Embracing Your Purpose

alright guys this weekend you've got a special treat now I know I say that anytime we have a guest speaker but this is a special special treat because it is such a privilege to have Bob Russell with us this weekend now if you don't know that name for four guys my age Bob Russell is the preacher that we all looked up to and we said you know when we grow up we want to be able to preach like this guy and so even when I was in Africa in my young 20s we had a missionary that would say Jeff if you want to learn how to preach you need to listen to this guy Bob Russell is a guy that started the church about thirty people grew to about 17,000 today I think it's over 20,000 and he has passed the baton on to the next guy and he's in retirement but Bob Russell will never retire he continues to travel all across the world and preach he's an amazing communicator as a matter of fact I just want you to know that when I was in New Zealand in my early 30s and I was starting to stray a little bit and become more of an entertainer than a communicator of the word I heard a sermon by Bob Russell that someone had given me and it just had a life defining moment and it reminded me of my calling not to be an entertainer but to divide accurately the Word of God and that's what would not return void and it just changed my life on that day and I got so interested in studying the scriptures in order to teach and to preach so most guys my age in ministry looked up to this guy and when I first invited him to come I tell you I didn't think he would come and I was so pleased when I heard he'll come and I want you to give a huge CCV welcome to my friend Bob Russell well that's so nice of Jeff thank you for that kind introduction and makes me feel so old though and I understand here the second service on Saturday night we've got a lot of people who volunteer and work in other areas so thank you for your service of this church I've heard about this church for a number of years and I heard Jeff preach when he was at Savannah and I hope you know you have a great preacher here in Jeff Pines and he's doing a fantastic job sometimes when I'm introduced as being from the state of Kentucky people get a little nervous because Kentucky has a reputation for being a backward state and Kentucky is a little bit of a backward State a friend of mine emailed me said I didn't know how backward your state was till I went to the zoo in Kentucky he said you go to other zoos and they got the name of the animal in English and then in parentheses that got the name of the animal in Latin but you go to exude in Kentucky you got the name the animal in English and in parentheses you've got a recipe that's not exactly true we're not quite that backward but even though I'm from Kentucky I hope you listen cuz I want to talk with you about what I believe is a really important subject and that is a purposeful life about 150 years ago a German philosopher by the name of Frederick Nitschke had a very pertinent saying he said if a man has a why to live he can endure any how if we know that God has an ultimate purpose for our life we can go through all kind of disappointments and discouragements that's why in recent years a lot has been written about the need for a purpose in life Rick Warren wrote that famous book The Purpose Driven Life sold millions of copies blessed hundreds of thousands of people two weeks ago I was reading an article in Forbes magazine and it was about five characteristics that great leaders make that average leaders don't have and great leaders have a clearly defined purpose while average leaders just show up for work purpose fuels pass and a work ethic and Bob Buford in the well-known book halftime encourages people about to enter retirement to move from being driven by success but to being driven in a desire for achievement or significance he calls it because so many people when they near retirement they lose their sense of purpose because their purpose is all wrapped up in their occupation and they wither up and die but Jesus Christ said I have come that you might have life and have it to the fullest one of the reasons we ought to be fired up about the gospel every day of our lives is that Jesus Christ offers three things that the world can never provide the hope of eternal life the forgiveness of our sins and the promise of a purpose for every day now with that in mind I'd like for you to turn in your Bibles to the book of Ecclesiastes the eleventh chapter you don't have a Bible we'll put these scripture on the screen so that you can follow the entire book of Ecclesiastes is written about the purpose of life it's written by King Solomon who was determined to find out what made life meaningful and he was a man of resource so he could indulge in building projects and wine and women and entertainment but after he tried them all he concluded they're all dead ends they don't fulfill 35 times in the book he uses the word meaningless the King James says vanity it doesn't make sense he said it's like chasing after the wind life's a miserable business and the whole world everything the world had to offer him left him empty you know who to agree with Solomon today actor Brad Pitt I like Brad Pitt I think it's a great actor but he was interviewed in Rolling Stone magazine and here's what he had to say man I know all these things are supposed to seem important to us the car the condo our version of success but if that's the case why is the general feeling out there reflecting more impotence isolation desperation loneliness if you ask me I say toss all this we got to find something else I don't have all the answers yet but the emphasis now is on success and personal gain I'm the guy who's got everything Brad Pitt said I'm sitting in it and I'm telling you that's not it that's what Solomon concluded he tried everything the world had to offer and he said it's meaningless it doesn't make sense you live you die and it's over but Jesus said I've come that you might have life and have it to the fullest now Solomon hits at that conclusion in the final two chapters of Ecclesiastes you know sometimes people learned their best lessons from their worst mistakes and Solomon made some mistakes the entire book of Ecclesiastes is kind of a combination of his vast wisdom and his valuable to experience wise people learn from their mistakes wiser people learn from the mistakes of others so what I want to do here tonight is to read through Ecclesiastes eleven and twelve and learn what Solomon says makes life meaningful and the first thing he says his life is meaningful when we start early and invest wisely for the future he says in verse 1 of chapter 11 cast your bread upon the waters for after many days it you will find that again what's that mean cast your bread upon the water maybe you've heard that all your life Warren wears B says this is best paraphrase send out your grain your bread in ships and many days afterward the ships will return with the prophet Solomon was into world trade so it's not surprising that he uses a merchant illustration here to make his point he was sent out his ships with valuable cargo and when they returned his investment his patience would be rewarded he says in verse 2 give portions to seven yes to eight for you do not know what disaster may come upon the land we say don't put all your eggs in one basket psalmist said don't put all your grain in one ship seven or eight because you don't know there could be a shipwrecked be a diverse investor he says cast your bread upon the water when you're early and after you're patient it'll return with interest we have a guy in our church who's in the animal extermination business you have a varmint under your porch you call him he captures it takes it away one of my friends saw him out on the city limits releasing a raccoon into the wild and my friend said I thought you killed those animals once you captured them and the guy said oh no this is a young raccoon it could occupy three or four other porches in the course of its life time said you you don't want to jeopardize your future see see what that is that's casting your bread upon the water that's making an investment for the future and someone says now start early be a wise investor now his focus in this passage is on finances we all know that there's a whole lot more to meaning of life than have enough money saved up for retirement you can be a multimillionaire and be a spiritual disaster but this is a wise place to start be a good steward of your money when you're young then as you get older you put less emphasis on accumulation of things and you can give your attention to the things of the Spirit that matter if you have adequate financial resources in the last chapter of life it's almost as you can be generous he says in verse 3 if clouds are full of water they can pour rain on the earth but if you don't have any moisture in your cloud you can't be a blessing and you can't be generous to anybody and if you have some resources you're ready for a disaster that may come and you don't panic verse 10 he says so then banish anxiety from your heart and cast off troubles of your body if there is a disaster if the economy collapses you don't panic because you've been a wise steward of your resources and you have free time to serve and you don't have to spend most of your last days at a time consuming job if you've been a wise investor from the time you're young we have a guy in our church who worked as a security guard at GE all his life from the time he's 19 years of age he asked me a while back to go to lunch with him I walked out to the parking lot and he's driving a new Jaguar and I said Gary you got a new car said yeah Jonah and I his wife was a schoolteacher general I'm gonna retire and we thought we'd get a new car for retirement I said Gary how old are you said 58 I said Gary have you inherited mommy or something 58 years old buy a new Jaguar gonna retire now you you may think I sound like I'm from Kentucky but I got to tell you Gary is from Eastern Kentucky he is really a hillbilly and he he said oh no Bob I didn't hear it no money my parents ain't got no money I grew up in a trailer park well highs this year 58 years old gonna retire new Jaguar he said you know when I went to work for GE first years 19 years old they had a credit union with matching funds they would match every dollar whether you put it in for savings and I said to John that's a good thing there let's put in a hundred dollars every month now the first year he put in a hundred dollars a month they really feel bad that you don't even miss the money and he said Bobby you know about this thing they got out there called compound interest well I so he might be from Kentucky but he's pretty sharp financial he said that money started accumulating we put a little more in there we take some out sometimes put in a stock market and now we're 58 years old and well we're worth well over a million dollars so we decided we'd retire I said Gary would you do me a favor would you come to my staff meeting this Monday we've just introduced a 401 K program to our church staff with matching funds and I don't think a lot of young guys understand how important is to start early to be a wise investor would you just come and tell your story so don't know about I ain't no public speaker you ain't getting me in front of no people no way I'm gonna do that I can't do that I said no look you don't have to make a speech I'll just interview you will sit on the stage it'll be relaxed like we're talking today I didn't tell him that we had 300 people on staff and so he find that twisties army finally agreed to come but when he walked into our chapel and he saw all these people he was so nervous the first two questions I asked he was as stiff as a board I said Gary are you a little nervous he said nervous Bob I ain't had no bowel movement for three days worried about this day you know he said that the whole staff burst out laughing kind of like you did and he endeared himself to them and they started to listening to what he had to say let me tell you some of the things he told our church staff he said look don't live in as big a house as you can possibly afford be willing to live in a smaller house don't be house poor he said Joan would say to me you know Gary some of our friends live in nicer homes and we live in and I said Joan you got me you got to be satisfied with that that's enough don't drive as nice a car as you can you can afford regard your car as a means of transportation and not a status symbol and don't use those credit cards unless you pay them off at the end of month because that interest will eat you alive and don't think you've got to take an expensive vacation to have an exciting time with your kids just because everybody else is you can do some simple things through their kids and it's meaningful to them he said my grade school kids came home and said mom and dad all our friends are going to Florida for spring break so we powder kids in the car we drove them an hour up the interstate took them to the state park let him swim we told him that was Florida they didn't know that everything different we came back a lot less hassle yeah I wouldn't recommend lying to your kids but you get the point in this culture that we live in of instant gratification we think we've got to have the most expensive the biggest deal in order to have a meaningful life but somebody said maturity is the ability to postpone pleasure the key is to start early be a wise steward of what God entrusted to you you cast your bread upon the water after many days it will return here's a second principle about a meaningful life Psalm says stay active establish a mindset of working consistently all your life he says in verse 4 whoever watches the wind will not plant whoever looks at the clouds will not reap he's talking about a lazy farmer who's looking for an excuse not to work so well the weather isn't ideal today we don't know what's gonna happen so he doesn't do anything he says in verse 6 so your seed in the morning and an evening let not your hands be idle for you do not know which will succeed whether this or that or whether both will do equally well so your seed in the morning when you're a young person every day you go to work you do diligence but in the evening when you're older you keep on working because you don't know what's gonna be the most productive you see some people have this mindset today they're gonna work like crazy when they're young so that they can reach a certain point when they're 55 or 60 that they can retire and be free of responsibilities and sit in a bathtub and look at the ocean the rest of their life they can't wait to retire and have nothing to do a younger man ask an older guy who's about to retire said what are you gonna do in retirement he said the first year I'm gonna sit on the front porch and a rocking chair what are you gonna do then the second year I'm gonna start rocking well if that's your philosophy about the future you're gonna be a very unhappy person because there's a direct correlation between your sense of productivity and your self-worth and Solomon is saying to make up your mind you're gonna be a worker consistently all your life you're never going to quit producing listen you're created in the image of God and God works and when you sit around and you do nothing and you're not productive every day pretty soon you feel like a giant flood a slug and your self-worth goes down the tubes we got a guy in our church who sold his business for 8 million dollars when he was 38 years old he said to me Bob I don't have to work another day of my life three months later he bought another business and went back to work he said I don't need the money but I need the job wise man don't quit being active don't quit before the finish line you can look forward to retirement when you have a change of pace and there's not enough pressure but you look forward to it as a time of service when you have more time to do things for God not a time of indulgence I retired seven years ago after 40 years in a located ministry I didn't retire to play golf every day I do mentoring groups for preachers once a month I write a blog every week I travel and speak I just Bible study videos for small groups and another thing number of things like that and I've discovered this chapter of my life has been the greatest chapter folks you got something to look forward to it's a great day when the kids are grown and the bills are paid and the dogs dead you can have a whole new future for you Solomon says Solomon says in in verse 5 as you do not know the path of the wind or how the body is formed in a mother's womb so you can't understand the work of God the maker of all things God's ways are greater than our ways and you need to understand if you sow your seed in the evening even though you're getting older your days of greatest productivity may be yet ahead of you your greatest accomplishment in the kingdom of God may be yet to be you think of the how that was true in the Bible Moses was 80 years old when he began to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt Caleb was 85 years old when he asked Joshua to let him lead a battle into the toughest mountain territory Billy Graham was 83 years old when he came to our city and conducted a crusade and hundreds were won to Christ we have a guy in our church who came to me he plays in our Orchestra and he he came to me in and he said I must be a crazy old man I'm 91 years old and I just bought a new trombone Sam Rosenberg lived to be 94 the doctor said one of the reasons he lived so long was that he had the sense of purpose he was serving God and blowing on that trombone exercising his his lungs John Piper theologian wrote an article about the contribution of older people at 65 Winston Churchill became the prime minister of England at 70 Benjamin Franklin helped draft the Declaration of Independence at 77 John Glenn became the oldest person to go into space at 89 Albert Schweitzer ran a hospital in Africa at 93 Strom Thurmond the longest-serving senator in US history won re-election after promising not to run again at age 99 and he concludes his article by saying so all you boomers just breaking into Medicare gird up your loins pick up your cane head for the gym and get fit for the last lap fix your eyes on the face of Jesus at the finish line there will be plenty of time for R&R in the resurrection for now there's happy work to be done that's what Solomon saying stay active you can have a meaningful life don't quit find something of service in your older years here's the third principle from Ecclesiastes be joyful live in the precious present verse 8 however many years a man may live let him enjoy them all but let him remember the days of Darkness for they will be many Solomon is a realist he doesn't always tell us what we want to hear he's telling us the truth he said look you don't know how many years you're gonna live however many years a man may live well the Bible says the average life expectancy is 70 or 80 years but the truth is you don't know where the finish line is going to be you could die at 35 you could die at 55 you don't know when the finish line is coming up so you better enjoy today because it could be your last he says there will be many days of darkness you see a lot of people say well I'm gonna enjoy life someday when I get all my finances straightened out when my kids get over their troubles when I get over this health problem they're going through days of darkness on a miserable right now and Solomon says look they're gonna be days of darkness but however many years you live you enjoy them all because if you're gonna sit around and wait and say when life is absolutely perfect that's what I'm gonna rejoice and have fun and enjoy life you may never get there I guess we all struggle with days of darkness so enjoy every day he says in verse 9 be happy young man while you're young and let your heart give you joy in the days of your youth don't say someday in the future when I get all these things ready that's what I'm gonna enjoy life I read a book called Chicken Soup for the Soul at work Jack Canfield you know this whole series chicken soup books and this one had a story about a guy named Jerry who owned a restaurant and Jack Canfield says that Jerry was the most joyful most upbeat person he'd ever met he said you go into his restaurant no matter when it was nor what was going on you say Jerry how you doing he always had the same answer doing great any better big twins don't wonderful it any better be twins one day took him aside said you know what Jerry you're the most upbeat positive person I've ever met tell me what's the secret of your joy and Jerry said it's easy I just choose to be joyful no all he said it's got to be deeper than that what is it no I said every morning when I get wake up before I get out of bed I say to myself this is the day the Lord has made and I can be miserable and ruined this day and drag other people down or I can rejoice and be glad and I just choose to rejoice and be glad regardless of the circumstances well one day Jerry's restaurant got robbed and the thief panicked at the end and shot nearly killed Jerry and Jerry said there I was lying in a pool of my own blood I felt my life ebbing out for me and I thought to myself I can choose to live or I can choose to die I choose to live but when the EMS workers came he said I could tell by their comments they didn't think I was gonna make it but I was still conscious when we got to the ER room but I could tell by the expression on the faces of the doctors and the nurses in the art room they didn't think I was gonna live he said a big burly nurse bent over me and she said are you allergic to anything and with a raspy voice I said yes and when I said that the whole ER room stopped here it was she said what are you allergic to and I said bullets he said the whole ER room burst out laughing and she said is there anything else and I said yes I choose to live not to die please operate on me as though I'm going to live the intensity room in the air room picked up and Canfield writes I think six weeks later there was Jerry back at the restaurant he said Jerry how you doing so don't grade any better I'd be twins I believe that you know we think that our joy is directly connected to circumstances but the Bible says rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice God has given you today you're alive you have people here in any world who care about you you got reason to rejoice and be glad don't waste today learn be joyful and soak up the precious present one final thing from Salomon about finishing strong and having a purposeful life he says think eternally aging is inevitable but the best is yet to be Ecclesiastes a twelfth chapter verse one remember your Creator in the days of your youth before the days of trouble come and the years approached when you will say I find no pleasure in them let me say to those of you who are younger he's saying to you don't have this attitude I'm gonna indulge in the pleasures of this world and then when I get older I will turn my life completely over to God two things wrong with that one is it's very selfish because what you're saying is I'm gonna give my best years of health to me and I'll give God the leftovers and it's also very dangerous because you can get addicted to sins you can wound other people you can die in your sin you can lose influence he said you remember your Creator in your youth you give God everything you have before the days of trouble come and he's talking about trouble physically and it goes on in this chapter to describe what normally happens when you age and it uses picturesque language to describe the aging process and we have to guess in some places what he means he says for example in verse 3 the keepers of the house tremble I take that that the legs get shaky and you're trembling you gotta lean on a cane the strongmen stoop the shoulders that were once erect with a proud posture and now bent over the grinders ceased because they are few what do you think that is yeah your teeth fall out and any peanut brittle the way you once did those looking through the windows grow dim the eyes get cataracts and you have to use bifocals the doors to the street are closed and the sound of grinding fades there's a loss of hearing and you don't hear the grinding of the mill wheel as distinctly as you once did and all their song or when men rise at the sound of a bird you know when you're young you sleep all night long you sleep eight hours when you get older you wake up but the slightest sound or you wake up in the middle eight for other purpose and all their songs grow faint somebody can really sing well when they're young and then they get the older unless they're George Beverly Shea their voice begins to grow faint when men are afraid of heights and dangers in the streets I used to be able to climb a ladder and clean out my eaves spout no problem now I am almost 70 years old I climb the ladder my hands are shaking my son said get down from there dad you don't belong up there and there's dangers in the street you ever see a 90 year old man drive 15 miles an hour to holding everybody up and a teenager zoom-zoom-zoom and around it ought to be just the opposite the old man's got a couple of weeks to live he might as well do mazuma milk the teenager slowly he says in verse 5 when the almond tree blossoms what's that your hair turns white and the grasshopper drags himself along say SID old men over there I saw him play basketball years ago he as quick as a grasshopper now he's dragging himself along holding everybody up he says in verse 5 desire is no longer stirred you know I've studied this and studies I cannot figure out what this one means if you've got an idea what that means come up to me afterward and explain that to me I said that to a group a while back this older lady came up afterward tried to explain to me what I've met hi and he said in verse five then the man goes to his eternal home and mourners go about the streets well the guy dies and the mourners get in a funeral procession and go to the cemetery and they're saying they're weeping and crying say I don't know what we're gonna do without in life will never be the same I don't think I can go on and they go back to the church and have a picnic and laugh and tell jokes like you never even existed that's the truth in it and it doesn't sound very appealing that doesn't sound like you got much to look forward to listen that's why the people in that world out there hate aging so badly because they skid closer and closer to death and it seems meaningless they said hold on thirty years old this is terrible and they turned 40 and they get in a midlife crisis and run off with somebody in a chat room or something that's why they're always trying to appear younger than they I mean we've got facelifts and liposuction and and breast implants and Joan Rivers why are we doing that you know Paul Harvey is tell about a guy who put braces on his false teeth so he'd look younger it's just silly stuff that people do it's all meaningless but there's one thing that sustains you as you age and that is if you have a hope beyond this world you still got a purpose Salomon summarizes it like this the silver cord is going to be severed the spinal cord you you're gonna have some back problems they get it older and the Golden Bowl is gonna be broken your mind begins to fade and your body's gonna return to dust and it's talking about pure meaningless unless unless there's something beyond this world and in verse 13 and 14 of chapter 12 he summarizes it like this here's the conclusion of the whole matter fear God keep his Commandments for this is the whole duty of man for God will bring every deed into judgment including every hidden thing whether good or evil two words that wants to underscore the word duty this is the duty of man here's your purpose folks your purpose is be obedient to God do your duty the world out there is telling you your purpose is to follow your feelings if it feels good do it follow your heart if the chemistry's right go for it let me tell you what the Bible says abstain from the evil desires the war against your soul if you're gonna just do what you feel like doing you're going to wound a lot of people and you're gonna be a disaster eventually yourself jesus said if you love me you keep my Commandments and sometimes the way you show the Lord Jesus Christ that you love him you just do your duty whether you feel like it or not you may never know your ultimate purpose until you get to heaven maybe your purpose is to show some younger people how a Christian is supposed to age or how Christian is supposed to die and you keep up a joyful spirit and you keep being a joyful Stewart and you keep doing the things of God as an example to others but you just do your duty and then if the second word is a word judgment God is gonna bring every deed into judgment and we usually fear judgment there will be evil that will be punished he says but also the good things as we stand before God in judgment the sins are forgiven through the blood of Christ the good deeds are rewarded and we enter into the joy of our Lord with Jesus will say well done good and faithful servant we sing that song when we've been there ten thousand years bright shining as the Sun we've no less days to sing God's praise than when we first begun your purpose in life is to go to heaven when you die and take as many people as you can with you and that purpose never changes I like the way the Apostle Paul puts that in second Corinthians see if I can remember he said therefore we do not lose heart though outwardly we are wasting away yet inwardly we're being renewed day by day for our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all so we fix our eyes not on what is seen but what is unseen because what is seen is temporary what is unseen is eternal for we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed we have a building of God eternal in the heavens not made by human hands therefore we are confident to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord so we walk by faith not by sight who actually would prefer he says to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord Polk's your purpose is to fix your eyes on the things that are eternal realizing that the best is yet to be this world is not the end the city fathers of Charlotte North Carolina not too long ago asked dr. Billy Graham if he would come for a luncheon in his honor they just want to say thanks for what he meant to that community and at first he refused because his health is not the best that he's a humble but they said look you don't have to make a speech or anything we just want to say thank you and he came and a number of nice things were said and some gifts given the dr. Billy Graham and finally the day the time came when he stood behind the podium and he said I feel a little bit this afternoon like that great physicist dr. Albert Schweitzer whom Time magazine named the man of the year but in his older years Schweitzer was traveling on a train from Princeton and the conductor came down the aisle punching everybody's ticket but we got the Albert Schweitzer Schweitzer couldn't find his ticket he's looking in his pants pocket in his vest pocket rifling through his briefcase couldn't find it and finally the conductor said dr. Schweitzer I know who you are don't worry about it I'm sure you have a ticket and went on but the conductor got to the back of the train and turned around and there was Albert Schweitzer on his hands and knees still looking for his ticket and he came back up and says dr. Schweitzer don't worry about it I know who you are and Schweitzer said son I Know Who I am I just don't know where I'm going then Billy Graham said I want you to notice tonight that I'm wearing a new suit he said I used to be a pretty fast tinniest dresser but I've got a little slovenly in my old age but my children my grandchildren insisted I get a new suit for this occasion I want you to take good note of this suit Billy Graham said because you're gonna see it one more time I've asked that I be buried in this suit but next time you see this suit I don't want you to think about the suit I want you to remember I Know Who I am and I know where I'm going that's your purpose too it never changes fear God keep his Commandments this is the whole duty of man and one day God will say well done well done good and faithful servant let's pray father would you forgive us when we get so caught up in this temporary world we think our purposes education or entertainment indulgence even relationships remind us that our purpose is to serve you and our purpose is one day to spend eternity with you forgive our many sins through the blood of Christ that when we stand before you in judgment we will hear you say well done enter into the joy of your Lord we pray this in the strong and saving name of Jesus Christ our Savior amen

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Length: 35min 33sec (2133 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 09 2013