. And so, a rather profound movie in recent, I guess, what, the last ten years or so, a movie called Forrest Gump. I'm sure most of you saw it. We're going to have a little imitation here. Well, one of the rather significant clips in this thing is about Lieutenant Dan, and if you follow his story throughout the whole movie, it's all about him finding his destiny. And I think we're going to show you, if it's cued right up there, Marty, there's a little clip right here where Dan wakes up in his hospital bed, and of course, you know, his legs have been blown off, and he wanted to die with his men. He wanted to be a hero. And Forrest, if you recall, ran back in and pulled him out, and the rest of the squad, for which he gets the Congressional Medal of Honor, and Lieutenant Dan's in his bed. He's weighing out the fact that now what's he going to do with the rest of his life? And what's the implication of this whole deal? And so, let's cut the lights, and here's what happens when he rolls over and nabs Forrest. Look at me! Do you see that? Do you know what it's like not to be able to use your legs? Yes, sir, I do. Did you hear what I said? You cheated me! I had a destiny. I was supposed to die in the field with honor! That was my destiny, and you cheated me out of it! Yes. Do you understand what I'm saying, Gump? This wasn't supposed to happen. Not to me. I had a destiny. I was Lieutenant Dan Taylor. You're still Lieutenant Dan. Look at me. What am I going to do now? What am I going to do now? If you follow the story of Lieutenant Dan several times throughout the movie, he curses God, he's furious about the fact that he doesn't know what he's there for, and then, at the end, he makes his peace with God, and Forrest turns and says, I believe Lieutenant Dan has made his peace with God. But the passion in that clip really gets to me, because, you see, that's how we should all feel about our destiny. We should want to know that with all of our hearts. We should want to know why we were created. What are the good works for which God has created us? What does He have for us? Do we know how to get there? Let me just wrap this up rather directly here by talking about a person in Scripture that I think embodies the way that you find your destiny. You see, it isn't just a mystery you go out and try to figure out. You go through your Bible for hours. Some people have tried that. I don't particularly think that's very effective. The great philosophers of the world really don't get it, and I have lots of them I could quote, but I won't bore you with what they say, because, basically, most of them don't know about purpose. If you eliminate God from the equation, it's difficult to know your purpose. It doesn't make sense. But a person that I have studied from Scripture that just jumps out to me when it comes to destiny on the go was a guy named Joshua. Let me just talk about him for a couple of minutes. You see, it's learning to let God use you day by day that shapes your character and postures you to discover your destiny. The reason I ended up knowing my destiny was I did what was right in front of me to do. I started working with kids. And some of you today are going to go right where God's put you, and if you'll do what God tells you today and then tomorrow and the next, those days begin to line up and suddenly you realize, God, things are happening. My life is moving. And you say, you don't know the mess I'm in. Well, we're going to let you talk about that in just a second. But the key is, if you do every day what God puts in front of you to do with faith, your destiny begins to unfold. Joshua was a great leader. Douglas MacArthur said that he was one of the great generals of all time because he faced incredible odds. His whole life was one of battles, but he never gave up. And it was particularly difficult. Four times, the Lord speaks to Joshua, and Joshua 1, we won't turn there, but Joshua 1, he says, Be strong and courageous. Be strong and courageous. Or be determined and don't give up. Four times. Why did Joshua have a particularly difficult time of it? Why did he have to learn four times not to give up? To be strong and courageous. Well, number one, because he followed Moses. How many have ever done something after a great leader? You follow a great leader. Maybe you played a sport and the guy you came on after or the person you followed was really good. People compare you. Very difficult to follow a successful leader. And second, his assignment was to take the promised land with a group of people and do obedience. You think you have a tough assignment leading worship? Forty years. So, I mean, it was not good. Difficult thing. Let me just jot these things down. Here we go. Four things I've learned. Number one, you got to let go of doubt. Let go of fear and doubt. If you want to build your confidence and know your destiny, you got to let go of fear and doubt. Be bold and strong. Don't just make a choice that you're going to put fear and doubt out of your mind. Sometimes you need to learn to doubt your doubts about yourself. We are very quick to believe what other people say about us and we let them build prisons around us. And you know what? Sometimes you just need to say, hey, that's not the truth about me. Doubts are a choice. Why not choose to believe what God says about you? What causes us to doubt two things? Two things. Comparison. Comparing yourself to others. I mean, oh man. Just think about this. How can you win when you compare yourself to others? See, if you compare yourself to someone else and they appear to be better, more qualified, more whatever, if they seem to be doing a better job at what you wish you could do, if they seem to have their thing down, then you're discouraged. Right? And if you compare yourself to someone else and really, you know, they're a couple of pegs down, they're really not quite as smooth, they don't quite have it together, then you're proud. So I think it's lose-lose. So comparing is not the way to go. And yet a lot of us do. A lot of you tonight have compared yourself already with one of the musicians, with me. Some of you are thinking, you know what? I can do that. It's not that good. I can do that. I mean, this whole church is forgiving. I can hardly spit. I can do that. The other big thing that hangs us up is past failures. Now, if you're sincere about walking with God and you've made a mess of your life, that can be a big thing. If you've had some real serious follow-ups in your life, if you've hurt some people or been hurt by some people, if you've gotten into some relationships that have blown up, if you've gotten messed up with substances, if you've allowed yourself, if you've indulged yourself in the idea that you don't need God and so therefore you've carved out a life that was, you know, made to order to kind of indulge your own desires and you know it, you could have a ton of guilt right now. In fact, here's what I'd like you to do for just a second. Which of those two would you be willing to say to someone today is the greater risk for you? Is it comparison or is it past failure? Which of those two would be more likely to keep you from knowing God's destiny for your life? Take a minute in twos and threes where you are and just share. Is it comparing yourself with others or is it past failure that's holding you back? Just turn to another person next to you in twos or threes. Don't let anyone out. Just say, hey, for me, it's comparing. For me, hey, it's past failures. Lots of times, I've blown it. Just turn and share with somebody. Okay? Just, you can continue your conversation afterwards. I'm sorry I had to cut some of you off, but I want to wrap up here. Just, out of curiosity, I mean, if you're willing to confess this for everyone, how many of you said, hey, for me, it's comparison? And how many said, hey, it's failures, it's struggles? How many said both? Well, you know, the great news is, what's the basis of you discovering your destiny? Let's go back to the word for tonight. It's grace. It's the undeserved favor of God in your life that presents you to God in a place where you can discover your destiny regardless of failure, regardless of the ability to keep yourself from comparing your life to others. Isn't that awesome? Incredible stuff. So, resist those two temptations. Now, the next number there, number two, really should be the Roman numeral two. If you've already, some of you accountant types have already noticed that there's four Roman numerals, but only two on the sheet. So, where it says, number two, look for a, that should be Roman numeral two, look for a promise. So, first, let go of fear and doubt, and then Roman numeral two, look for a promise. That's my fault, by the way. There's a Roman numeral two. Where's that? Oh, there you go. It's even worse than I thought. Okay. Doesn't matter. Just keep writing and going. Look for a promise. Look for a promise. This is what happens when you do two messages and two different outlines. It's kind of wild. One thing that has helped me enormously is when I'm not sure where to go, I go to God's Word. And I, you know, and I know Dave's taught you all the value of meditating on God's Word, but one of the things that I want to reaffirm is this. God's Word speaks today. It is not a book of just history. It's a book that you can open tomorrow morning and find a scripture that leaps off the page and gives you incredible guidance for decisions you're going to make, wisdom for circumstances you're facing, and it's a, it can guide your steps in life. Look, you know, there's about 7,000 promises in the book. And, um, the Lord is quick to make those things alive if you'll give time to listen to them. So look for the promise. Three promises that are listed in Joshua 1 for those who serve God under letter B there. Three promises to those who serve God. He promises strength. In other words, He's going to give you the power to provide the wisdom that you need, the resources and abilities. Number two, there He'll give you success in verse 7. He says, I will give you success. Now I'm not talking about making everyone a millionaire, but He's going to say in that direction that I send you according to my promise and my purpose, I'm going to give you success. I have a question for you. Is it the will of God for Kairos to be a success? Well, you better believe that or you're dead in the water. Now, whether or not Kairos will be a success, however, I think that's still up for grabs. I mean in the ultimate sense of what it could become. It's going to come down to whether or not you all take it seriously and get hold of the promise. I heard Pastor Dave yesterday. In fact, I watched the video tape. I heard him make a comment about the chairs and I'm going to make a comment about the chairs when we end. But he said something kind of passing. He said, you know, we don't really need the chairs. They're going to be going out back there because we're just in these up here. He said, but just, is it possible that maybe one day Kairos could fill this auditorium? How many of you know people like yourself all over this county who don't have a clue about their destiny, who don't know the first thing about Christ who ought to be here tonight? And one of the things that's in my heart when I challenged Dave with this ministry over two years ago was that we'd reach out into this community and we'd take it by storm because there are thousands of people just like you who are out there who don't have a clue, who are walking through life just doing the normal stuff, missing the purpose of God. And for them, though they might be acquiring some of life's accoutrements and a few of the stuff and some of the stuff and a few of the things that everybody wants to have, their life is going to be a shadow. And Kairos is a ministry that could reach them if you believe the promise. If you say, God, it's our destiny to be here and we want to become all that you want us to be. But that's really up to you. You've got to decide that. And you've got to own it and you've got to throw your life into it because it isn't going to happen by just a few people doing it, friends. It's going to take all of you saying, hey, this is too good for us just to come and sort of analyze it every week. We've got to throw our lives into it. That's how this church got here. And that's what this ministry