Sermon:
September 19, 1999

Scripture:
Proverbs 19:21
Genesis 1:11-12

Let us pray: Take my lips and speak through them. Take our thoughts and think through them. Take our hearts and set them on fire with love for you. Unless you speak, nothing of significance will be spoken. Bring us your word, Lord Jesus. Amen.

* * * * *

The greatest tragedy in life is not death, but life not knowing your purpose. And then there's potato salad.

Tony Campolo tells about the black Baptist church he attends in Philadelphia that celebrates student recognition day once a year. After a few students had spoken, the pastor stood and said, "Young people, you may not think you're going to die, but you are. One of these days, they'll take you to the cemetery, drop you in a hole, throw some dirt on your face and go back to the church and eat potato salad."

What a sermon opener! But it's pretty accurate, isn't it? After Tony had preached at the funeral of an inspiring person, someone said to him, "The problem is when you have my funeral, you won't have all those wonderful things to say."

Tony's response was, "Well, you have time to change that. Begin to live now in such a way that I won't be on the spot when I preach your funeral."

Death is not a tragedy if a person's life has been given over to purpose. At your funeral, between bites of potato salad, what do you want folks talking about? Let me say it again: The greatest tragedy in life is not death, but life not knowing your purpose.

What are you living for? Your life needs a purpose. The good news is, you don't have to come up with a purpose for your life! God already has a purpose for you and for your life. The problem is we don't listen to, and thus we cannot even choose to obey God's purpose for our lives.

Are our plans just that: our plans? Or are they our plans based on God's purposes? There are some basic questions in life, and our personal answers may help reveal the source of our input.

1. Who am I? (is important. You need to answer this, or someone else will answer it for you. To whom are you looking for the answer?)

2. Where am I from? (What is the source of my life? We have so many problems today(another student shooting this week in Texas) because people don't value life. It is subtle, but I believe it is true that it's a lot easier to de-value life when we are taught that everyone is only a mass of carbon and water molecules that a series of circumstances and mutations randomly evolved together.)

3. Why am I here? (is the question of purpose. The world's messages are so loud and so pervasive that it becomes easy to miss God's best for us. We are listening to the world's ideas of why we are here and what we are here to do.)

4. What can I do? (Asks the question of potential. It seems that the best the world can do is offer "live and let live." Jesus on the other hand tells his disciples, "Greater things than I have done will you do, because I go to the Father." John 14:12.)

5. Where am I going? (What is our destiny? Is there, or is there not more to this life?)

The Lord has a purpose. We can choose to continue to ignore it, or we can open ourselves to what God has in mind. It's important that we look at God's perspective of our purpose, potential, and destiny. Proverbs 19:21 states, "Many are the plans in a person's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails."

What if Noah had dreamed up his own plans of how he wanted to serve God? Wouldn't make much sense, given the coming destruction. What if Abraham planned to survey Sodom and Gomorrah for a door to door witness outreach? Not much would be left of it. Noah and Abraham were not calling God in to help them accomplish what they were dreaming they were going to do for God. In the Bible you never find God asking persons to dream up what they want to do for him, because the Lord already has a purpose.

When God prepared to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, he came to tell Abraham about it. God came to Gideon when he was about to deliver the Israelites from the oppression of Midian. God came to Saul when he was ready to carry the gospel message to the Gentiles around the known world. Without a doubt, the most important factor was God's purposes: what God was about to do. God's purpose prevails.

As we look at some of the great movements of God in church history, you see in every case God came to someone and the person released his or her life to God. Does God have free reign in your life? When God began to speak to John and Charles Wesley, the founders of Methodism, he was preparing for a sweeping revival in England that saved England from a bloody revolution like France has experienced, ended slavery there, and brought forth child labor laws.

God has a plan for us today, right where we are. The Lord wants to work in the lives of people in our community. Some of you know what I'm talking about, because you've felt the nudge of God's Spirit to do something, or give something, or give something up. I believe God comes to us and wants to work through us to reach people. The problem is many times we ignore him. How many of us are too self-centered or too caught up in our many plans? We might even respond to God: "I don't think I'm trained. I don't think I'm able to do it... (or my favorite) it's the pastor's job."

Do you see the problem? We are too focused on ourselves and our own plans. The moment we sense God is going to use us in someone's life we give him a whole list of reasons why he has got the wrong person or why the time is not right. How sad, because we are the ones who will miss out on experiencing God, and on experiencing the joy of fulfilling a divine purpose to which God has called us.

You and I need to adjust our lives and our plans to God's plan. Our priorities need to focus on God's purpose. God's purpose is more important than our plans. God's purpose is more powerful than our problems. God created you because there is something he wants you to do. If indeed you believe in God the Creator, then you must agree that:

• God is a God of purpose. Everything that has been brought into being is for a reason. (Ecology is an enormous science. It can be studied, because God has worked out the most minute detail of creation so intricately.)
• Everything in life has a purpose. (Down to your nose hair).
• Not every purpose is known. (Just because we don't know the purpose of something, doesn't mean it doesn't have one).
• Where purpose is not known, abuse is inevitable. Abuse is Abnormal Use. If we don't know God's purpose for our bodies, we abuse them. If you don't know God's design and purpose for sex, then abnormal use or abuse occurs. If you don't know God's purpose for allowing you creativity and wealth, then you misuse it or waste it on trivial things. If you don't know God's purpose for your mind, you abuse it. We fill our minds with everything but the truth of God and his perspective.
• If you want to know the purpose of the thing, you never ask the thing. You ask the Creator. (That is the importance of the scriptures. The Bible is our window to God and to his original design for our world, to God's original design for our relationships, and his design for ourselves.)
• Purpose is only found in the mind of the Maker of the thing.
• Filling your purpose is the key to fulfillment. Everything else will frustrate you.

The Westminster Confession of Faith begins: "Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever." Jesus tells us first and foremost to seek the Kingdom of God. He tells us his "Kingdom is not of this world ... his kingdom is from another place" (John 18:36).

The greatest tragedy in life is not death, but life not knowing your purpose. Fulfilling your purpose is a life long quest. When the death of Calvin Coolidge was made public, someone quipped: "But how can they tell?"

George Bernard Shaw once said that the epitaph for many people should read, "Died at 30; buried at 60." These bring up a question worth pondering. How do you tell if a person is alive? If we can die at 30 and not be buried until we are 60, what are the signs of life and death? You're dead when the suffering of another person causes you no pain. You're dead when your stomach doesn't churn in the face of blatant injustice. You're dead when you evade truth that hurts and accept an easy lie. You're dead when you are not willing to put forth the energy necessary to save a dying relationship. We could keep going, but I want to answer one more question for you.

Where is the richest spot on the planet? The graveyard.

It is filled with unmet dreams: buried there are great inventions that never were created; powerful ideas never written down; programs never implemented; music never performed; books never written; discoveries left uncovered; cures never shared; love never expressed. People "took them to their grave." People lie there who responded "no" to God, because they were too self-centered, or because they were unwilling to submit to God's design, or because they didn't know their purpose. Will you take your riches to the graveyard?

In Genesis 1:11 is recorded one of the most amazing of God's vast, wonderful, powerful creations: "Then God said, 'Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit after their kind, with seed in them, on the earth'; and it was so ... and God saw that it was good." Genesis 1:11. Suppose you have a seed in your hand. What do you really have? One seed? Or an entire tree? Because of God's design, the potential is incredible. Because of God's design, your potential is incredible.

This means that when you throw away a seed, you've destroyed a forest. In every small boy is a man. In every infant girl is a woman. In every loser God hid a winner. In every seed is an entire crop. In every bird is a flock. Sitting next to you is a song, a gift, a cure, a book, a president, a wonderful invention, a leader, a great sermon. In a murderer were the first 5 books of the Bible. In an adulterer were the Psalms, and a king. It makes you look at people in a whole new light. You don't know who you may be messing with! And think of yourself. When you are not choosing God's best for yourself, remember God's plan and promise for you. Think of your potential.

Don't doubt your purpose. God's purpose for you is more important than your plans. As Christians, we have a definite purpose. God calls us to be "a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, that we may proclaim the excellencies of God who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light." I Peter 2:9.

Remember the greatest tragedy is not death, but life not knowing your purpose. So before we get served any more potato salad, let me ask it one more time: Will you take your riches to the grave.