Living Life On Purpose - Part V - Defining My Life-Message

We're going to talk about defining your life message. I want you to start with a little interactive piece right here. Some of you are going to really not want to do this, but I'm going to ask you just to humble yourself and do it. I want you to describe your life as you see it right now in one word. Lean over to your spouse or a total stranger and say, my life's this. Describe your life in a word. Go ahead. Boy, it's tough to pull out a word, isn't it? If it's your spouse and you said miserable, I guess I'm in deep trouble. How many of you said something like this? Something like hectic, crazy, busy, challenging? I mean, most of us, our lives are just full. There's just a lot going on. How many use the word focus? Well, then you're going to want to hear this message, because the secret of an effective and fulfilled life is focus. A life lived on purpose. The title of this series, and it's been interrupted by a couple of weeks by Kevin Lehman and Y2K messages on, but we've been talking in the last several weeks about living a life on purpose. We looked at the first week Pastor Dave left us, we looked at calling. How do we know if we're called of God? What's that about? And then we talked about values the second week, and those things which shouldn't change, that our life stands for. And then I talked about how change wants to come in and pull us out of those things, but three things never change. God's love, God's word, and God's purpose. Those never change in our life, and how we build our lives around those things. But so few people seem to remain focused, and their life message gets lost. Recently, a film came out that has become very popular. It's about a man, and I guess in his late 30s, who doesn't know how to express himself to his wife, and his wife unexpectedly dies. And he writes this deep soul kind of catharsis of a message that he puts on a piece of paper and sticks it in a bottle and throws the bottle in the ocean. And strangely enough, another woman walking on a beach 1,000 miles from home finds the bottle. And she's so moved by this message in the bottle that she has to find a guy who could write a message that meaningful, that profound. That's definitely a woman's movie. I mean, a guy's going to find a bottle and say, well, that's cool. Just get it off the beach. It's getting in the way. I mean, the women are lining up to see this movie. Why? Because somehow he's expressing some deep things about what was really in his heart, what his life was about. Could you really clearly say today what your life is about? Someone's saying, well, my life's about a lot of things here, Pastor. It's about my job. It's about career. It's about my friends. It's about school. It's about my family, about goals, hobbies, lots of different things. But look at the top of your outline. Jesus said this. Keep in mind, the Son of God said this. I've brought you glory on Earth by completing the work you gave me to do. That tells me Jesus knew what he was supposed to do, and he did it. Look at the next verse by the Apostle Paul. I only want to complete my mission and finish the work that the Lord Jesus gave me to do. Two of the greatest figures of history both knew what God wanted them to do, and both of them said, I'm going to do it. I'm focused on it. Now, I know that this can seem a bit overwhelming. Some of you are thinking, well, come on. I'll never figure this out. You don't know my daily problems, let alone something sort of big and mystical like this. Today, if you'll stay with me for about 30 minutes, I'm going to share with you just how to break this down into some achievable steps that you can start the process of really understanding what your life message is about. Because I want to tell you something I'm very convinced about now after the 50-some years of my life. You will not drift your way into your life mission. You won't. You'll be 35, 45, 55, 65. And if you do not, by an act of your will, determine that you're going to know what God wants you to do, you'll never find it. It is something that requires your focused will. And I want to ask some of you today to say, God, show me your plan for my life. So what is a life message? Well, first on your overhead, it's a description of what I believe God says to others through my life. That's your life message. It's what God is saying through me to other people. It's more than a goal. Purposes and goals are different. Your goal might be to graduate from high school or college this year, or to become sales manager of your region, or to become the vice president of your company, to make thousands of dollars above last year, or to retire and live in a certain neighborhood, or whatever it might be. Those are all worthwhile goals. But friends, those are not life purposes. That isn't your mission. And lots of us confuse those things with God's message in our life. And you know what? We get very frenetic. We get really wound up trying to get all those goals lined up in our lives. How many of you, I'm going to date myself now, how many of you remember the Ed Sullivan show? Well, some of you didn't put your hand up, and I know you do. But you know, Ed used to bring out this one guy who could spin plates and put them on a stick. Remember that? And you'd watch the guy with amazement. He'd get like 10 plates going. And this one would start to wind down. And he'd get this one going. But then that one down here, and he'd run all the way down and get this one going again. And his whole act was to keep all the plates spinning. Now, how many of you feel your life is just like that? You've got the family plate spinning, and then you've got like, well, my church thing I got to keep spinning, and then my job thing I got to keep. And life just gets spinning. And you know what? Pretty soon, all you're doing is trying just to hold it together. Life is more than that. If you know your life message, letter B, it will define success for you. Remember I said a few weeks ago that success can be defined as living by your values. Listen to that. You don't have to wait to be 70 years old to know if you're a success or not. You can be a success at 17 if you're living by your values. I watched Dennis Rodman this week. I mean, that man, he is well-known. He is better known around the world than a lot of people who've made significant contributions to life. And there he was doing a media interview on ESPN. He had on his dark sunglasses and his sort of like hubcap city face look with pins and things hanging every place. And then that popcorn, upside-down popcorn popper hat. And he was holding up a list. And he was saying to the media, I'm only making X hundred thousand dollars and I'm giving away to these charities $10,000 each. And then he said, and I mean, I don't know if they were fake tears or what, but you could see the tears coming down behind the shade of sunglasses. He said, and even doing this, and I'll quote it. He said, even doing this, you people still won't let me alone. And I thought to myself, there's a guy with fame, fortune, achievement. I mean, you name it. But he's not a success because he can't please the people he wants to please. And of course, I have to tell you, I pray for him because I know inside his soul, despite what he might say about doing his own thing, he's a guy in great distress. He just doesn't know himself. Your life message, letter C, will be based on God's purpose for you. Has it ever occurred to you that God had you in mind to do a certain thing and to fulfill a certain role in this world? And he created you to do it. And you don't have to be some well-known figure. It could be just something God knew all along, that you were the one he fashioned to do this specific thing. That thought intrigues me, that God had you in mind and designed you with a certain set of abilities. And letter D, it expresses my personal shape. Pastor Rick Warren from out in California identified these five things that go into making your unique shape, your spiritual gifts, your heart, which is your motivation, I mean, why you do things and so on, your abilities, your personality, the kind of thing that makes you the person you are, your birth order and all the kind of different personality types, and then your experiences. That's shape. God has specifically designed in you to fulfill a mission. You're unique because God wanted you that way. It's not just your thumbprint, friends. It's your whole being that's unique, that God made that way. And letter E, if you know your life message, it clarifies your roles in life. The thing about life is that as you go through it, you have different roles. Some of you are students right now. Your role is to get through school, but you know what? You have a life message in school. Then you'll become a single adult perhaps and have a job. You'll have a different life message. Then you may get married and your life, I'm sorry, you'll have a different role, but your life message will stay the same. It gets expressed in different ways. And it's very important that you realize that your life message comes through different roles. Don't confuse roles with life message. Some of you say, well, my life message is I'm a parent or I'm a grandparent. Well, no, that's a role. That's a wonderful role. It's an important role, but that's not your life message. It's bigger than that. We try to define people by what do you do? Well, what you do isn't your life message. Your life message is more profound than just what you do. Hopefully your job will complement your life message rather than compete with it. And students, can I encourage you? Pray that God would give you a career that lets you express your life message through your career. What a fulfilling role and fulfilling life that can be. So that's the life message. Number two, how do I discover what it is for me? Well, you got two basic options, friends. You can speculate. It comes through speculation. Might wanna write this down. Speculation or revelation. You can speculate by guessing, trying things, conjecture or debate. You know, I remember going to school and I took one philosophy class. I didn't like philosophy. I ended up being a chemistry major. You understand the difference. I mean, philosophy has no tangible things. Philosophy, I remember we'd go to philosophy class and then the professor would walk to us to the student union. We'd sit down and he would pull out his pipe and he'd sit back and he'd contemplate life. Then we'd drink coffee and we'd talk about life and what's life about and all these weird things. You know, at the end of that class, I think I got probably my lowest grade in my entire college career from that class because it didn't make any sense. I discovered after a few weeks, he didn't know any more than I did. He was just contemplating himself. Well, you know, you gotta have a little bit more than just guessing what life's about. I read a book once. There was a compilation of 100 different authors who gave their worldview about what life's about. And I read through that and I'm thinking, boy, this is scary. If these people are supposed to know, this is really, because they're clueless. I mean, if people just are guessing at life, where's that going to take them? You can either speculate or you can receive revelation. That's why God gave us the book. This book is the revelation of God. In it is the truth of God. You can study it and discover the plan of God. And God will use this book to reveal to you his purposes. And along the way, if you're reading this book and walking with God, he'll do things in your life to show you what your life message and life mission is to be. I read this week about William Booth. Who knows who that is? William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army. That's right. About 125 years ago, his wife, who was a great preacher and Bible teacher, went to London, England to start a crusade. Mr. Booth accompanied her. And the night before the crusade, he went out to get something to eat. And in the part of London where they're having the crusade, there was a lot of poverty. And he saw children kind of laying in the streets. He saw some children being abused in bars and so on. And God broke his heart and crashed it on him and said, you don't need to go to the mission field in Africa. He said, here is your mission field. And right there, William Booth started the Salvation Army that now has 3 million volunteers worldwide. Why? Because he was walking in the word of God, listening to the voice of God and receiving the revelation of God for his life. Now, I wish today I had a pill. Okay, I wish I could say, well, you know what? Let's go ahead and check out now. I'm gonna give you a pill on the way out. You can take the pill and tomorrow morning, you'll wake up and know your life message and your life mission. Wouldn't that be great? How many of you take that pill? A lot of you still aren't trusting me from last week. You gotta trust me. I'm not... There is no such thing. But I wanna give you four universal purposes for every person and four questions to ask in order to discover your purpose. Are you interested in that? I mean, then you can dialogue. You can go out to lunch afterwards and talk to people about, well, how do I go about this? So here you go, turn your outline over. Number one, the first question you have to answer is this. If you wanna know your life message, what will the center of your life be? What will be the center of my life? Now, as simple as this sounds, many people get hung up on this. I'm not asking you what goes in the box in your life marked religion or the box marked church. A couple of nights ago, I got a phone call from a phone solicitor taking a survey. He asked me, he said, all these questions about a politician and then about gambling and about this and that. And then he closed by saying, now, what religion are you? I said, would you clarify the question? He said, well, what religion are you? I said, well, what do you mean? He said, well, are you Catholic or Baptist or what are you? And I said, well, none of those. He said, well, what religion are you? I just said, well, Jesus is at the center of my life. He said, I don't have a category for that. What religion are you? I mean, he was really looking for a label. I hate labels. Labels shut conversations down. Because people kind of, that's their way of sort of marginalizing you. I frustrated him, it was nice. I invited him to think about, well, what does it mean? You see, at the core of who you are, who do you live for? This is so fundamental, yet I have to say, many people I know miss this because the culture has put it all in neat little boxes. Now, you can have a lot of good things at the center of your life. You can have your family at the center. You can have your career at the center or your job. You can have your health. You can have your hobby. I mean, you can have your house. I mean, some people, their whole, the center of their life is, you know, I'm involved in the collectible industry. I go to flea markets or I'm online, I'm a day trader. I mean, you can have all kinds of things at the center of your life, but none of those things will hold up when the storms of life comes along for it because you've got to have something more solid than that. None of those are wrong. Don't misunderstand me. God wants you to enjoy life and have those things, but none of those things can be the primary loyalty. Jesus must be the center. And I want to say it in another way. It's called the lordship of Christ. A number of us here have accepted Christ as Lord or Savior, but have not really understood the demands of Christ as Lord. Some of you who've been kids, they've grown up in the church. You know, you say, well, I know if I died, I'd go to heaven. And you think that's what it's about. Well, you know, that's the first step into the house that God has for you, but you're still in the foyer. And I want to say that knowing Jesus as Lord is also a moment of confrontation with your will. You do not just sort of fall into the lordship of Christ. You have to, as the songs we sang today said, you have to surrender. You have to come to the Lord and say with an open heart, Lord, take my life. How many of you had that moment? How many of you know that moment when you said to God, it's no longer about me just getting into heaven. It's about you being the center of my life. Paul said it this way, Galatians 2.20. I've been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. And the life that I live in this body, I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. John said it this way, he must become greater and I must become less. That is not the testimony of most American Christians, but it is the only appropriate response to what God has done. Look what it says. God's answer is, he made me to know and to love him. On your outline. That's what this is about. When Christ is at the center, God is saying, now I can lavish my love upon you and you can know me the way I know you. And you can love me the way I love you. Many people never get there. They never understand what it means to love the Lord, their God with all their heart, soul, and mind and strength. And friends, when you do that, it opens to you all kinds of new things in your life. And it's scary. I wanna speak to the men. Men who've been pursuing a career, pursuing your place in the marketplace. An acquaintance of mine by the name of Bob Buford wrote a very challenging book called Halftime. And in it, he says this. To put Christ in the box or the center, I found, is actually a sign of contradiction, a paradox. To put Christ in the center or in the box is to break down the walls of the box and allow the power and grace of his life to invade every aspect of your own life. It follows the same wonderfully inverted logic as the ancient assertion that it is in giving that one receives. In our weakness, we're made strong. And in dying, we are born to a richer life. In other words, you think when you put Christ in the center that your life is gonna sort of focus in and that's all it's gonna be. But instead, his life goes out and affects everything about you. Second thing you need to decide if you're gonna know God's life message for you is what will be the character of my life? God's far more interested in what we're gonna be than what we're gonna do. I think you've heard me say that before, but you see, in the end, when it comes to going to heaven, friends, it's not what we do. It's not the career, not what we saved up. It's our character. Possibly the scariest part of this last year to me, the national debate about all that's happened in our nation's capital has been the conclusion that character doesn't seem to matter. And that is so contradictory to everything the Bible says. I don't believe that discussion is over yet. I believe it's still to be resolved. This life is like, well, it's spring training. How many of you are watching the sports cast now? Spring training in Bradenton. And you see the Pirates out there and you see them 80 degrees, short sleeves, you're thinking, why am I up here in Pittsburgh? But you see, spring training lasts four weeks, five weeks, and then baseball starts. And it goes for, I forget, five or six months or whatever it is. Well, in a small life, whether it's 30, 50, 70, 90 years, is just spring training for eternity. It's just a little preparation for billions of years beyond measurement that we'll spend in the presence of God. And all we know is that we don't take all of our stuff with us, our accumulation. All we take is our character and our relationship with Christ. And I want to hear God say, if you'll put this up, John Matthew 25 and verse 21. I want God to say this to me. When I stand before Him on that day, when I cross over heaven's threshold to say this, well done, good and faithful servant. You've been faithful with a few things. I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness. How many want to hear God say that to you? Come and share your master's happiness. Well, it starts by making character a priority in your life. Look at your outline. From the very beginning, God decided that those who came to Him should become like His son. Who's the model of character? Well, it's Jesus Christ, Philippians 2.5. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus. And you see, if the Father is going to make you like Jesus, then He's going to allow you to face some of the same things that Jesus faced. Friends, Jesus faced loneliness. Jesus faced persecution. He was fatigued. He became, at times, criticized by others. And yet, God allowed it all to show us what true character was like. A single mom came up to me a few weeks ago and said, you know, it's so hard, Pastor J, that when you talk about living my life for God, I get up early to get things ready for my kids to send them off to school, and then I work an eight-hour day and come back and get things ready for my kids for dinner and work with them in their homework. And then I collapse into bed, and there's no one there to hold me or encourage me or support me. Did Jesus face stuff like that? And I said to her, you know, boy, that's a hard thing you're doing. No, Jesus wasn't a single parent, but I know there's a scripture that says that the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head, that He knew what it's like to be consumed and not comforted. That's what that scripture says. And that He'll be there for you. Another person said, you know what? I've had enough of this character-building stuff. I want some blessing, okay? I've got enough character. Just bless me now, all right? You ever feel like that? But character is an ongoing thing. Someone came up after the first service, he's in his 60s, he said, you know, I'm still learning what you're talking about. I'm still growing in character. Here's nine character traits you can measure yourself by. They're called the fruits of the Spirit. Let's read them together. From Galatians 5.22. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and everyone's favorite, self-control. How does God build these characters? How does God build these character traits in your life? Well, you might want to miss everything else, but catch this. God builds these into your life by putting you in the exact opposite situations of those character qualities. So for example, if you need to grow in the character quality of love, then God's not going to surround you with nice, wonderful, lovey people like you. He's going to put people around you who are goofy and abrasive and unlovely. I mean, you can put any name on them you want to. They might be sitting right next to you just now, so be careful. You might have to go home with them. But it's who God wants you to learn to love with. When God wants to bring joy into your life, is everything going to go your way? No, you're going to face some stress and some tears and some grief. And when God wants to build peace, is everything going to be like, well, let's just go out and up into the mountains and fly fish and just like, doesn't get any better than this. You know, just really chill. No, you're going to be in situations that create chaos. And you're going to be at home someday and the phone's going to ring and the doorbell's going to ring and the kids are going to cry and someone's going to show up at the door and the dog's going to blow up lunch and the whole thing. And you're going to say, God, I can't deal with this anymore. That's where God brings his peace. How about patience? How does God teach you patience? That's right. Long, long lines, you know? Isn't that where you learn patience? It's not by getting at the front line. It's like when you've gone 90 miles an hour on the turnpike to get off at exit four and then the cars are backed up 48 deep. You say, what did I do that for? Because God's teaching you patience. Patience. He wants you to learn sometimes, no matter what you try to do to control things, you're going to just have to wait. How many of you look at the lines and decide which one's the shortest and that's the one you go to? And then the cashier's saying, oh, error on line 14. And you know, it's all over, you know? And then the supervisor's out to lunch and you watch all these people. Well, what's God doing? He's teaching you patience. You see, you can't say that you're pure unless you have temptations to sin. You can't say that you're honest without an opportunity to be dishonest. God's cultivating character in you. The next thing you need to understand is what will be the contribution of my life? Wow, some of you are so talented. I'm amazed by the talent that's in our church. Some of you are moderately talented. Some of you are challenged. Just kidding. There's a lot of talent here. Every one of you, as I said earlier, has a gift from the Lord. But God wants you to take it beyond something you just use to build your own net worth. He wants you to impact the world. And I know that's a bold statement, but do you believe that? Do you believe God wants you to somehow impact the world? And I want you to know that it may not be a dramatic thing. I read a story this week in preparing for the message about an usher. We've got some, where are our ushers today? Just put your hand up. Our little ushers back in the back, always faithfully waiting for their... I read about an usher, who some years ago saw two young boys looking for a seat in a tent meeting. And there weren't any seats to be found. And he saw them turn to leave the meeting and they were going to head back out and just leave the premises. And the usher went after him and said, wait, I'll find you a seat. He walked down and had a couple of people move and sat them in the second row. End of the service, both of those boys gave their hearts to Christ. One you may not have heard of, his name was Grady Wilson. The other one you probably did hear of, his name was Billy Graham. And he's gone on rather to become the probably most widely known minister of the gospel in the last century. Do you think that usher will have a reward for serving the Lord and bringing Billy Graham to a place where he could receive? I believe he will. You see, it all works. You never know when that small little act of service, that little kindness that you show, that extra effort that you put forth, might impact someone eternally. And that's a contribution. God's answer is he made us to use my unique shape to help others, to help others through their needs, through their issues. And your life message might be just to help others become all that God wants them to be. I'm amazed at how God uses people to do things I would never think of. We have a go-givers ministry that helps people in practical ways. A seniors ministry that helps seniors who are fighting with loneliness and feeling some isolation. We've got a great cell ministry that helps people get all these different things. But people get effective because they follow their shape. Now listen, there might be some things you wanna do that you're really not gifted to do. I'd like to sing more, but I'm not really, people don't wanna hear me sing more. So that's fine, okay? I get it, I hear the message. And my microphone's not on, that's a clear message. But that's just not my shape. And it might not be your shape. Find where you're gifted and then flow with that. Look at Ephesians 2.10. It's God himself has made us what we are and has given us new lives from Christ Jesus. And long ago, he planned that we should spend these lives in helping others. See, in the end, it's all down to this one question. Will you be a giver or a taker? You know, that is so stark that I wonder if it just goes over our heads. The key to abundant living, friends, is abundant giving. We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give away. I've noticed in Pittsburgh, there are no statues to people who hoarded things and got rich. There are statues to people who served the community, who gave and made opportunities for others. You know, normally, our testimony time, when we have people come up who've gone through a difficulty in seeing God's faithfulness and it's not that this person doesn't have their struggles like we all do, but I want you today to hear a brief testimony from a brother who's learned his shape and how God wants to use him to make a contribution that's really changing our church. Give a warm welcome to Bob Zontz as he comes up right now to share his testimony. Come on, Bob. I want to point out as Bob comes, you know, it's just been, what, not even four years that you've been here, is that right? It was after this building, so Bob's not been here for ages and ages, but just recently, and yet, he's making a major contribution. Go ahead and share with us. Thanks. Well, good morning. Susie asked me to share for a few moments about my journey in Christ. I presented she and Pastor Jay with more than just a few words, so it's probably no surprise to anybody that knows me, so we cut back by three quarters of it, including the reference to the Muppets, and here we go. Anyway, my life in Christ truly has been a journey, and one that certainly continues. I wish Cindy were here with me today, as I mentioned in first service, that my daughter, who's six, we found out last night she has strep throat, and so she's home with her, so unfortunately you won't get her input into this today, but hopefully this will reference that. But Cindy and my life together has also been a journey, and one in which the Lord has been gracious to lead us into areas of ministry that only he could have intended. I'm not here to say that the ride has always been easy, and that there's not occasions where we really don't understand why things are happening the way they are. However, we are continuing to learn to be obedient and to trust in the Lord. About three years ago after the door had closed for us to continue working with the teen ministry due to my job requiring more overnight travel, Cindy and I discussed the fact that although we were getting to meet some folks here at North Way, perhaps it'd be beneficial that we join a cell group. We approached Pastor Scott inquiring how to even start a cell group, and on a side note, I'd like to thank God for Pastor Scott, not only for becoming a Christian mentor for me in many ways, but for becoming a very special friend to me and my family and just demonstrating that love of Christ in his life. Anyway, our cell group started and Cindy and I absolutely fell in love with the cell group concept, which in essence is really living out Matthew 28, 19. Go and make disciples of all nations. In addition, we pray that just as Jesus met with his disciples and then sent them out to make more disciples, that with our focus on Christ-centered relationships, that we would go ahead and multiply and be able to go out and reach others that were desiring the same thing. Interestingly enough, after we were becoming involved more in a cell group, a few things transpired. The Lord was leading Cindy into kids' ministry. Pastor Scott had asked us if we would be interested in taking a role as cell coaches in the North Zone, and the opportunity arose then for me to be able to transfer back into another division within our company that would eliminate any of the overnights. We began to see God's hand on everything that was transpiring, and again, we continued to pray that wherever he wanted us to go, we would go. Since then, God has opened the door, for whatever reason, for me to be appointed as an elder, providing me the privilege of serving alongside great cell leaders and coaches, getting to meet wonderful folks in discovery classes, and probably some of you out there, and see how God has further led Cindy into the kids' ministry, where she's now here on staff. I only mention these portions of our journey in Christ simply to stress one thing, which is the most important thing. Jesus says in the Bible, follow me. He also says, abide in me. If you get anything out of the time that we have this morning with me, please let it be this. Have the burning desire to follow Jesus. He loves you and I so much, and his desire is to have an incredibly intimate relationship with us. We have that desire. We want nothing more than to focus on him, to surrender, and to commit our life to him and to him alone. Oswald Chambers mentions in the devotion