Greater Revival: Purpose

This month is a month of greater revival. So if this table would hold me, I would stand on it and pull a matmatics and you got to be like old and you got to be like 30 plus and deep in Pentecost to get the mathematics reference. He he early 2000s he he would stand on pull pits and he was a revivalist. He did some good stuff. Then kind of Anyway, I think he was doing quite good. Yeah, he he was he was athletic. Thank you. I always want someone to sit right here. Uh but in revival, I don't I don't know your experiences with revival. Um, I know we all we all have different backgrounds, different things, but you know, we can we can have the stories of old. We can have our stories that are probably old. We can have ideas of it, but the reality is that any revival that's ever happened, it didn't start. Um, it didn't just just I will say it wasn't accidental. It wasn't just internal combustion. It wasn't just random. It didn't start by accident. It It was on purpose. Uh and so so we have spent we've endeavored to spend this month talking about our calling, our context, our constitution, and then tonight I'm going to talk about our purpose. But I wanted to examine a couple of those pieces there. uh because the reality is it's our calling plus our constitution plus our context that then we find our purpose in. And um so and I'm going to I'm going to approach some of this tonight in uh in coralory fashion. I learned that word this week. So that's like opposites essentially or inverse. Uh but in this in that sense of we have the story of David to look at very easily. Uh the Bible says that in Acts 13:36 the ESV uses it this way. It says uh for David after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation fell asleep and was laid in his father laid with his fathers and saw corruption. So, he that was the Bible's way of saying he rotted. I don't know why they put that in there, but uh he served the purpose of God in his own generation. I I thought I thought that um in the in the King James version, it's he served the will of God in his own generation. is such an interesting phrase in my mind that we we look at it and we see David and we see all the great things he did, but it was for his generation. I I think that's such an incredible endeavor for each of us to call out of ourselves and to see that God has a purpose for us in our generation. But as great as David was, David David could not do all things he intended to do. Right? So we see that that when it comes to the building of the temple, David had the constitution and he had the context. He had the the walt with God. He had a relationship with God. He had the the ability. He had the the the monies and the supplies all set aside. But God did not call him to build that. In fact, God told him no. Well, that's that's a bit hard. It's a bit harsh. You know, you ever thought about that? He lived his entire life for that purpose and God was like, "Nah, nah, buddy. You can't do it." He didn't have the calling for that. It It seemed like he did, but he didn't. God didn't allow it. That's That's a hard That's a hard pill to swallow sometimes. I don't know about you. I don't know if God's ever told you guys no, but anytime you're like, you know, God, I want to do it. And God's like, "Nah, what did I do? It ain't about you. It was this was you were serving your generation. This is for the next." And that's a hard that's a hard pill to swallow.

Uh constitution. We we talked about it. And I I thought of Judas with this. Judas had the calling of God. He was literally called by Jesus Christ himself. Like, right? I mean, some of us would would only do the things that God's calling us to do if he stepped down in flesh and asked us to do it himself. Guess what? Judas had that. He was like, "Come follow me." All right. And he did. He had that calling. I mean, there's there there were only 12 other guy 13 other guys, I guess. No, 12 only 12 other people if you include Paul that had that sort of calling in all of humanity. I mean, you could you could count Moses, but it was even a burning bush. It wasn't Jesus Christ himself wrapped. It wasn't God himself wrapped in flesh. It was and Judas had the calling and the context. He walked with him. He learned from him. He he was there with him, but he did not have the constitution or the character. It's like, oh, well, that might matter. Do you know that that we we talk about this, the callings of God and the we use it like this, the gifts of God are without repentance, but there's still qualifications of God. And I don't know about y'all, but I feel like Judah probably disqualified himself right there. or Judas, he probably disqualified himself just a little bit. It's kind of, you know, it's it's kind of hard to think about, but it's okay.

Then there's this guy, there's context. It's uh it's where we're at, right? Grow where we're planted. Uh that's not always easy. The grass is always greener. You can think of I I was struggled to find an exact story for this, but there was there's a couple examples. There was the the uh the prodigal son. He thought the grass was greener elsewhere. And like honestly, if he'd have just stayed there, it' have been a it'd had a great life. He would have done great things. There was a guy in the Old Testament. It's such a weird story. Uh 2 Samuel chapter 18. His name is Aamez. It's almost a Hammed, but it's not. It's a James. is the son of Zadok. There was a battle going on and Joab said, "Go." And he told Kushi, he said, "Go tell the king what thou has seen." And Kushi bowed himself unto Joab and ran. And then Aamez, this is verse 22, 2 Samuel 18:22, said the son of Zad yet again to Joab, "But however, let me, I pray, thee also run after Kushah." And Joab said, "Where why would you run, my son, seeing that thou thou has nothing to tell the king?" All right, this is the King James version. I'm gonna have to translate it there. You don't have You didn't even see what happened. Why are you going to run? And and so so he let he let him run. He said, "Let me run." He said unto him, "Run." And then he ran by. And he overran Kushau. He outran him. And if you read the story, he arrives to king to to the king. He arrives to David and he's like and David says verse 28 and and a hes I can't say this name at all. Oh Ahmed over here called and said unto the king, all is well. and he fell down to the earth and his face before the king and said, "Blessed be the Lord thy God which has delivered me up the man that I lifted up their hand against the Lord my my lord the king and the king said unto uh is the young man Abselum safe and an Hamez answered when Joab sent the king's servant and me thy servant I saw a great great torment but I knew no what I knew I didn't know what happened I knew not what it was and the king said turn aside and stand here. He's like, I don't know what happened. I just I just wanted to run. He was He was an oldtimey uh Forest Gump. He's an ancient Forest Gum. I just wanted to run. Guy did not know what in the world he was put on this earth to do. He just thought he was supposed to run, but it wasn't it. He didn't see what happened. No one asked him to. He was just like, "Let me run, boss. Let me run." Stand over. Yeah. He was like, "Dude, come on." I knew when I saw you coming, I knew this was just going to be bad. How many of us do that? We don't establish ourselves in the context of what God has provided for us. And we get somewhere and we're like, "Wait a minute. What was I doing? What was I doing here? This James over here, I wish he'd had an easier name to pronounce. He'd probably be more popular of a story. That's why no one else teaches that story. It's such a funny story to me. It just it's just like what are you doing? What were you doing? He just wanted to run. But then why was it even in there? Yeah. Because he had nothing. It was just there. Like the writer, the scribes like why am I having to write this guy's name down? He is named He didn't do nothing. He just ran. It's funny. Got there first. the got there first but he had no purpose to it.

So, so we have to have our calling. We have to have a constitution. We have to have character and then we have to have to be willing to grow where we're planted wherever we're planted at. It's kind of honestly he reminds me of those guys. I I've seen them you know like there's always that kid at youth camp and I'm I'm going to it's probably it was probably every one of us at some point in time. Okay. It's always this kid at youth camp or right after youth camp. I'm going to Zimbabwe or I I talked about that here. You know, I'm going to I Ben, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to call you out like this. I'm I'm going I'm going to be a missionary to Papa New Guinea. And like I'm just going to tell y'all like that's like the most underdeveloped place in the world. So you don't want you don't want to do that. But like I'm going to be I'm going to be a missionary there. It's like, well, what are you doing at home? Like, nah, nah. So, it's like, okay, well, maybe if you're producing here, you'll produce there, but I I can about guarantee you're not going to produce nothing. You're not going to produce something there if you're not producing here. And that's that's growing where we're planted and allowing God to to use us. When we start aligning those when we start taking our calling plus our constitution plus our context we start finding our purpose.

Uh the purpose it's it's it's easy to define it's a reason something is done or used. It's the intention. David was what he was his purpose. He served God's purpose for his generation. uh a feeling of being determined to do or to achieve something, a resolution or determination. It's it's deep. So there's there's if you think of it like puppy love versus true love. If you think of it like infatuation versus a a pivotal life defining decision, you start kind of understanding what purpose is. It takes a minute. It also takes courage. because it it requires a lot of us. Uh it's not and then there's things that come along that disturb us that then discourage us from stepping into our purpose. Those things uh it doesn't mean that God won't use us. That there's still a time. I I still believe that I believe that there's a time and a window that God will will allow us to exercise in our purpose and it's there. We just have to get ourselves aligned with him. Right? And so in that we start we we we start changing the aim of our life. Right? So, uh, I QR code. They're going to put it on the screen. And these are these are some good questions with this tonight. And I'm going to need your help to we're going to talk about these just a little bit. And if you can't do it there, use this one. This is the biggest QR code we could find. I'll be still. I don't have any tape. Yeah, it is also on the screen. So, this this one is a clarified purpose.

So, purpose is living out our calling in our current circumstances. By doing so, we'll find maximum fulfillment in the present and position ourselves for more opportunities in the future. Purpose is found when our calling is incarnated through our constitution in a specific context. Our purpose is to live out our calling using our God-given resources in our God- assigned location. Even if it's not ideal, it's about today, right? It's not the futuristic. So the questions part part one questions let's see how can I live today so that I that I fulfill my calling to the best of my abilities. How can I live today so that I am positioning myself for what I feel is next? Then how can I use what I have and who I am for the betterment of others today? Now these can be books or just short answer but ask yourself this if you'll take just a moment then I'm going to ask if anybody would care to share an Answer. She's not asleep tonight. She's normally sleeping while I'm teaching. So, lucky me. All right. Who Who would like to share how can I live today so that I fulfill my calling to the best of my abilities? Anybody got a got something you would like to share with that? Juan, did I see you raise your hand? Oh. Oh, you're scratching. I'm just picking at you, man. I was just anybody under. Okay. How can I live today so I can position myself for what I feel is next? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. There was a there's a pastor uh he's done a really good job of building building a really successful um church if you can he's just done a really good job with it. Um by by a lot of if not all measures and he said something he said I I'm not a goal setter. I didn't set goals. I tried to make sure that we were healthy so that when opportunities presented themselves, we could take advantage of them. And and again that he wasn't saying against goals. He was just saying to his that was his style. And I thought that was very interesting of making sure that we're healthy. Um that can be a huge amount of things. What does our a healthy lifestyle look like? A healthy relationship with God, a healthy walk with God. What does a healthy constitution in in our being look like? And we can we can apply that as to finances, to to food, to relationships, to all of those things. Um, how can I use what what I have and who I am for the betterment of others today? That's the third question on the part on page one, part one. Anybody got a thought? Yes, ma'am. taking the gifts and talents that are specific to me. Okay. All right. Can I ask what's one what's a specific to you? You may not raise your hand for that. Okay. Yeah. And using it. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Oh, they came back, didn't they, from vacation? Oh, we're so glad. It was only three weeks or four, I don't know. Um, you guys on part two?

Did y'all do part two? If y'all want to go to part two real quick, it's a it's a little it it says, "Write a purpose statement that outlines how you can m maximize your calling." This is a personal purpose statement. That's going to take a minute, though. might want to use chat GPT for real We used to have a I had a cost accounting professor. It's the most boring teacher I've ever had in my entire life. He would during test time, he would literally stand, this is what this feels like, test time. He would stand at the front of the room like this for like an hour and a half. Oh, it's like what is happening to this guy? That was just that was just him. It's like dude. Okay, I'm sure he was a great accountant. Yeah, I think so. He was a great accountant. Oh, yeah. All right. Who who has a purpose statement they would like to share? That's a big that's a big one. If no one does, I get it. Well, I mean, you know what you got? I mean, like in your words, I'm called to love and to reach for people. Yeah. All people. Everybody. Yeah. Fair enough. basically the end in prayer. Um, I'm fearfully and wonderfully made and receive wonderful gifts such as Who's got some gifts? Is it your birthday? Whose birthday is it? Who's got gifts? I'm just kidding. Not those types. Who What kind of gift you got, Seth? Oh, I know. But what kind of gift you got? Yeah. A serving gift. I feel more comfortable. Aggravating. I thought I I thought I saw you at the restaurant the other day. Sorry. No. I a serving gift. Who's What else? Yes, ma'am. What you got? You got the gift of a dog with an American flag. That's You get the gift of coffee. Thank you so much for sharing. What you got? Your mom called you out. So you just got called out. Do you have the constitution to step up? Because the context is now. No, mom. Come on. I'm all right. Well, now well now we're going to the story about Gideon Sarah. Anybody got Who's got a gifting? Who's got another one? What's your gift then? Joy. There you go. Yeah. Longering. Longsuffering. That means to suffer long. Well, okay. Ken, what's your gifting? Creativity and music. Do they go together or you just make creative music or music and creativity? All the ability. Oh, so like Weirdo Yanovich is what I'm thinking. Okay. All right. I'm with you. Weird. We Weird. I think I like him better than the original artist. So, are y'all too young to know who Weird is? Okay. Yeah. You don't know who? Okay. But yeah, girls. Weirdowl is a great guy. Uh, today I can use these gifts to fulfill my calling in the following ways. What's What's some way that you're you putting your gifts to use? Anybody? Raising kids. Raising kids. That goes right hand. It goes hand in hand with longsuffering. Celebrate recovery. Celebrate recovery. Yeah. What about you, Presley? You didn't know this was going to be this interactive tonight, did y'all? Uh, just teaching the church. Yeah. Yes, sir. Use it. That's gifting. Yes, sir. Sarah, did you come up with yours yet? Everyone's looking at you. Might as well. Christian, you look like you've got something on your mind back there. You're sitting by Seth. So, share with the class. Yeah, help me.

Part three uh part three is how can I be fully present fulfilling my calling for the fullest giving given my constitution in context. So you said kids sometimes that pulls us from the present to the present you know it's like and future planning. Yeah. Yeah. Especially when they're older. Yeah. Fair enough. How can I improve on the areas of my constitution that are limiting the fulfillment of my call? Oh, how can I make my context a better place? be present when you're needed. Well, there's that. Um, some can somebody answer give me just give me your answer or an answer for how can I be fully present fulfilling my calling to the fullest given my constitution and context? Yes, ma'am. Um, I think just having excellence just excellence and how Yeah. In spite of this context. Yeah. You're saying you're in the lion's den right now. No. Okay. All right. I was just wondering I did. We need us in the health rescue team. Okay. How can I improve? This is self-improvement on the areas of my constitution that are limiting the fulfillment of my call. Anyone have with us? Prayer. Oh, that's true. Yeah. I have re I have recently joined a it's a it's a classic literature historic historical literature book club of guys. Yes, Christian. Go ahead. Smile the way you want to. I get it. Uh it's all guys. I don't think it was limited to guys. I think they're the only people that got the ad, though. So, like they were starting a chapter here in Chattanooga and so uh yeah, it was super cool. I mean, it's at 7 a.m. So, Huh. It's It's We're going through Plutarch lives right now. So, really cool. Enjoy it. It's good for me, right? Because it it helps me to rub shoulders with people that I've not rubbed shoulders with. And it gives me perspectives that I haven't always had. The study does good for me. It helps me from being a grouchy old person that says, "No one likes to read this." Turns out people do. So for me, that was good. It's also good for y'all to get a good laugh at, Christian. So what are what are some other things? What are some things you can do, Ethan, now that you're not distracted? I'm just kidding. How can I improve on the areas of my constitution that are limiting the fulfillment of my call? Oh, well, there's that. You're gonna have to got a little bit on that one. Just ask ask Nathan about longsuffering. So, I say time management. Okay. Yeah, I'd say honestly scheduling out being intentional with the time that God's given me every day. Time management. That's a big deal. All right. This one's a hard one. How can I make my context a better place? How can I make the grass that I I live on greener? It starts with gratitude. Gratitude. Yeah. Content. Contentment. Byst. Investing in those around you. Eli, I haven't picked on you yet. So, except with Weird Al. Didn't hear it. Thank you, Seth. How How can I make my context a better place or where I'm at a better place? That's pretty good. That's That's what you do. That's what you do when you write a paper in college right there. Bringing God into all your situations wherever you are. Yeah. Okay. In those things, I I think those those last three action those are action items in my opinion. And those are those those things, whatever that is in your life, whatever that is where you're at, whatever you need to improve on, I think as we work in those that God opens the door for our purpose, he he starts to then change because if we're if we're gracious, if we have gratitude, it we may live with one sprig of grass, but man, that's a great sprig of grass, you know? It it it changes uh it change our when our perspective changes our life change. And that sounds like a real Joel Olstein type thing to say, doesn't it? But there's some truth to it. There's some truth to it. And I'm picking I'm picking good old Joel there. You know, I'm picking equal opportunist here, guys. So uh

Proverbs 20 and5 says it like this. Uh the purpose in a man's heart is like deep water but a man of understanding will draw it out. So that could be you could look at that of what is someone else's purpose but you could also look at it in yourself right the reflective nature of this the purpose in a man's heart. God, what's the purpose in my heart? Because the reality is the word comes in and it divides us under all the thoughts and the intents of the heart. And if we're not careful, we'll get all chopped up because it's our thoughts and intents. But when we allow But when we allow understanding to draw out, we can start to then place God's purpose in our heart. Because re how many's prayed for something and then later realized that you were asking as the Bible puts it a miss. Yeah. Real good about that. Yeah. How how easy and how great would it be if we could start out with a prayer that allowed for God's purpose to be first? That's hard. I think I think that then starts that gets us into greater revival as the intents of our life as the steps of our life as the things of our life as the as the thoughts the time the talent the treasure those things they align they're just if I may they're just symptomatic indicators of what our purpose the the purpose of our heart is. The purpose in a man's heart is like deep water. You ever heard the saying deep water runs slow? It looks like it's moving slow. And then a a little shallow creek. The the COA you guys drive by on your way to church. It's it's shallow. It's running quick. But the purpose is deep. Sometimes it's easy to forget that it's moving, that it's there. We have to be careful and steer it. When we start aligning those symptomatic things that time, talent and treasure, we start or we start we start analyzing them like these questions asked. Then we start seeing ah this is the purpose that I've been living my life to.

So if if in your action items you look at your answer and you see that okay well I mean in this class right it's going to easy it's going to be easy to have a god focus to it but if you're sitting at home and you sit through and you think of this what do I really want to do in life what is my purpose in life uh we all ask ourselves At least I hope we do. I hope we try to find our purpose in life. Or else we're going to get to a point where we're going be like, "Oh, what have I been doing?" Personal story here. I got a friend, good friend, and he he told me this uh he is a he's a go-getter. I mean, go-getter, dude. He like he worked like 16-hour days for as long as I can remember. And he told me not too long ago, he said, "I woke up. I looked around one day and I realized, now he's not much older than me, and I realized, wait a minute, what have I been doing for the past 10 years?" So, what was I doing? That kid, you know, that dude sold everything. He had businesses and property. I mean, he was he was, as far as I know, was fairly successful. He sold everything and he's not retired, but he ain't doing a whole lot right now. Now, he's an extreme example because he's a his personality is 100% either way. So, he's 100% doing something or he's 100% not like and and and in that his purpose he started he he looked at it. He was like, "Oh my lord." He said, "God had a call on my life, but I just I just ignored it and I threw myself into those things." This was his words. I I threw myself into those things. I was doing it and it wasn't to the purpose of God. Now, he's he's changed directions in his life. I don't I'm not I'm not using his life as a testimony, but it was a it was a point of of at least thought that oh man, I think we all have to have that at different points in our life. Oh man, what am I doing? What have I been doing? I was talking to Dave, some guys, and we were talking about work and there was a guy that worked worked there for 50 years. I was like, you know, I used to couldn't imagine that, but I've been where I've been at for like nine and I could see how that happened. I be like, oh no, how'd that accidentally happen? I woke up one day and it's 50 years later. You know, it's like it can happen. So can we examine ourselves um in in that the purpose in a man's heart is like deep water but a man of understanding would draw it out. Proverbs goes on and says if anyone lacks understanding let him pray and God will give it to him. So I encourage you if you've been looking for your purpose in life you've been trying to figure out why in the world you're here pray to God for understanding. And when he gives you understanding, you'll draw out your purpose in life. Might be a multi-step process. Might take a minute, but I can promise you this. You were not you were not created on accident. You're not here on accident. You're not here just to just to be here and and and be gone. God's got a purpose. You may It's It's probably not to be the guy a Hmed over here. Aamez. Better to stop making fun of I better stop just conflating those names. I'm gonna get in trouble. Aamez. Like going to be like him and just run for no reason. We don't want to do that because at the end of our lives, God's going to be like, "Hey, thou good and faithful servant." Or, "What are you doing here?" "Oh, I was I was just here. I was just running. What are you doing here?" Like, no. I I want there to be a purpose that I'm here, that I'm standing before God. I want there to be a reason. I want there to be a reason that my family looks at me that that and and says, "You know what? You gave yourself to the things of God, but you gave yourself to us. You were purposed in your life. You You weren't doing it for yourself. You were doing it for God." I think that makes a I think that makes all the difference in the world. I really do.

Would you stand with me? Greater revival starts with us, doesn't it? Starts with us in a prayer room. It starts with us in a conversation with God. It starts with us in a in honestly in a come to Jesus meeting with God. That's where it starts when we get real with ourselves and with God. We pray for God to give us understanding. God, help me understand why that you've got me here. Help me to understand what to do with what you've given me. Help me to understand, God, the the the the longing I feel to be more fulfilled. Help me to understand how I'm going to do that. That's the calling. Help me to understand that, God. And and honestly, as you ask God, God will show you. He absolutely will. And when that happens, your life will change. Our our our circumstances will change. Our church will change. Our nation will change because we're not just aimlessly doing things anymore. I'm not saying we are, but there's always times that we have to check that and and let God examine it.

Would you pray with me? Jesus, we love you. Thank you, Lord, for your goodness, your mercy, your kindness. God, I pray tonight, Lord, that you would help each one of us, God, to examine ourselves before you, God. You would allow us, Lord, to to hear your call, God. Lord, to understand a context, God. And Lord, help us to build our constitution, what we're made of, Lord. God, I pray, Lord, as we're doing those things, God, you would reveal unto each and every one of us the c the purpose that you have for us, Lord. that you would reveal unto us the purpose that you've got us where we're at with the gifts that we have with the things that we have. God, you've got us there on purpose. God, help us, Lord, to understand that purpose, to understand what you would have us do for our generation, God, to understand what you would have us do to change our generation, to change our world, to affect those around us, God, to to affect our families, God, to affect our our neighborhoods, to affect our homes, God, to affect our our churches, God, to affect our nation, God. I don't know what all you have in store for the for the body of Christ in here tonight, but God, I know, God, that you have purposes greater, God. And I pray Lord you would help us God to to find the the the healthy space, the the right space God to understand and God help us to find our calling, our context, our constitution God and help us to walk strongly directly purposed in your will and in your plan God.