Live To Serve
March 25, 2007
Part 5 of Lent 2007 Hopewell series on The Purpose Driven Life
Is there a purpose to life?
Does life have purpose and meaning?
If so – what is it?
What is the purpose of life?
Why are we here?
More specifically – what is the purpose of my life?
Why am I here?
Is there something that can give meaning to my life?
Am I here for a purpose?
Did God have a purpose in putting me here?
Questions of purpose and meaning have haunted people since the beginning of time.
As Christians, we can say
“Yes –life has a purpose –
Yes –life has meaning.”
We can say:
“Yes – my life has a purpose –
Yes – my life has meaning.”
“Yes – God has put me here for a purpose.”
Lent – the 6 weeks before Holy Week and Easter — has historically been a time Christians have devoted themselves to reflection upon Christ’s sacrifice for us on the cross – and our response to Christ and His claim upon our lives. We are using Rick Warren’s book The Purpose Driven Life – studying the book itself on Wednesday nights and looking at themes from the book on Sundays – to help us look at what God’s purpose for us might be —
what God might have us to have as a purpose in our lives –
and how we can live in God’s purpose for our lives.
So – what is the purpose for our lives?
4 weeks ago we looked at how we can not find true purpose for our lives in
money
possessions
power
fame
or anything else people might use to find purpose or meaning for their lives when they focus on themselves.
We will never find meaning and purpose for our lives by looking for it within ourselves – what we want – what we might think is good or meaningful.
We will only discover the real meaning and purpose for life when we look to God for His meaning and His purpose for our lives.
Rick Warren — in his book The Purpose Driven Life – outlines 5 purposes for life that God has created us for:
1. Pleasing God
2. Loving others who believe in God
3. Becoming like Christ
4. Serving others with the gifts God has given us
5. Telling others about God
3 weeks ago we looked at the first of these — pleasing God – - and saw how we were created to live lives that are pleasing to God – living lives that are pleasing to God has to be a purpose for our lives.
One of the purposes for our lives is to live to please God.
2 weeks ago we looked at the second of these purposes – loving others who believe in God focusing on the family of believers we know as the Church – and the love God calls us to have for each other.
Another of the purposes for our lives is to love others who believe in God – especially loving members of the Church.
Last week we looked at a third purpose of these purposes – becoming like Christ – and learned how God wants us to be rooted in Him so we can be like Him.
Pleasing God
Loving others who believe in God
Becoming like Christ
3 purposes God has for our lives.
Today I want to look at the 4th of the purposes God has for your life – serving others with the gifts God has given you. If you are going to live out God’s purpose for your life, you need to serve others.
One of the purposes God has for your life is for you to live to serve.
Live to serve.
Listen to how Jesus called the disciples to live their lives in service as we look at Mark 9:30-37.
Read Scripture
The 1st purpose God has for your life is for you to live to please God.
The 2nd purpose God has for your life is for you to live together with others in the Church in a relationship of love and support.
The 3rd purpose God has for your life is for you to live like Christ.
The 4th purpose God has for your life is for you to live to serve.
Live to serve.
What makes people great?
I enjoy reading about people who are considered great – people who made a difference in the world. I read biographies and autobiographies – and sometimes I read magazine articles about people who others consider great – people who have made difference in the world.
One of the articles I read some time ago was about a study The University of Chicago did of leading artists, athletes, and scholars. The research was conducted by Dr. Benjamin Bloom, and was based on anonymous interviews with the top twenty performers in various fields. These people included concert pianists, Olympic athletes, tennis players, sculptors, mathematicians, physicians, and a number of others who have achieved great things. Bloom and his team of researchers from the University of Chicago probed for clues as to how these people developed their skills—even interviewing their families and teachers to see if they could discover any clues to what made these people great.
They found that it was not great talent that made these people achieve what they did — but drive and determination that led to the extraordinary success of these individuals.
Dr. Bloom noted, “We expected to find tales of great natural gifts. We didn’t find that at all. Their mothers often said it was another sibling who had the greater talent.”
What they found were extraordinary accounts of hard work and dedication.
Babe Zeharias was a great female golfer. She was once asked by a reporter how she could hit a golf ball like she did, and she answered:
“Simple, first you hit a thousand golf balls. You hit them until your hands bleed and you can’t hit any more. The next day you start over again and the next day and the next and maybe a year later you might be able to go eighteen holes and after that you play every day until the time finally arrives that you know what you are doing when you hit the ball.”
Discipline.
Determination.
Rocky Blier was a great running back for the Pittsburgh Steelers. A lot of people don’t know that Rocky Blier served in Vietnam several months before he joined the Steelers. While there, one of his feet was crippled by an exploding grenade. One of Rocky Blier’s shoes was half the size of the other because of this injury. He was told he would never play professional football again, but Blier refused to accept that gloomy prediction. Every day he put himself through excruciating pain in order to get his body back into shape. Finally, he became a great football hero with one of the finest professional teams of all time.
Discipline.
Determination.
Such discipline and determination is necessary in every great endeavor. Good pianists practice eight hours a day. Figure skaters are on their skates six hours a day.
Even a self-centered generation knows that self-denial is the path to success.
In another study, when top achievers were asked to rate the factors they consider most important in contributing to their own success, it was hard work that emerged as the highest-rated factor. Not talent or luck—but hard work.
Psychologists followed the careers of violinists studying at the Music Academy of West Berlin. By the time they were 18, the academy’s best students, on average, had already spent about 2,000 more hours in practice than their fellow students. The number of hours spent practicing was the only thing that separated potential music superstars from others who were good, but not top caliber.
Discipline
Determination.
Discipline and determination are 2 key ingredients to worldly success.
But what about success in God’s eyes?
Are discipline and determination all it takes?
While discipline and determination are important, God has one more thing to add – a commitment to use your abilities to serve others.
Be disciplined and determined to develop the gifts God has given you to the best of your ability.
But – also have a commitment to use those gifts to serve others.
Discipline
Determination
Service
One of the purposes God has for your life is for you to live to serve.
Live to serve.
True success comes by working hard – by being disciplined and determined – but it also means serving – working at the right things for the sake of others.
Many people have found that material success is not really all that satisfying. Upward mobility is not necessarily the formula for a peaceful heart or a loving home. So we need to re-examine for a moment Christ’s words when He said:
“If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all”
He’s not talking about Rolex watches at all, is he?
He’s talking about forgetting ourselves for the sake of others.
That is what he did.
That’s what the cross really is all about.
He’s not talking about becoming real go-getters, but real go-givers.
He’s not talking about winning the rat race, but serving the human race.
That’s the kind of self-denial and service He is concerned with.
One of the purposes God has for your life is for you to live to serve.
Live to serve.
Grandma Moses achieved worldly success very late in life. But her name became a household word. And yet when Grandma Moses was asked, at ninety-three, what made her the most proud, she replied:
“The fact that I’ve helped some people.”
The gentle actress, Audrey Hepburn, was a star for many years. In the television homage that followed her death, the focus was not so much on her films, but on her work for the United Nations. It showed her traveling throughout the world as a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF. That work was what she said was her most significant.
God want you to be disciplined and determined in developing your gifts and abilities.
God also wants you use your gifts and abilities to serve others.
Discipline
Determination
Service
One of the purposes God has for your life is for you to live to serve.
Live to serve.
Do you remember the children’s game “king of the hill?”
The object was to get to the top of a hill in any way you could — pushing and shoving others out of your way — pushing others down the hill — and when you reached the top you would proclaim —
“I’m king of the hill!”
Of course — you’d be king until someone pulled or pushed you off the top — then they would be king — until someone pushed them down — and so on until everybody got tired of playing.
King of the hill!
In the so called sport – I believe they call it sports entertainment now – but it really is not really that much of a sport and not really that entertaining – of professional wrestling they have a yearly match called the “king of the ring” match where a number of the wrestlers would be in the ring at the same time and would try to push everyone else over the top rope – while staying in the ring. The “winner” would be “king of the ring”.
King of the hill!
King of the ring!
Jesus caught the disciples arguing about who was king of their group – who was number one – king of their hill – king of their ring.
And – what does Jesus tell them they must be willing to do if they truly want to be great?
Serve.
One of the purposes God has for your life is for you to live to serve.
Live to serve.
Jesus seems to be telling the disciples that — instead of being so concerned over who was number one in the group – who was king of their hill – who was king of their ring — they could make Him number one in their lives — and begin serving others as He did!
They could develop the gifts and abilities God had given them – but use them to serve others.
They could live to serve.
Jesus wanted to change the priorities in the lives of the disciples.
He wanted the disciples to be changed by His love and His salvation – and then He wanted to completely change what was important in their lives.
Jesus wants to change your life with His love. He wants to show you His love and salvation — then completely change you — change what’s important to you — and what’s the most important thing in your life.
He wants you to live to serve.
One of the purposes God has for your life is for you to live to serve.
Live to serve.
If you make Jesus the one you will follow, you won’t be so concerned with being the most important – being king of the hill – being king of the ring.
Instead of looking out for yourself — you can be looking to Jesus — and reach out to others.
Instead of pushing yourself past others, you can push yourself to find new ways to help those in need.
Instead of turning your back on Jesus and those in need, you can follow Jesus and reach out to those in need.
Instead of having discipline and determination to develop your gifts and abilities so everyone can see how great you are, you can have discipline and determination to develop your gifts so you can show others how great Christ is.
Instead of living to be served and noticed by others, you can live to serve.
One of the purposes God has for your life is for you to live to serve.
Live to serve.
Let Jesus lead you to the life where being number one – king of the hill – king of the ring – is not the most important thing – but serving others is.
Let Jesus lead you to a life where He and His will is important — where living in His ways is important to you — where using your gifts and abilities in the best way you can to serve God and others is the number one priority in your life.
Let Jesus lead you to a life where you can live to serve.
Pleasing God
Loving others who believe in God
Becoming like Christ.
Using the gifts God has given you to serve others.
4 purposes God has for your life.
Develop a relationship with God that will help you live a life pleasing to God.
Develop a relationship with God that will help you love those who believe in God – particularly members of the Church.
Develop a relationship with God that will help you become like Christ.
Develop a relationship with God that will help you use your gifts and abilities to serve God and others.
Live to serve.
Amen.
[...] can read the entire sermon here. « The Purpose Driven Life: Day 32– Using What God Gave You [...]
Pingback by Rev Bill » Blog Archive » Sermon: Mark 9:30-37 — March 27, 2007 @ 12:10 am