Sermon Tone Analysis

! Introduction

Have you ever read the things people write on tombstones?

One epitaph I read was “Sir John Strange, Here lies an Honest Lawyer, and that is Strange.

In a London cemetery, the date of death was December 8, 1767 and the epitaph read, “Here lies Ann Mann, Who lived an old maid But died an old Mann.”

On the tombstone of her husband's grave, a Southern mountain woman had chiselled in rough and uneven letters this epitaph: "He always appreciated."

J. Kenneth Morris

The Austrian emperor Joseph II wrote his own epitaph: "Here lies a Prince whose intentions were honest but who had the misfortune to see all his projects miscarry."

Andrew Johnson succeeded Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States and inherited the thankless task of reconstruction after the Civil War.

He was often the object of severe criticism and even of ridicule.

Few chief executives have known such stormy days in the White House, and there was even an effort to have him impeached.

Against that background we can appreciate more fully the words on his tombstone at Greeneville, Tennessee: "His Faith in the People Never Wavered." - Robert C. Shannon

            A number of years ago, Stephen Covey's book, Seven Habits for Highly Effective People became a best seller.

In that book, he asks the question, "What would I like to see written on my tombstone?"

Wouldn’t it be great to be given the epitaph from Jesus in Matthew 25:21, “Well done, good and faithful servant!”

Another book that has become a best seller recently is The Purpose Driven Life written by Rick Warren who is pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California.

If we care about the epitaph written at the end of our life, then we will have to live in such a way as to achieve whatever we hope will be written.

We will need to live with purpose and this book helps us think along that direction.

It is a great book on the basics of the Christian life, an excellent expression of what is essential in living the way God wants us to live.

Today and then for four Sunday’s after Mother’s day, which is next week, we will examine this book and I trust will be encouraged to live our lives with purpose.

I want to encourage you to read the book and, in the messages, I will reflect on some of the key thoughts in the book.

As we examine life with purpose, I pray that we will all change in some way as we seek to discover the purpose for which God has created us.

!

I. Purpose

The question, and it is a significant question, which is asked in this book is, “How do you live your life?”

!! A. What Drives Your Life?

I have heard of people who walk out the door one day at the beginning of their vacation and decide to take a drive without having any kind of a plan.

I doubt if someone can really do that purely.

There is always something that determines the directions we take.

Some people seem to live their life at random, but there is always something that inclines us to make the decisions we make.

What drives your life?

Why do you make the choices you make?

In Chapter 3 Warren asks, this question and supplies some possible answers.

He recognizes that some people are driven by guilt, some by resentment and anger, some by fear, some by materialism and some by a need for approval.

Whatever drives us impacts every decision we make.

If we stay with the metaphor of driving, if we are driven by materialism, it will be very important that we own an expensive car.

If we are driven by a need for approval, we will have a car that is “hot.”

If we are driven by resentment and anger, then the other people on the road better watch out for us and it is scary driving behind people who are driven by fear.

We are all driven by something and whatever it is has an impact on our whole life.

!! B. What About God’s Purposes?

Last week, when I attended a seminar put on by the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, I learned something new.

The speaker made a distinction between values and principles.

He said that values come from what we value.

We set a value on things and we live according to that set of values that come from our own thinking.

On the other hand, he talked about principles as truths that come from God.

We do not determine principles, they are revealed by God and we are called to live according to them.

If we live by values, we are like the world - self-determining - and the things that drive us come from within us.

If we live by principles, we are living by the purposes God has for us.

Does God have a purpose for us?

A key verse that reveals that God does have a purpose is found in Ephesians 1:11, 12.

There we read, “In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory.”

Notice that in this passage there are five words that indicate that God has a purpose for us.

The five words are: “we were also chosen,” “having been predestined,” “according to the plan,” “conformity with the purpose of his will,” and “we…might be for the praise of his glory.”

God has chosen us.

He has a plan by which he intends to accomplish his purposes.

He works out his plan.

He has made us for the praise of His glory.

For those of you who are familiar with the “Four Spiritual Principles” which Campus Crusade has published, you know that the beginning of that presentation of the gospel says, “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.”

This is the point that Warren makes in these chapters.

In chapter one he says, “You were made by God and for God.”

In Chapter two he says, “You are alive because God wanted to create you.”

God has a purpose for our life.

!! C. Why Follow God’s Purpose?

Yet many people do not live by God’s purpose.

It seems easier, or more natural somehow to live by our own values.

Why should we consider living by God’s purposes?

There are two reasons that come quickly to mind.

The first is that God is creator.

He has made us and as the one who has made us, He knows what is best for us.

How many of you have opened a paint can with a screw driver?

I remember being told that you should never use a screwdriver as a paint can opener.

It was not intended for that use and using it that way could ruin its usefulness as a screwdriver.

Lately I have been trying to dig out a stump in our front yard.

My son helped me and as we were chopping the roots with an axe, he was wondering how a chain saw would work.

I suspect that if I asked to borrow your chain saw for this purpose, you would be reluctant to loan it to me.

It would get ruined because it is not made to dig in the dirt.

In the same way, God created us to fulfill the purposes he has for us.

If we live by our own purposes instead of those that God has intended for us, we fall far short of what the creator intended to be the best use of our life, which He knows because He is our creator.

A second reason to live according to God’s purposes is because He loves us.

John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world…” Romans 5:8 says, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

The love of God is really the crux of the matter but do we trust that God loves us?

As a parent will want only the best for his or her child, so God wants the best for us.

Do you believe that?

If we do, we will know that a life lived according to God’s purposes will be the best kind of life.

Another way of saying this is, as Warren does, that God’s love is shown because when we follow God’s purposes it gives meaning to our life, it simplifies our life according to Isaiah 26:3 which says, “You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you.”

He also says it focuses our life, motivates our life and prepares us for eternity.

!! D. What Are God’s Purposes?

So what are the purposes God has for us?

As we study this book we will discover that there are five purposes which God has for us.

We will look at the first one today and then from May 16-June 6 we will look at the other four, one each Sunday.

God’s purposes are:

#1 You Were Planned For God’s Pleasure.

#2 You Were Formed For God’s Family

#3 You Were Created To Become Like Christ

#4 You Were Shaped For Serving God

#5 You Were Made For A Mission

!

II.

Purpose #1 - You Were Planned For God’s Pleasure

            The first purpose - “you were planned for God’s pleasure” is expressed in Scripture as the greatest commandment in Matthew 22:37 which says, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”

God’s purpose is that we live to worship him.

Myron Augsburger says, “To love is to open one’s life intimately to that of another.

To open one’s life to God means to open one’s heart or affection to Him, to open one’s soul or ambition to Him, to open one’s mind or attitudes to Him, to open one’s strength or activity to Him, and to open one’s self to what God is doing in the neighbour, be he friend or enemy!”