Finding Your Purpose in Life | Nicky Gumbel

today I want to talk to you on the subject of find your purpose in life if you like to turn to the book of Nehemiah at chapter 2 verse 18 I'm actually reading from the New Living Translation for this verse then they said let us get up and build so they put their hands to the good work that's what I want to talk about today they put their hands to the good work and I don't know whether Paul was thinking of this verse in Ephesians when he says this in effect you are God's masterpiece you are created in Christ Jesus to do good works they put their hands to the good work you are created to do good works which God prepared in advance for you to do you have a purpose for your life a specific purpose for your life your story is important your dreams can't you can make a difference with your life your voice matters it's been said the two most important days of your life are the day you were born and the day you find out why you have a specific purpose God has designed you with a purpose in mind and what the book of Nehemiah tells us is that you don't have to be Martin Luther King mother Teresa Nelson Mandela Nehemiah chapter 1 verse 11 he says I the cupbearer to the king III I was a regular guy I had an ordinary job just like you just like you and on sir square just like everyone here today just like me he's a regular guy but God used him God had a specific purpose in mind for him as he has a specific purpose in mind for you and he wants you to know what that purpose is you know because we've been looking at this series this took place two and a half thousand years ago this was a time when the people of God had been scattered into what is now Iraq and then Babylon and they were coming back to rebuild the temple that was what they did first and then to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem and what we see in this passage is engagement is the way to discover what your purpose in life is so many people say I've got nothing to offer I'm not ready but now is the moment for you to engage you are never too young you may be a teenager some of you at the service at the full30 there are many many teenagers there do you know that most of Jesus disciples the Apostles were probably teenagers when Jesus chose them you're never too young you're never too old I was reflecting this morning Abraham was 75 years old when God called him that's when he started Moses he didn't give up until he was a hundred and twenty years old I'm only halfway there if you're 60 you've just begun yeah important verse for me so it doesn't matter what age you are but what is God calling you to do here's a clue in Nehemiah so the King asked me why does your face look so sad when you're not ill this can be nothing but sadness of heart what is the sadness in your heart what are the things you feel sad about this is the passage actually this book was the passage that led pepper and I to be doing the job that we're doing now because we looked at the state of the church in this country and we thought was so sad why didn't hear my what do what he was doing because he was so sad about the state of the people of God and the fact that the name of the Lord was no longer on it what is the name of the Lord we're told in the New Testament the name of the Lord is Jesus and we were so sad the name of Jesus is no longer honored in this country that's why we're doing what we're doing we felt called through reading this passage to do what we're doing because we felt sadness in heart today as I look at the that three year old on the beach I feel sadness of heart for the refugees what is it that makes you feel sad in your heart maybe there's God is calling you to do something about that area you people sometimes look at HDPE think they think oh well as staff does everything no they don't it's you it's everyone here today it's that all of you at Lancer square you're the church we can only do this with you HDPE itself needs rebuilding why for a very good reason in the last 12 months we have planted 10 churches and that's very costly because who goes on a church plant it's not the friends you go on Church plants it's committed people its donors its leaders it's people who lead with the children who lead with the youth who lead with the students who run connect groups they're the ones who go and ten of these has been extremely costly it's worth it I think of Tim Matthews who went with eleven adults three children and one baby - book - since Wiggins bournemouth twelve months ago at focus he told us this he says twelve months later we've run 3 alpha courses one each term with a total of 203 guests we have a hundred and fifty children 57 younger and older youth over 40 students we've sent to people for ordained minister in the Church of England two more are considering the call we've opened a homeless shelter we had 60 guests in 40 team on the recovery course we're purchasing the site we were only renting before and we have two services launched at which we see four to five hundred people worshiping every Sunday it's worth it but there's a fragility now about HDPE because I see it I go over to the children church here on a Sunday CH DB or lawn so square and I see they're desperately short of helpers and leaders I see the queues outside I don't want families turned away from this church because we can't look after their children and I've sorted the person who started heading up this this vision here Joe Glen she said well it's very hard people don't want to work to do to work with children so if you have children yet the last thing you want to do on Sunday it's going after more children if you're a teacher then you definitely don't want to work with children on Sunday if you've had children and they've all grown up you don't want to go back to children so who does want to look after the children yet to Jesus they were priority he said let the children come to me they're the most important people in the church and the youth and the students and all these things and we need people who just say look okay I'm going to come to one service I know many of you do this and I'm so thank God for you I'm going to come to one service and I got to serve it another so I'll come to one server to receive to hear the talk to enter the worship I'll go to another service where I'll help to look after the children I'll help with the utha I hope to welcome her I'll run the coffee rotor so engagement brings connection I love this passage at chapter 3 nehemiah there's an expression that occurs 17 times in the chapter next to them next to him next to him next to him so they're rebuilding the wall and they each take a section and they work shoulder-to-shoulder side by side that's why I'm so excited about this coming year ahead as we're rebuilding the church here because we're going to be work I'm going to be work here with you guys shoulder to shoulder side-by-side each taking a section each playing our part every one of you is needed but as each one got a little section of the wall but they were working right by the next person and think of the connection they had with those people see I read you've probably read this in the papers this week markus persson age 36 swedish video game programmer and designer who created the video game minecraft the world's most popular video game owns the most expensive property ever listed in Beverly Hills he tweeted to his 2.5 million followers hanging out in Ibiza with a bunch of friends and parting with famous people able to do whatever I want and I've never felt more isolated isn't that sad billions of pounds don't stop you feeling isolated being famous doesn't stop you being Iceland working hard being successful in your job doesn't stop you being isolated we all need connection we all need friendship and how do you connect by getting engaged set up eight days ago I went to spend Saturday morning with our youth team amazing group of people amazing group if you're a ton so square the this thing to this the youth team are absolutely fantastic you're helping with the youth here at Brogdon robe we are so thankful to you what an amazing team of people we have serving with the youth and as we went around the room I asked how did you come to be involved in this church and one young guy said this well I came to church every Sunday and I walk in here and people were very friendly I chat to someone but then they walk off and chat to someone else I come back the following week and I wouldn't see anyone I recognized I I just didn't connect then I started serving on the his team and he said now these are my closest friends we're texting each other all the time he's connected that's the way to connect if you've never done out before there may be someone who's a guest here today maybe you're here for the first time you've never done now coming up that's the way to connect maybe you're not in a connect we call why we come and connect groups that's the way you connect if you're not in a connect group connect on a connect group engagement is the path to spiritual growth it's the way you grow spritz visit I want to be discipled this is the way your disciple brick-by-brick that war was not didn't Alec Sonny would appear no brick by brick everything in life is brick by brick we grow spiritually brick by brick you have to invest you have to do it or all the time it's like it's like everything in life actually I was playing squash this week with a really good friend of Michael Roland Roland is actually a gym instructor I met him because he was a gym instructor in the gym where I I play squash and he wanted to learn to play squash sir I told him to play squash and he this week annoyingly he beat me but we've become great friends and after we play squash I was ask him to help me with he about five years ago he showed me ten exercises and he could not believe that five years later I'm still doing the same ten exercises every day and he said the weight you know the Weig the way to keep to get fit is through doing things Oh every day you just have to do it about three years ago I told you that somebody told me that I was the stiffest person that they had ever seen walking around and I preached on the subject don't forget to stretch and for the last three years every day I've been stretching and now I can almost touch my toes okay pretty you have to do it everyday and I was talking to Ellen and I was think incidentally Roland is a refugee he came to this a Muslim came to this country aged 17 from Albania as a refugee and neither church girl he is what he's contributing he's the most amazing guy fantastic guy everyone wants to be big coach burn because so encouraging such a nice person to work with but I was talking to him but he was saying the only way to with fitness is to do it do it every day and I was st. him it's the same with everything in life is the same with marriage if you want to go man you have to invest every day you have to sing you know you have to tell your wife every day I love you you have to tell your children you love them every single day you have to invest you have to do acts of kindness every single day - what he said every day tomorrow yeah every day unless it's the same with spiritual growth if you want to grow in your faith you have to invest as well in case we will do the Bible in one year everyday just breathe a bit of the Bible and you will start to grow brick by brick day by day so you you you had to feed yourself you can't expect to be fed you have to work out how you how you feed yourself and then you have to engage the other way that you grow spiritually is by doing stuff not by consuming but by contributing so people who come in have an alpha they grow very fast why because one of the guests on alpha says where's God allows suffering what about other religions oh and I better think about that I better read up about it and they're growing they're learning people who are married support couples it enriches their marriage people who help in the homeless shelter they grow spiritually people go into prisons they grow spiritually that's the way to grow and engagement involves sacrifice it's not easy if you want an easy life yeah of course you can just come in go out do nothing don't engage you won't grow you won't develop but it's easier doesn't involve any sacrifice these guys who got involved with it with the wall they got ridiculed people laughed at them some ballot became very angry he ridiculed them they got exhausted the people work with all their heart the strength of the Labour is giving out and there's so much rubble we can't rebuild the work so we continue the work with half the men holding Spears from the first light of dawn so the stars came out it was just really hard work and discouraging at times and any of you who are involved engaged you will know that whatever you're doing they have a ministry that you're involved in sometimes it's very discouraging you set out with this vision and then you find it it's not as big as you thought it's harder work than you do you're not getting much response it's it's it's discouraging I think back I was an atheist when I arrived at University and I encountered Jesus and at the same time actually I was led to faith by Nicky Lee and that within a year there were five of us who were all great friends we all called Nicky and we all became Christians and there were five Nicky's we had lunch parties for Nicky's and we but we all wanted to tell our friends about Jesus and so what we would do is we were put on a these dinners on Sunday night and invite our friends to church to Holly Trinity Cambridge we didn't have much money what we did was he went to Sainsbury's and there was a bargain bin in Sainsbury's where you they were tins which used to have labels like that with the old tins with labels that when they got damp the tape the labels often fell out fell off and they didn't the the supermarket didn't know what they were because they were just tins so they put them in a bargain bin and it was potluck you just bought them and you had no idea what you were buying but they were very cheap I mean they were like 10 pence in those days not even 10 P and you could buy it just loads them so we would we would invite all this we would have all these tins and we would open them and you might get 10 tins of peaches or 10 tins of baked beans or the mixture of baked beans and peaches which wasn't a great combination but we just give them this food and then we'd invite them to the to church and it was very discouraging a lot of people said no they wouldn't come some people start you when they saw I was coming down the street they across the other side avoid us some people came and found it boring and they didn't seem to be a huge amount of fruit recently I was reading Archbishop Justin well B's biography and I came across this section where he talks about his he arrived how he arrived at Cambridge and when he arrived at Cambridge he wasn't a Christian and he was invited to supper by one of the Nicky's Nicky Hills and who took him to the holy trinity cambridge at the end of it and then he describes how he went home after that and sat in Nick Nick Hills his rooms in new Court Cambridge and they explained to him how he could open the door of his life to Jesus Christ and that night he invited Jesus into his life and he's now the Archbishop of Canterbury so there was some fruit did you know something until Nikki hills read that he'd never realized that's what had happened he had completely forgotten about that incident and you have no idea what fruit has come from your ministry you all those people you've invited to alpha or you've invited to church or you've done something with you've talked to about Jesus you have no idea maybe in 30 years time you'll discover that what you did had a massive impact but it's very discouraging at the time you have to overcome that disappointment the discouragements and it will involve chapter 5 we read they did something about the poor that's going to be tough that's going to involve sacrifice what are we going to do we're working out as a church now what do we do about the refugees how can we help we can all pray we can all give if you say I didn't know who would I give you what I personnel gives at Air Fund that's what I've been doing because I know I trust that organizing if you don't have another organization that's helping the refugees that you trust more give to them but that's what I'm doing and then we're trying to work as a church how do we help because this is what near my did he helped the poor he served he sacrificed and engagement is the best investment you can ever make in your life if you think about it each of those people probably thought what I'm doing isn't making any difference okay they each got a little bit of the wall and they're building their little bit of the wall is this really necessary someone else could do this it's not this that complicated in fact some of them we read the nobles of Toccoa would not put their shoulder to the work they thought I can't be bothered leave it to other people leave it to the staff leave it to two other people who are more enthusiastic than me leave it to others who have better experienced let better-qualified we can't be bothered 2,500 years later we still know their names the nobles of Toccoa I don't want to be remember mm Mickey Gumbel was the one who didn't put his shoulder to the work I want to be like the other one barek he zealously repaired and I see you I look around at people here people who I know have been zealously repairing for years and years and years I know I would have named you booked it I can see you I see you so many of you here so many of you at once' square you've been zealously repairing over the years year after year month after month I see but more importantly God sees you and he sees what you're doing you are investing you're making the best investment that you can make on their own of course it looked small and insignificant but together the walls were rebuilt I think of the connect group pepper and Iran way back and when we started on the staff here in 1986 sandy Miller asked us to take on the first thing he asked me to do actually was to take on the youth group they had been the youth group but they were emerging from youth so they were kind of like 18 19 one or two of them were even 20 years of age and he asked us to form what was then called apart now connect group and we had them in our home and this they were a nightmare and they were just like these kind of wild teenagers they come in and they they damage our house they were and where there were great people we love them they were there was such fun but they were they had no concept of anything they had no concept of of I don't know they just had they did they left it though some of them as we come down in the morning and find them asleep on the kitchen floor I mean there but but a few weeks ago I got an invitation from one of them to his 50th birthday party and I thought actually all of them are now either 50 or approaching her 50th birthday and one of them's Charlie Mackesy you now probably one of the greatest evangelists in this country one amazing thing in few weeks time you have an opportunity to invite your friends to here Charlie you never had anyone presenting the gospel better than Charlie does he was in that crew Joe Glen who was the church warden she was in that group Rick Thorpe was in that group he's now the Bishop of Islington all these people Alex Stuart Matt and Rebecca Rebecca Angus and Emma anguses are our treasure now Angus what is he I remember him so well he just started working the city and he said I think God has given me a vision he said it's a vision of a rugby scrum and I'm in the rugby scrum and I I'm I'm a forward and my job is to get the ball and to get it to the backs and the backs are the guys on the front line who are doing evangelism and I'm going to start to give to the chair and he he was just beginning to learn he wasn't earning that much but he gave extremely generously and the more he gave them will go blessed him the more successful he became in his job and the more successful he became the more he gave now he's given the most and the impact of anguses ministry and generosity on this church has been massive over the years just like they all did if you read the book of Ezra each one gave us as God moved in their hearts we praying serving giving but he he was one of the people in that group so many of the people some of you at on so Square right now are people who were in that small group you're up still offering some of you here in the church today you are 30 years on we're still great friends some of our very closest friends in the world within that connect group and you don't know now your your inner connect group your may be running a connect group who knows in 30 years time what will happen to those people maybe your your help maybe you're in this service but you've been helping with the children at the nine o'clock service you don't know sillily singing she looked after those three year-olds all those years ago those people are now exercising extraordinary ministries in this church and all around the world it's like they're like acorns little babies like an acorn you're looking after an acorn it's going to become an oak you could be looking after a baby that's going to become Prime Minister you don't know what they're going to do with their lives but you're investing you're making a difference and we need you we cut this is not possible it's not possible for me to rebuild a HDB it's not possible for the staff to do it it's only us together next to each other side by side shoulder to shoulder everyone laying brick by brick and you know what the temple and the walls there were nothing they were just an illustration Jesus is the new temple we are the new temple and Jesus gave the example he didn't sit up there just saying well I'm just gonna watch he got engaged he got involved he came to this earth as one of us he died on it he sacrificed he knew that engagement involves sacrifice he's made the biggest investment any person has ever made in the history of the world he died for you and for me so that we could be forgiven and God raised him from the dead and that little acorn turned into a massive great oak and that's why we do what we do and that's why it's so exactly the walls were completed in 52 days things can change and that's why we're doing what we're doing because we are so excited believing what God could do we do it in response to what Jesus did for us but together with all of us working side-by-side brick by brick shoulder-to-shoulder we can see this church rebuilt we can see this Capitol City transformed we can see our nation riah vandalized the church revitalized and society transformed in Jesus name Amen

Channel: HTB Church

Views: 35,382

Rating: 4.6721311 out of 5

Keywords: Nicky Gumbel (Author), Religion (TV Genre), Life (Quotation Subject), purpose, Jesus Christ (Deity), God (Deity), Holy Spirit (Deity), htb, htb church, htb church london, London (City/Town/Village), Trinity (Belief), Holy Trinity Brompton (Place Of Worship), vision, join the adventure

Id: 1nynZNYewck

Length: 29min 7sec (1747 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 14 2015