Heavenly Passions For Earthly People III, A Passion For His Purpose

Let's turn now and look in Philippians chapter 2 and we'll begin reading in verse 12. This is our third message on the series heavenly passions for earthly people And we've been in the book of Philippians in case you've missed that we've been Right down in the center here, let's read together in verse 12 Therefore my dear friends as you have always obeyed not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose Do everything without complaining or arguing? Wouldn't be nice if that just wasn't in there. All right So that you may become blameless and pure children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved Generation in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life In order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor for nothing But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith I am glad and rejoice with all of you. So you too should be glad and rejoice with me I'm not much of a an expert in the classics, but I know Theodore Dostoevsky was one of the greatest writers of all time a Russian author and In the book called the house of the dead. He wrote that if one wanted to utterly crush a man one need only give him a work of completely irrational character as The writer himself discovered spending ten years in a soviet prison Well some of Hitler's henchmen at a Nazi concentration camp in Hungary must have read Dostoevsky's Story there they had hundreds of Jews Jews as prisoners Who were surviving in diseased infected barracks on little food and engaging in gruesome back-breaking work each day the prisoners were marched to the compounds giant factory where tons of human waste and Garbage were distilled in alcohol to be used as a fuel additives Even worse than the nauseating odor of the stewing sludge was the realization that they were fueling the Nazi war machine with their efforts Then one day Allied aircraft blasted the area and destroyed the factory The next morning several hundred inmates were herded to one end of its charred remains Expecting orders to begin rebuilding They were startled when the Nazi officer commanded them to shovel sand into carts and drag it to the other end of the plant The next day the process was repeated in reverse They were ordered to move the huge pile of sand back to the other end of the compound a mistakes been made They thought these stupid swine day after day. They hauled the same pile of sand from one end of the camp back to the other and Then Dostoevsky's prediction came true I'm uncontrollably The guards hauled him away another screamed until he was beaten into silence and then a young man who had survived three years in the camp Darted away from the group the guards shouted for him to stop as he ran toward the electrified fence The other prisoners cried out, but it was too late There was a blinding flash and a terrible sizzling noise a smoke puff from his smoldering flesh In the days that followed dozens of the prisoners went mad and ran from their work only to be shot by the guards Or electrocuted by the fence The gruesome lesson is plain Men will cling to life with dogged resolve while working meaningfully even if their work supports their hated captors But purposeless labor Soon snaps the mind. I want to talk this morning about purpose For I believe that we of all the people on the face of the earth Ought to understand our purpose for living we are created in the image of a God of purpose I'm sure you believe with me that what we are Experiencing of the order of nature and all of creation is because God is a God of order and purpose and God has a design to all that he does the Bible says in Job 36 5 that God is mighty and Firm in his purpose Ephesians 1 11 says that we have been chosen in Christ According to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will Two mornings ago. I sat in my son's bed as he prepared to go to school and read Psalm 139 which says this When I was woven together in the depths of the earth Your eyes saw my unformed body all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be Even Jesus came the Bible says with purpose. He knew why he was here He says in John 12 27 now my heart is troubled and what shall I say when they were about to arrest him? He said father save me from this hour. He said no it was for this very reason That I've come to this hour And he said in Luke 19 10 the Son of Man came for this purpose to seek and save what was lost The greatest fear that I have for most Christians is not that they will fail But that they will succeed at doing the wrong thing For we live in a culture where there are many many options Many of you leave this place with all kinds of ways to invest your time to invest your energies to invest your efforts But let me ask you a question today church Will it be to work out the purpose of God in your life or just to randomly make it to the next day? Our individual lives each one of them have been given a God-ordained Design and even obstacles which seem to be insurmountable can whisp away at one breath of the mighty power of God It wasn't long ago. In fact, it was just Friday evening when The woman that was the guest speaker at the breakfast yesterday. Mary Welch will shared something of her testimony how she was thought she thought she was happily married and And suddenly her world fell apart and A divorced happened rather suddenly. She was left with it. I think was an eight-year-old daughter and For the next year she went through a cycle of struggling with God and wondering what was all this about and even to use her word backsliding and so on and then God got her attention, but there was more to life than feeling sorry for yourself and Struggling along miserably and she began to step out and what gifts she knew she had She didn't leave the marketplace and go hide somewhere and some You know retreat center she got a job with IBM and began to use her skills and helping people to relate and communicate wrote some manuals and Was so well received that pretty soon She realized there was a void in the in the marketplace for women Christian women and she began to speak to them and now has a national radio program program on 120 stations She's found a purpose and She I understand communicated very beautifully how God has that same purpose and plan Not everyone will have the same one. Not all of us will have some ministry of great National impact but dear ones everyone has a purpose Not one of you is a mistake. Not one of you is just sort of like knickknacks on God's shelf And I want to talk about that this morning and I want to show us how the Bible says we can discover it and live it To his glory I was astounded, you know, I do a lot of preaching and I do a lot of what's called exegesis Who knows what exegesis is? It's pulling out word X means like exit pulling out the Jesus the meaning The Lord gave me the clearest little outline here that I believe every one of you can leave with and remember I believe it I'm not sure you'll have to prove me right or wrong Three things you can do to live with a passion for God's purpose in your life. Number one. Let's look at it in verse 12 Philippians to follow along in your Bibles Work out your salvation with fear and trembling work it out. There's verse 12 work it out How many people will put up your hand and say I understand Jay. I don't work for my salvation put up your hand Okay, if that hands not up next to you that person doesn't understand God's free gift of eternal life You don't work for it, but you do work it out. I Want to talk about that in a minute, but I don't want you to miss something very important Look at the end of verse 13 for it is God who works in you Both to will and to act according to his good purpose. It is God at work It is God at work. Now you're missing this some of you are just yawning and sleeping and wait wake up. It's God at work It's not a self-help program. We're doing here folks. We're not trying to do better at being good people It's not pick up your bootstraps and try harder for Jesus time. It's God at work Turn to someone and tell him God is working you turn look at him. Tell him God's at work in you Don't be embarrassed about it. It's the best thing I could ever tell you God is at work. Do you know? We live in a nation where people Want to achieve and they want to accomplish and they have the liberty to do that and they try all these ways All these television now is becoming the medium whereby people Market all the self-help stuff Saturday afternoon you can watch hours and hours of how to help yourself quit this habit or pick up a new one in its place or Whatever it might be. You know, there's all these things that you can do to improve your life and God's not against improved lives but there's a whole big difference between Me trying harder to improve me and God being at work Oh, I want you to know I'm preaching today happily because God is at work both to will and to do his good purpose Susan led worship not because she tried real hard but because God's at work Teachers are back there with our kids today. God is at work in them. Every one of you God is at work now It's so simple, but it's so profound because if you miss it the rest of this is a burden You won't be able to get to the end of its end of this paragraph and read it's a joy if you don't get this part God is at work in you and we'll never ask you to do anything in this church that God isn't at work in you to do But once you find it everything changes It becomes a joy to watch God work. Have you ever discovered a joy of watching God work through your life and you walk back and say Wow You know, it wasn't you When I look at this church here, let me tell you something folks. I know it's not me, but God is If I were you I wouldn't come to hear me, okay But God is at work and that's what you sense here in this place That's what we're trying to move out through these doors back out into the marketplace Now it does say work out your salvation. So by the way the Greek verb I don't like to do a lot of these because it all gets jumbled but the Greek verb for God at work is the word see if it sounds energy Oh Energy, it's God's energy working in you But you need to work out Your salvation that's a different word. I can't even pronounce it But I'll try it's the Greek word Keter God's oh my which means the deeds or actions So God's giving you the energy. You've got to do the deeds That's what that's saying. God gives you the energy now you do the deeds the actions to work out We say well, what does that mean? How does that happen? Well dear ones, let me use an illustration see if this helps you today in the marketplace there are all kinds of Cold packs and heat packs you can buy maybe you've seen them if if you're traveling and You want some? You want to have a cold pack in case you're injured? You've seen them in athletic events and so on you just you break the seal and and a chemical Breaks into that. Well, there's one with heat like that now, too And it's in it's in a you know You can get different sizes and it's for putting heat on places that you can't put your heating pad Okay, ladies are getting my wife's getting aside You know heating pads and over this thing what it is is a chemically induced Heat producing pad and what you can carry it around and there's nothing there It's you know, it's just it's perfectly harmless and doesn't have anything happening but when you want heat you push a button on it and it's Releases a chemical into this blue liquid and the blue liquid starts to crystallize throughout the pad and heats generated for about an hour It's a chemical reaction when you're done with it. You put it back you boil it The crystals become liquid again and you can store it once again Now the thing is this you have to Push the button and let the fluid the chemical start to work itself out To the perimeters of the pack so that the heat comes. Do you see what I'm saying? It's the same way with your salvation. God's put the chemistry of the Holy Spirit in you What you need to do is to make contact with that and work it through you. You need to let God get down You let get God down through you Into the perimeters of who you are It doesn't you don't work it in you work it out And you do it very very simply by being with God to me the place where we work this out is in our personal devotion Our time with God we spend time with him and We let him put in us what he wants to take out of us number two. We hold out The Word of Life. I love that phrase Holding out the Word of Life. I don't know how you want to see yourself today Is it you know, you can see yourself as a statue or? As a person walking holding out the Word of Life in my Bible Says the New International Version is holding it out. Some of yours has holding on. I don't like that. That's not really accurate We're not holding on to life. We're holding it out To those around us you want to be passionately involved in the purpose of God Dear ones the Bible says that you shine like a star against the backdrop of the darkness of our day Make no mistake about it the darker things get the more you shine If I were to take you down into Pittsburgh Tonight and assuming the Sun continues to come out and all the clouds disappear and I would stand you right down the center and fifth And wouldn't say now look up and see the stars. How many stars would you see a few dozen? Maybe why because all that that that they call it white noise or white pollution There's the light coming up from all the big skyscrapers blocks the sky Now the stars are there You just can't if I brought you out here to Mars tonight and said now look at these stars You'd see hundreds and hundreds more stars And if I took you out there to Yuma Arizona where I spent a summer camp With Marines many years ago and walked out there at night and looked up there and I said where have all these stars been Well guess where they've been They've been there all the time. What did it happen? It's just so black that they come out and you see it You see the darker it gets the more you shine and so when things get worse is your place of employment When a new person comes in with a foul spirit and a foul mouth rejoice, you're gonna shine brighter. Oh I don't like this J. Yeah, I want it to be nice where I work you see God's is giving you an opportunity to be a contrast to the darkness and hold out the word of life and Everyone can do this young people. You can do it in your schools and with your friends. We can do it moms in our neighborhoods Where our neighbors are who don't know the Lord We can do it in the carpool and at the YMCA and every place else We can shine like stars and the Bible says these are the Bible's words Not mine, you know crooked and depraved generation As you hold it forth the word of life you say well, you know if life's so good Why don't people flock to me and say gee, I'm so glad you're a Christian. What is how can I become a Christian? What because John 3 gives us the answer John 3 says people prefer the darkness They only prefer it because they don't know what's gonna happen at the end But can I say to you there will be a time in every person's life when they'll want to come to the light At a dinner we had just the other night at our home one of the sisters who's here in this service was sharing how a particular person in her office was antagonistic and sarcastic about her Christian faith always looking for a way to stick in the knife, you know and make fun and For years. She just put up with that And then one day not too long ago. She got a phone call from this lady Who kind of haltingly asked over the phone? She said she said Well, my mother is one of you and she's very sick And I wonder if and even before she'd get the words out. Our sister said I'd be happy to come and pray with her you see all the mocking and all the Sarcasm and all the antagonism. It's suddenly when the darkness seems to be encroaching people turn and say I know there's light there They may not be ready to respond but they know it they know it and they're looking and the day will come The day will come when they're gonna reach for the light By the grace of God that will happen to each of us It can happen in every place where we go from here today Now dear ones, there's a very important caution here. Look with me in verse 14 Don't make the mistake of letting your light be covered obscured by what? Complaining and arguing don't you wonder why it didn't put there? Evil and perverse or don't be you know Degenerate and lustful or all these things that we would associate with really vile, you know murderous and hateful It doesn't use words like that. It uses two words that describe our talk It uses the words complaining and arguing. Have you ever discovered how? devastatingly negative complaining and arguing is I was not that long ago and I'm sure many of you have had the same experience and being at a discount department store here in the area when the clerks had a little gathering around the place where I was checking out and The clerks decided that the other clerk a few registers down was not doing a very good job And they were sniping and criticizing and then they started picking on the management for letting this person be there You know not getting enough days off and how crummy it was being part of this organization You know, I'm standing in line just like going through the line and listening to all this stuff It was just like this sludge pot, you know this and I started thinking And now I understand why it says don't complain and don't argue Because you see it's the spirit of selfishness and not submission whereas Jesus says in his Life and Philippians 2 3 & 4 look at it there. It says he put others interests in front of his own That's that's the way That's the way our light shines and if we complain and argue all we're saying is me my way I'm concerned about this for my sake That shouldn't be that way And I complain and I argue dear ones. Let me entreat you today Don't let that light be put out by your complaining and arguing but rather speak Only what edifies only what builds up and otherwise just be quiet. God's able to take care of himself As you hold forth the word of life that image holding it out I guess the most vivid illustration I can think of of that Remember the flight that took off from National Airport down in Washington DC and crashed into the Potomac River about five years ago flight 541 I remember seeing the clips of that and there was even a movie later on it was done with live footage or real footage rather from The from the incident and there was one man in that plane Who survived and when the helicopter came out and was dropping down the life preserver Instead of hooking on his arm and getting pulled out himself He held it out For the people that were drowning one at a time one stewardess and then another passenger Never forget that and when the helicopter came back finally to pick him up They couldn't find him he drowned they later identified him and honored him Posthumously and yet he stood as an example of someone willing to hold out Life I Don't think we can do any less We have the word of life the logos is that Greek word the logos we have Eternal life to hand to people The question is are we willing to do it in the third way that we live passionately to show it is we Pour out verse 17 we pour we work out our salvation. We hold out the word of life, but dear ones we must be willing and Here's the tough part. We must be willing to pour out and you know, I share these next moments with you Recognizing that I only know a fraction of the struggles that many of you face You know, we're a church of real people here. We have real jobs. We have real struggles. We have real marriages. We have real kids We have real heartaches And when a pastor stands up and talks about pouring out Some people stand and think oh, you know, they just want more out of me I want you to know something the words I'm sharing today are so that you can know the most joyous Victorious life that you could ever imagine. It's not to get something from you it's to let you know that there's a way to go to go on in God and enjoy more of God and it has to do with pouring out Our life for the sake of another you see as I understand these verses Paul is saying here. It's not a chore or a burden. Look at the end of verse 17. He says I am glad and rejoice That I can do this that I can Pour out my life in our culture. We come in we laud we pay very well athletes who pour out Mario Lemieux is gonna be paid millions of dollars because he pours out on the hockey ring There are some people I remember one fellow that I worked with who was a CPA as part of my youth ministry and He worked 18-hour days from January through April You know, he basically say I'll see you in April Because he poured out for the company poured out and of course they rewarded him for it Can I tell you this if you pour out for God he's gonna reward you You pour out for God God will be your rewarder and I say to you that this day I know there are people sitting and thinking well, you know pastor. That's my problem. I pour out at work. I Come home I pour out to my wife and my family Or my husband and my family Or I pour out to the my needy mother who's in home with me or whatever the case may be And when it comes to the things of God, I have nothing left to pour out and I feel guilty. I don't do more I Prayed about what I'm gonna say to you right now, and I want you to hear what I think the Lord wants you to know two things number one if you've done that and You are satisfied that in your job and in your family you are fulfilling God's purpose for you right now then be at peace Be at peace But if something in you is gnawing and saying I want more. I Want to know that I am in the center of God's will and his purpose for my life Then let me suggest something to those of you who feel like you can't pour out anymore Let me suggest something back up now. Look with me go back to verse 13 Here's the secret to being able to do more. Look at it. It's God who is at work within you There's the secret to being able to pour out more. You got to come back to God You see he was the first one to pour out let me read a couple scriptures Isaiah 44 3 for I will pour water on a thirsty land and Streams in the dry ground. I will pour out my spirit on Your offspring and my blessing on your descendants. The Bible says in Romans 5 5 God has poured out his love He was the first one to pour out and Malachi 3 10 Bring the whole tithe in the storehouse and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing Can I say if you're dried out and you have nothing left to pour you need to go to the one who has a bucket that's Bigger than yours and say Lord put a little bit more in your bucket and put it into mine And I'll have a little bit more to pour out When I get to the end I came in to prayer on Friday morning We've had a long week here a lot of meetings. One of our elders looked at me said, how do you do it? I Think that's what he said. I was semi-conscious I said God's at work God's at work I just asked the Lord to pour in a little bit more. He's saying well, I've tried that it doesn't work. It will work If you're in the will of God, it will work. God will pour out. He's faithful to do it Paul says then it becomes a joy. He said well, it's very risky pastor people take advantage of you Some people will let me work until I fall over The path for Titus if you'll flip over one page Risked his life Paul says in verse 30 almost died for the work of Christ And Paul said honor men like that I Just want to say dear one if you feel like you're pouring out and no one's noticing. God doesn't miss a thing God will honor you. God will bless you if you're gonna be part of this Christmas bank bank what we have coming up You may be a potato peeler. You may be an usher and and no one will say anything nice God will honor you're pouring out. You may be a home group leader who's struggling to keep your group together God will honor you if you pour out God will take care of you. And so if you want to have a passion for his purpose Number one work out your salvation Let's put that up again work out your salvation Do the things that God gives you to do in obedience verse 12 would tell us number to hold out the word of life Wherever you are hold it out and number three Be willing to pour out Be willing to pour out For the faith of others that God puts around you. I Want to conclude with one little personal illustration if you'll permit me You know, it's one thing to read about a life of Paul the Apostle We all expect him to be the great one that pours out or we could read about Luther or someone like that or Charles Wesley But yesterday I came into the office just Ready to prepare for today and finish the message and I picked up this book It's kind of ragged as you can see the bindings coming apart It's a book that was Written about a person that I never knew but I am related to It's the biography of my great-great-great Grandfather and I have to admit that though. I've had this book for several years. I've only read little parts of it He lived in the eighteen hundreds Born in 1820 lives Thirties forties fifties sixties and so on he founded the first hospital Protestant Hospital in the United States Scores of institutions that don't bear that name but home for the epileptics home for orphans all kinds of different things other hospitals in other Parts of the country he did it all without one telephone one electric light bulb one five-speed 200 horsepower car He didn't have any of that stuff that we all think is so important to get around and to do all the skills of communicating And I read something of his life yesterday About his passion for God's purpose. Can I read one? day, February the 10th 1840 from his diary He said hope often sinks within me and the prospect of being prevented from entering the ministry fills me with dismay The swelling in my throat does not seem to grow less and when I think of the probable consequences of such a disease My heart sickens and I'm all ready to faint from absolute despair But why this murmuring and repining surely the God of heaven will do right? Lord thou knowest the desire which is uppermost in my heart But thy will not mine be done Here am I ready at thy command to go to the uttermost parts of the earth and preach Christ crucified Speak but the word and thy servant Will be made Every whit hole. Let me be simple and humble as a little child in all my words and actions As I pray for the meek and lowly spirit of Jesus You see the source of a passion for his purpose has never changed It's coming to Christ and presenting yourself to him and then being willing to go holding out and pouring out And God will work it out in us. Amen Let's pray father. God These words are sweet to our hearts Your word is alive and able to produce that which you have ordained it to bring about in our lives Oh We bring To you Bring the sacrifice To the house Oh Lord we just come to you today offering up from our hearts the sacrifice of praise from our lips Lord that you would be honored Lord that everything else would fall aside That your Holy Spirit would come and dwell among us as we worship you this day Lord, I pray that you would become the focus the center focus of all our attention This day with you in Jesus name In Psalm 131 it says I do not concern myself with great matters or things too Wonderful for me But I have stilled and quieted my soul and when I read that verse I just kept thinking how often we get distracted into so many things and how Many ideas we have and we get going in that direction and how often our focus slips From the one who deserves our first attention So I'd like to ask as we just enter into a time of worship now that anything you brought in with you That might be in your head That is not God Oriented that you would lay that aside and for this time that you would give God the center And very focus of your attention as we come and behold him together Come now Glorious Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Just the man thing great are you Lord? Oh Oh Lord we thank you. You are the Holy Lord What that you alone are her a holy you are the great God above other gods Lord and yet you've created us to fellowship with you Lord that you need each one of us and that communion to be joined together to exalt your name and that is what delights you most We thank you for that Lord and just lift our voices now as one body as one church as one bride To exalt your name as one Exalt his name together Just the lady Oh Oh Oh Oh Lord we give you praise and we exalt your name Lord, it's now it's in this moment that you're here with us, but it's eternally where we have our eyes set today Thanking you Lord for taking us each step along the way in Jesus name and everyone said Amen, I want you to do something this morning. I want you to turn and greet someone with these words Tell them God is at work today. Go ahead and greet one another tell them who you are and say God is at work today Welcome everyone. It's a great morning to Worship the Lord together to bring the Sun in with you It must be greater anointing on your lives in the 830 service They came in the rain you came in the sunshine or at least on the way We have a special message this morning Hushers, are we ready with the handouts for the senior high? Parents how many you know, I wasn't specific enough. How many parents of senior high gals do we have here? You have a gal and senior high hold your hand up ushers run these up to the hold a hand up Okay. Now how many senior high gals do we have here? Hold your hand up. There we go Grab them also and give them one of those handouts Okay Now we know y'all get so much paper. You'll probably miss this So we decided this morning to draw special attention to what's coming. I don't think you'll forget this We have two people ready to tell you what's gonna happen this Friday night So Holly and Shelly come on up and tell us what's going on here. All right, come on Yes, here they come. They came at the 830 service. That's why they're so dressed appropriately Hey, so, where are you going? Hey? You don't have any makeup on you look up. I mean you look great I'm going to girls night out at Norfolk Christian community new pajamas There's not gonna be any guys there. So who cares what we look like? This one's pretty cool. But uh, what's this all about? Well, it's this night. It's just for senior high girls. There's gonna be fashion experts and makeovers I hear there's gonna be a manicurist there. She's gonna show us how to do our nails That sounds pretty fun. But uh, is there gonna be any food there? Yeah, there's gonna be food all night haul Maybe enough food for you. So you're saying I can go then sure. Everybody's bringing their friends. You can come with me. I Have one more question though. Are you really that's why you're really gonna come. Yeah. Yeah, I Know that when you think about a night out with a group of gals that all these Incredible images come to mind about not sleeping. That's not really true. Is it? Yeah, it's true Who you can why are you coming Holly? That's why we forced her to do it. All right. Thank you. You can sit down now Wow and no guys are allowed to come period. Okay. All right. What time to start and does it cost anything? No cost but donations will be great. Yeah, okay Great. Let's get these guys in here. Thank you All right now senior high gals you can sign up today We have more flyers and there'll be people out there at the sign up table right outside those doors All right. Well If you're a visitor today this that could have been it for you, we've just cooked ourselves, but I In a church like North Way you really have to communicate It's some way that's from a Memorable. Yes, and that will be I want to welcome our visitors in a special way this morning at this service We always have folks who are visiting with us even on rainy kind of mornings like this and visitors. We want you to know that We're sensitive to the fact that there's lots of adjustments to go through when you come to North where there's different things Maybe you've never heard people really sing out loud like you just did or maybe there's some