July 14, 2019 Coming Home: Finding Purpose
Scripture: Matthew 4: 18-25
So today we’re continuing our sermon series called “Homecoming.” And along the way, we’ve been asking the question, “What do we find when we come ‘home’ to life with Jesus? When we choose to take a step closer to God, what do we discover? Last week we looked at the Parable of the Prodigal Son and discovered that we find extravagant love. Regardless of our histories, our failures, our habits and our mistakes, we find a God who is waiting to embrace us with love. And that’s a tremendous gift. But coming home doesn’t stop with love. God loves us, then out of that love calls us to a different way of life. Today we turn our attention to another Gospel- the Gospel of Matthew- where we discover a Savior who is waiting to fill our life with purpose. I invite you to turn with me to Matthew 4.
You know, I’ve preached for the better part of a decade and one thing has never changed: coming up with something to say that honors your time and glorifies God is both exciting and extremely intimidating. There are days I sit for hours waiting for just the right inspiration. Your time and attention are valuable gifts and I want to honor your commitment to worshipping by giving you something week in and week out that blesses you, teaches you and generally helps you fully live out your faith. And sometimes that inspiration comes from the most unlikely of places…like this book. This is a children’s book called “The Three Trees.” Joanna and I received this as a wedding gift from the pastor who married us. It was one of the stranger gifts we received, but over time, the message in this little book has been just what we needed. (Summarize story)
What I love about this children’s story is that it’s all about purpose. These three trees had their lives planned out and knew exactly what they wanted to do and be when they grew older- something we know a thing or two about. It wasn’t long after we started school that well-meaning adults began to ask us about purpose. What do you want to be when you grow up? What do you want to do with your life? And we spend the greater parts of our lives and exorbitant amounts of time and money trying to answer those question based upon this human yearning for purpose. Every single human has this God-given desire to live a life full of meaning and purpose, to make an impact, and we know that without purpose, without our lives contributing to something greater than ourselves, we’ll remain somewhat incomplete.
I did a few Google searches this week and found some numbers that are pretty interesting in regards to the lifelong pursuit of purpose. Did you know that today the average college graduate leaves college with about $37,000 of debt? That’s a pretty steep price to pay for four years that may or may not lead to job and life satisfaction. I can’t even tell you what I was thinking about as an 18 year-old freshman. I’m sure I paid more attention to my female classmates than I did to these larger questions about life and purpose. Which may be one of the explanations for this next statistic. Did you know that the average adult changes job about 12 times during her or his life? I can’t back this up with any hard data, but I have to assume that at least some of the changes were made with the hope of landing a job that would be more meaningful or at least contribute to the greater good. Now, to switch the conversation a bit, let’s look beyond work and school. Let’s look at relationships, which is another arena in which we long for purpose. Did you know that the average couple spends roughly $30,000 on their wedding day, not including their honeymoon? That’s a lot of money committed to a big day, especially when you consider the alarming number of marriages that sputter and eventually fall apart. According to the CDC, there are over 780,000 divorces every year. Well, we could spend all day churning out numbers, but I think you get the point. Humans long for meaning and purpose and we’re usually willing to do whatever it takes to find them. But along the way we discover, like the trees in the story we’ve just read, is that the One who gives us purpose and meaning- Jesus- usually finds us first. But before we talk what our purpose is, we need to first jump over a few hurdles that could potentially keep us from fully living into that purpose.
Now, most of Jesus early ministry begins in a region known as Galilee, which is where Matthew begins this story. I thought you might be interested in seeing this on a map. Galilee, as you can see, is a north of Jerusalem, where you would expect to see Jesus do most of his work. Jesus was born just south of Jerusalem in Bethlehem but then quickly traveled north to his parent’s hometown of Nazareth. And presumably, that’s where Jesus spent the bulk of his life. Why is this significant? Because as one person put it, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Matthew describes the Galilee region as a place of darkness and in need of light. It carried a bit of reputation, not because there were more problems in Galilee, but mostly because Galilee wasn’t Jerusalem. Jerusalem was the cultural epicenter in those days, where all the really important decisions were made. Jerusalem was a place of prominence, power and wealth. And Galilee was none of those. It was the most unlikely of places for Jesus to inaugurate a ministry that would forever transform the world, but it becomes the place Jesus intentionally chooses. I wonder how many of us feel like we’re living in Galilee, and if we could just find change our zip code, we’d find what we’re looking for? Isn’t this the story of the Prodigal Son? Everything he wanted and needed was in his own backyard, but he thought he had to go “out there” to get it? Right here in Dubois, God has made his home among us. Right here in our own town, God is on the move, bringing light to dark places. And one of the first hurdles we need to jump over when we come home to life with Jesus is that we can be part of God’s grand story right here.
As Matthew continues the story, Jesus bumps in to a group of hardworking fishermen. They’re blue-collar type of people, people who have settled down and made a living working the waters. But when they hear Jesus’ invitation to follow, they go. Immediately. They simply drop their nets, step out of their boats and leave behind the only life they’ve ever known to follow. This is also a bit unexpected. We don’t read anything about the giftedness and qualifications of Peter, Andrew, James and John. We just see Jesus inviting fishermen to follow. It’s appropriate to ask: What was it that Jesus saw in them? Were they skilled in preaching? That’s doubtful. Were they educated? Probably not. Did they have any qualifications that would deem them worthy of walking with Jesus? No. And maybe that’s the point. I wonder how many of us ask those “worthiness” type questions when it comes to God-given purpose? Are we the type of people that can be difference makers? Are we the type of people that can transform the world? Is there anything about us that God would look at and say, “I need YOU!” Probably not. And that’s what makes this invitation so noteworthy. Jesus invites us as we are and shapes us into who we need to be. When we come home to life with Christ, we see every inadequacy, every weakness, every limitation, everything we are not, but we also find a God who looks beyond our present realties and into a future identity that only He can gift, empower and create. The second hurdle we need to jump over is us. If we are willing, God will make us into what he wants us to be.
So that leaves one final question to consider. What exactly is our God-given purpose? And the answer is simply this: We are called to follow Jesus and do what Jesus does. Before we are ever asked to do anything, we are asked to simply follow. Our primary calling is not to a what but a who. Our calling and our purpose is Jesus. He is the only one who will fill our hearts and satisfy our souls. He is the only one who helps make any sense of this world gone wild. And as we follow, we begin to notice something springing up in our lives. Hope. Joy. Healing. Life And then all of sudden we realize that’s what Jesus came to do. His purpose, his mission, is to help every least, last and lost person on this planet find hope, joy and life. Listen again to these words: “Jesus went throughout Galilee…proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people.” If you ask me, that’s why those fishermen jumped out of the boat that day, to join Jesus in bringing hope to the world.
I think that’s our calling friends. I think that’s the invitation that awaits our response. Bring some hope to the world. Bring some to Galilee. Take some to Jerusalem. Offer some hope in Dubois. Wherever you are and whatever you do, you are invited to come home, to drop the whatever net you’re holding on to and join Jesus on his mission of setting the world free from brokenness and strife and sin. And if you ask me, I think this mission is more important now than ever before. “Come, and follow me,” says Jesus. Let’s follow. Amen.
Scripture: Matthew 4: 18-25
So today we’re continuing our sermon series called “Homecoming.” And along the way, we’ve been asking the question, “What do we find when we come ‘home’ to life with Jesus? When we choose to take a step closer to God, what do we discover? Last week we looked at the Parable of the Prodigal Son and discovered that we find extravagant love. Regardless of our histories, our failures, our habits and our mistakes, we find a God who is waiting to embrace us with love. And that’s a tremendous gift. But coming home doesn’t stop with love. God loves us, then out of that love calls us to a different way of life. Today we turn our attention to another Gospel- the Gospel of Matthew- where we discover a Savior who is waiting to fill our life with purpose. I invite you to turn with me to Matthew 4.
You know, I’ve preached for the better part of a decade and one thing has never changed: coming up with something to say that honors your time and glorifies God is both exciting and extremely intimidating. There are days I sit for hours waiting for just the right inspiration. Your time and attention are valuable gifts and I want to honor your commitment to worshipping by giving you something week in and week out that blesses you, teaches you and generally helps you fully live out your faith. And sometimes that inspiration comes from the most unlikely of places…like this book. This is a children’s book called “The Three Trees.” Joanna and I received this as a wedding gift from the pastor who married us. It was one of the stranger gifts we received, but over time, the message in this little book has been just what we needed. (Summarize story)
What I love about this children’s story is that it’s all about purpose. These three trees had their lives planned out and knew exactly what they wanted to do and be when they grew older- something we know a thing or two about. It wasn’t long after we started school that well-meaning adults began to ask us about purpose. What do you want to be when you grow up? What do you want to do with your life? And we spend the greater parts of our lives and exorbitant amounts of time and money trying to answer those question based upon this human yearning for purpose. Every single human has this God-given desire to live a life full of meaning and purpose, to make an impact, and we know that without purpose, without our lives contributing to something greater than ourselves, we’ll remain somewhat incomplete.
I did a few Google searches this week and found some numbers that are pretty interesting in regards to the lifelong pursuit of purpose. Did you know that today the average college graduate leaves college with about $37,000 of debt? That’s a pretty steep price to pay for four years that may or may not lead to job and life satisfaction. I can’t even tell you what I was thinking about as an 18 year-old freshman. I’m sure I paid more attention to my female classmates than I did to these larger questions about life and purpose. Which may be one of the explanations for this next statistic. Did you know that the average adult changes job about 12 times during her or his life? I can’t back this up with any hard data, but I have to assume that at least some of the changes were made with the hope of landing a job that would be more meaningful or at least contribute to the greater good. Now, to switch the conversation a bit, let’s look beyond work and school. Let’s look at relationships, which is another arena in which we long for purpose. Did you know that the average couple spends roughly $30,000 on their wedding day, not including their honeymoon? That’s a lot of money committed to a big day, especially when you consider the alarming number of marriages that sputter and eventually fall apart. According to the CDC, there are over 780,000 divorces every year. Well, we could spend all day churning out numbers, but I think you get the point. Humans long for meaning and purpose and we’re usually willing to do whatever it takes to find them. But along the way we discover, like the trees in the story we’ve just read, is that the One who gives us purpose and meaning- Jesus- usually finds us first. But before we talk what our purpose is, we need to first jump over a few hurdles that could potentially keep us from fully living into that purpose.
Now, most of Jesus early ministry begins in a region known as Galilee, which is where Matthew begins this story. I thought you might be interested in seeing this on a map. Galilee, as you can see, is a north of Jerusalem, where you would expect to see Jesus do most of his work. Jesus was born just south of Jerusalem in Bethlehem but then quickly traveled north to his parent’s hometown of Nazareth. And presumably, that’s where Jesus spent the bulk of his life. Why is this significant? Because as one person put it, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Matthew describes the Galilee region as a place of darkness and in need of light. It carried a bit of reputation, not because there were more problems in Galilee, but mostly because Galilee wasn’t Jerusalem. Jerusalem was the cultural epicenter in those days, where all the really important decisions were made. Jerusalem was a place of prominence, power and wealth. And Galilee was none of those. It was the most unlikely of places for Jesus to inaugurate a ministry that would forever transform the world, but it becomes the place Jesus intentionally chooses. I wonder how many of us feel like we’re living in Galilee, and if we could just find change our zip code, we’d find what we’re looking for? Isn’t this the story of the Prodigal Son? Everything he wanted and needed was in his own backyard, but he thought he had to go “out there” to get it? Right here in Dubois, God has made his home among us. Right here in our own town, God is on the move, bringing light to dark places. And one of the first hurdles we need to jump over when we come home to life with Jesus is that we can be part of God’s grand story right here.
As Matthew continues the story, Jesus bumps in to a group of hardworking fishermen. They’re blue-collar type of people, people who have settled down and made a living working the waters. But when they hear Jesus’ invitation to follow, they go. Immediately. They simply drop their nets, step out of their boats and leave behind the only life they’ve ever known to follow. This is also a bit unexpected. We don’t read anything about the giftedness and qualifications of Peter, Andrew, James and John. We just see Jesus inviting fishermen to follow. It’s appropriate to ask: What was it that Jesus saw in them? Were they skilled in preaching? That’s doubtful. Were they educated? Probably not. Did they have any qualifications that would deem them worthy of walking with Jesus? No. And maybe that’s the point. I wonder how many of us ask those “worthiness” type questions when it comes to God-given purpose? Are we the type of people that can be difference makers? Are we the type of people that can transform the world? Is there anything about us that God would look at and say, “I need YOU!” Probably not. And that’s what makes this invitation so noteworthy. Jesus invites us as we are and shapes us into who we need to be. When we come home to life with Christ, we see every inadequacy, every weakness, every limitation, everything we are not, but we also find a God who looks beyond our present realties and into a future identity that only He can gift, empower and create. The second hurdle we need to jump over is us. If we are willing, God will make us into what he wants us to be.
So that leaves one final question to consider. What exactly is our God-given purpose? And the answer is simply this: We are called to follow Jesus and do what Jesus does. Before we are ever asked to do anything, we are asked to simply follow. Our primary calling is not to a what but a who. Our calling and our purpose is Jesus. He is the only one who will fill our hearts and satisfy our souls. He is the only one who helps make any sense of this world gone wild. And as we follow, we begin to notice something springing up in our lives. Hope. Joy. Healing. Life And then all of sudden we realize that’s what Jesus came to do. His purpose, his mission, is to help every least, last and lost person on this planet find hope, joy and life. Listen again to these words: “Jesus went throughout Galilee…proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people.” If you ask me, that’s why those fishermen jumped out of the boat that day, to join Jesus in bringing hope to the world.
I think that’s our calling friends. I think that’s the invitation that awaits our response. Bring some hope to the world. Bring some to Galilee. Take some to Jerusalem. Offer some hope in Dubois. Wherever you are and whatever you do, you are invited to come home, to drop the whatever net you’re holding on to and join Jesus on his mission of setting the world free from brokenness and strife and sin. And if you ask me, I think this mission is more important now than ever before. “Come, and follow me,” says Jesus. Let’s follow. Amen.
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