Finding Our Purpose In Life -- The Context

 There’s an old expression: let’s not try to reinvent the wheel. It means: someone in the past came up with a workable way of doing something, so let’s just do things like they did instead of spending time trying to find a different way.

It may just be my rebellious spirit, but that’s not how my mind works. I’m always thinking: is there a better way? Can we improve an idea or a process? Can I edit what I’ve written to say it more clearly.

Most everything we use today is the result of someone saying: There’s got to be a better way of doing this?

What necessitates change in how we do things? We want to do something faster, more efficiently, safer, with more power. We need to do something better. Need becomes our motivation for change.

Plato first said: “our need will be the real creator.” This was the source of the proverb: 'Necessity is the mother of invention'. Which says new ways of doing things are found or created when there is a strong and special need to do so.

If what you’re doing isn’t meeting that need, you should change what you’re doing. If what you’re using isn’t accomplishing the task, you should change what you’re using. If the way you’re going isn’t getting you where you need to go, you should change your direction. Need looks at what is and asks, “Is there a better way to do this?”

It could be that what worked in the past may not work any longer. Or it may be so inadequate that it seems archaic. Like using methods that once got the job done but would be seen as barbaric today.

I was sitting in the dentist’s chair the other day and there was a picture on the wall of the old drill used back when I was a kid. My dentist used to call it Woody Woodpecker. It was crude and intrusive. It shook your whole head when he drilled out a cavity. Antique by today’s standards but modern back then. Before that it was chisels and hammers. Or even hand drills and rocks. Remember those, Max?

I’m so glad that today they use high-speed rotary tools that make quick work of an unpleasant treatment.

James B. Morrison patented the first pedal driven dental drill in 1871. It turned at 600 to 800 rpm. On January 26, 1875, the first electric dental drill was patented by George Green. This revolutionized dentistry by getting speeds up to a rumbling 2000 rpm. Then, in the 50s, a new drill, using compressed air, was created that increased speeds to 200,000 rpm. Modern drills now turn at over 600,000 rpm.

What if these guys had lived by the adage: let’s not try to reinvent the wheel? It was good enough in the past, let’s just keep on using it. No, they looked at how they were doing dentistry and said: we can do this a better way.

I’ve heard it in churches by lazy leaders. “Hey, this program worked at this other church. Let’s not reinvent the wheel. Let’s just do what they did and ask the Lord to bless it.” I hear those words and shutter.

Why? It sounds so practical. Look at how successful they were back then. Look at how God moved among them. Yes, He did back then. But God isn’t back there any longer. He’s right here in this moment. He doesn’t work in the past. He works in the present.

Isa 43:18  Do not call to mind the former things, Or ponder things of the past. 19 Behold, I will do something new, Now it will spring forth; Will you not be aware of it? I will even make a roadway in the wilderness, Rivers in the desert. 20 The beasts of the field will glorify Me, The jackals and the ostriches, Because I have given waters in the wilderness And rivers in the desert, To give drink to My chosen people. 21 The people whom I formed for Myself Will declare My praise. 

Giving water to the wilderness is a special moment. Deserts live on very little water. They can go years with little to no moisture. Annual rainfall in Las Vegas is 3” a year. But then, a sudden rain can come and things pop out all over. Flowers, cactus, sagebrush. It’s like being in a new place. The desert comes alive. It’s a new thing in an old setting.

So, what was the Lord saying through Isaiah? My plan has a scheduled change built in. It will be something new. It will be like Me pouring water onto a desert. You’ll see things you’ve never seen before. Dead things will come alive. It will result in praise from My people. Which means they will see what I’m doing as a good thing.

God gave Ezekiel a vision like that: Eze 37:1  The hand of the LORD was upon me, and He brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of the valley; and it was full of bones. 2 He caused me to pass among them round about, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley; and lo, they were very dry. 3 He said to me, "Son of man, can these bones live?" And I answered, "O Lord GOD, You know." 4 Again He said to me, "Prophesy over these bones and say to them, 'O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD.' 5 Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones, 'Behold, I will cause breath to enter you that you may come to life. 6 I will put sinews on you, make flesh grow back on you, cover you with skin and put breath in you that you may come alive; and you will know that I am the LORD.'" 7 So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold, a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to its bone. 8 And I looked, and behold, sinews were on them, and flesh grew and skin covered them; but there was no breath in them. 9 Then He said to me, "Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, 'Thus says the Lord GOD, "Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they come to life." 10 So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they came to life and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army. 11 Then He said to me, "Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel; behold, they say, 'Our bones are dried up and our hope has perished. We are completely cut off.' 12 Therefore prophesy and say to them, 'Thus says the Lord GOD, "Behold, I will open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves, My people; and I will bring you into the land of Israel. 13 Then you will know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves and caused you to come up out of your graves, My people. 14 I will put My Spirit within you and you will come to life, and I will place you on your own land. Then you will know that I, the LORD, have spoken and done it," declares the LORD.'" 

The miracle of something new wasn’t reconnecting the dead bones. Archeologists do that every day. It wasn’t resupplying the fleshy parts. That just made them look like they used to. Restoring the breath was a necessary step in making them alive again. The miracle of something new was the Lord putting His Spirit inside them. That was something new.

Prior to that moment God was with His people. Now, He would be in them. He was among them. Now He would indwell them. Not just doing things for them but doing things through them. Jesus told His disciples that day was coming: John 14:16 I will ask the Father and He will give you another Helper that He may be with you forever; 17 that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.

It was the new thing He had put into His plan. His people would now be able to live as He intended and to do what He wanted done because He would provide everything necessary for them to be able to do so. All they had to provide was the willingness to obey. Obedience aligns us with the will of the Master.

Remember: “God’s purpose for our lives is to be where we are to be, when we are to be there, doing what we are to be doing, the way God wants it done, and doing it all for His glory.”

Where – abiding

When – timing

What – serving

The way God wants it done:

·       As He wants it done

·       Using the resources He gives

·       Energized by the power He provides

As He wants it done.

A word in Scripture for being assigned a job is entrusted. We’re technically not given the job; we are entrusted with the job. We are assigned a task or series of tasks by which we accomplish a purpose. We are entrusted with the responsibility of getting the job done.

Entrust means: to set before someone, or deposit something with someone else. One is assigning tasks, the other to manage a deposit. A service or a stewardship.

If it is a matter of service, the master sets before his servant a work to be done. As we might for someone who works for us. We entrust the cleaning of our house to them. We entrust the mowing of our lawn to them. We entrust the delivery of our food to them.

If it is a matter of stewardship, we deposit with them something of value that they are responsible to care for. We entrust our money for them to manage. We entrust our household goods for them to keep safe. We entrust our family to make sure no harm comes to them.

Entrusted is being given the responsibility to do with something what the person entrusting it wants done. The servant is held accountable for what the Master expects.

That is our directive from God to do what we are doing the way God wants it done.

If you hire a painter to paint your house, he doesn’t have the right to tell you how he wants the job done. Paint the house blue. But he paints it green. You are naturally upset. What’s it matter? I painted the house, didn’t I? It matters because with the assignment came the expectation that the result would be what you wanted done the way you wanted it. The ultimate goal isn’t the job but pleasing the master.

Col 1:10  Walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects,

God is pleased when we do His work as He wants it done. He is also pleased when we use the resources He gives.

It is the responsibility of the Master to provide the servant the tools necessary to do his assigned job.

You tell your servant: I need you to hurry and go to Dallas and hand deliver this contract. Immediately, the servant heads for the door. You ask? What are you doing? I’m going to Dallas. How do you plan on getting there? Running as fast as I can. How about using this ticket I bought you to fly there and here’s my credit card to rent a car and to cover additional expenses.

A good Master not only assigns a job but provides the resources for what it takes to do the job.

2Cor 3:5 Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, 6 who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant,

What does the Master do? He determines the job, assigns the task and then provides the servant with what it takes to do the job.

What does that mean in church?

1Cor 12:4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5 And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord. 6 There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons. 7 But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 

Each of us is to serve the common good. To do so, we need to connect with the ultimate Good – God’s intentions. We’re not to decide what we think is good, but find the will of the Master. To do so, we are given gifts by the Spirit, abilities that make us able to serve or minister according to the way the Lord wants to use us, so that God might accomplish His unique results through us. The gift is the evidence we are equipped to serve in the best interest of the Father, able to accomplish His will His way. His way requires the gift and ability be energized by a power we don’t possess within our own strength. It is a spiritual resource that must be: Energized by the power He provides.

1Pet 4:10 As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. 11 Whoever speaks, is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God; whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever.  

The special gift is that ability – the resource – to do what the Father calls us to do. The gift matches the job. It may be a sanctified, natural ability or a supernatural ability. But because the gift fits within the context of God’s work, it requires supernatural strength to exercise.

God is not simply saying do the best you can with what you bring into the moment. He’s saying, “Do what I want done, the way I want it done, which requires these resources. And for those resources, here’s the power you’ll need.”

Col 1:10 Walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience.

The strength to do what God wants done requires power we don’t naturally have. Which takes us back to Isaiah’s insight into what God was planning: Isa 43:19 Behold, I will do something new,

Attach that insight with the prophecy of Ezekiel, and you see that God was planning, at some time in the future, to not only restore a dislocated people to place them back in their Promised Land – which was fulfilled in 1948 when Israel was declared a nation again – but also to do a new work for all of His people which He did at Pentecost in the 1^st century. What He declared to be coming is now the means by which He accomplishes mighty things in us, taking dead and disconnected lives and put them together again, then infill them with the power of His presence.

Not just returning life to us, but infusing that life with the power to live for Him.

Eph 2:1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins…4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 

Eph 1:18 what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might 20 which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenlies. That’s the new thing.

Bringing us from death to life, darkness to light, unrighteousness to righteousness, ungodliness to godliness, hopelessness to hope, weakness to strength.

To do that He takes us from where we were or even where we are now, to where He wants us to be. Not just wanting to make our lives better but to give us new life. Then to energize that life with strength only He can give by His Spirit indwelling us, not to resupply the old strength but give us new strength for a new life, a new life that makes the old life obsolete, even archaic. A life that now cooperates with what God is doing rather than rebels against it.

That means each day I wake up, God provides strength for the day. It will be enough for what I need to make it through, to do what needs to be done, to please Him is all respects, because I am strengthened with His power in my life.

Isa 40:31 Those who wait for the LORD Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary.

The strength I had yesterday isn’t sufficient for today. It’s gone. I need new strength so I can serve my Master today, the way He wants to be served, using the resources He gives, energized by the power He provides.

We’re not expected to reinvent the wheel. Instead, we are to live by the promise: Phil 4:13 I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. Which has a context: He determines the job, assigns the task and then provides us with what it takes to do the job.

TAKEAWAYS:

1. Serving the Lord is not optional for Children of God, but there is a context to our serving.
2. The Lord provides the way we are to serve, the resources needed and the strength to do the job. 
3. By staying within that context, we please Him.
4. And from His pleasure come the abundance of His blessings.