1-8-17 "Purpose Matters"

Every part of you has a purpose.

Every cell is a little community of parts with certain purposes: - Each cell is contained inside cell wall & membrane, which

supports, protects, and controls the movement of materials into and out of the cell.

- Inside that membrane is the nucleus, which floats in the cytoplasm jelly filling and stationed in the cytoskeleton, and has the genetic info of the cell, making it unique to you

- Alongside that nucleus are the endoplasmic reticulum , the ribosomes (that make proteins), Golgi body (proteins' mailman), mitochondria (the fuel center), vacuoles (storage closet), lysosomes (recycling center)…

And each cell of your body has a specific purpose. There are skin cells on all different dermis layers, lung cells, heart cells, blood cells (white, red), bone cells, eye cells, stomach cells, muscle cells, kidney cells, liver cells, large intestine, small intestine cells, hair cells… And each organ has a unique, irreplaceable purpose. And your organs all come together to form… YOU! But what's your purpose?? Ironic that 37.2 trillion cells in the human body all have a purpose…but some people don't know their own purpose.

YOU have a purpose, but only if there's a God.

Because purpose speaks of design, and if there's no designer, there can be no set purpose for any creature. You can self-identify a purpose, but your opinion is just as valid as another's.

Even renowned atheist Betrand Russell said, "Unless you assume a God, the question of life's purpose is meaningless."

Solomon, for a long time, tried to find purpose in everything imaginable: political success, building wealth, learning, creativity &

art, building projects, sex, substance abuse, food, relationships… Every stop became not a benchmark of success, but a point of futility, another pursuit that, when made into an ultimate purpose, was meaningless, "a chasing after the wind" as he so often puts it in his memoirs called "Ecclesiastes." Rick Warren starts his best seller Purpose Driven Life (which everybody should read!) with the famous words, "It's not about you. The purpose of your life is far greater than your own personal fulfillment, your peace of mind, or even your happiness. It's far greater than your family, your career, or even your wildest dreams and ambitions. If you want to know why you were placed on this planet, you must begin with God. You were born by his purpose and for his purpose." Purpose Driven Life, 17

It's all God's! - Job 12:10 In his hand is the life of every living thing and the

breath of all mankind.

- Ps 24:1 The earth is the LORD's, and everything in it. The

world and all its people belong to him.

So let's make that assumption that there is a God and talk about your purpose.

There's nothing as frustrating and disappointing as something that is designed for- but poorly fulfills- its purpose.

Spoons at Philipsburg Alliance (Mental Health seminar).

Couldn’t get lips fully into spoon's dip so food went in and back out of mouth! Shaft too thin to really push down on. Thin handle hard to grasp.

Purpose and function get easily mixed up and become synonymous, but they must not be. A spoon's purpose is clear and singular: to make food consumption easier. It's functions vary as wide as your imagination. Monster's Inc.- "Spoons"

PURPOSE ≠ Function.

Purpose goes deeper- and broader- than the jobs, functions, and things you do. Just because you can do something- do it well even- doesn't make it your purpose. There are innumerable functions of humans! Our design allows for ~limitless functions and capabilities. But like a spoon, there is a purpose that determines our existence at all. We'd have no need for a spoon if we had no food. Your functions all find their place in your purpose. Purpose goes deeper- and broader- than the jobs, functions, and things you do, even those "you were made for." For example, when David King spoke about youth sports, he

revealed that almost ALL pro athletes are pros because they are biologically, genetically advantaged to play their games well. They worked hard and trained, but by and large, they were born with the rare ability and body type to excel at what they do. However, take away their performance, and you're left with what? An inestimably valuable human being still. They don't just matter because they can perform. That's not their purpose. It's a function they have, and maybe it's their purpose for being on the team, but it's not their purpose for existence. You too were born rarely capable of something(s)! But to confuse those things with your core purpose is not just a mistake, it's an act of ignorance that will lead to frustration. Because if your purpose hinges on what your body is capable of, your days of fulfilling that purpose are numbered. Just because you can do something- do it well even- doesn't make it your purpose. It'd be like digging with spoons- they're not meant for that. And your purpose supersedes your abilities.

In fact,There is a purpose that you can fulfill in life and death.

In fact, you'll be dead for much longer than you'll be alive so make your life-after-this-life align with your purpose! Since you are an undying spiritual being underneath your body, your purpose is everlasting too. It doesn't change after you die… if you get it right now, that is. Here it is:

1 Cor 10:31 "So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all

things for the glory of God."

"If you exist, exist for the glory of God"

Westminster Shorter Catechism: Q. 1. "What is the chief end of man?"

A. "Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever." Now… what does that mean???! Let's explore Paul's writing in 1 Cor. 10 to find some more clues to our purpose, if that is our purpose, which I hope I can prove.

1 Cor 10: 23“I have the right to do anything,” you say—but

not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but not everything is constructive. 24No one should seek their own good, but the good of others. 25Eat anything sold in the meat market without raising questions of conscience, 26for, “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.”

B+C: Animal sacrifice is as old in religions as civilization. Quite often, as in the Jews' case, animals that were sacrificed weren't completely destroyed, just parts of them. Much of it was actually consumed by the worshiper and/or priest. The Jews weren't the only ones who sacrificed animals to worship their God. So pagan temples held animal sacrifices as well. In big cities, like Corinth, meat that was leftover after sacrifices was brought to the outdoor marketplace and sold (kind of like paying off their gods & getting paid!) Not all meat in the market was from these sacrifices, but some was. And some of Jesus' followers in Corinth felt that it wasn't right to eat meat that had been part of an offering to a false god. You can certainly understand their point, right? They worshiped the God who said, "Be holy just as I am holy" and who punished wrongdoing unequivocally in their people's history. But Paul says idols are nonexistent gods, so those animal meats that were given in offering to idols couldn't be received or owned by those idols because they represent only imaginary things, not real beings. Paul says there's only One who owns it all- God- and since everything is His, you can enjoy any meat from any source.

And here's why this leads us to our purpose.

If everything belongs to God, including you, then everything is

for God- including you. You exist for God. If God owns and cares

about the pot roast on your plate, He certainly owns and cares about you!

o 1 Cor 10:31 "So whether you eat or drink or whatever you

do, do all things for the glory of God." So your functions, activities, jobs, lifestyles find their place in your purpose. Without that purpose determined, you will lack motivation, passion, direction and meaning for everything you do. That's why I'm arguing that the purpose of every person dead or alive was and is to glorify God. Because what Paul says, apparently quoting a saying his readers knew, in v.23 is that there are helpful and beneficial things, and not-so-helpful or beneficial things. The same goes for purposes. You may live for another purpose other than God, but such other purposes are flawed from the start because they depend on your performance, which is limited, or others' performance, which is unpredictable. God is unchanging, eternally good, and powerful beyond measure. When He is the core of your purpose, your purpose is born in infinite potential for satisfaction, meaning, and usefulness. And to his Hellenized audience, "usefulness" was a common measure of thoughts and actions among Greek teachers. So Paul concludes that one and only one purpose prevails for humanity: to give glory to God.

Glorify=

o to make glorious by bestowing honor, praise, or admiration (as in worship)

o to elevate to celestial glory; to light up brilliantly (notice how glorify has the sense of being unmistakably bold & big, beautifully apparent, like a bright star in the night sky)

o valuing [God] for who He really is.HELPS Word Studies

o to raise something to the highest level of importance. Because it's a promotion of what's glorified to the highest level, it's subsequently a demotion of everything under it.

- John the Baptist said about Jesus: "He must become greater; I must become less" (Jn 3:30)

- Likewise, we are told throughout Scripture to lift God up in importance and praise:

Ps 86:12 I will praise you, Lord my God, with all my heart; I will glorify your name forever.

Ps 96:4 For great is the LORD and greatly to be praised; He is to be feared above all gods.

1 Chr 16:23-29 Sing to the LORD, all the earth; Proclaim good tidings of His salvation from day to day. Tell of His glory among the nations

Ps 29:1-2 Honor the LORD, you heavenly beings;

honor the LORD for his glory and strength.2 Honor the LORD for the glory of his name. Worship

the LORD in the splendor of his holiness. Ps 115:1 Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to Your name

give glory because of Your loving-kindness, because of Your truth.

1 Pet 4:11 … so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Language and words are constrained by their own definitions and nuances. The little word "tree" evokes a thousand different images,

despite being all tree-y. The same goes for all words really. They are merely representatives of realities. So what does "glory/glorify" represent? - Dallas Theological Seminary's Everett F. Harrison, The Influence of the LXX on

the NT Vocabulary, https://faculty.gordon.edu/hu/bi/ted_hildebrandt/ntesources/ntarticles/bsac-nt/harrison-

lxximportance-pt2-bs.pdf

A word with a fascinating history is doxa, which in the NT is most frequently rendered glory.

(DOXA… "doxology" ('glory words'); orthodoxy) In Plato's

writings, he has Socrates suggest that knowledge is orthos doxa (orthodoxy) or "justified true belief".

Because doxa's root (dokeo) means to think and to seem, the noun doxa followed the same double pattern.

As the result of this thought-to-activity connection, it came to mean opinion…[and] reputation... in a favorable way, so: fame, honor, glory... Branching out from the other meaning of the verb, doxa comes to signify appearance or fancy. This summarizes broadly the classical (extra-biblical) usage.

In the Bible though, most often, doxa appears as the translation of (Heb.) kabhodh, which derives from a root meaning to be heavy…in the sense of importance, wealth, power, etc. But kabhodh has certain meanings originally unknown to doxa, such as majesty, splendor, riches, beauty, might, and even as they relate to a person or self. A highly specialized use of the word is its employment in the Old Testament to denote the outward, visible manifestation of brilliant light which appropriately expressed the excellence of God's spirit-nature. You see this use of the word in connection with the pillar of cloud and fire, in the visions of God prophets like Ezekiel and Isaiah saw, and elsewhere. So when ancient translators between the 3rd and 1st centuries

BC put their Hebrew Scriptures into the common Greek language, they had this concept of "glory" (a heavy majesty, splendor, riches, beauty, might, sometimes wrapped up in a personal being such as God) but they lacked a Greek word that captured it fully. [Since doxa commonly meant a good, famous, honorable reputation] It was not too difficult to extend the use of doxa from that point to include also the concept of majesty, which belonged natively to kabhodh but not to doxa. Once this extension was accomplished, it was not felt too strange to go a step further and make the word connote the outward display of God's majesty. Then all the other meanings which adhered to kabhodh became transferred to doxa, such as riches, might, person, etc. "So before

we are through, we are face to face with one of the most startling semantic changes known to us. New wine is being poured into the old wineskin." The point? Words can't describe God's glory!!

Truly, "glory" is best described through experiencing God.

- Karl Barth (Die Kirkliche Dogmatik, third edition, II, 722, 733, 735) : the glory of God is

another way of stating the beauty of God [inside & out]. God is certainly overpowering to our finite minds. But He is knowable and, because of Jesus' sacrifice for our sins, God is approachable! "He is a Person of beauty in whose fellowship the saints will find endless delight." So our little word "glory" is loaded with imagery, meaning, and definition that go far beyond words and even images.

So we see doxa- glory- when: - Paul writes of God's vast riches & His character:

o (Rom 9:23) "He does this to make the riches of his glory shine even brighter on those to whom he shows mercy, who were prepared in advance for glory.

o Php 4:19 "And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus."

o Col 1:27 "To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory."

- Or the resurrection & new life in Christ: o Rom 6:4 "just as Christ was raised from the dead by the

glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life." - Or Jesus' full incarnation of who God is:

o (Jn 1:14)The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

- And even how we are becoming more like Jesus: o (2 Cor 3:18) So all of us who have had that veil removed

can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—

who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.

If our purpose is to glorify God in all ways, that necessitates experiencing Him, which is all about Jesus! Jesus is the only way to God's glory.

o Col 1:15The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn

over all creation. 16For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. 17He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.19For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. 21Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. 22But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— 23if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel.

If you will fulfill your purpose, you must know Jesus, who is God's glory, and who comes to you to bring you into the life God gives.

John Piper: "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him." Jesus satisfies.

Jesus is the well of water that never runs dry; He's the bread that feeds our soul's deepest cravings; He's the light of life in whom there is no darkness; He's the Good Shepherd who watches over us, never leaves us, always cares for us; He's the Rest for a weary people; the bearer of our burdens and the comforter of our hearts; He's our defender against our accuser, our advocate before the Father, and Healer of our diseases. He doesn't kick you when you're down, but He stoops to our lowest places to scoop us up like a caring, good, strong Father. He serves us in humility, proving His unstoppable, unbending

and unending love for us by taking all of the punishment for our sins and cancelling every charge against us. We deserved death, but He took it to give us His life. You can be satisfied in Jesus. You can have purpose- real, lasting, full purpose- in Jesus. Let me break it down further from there.

John MacArthur: "God's glory has 2 aspects. First is His inherent glory. God is the only being in all of existence who can be said to possess inherent glory. No one can give it to Him; it already completely belongs to Him by virtue of who He is. If no one ever gave God praise, He would still be the glorious God He is because He was fully glorious before He created any other beings to worship Him. The second aspect of God's glory is ascribed glory. We cannot give God glory in the sense of adding to His glory any more than we can add to His strength. [But we can] acclaim and recognize the glory He already has." J.M. NT Commty 1 Cor. 244

That's what "glorifying God" means: lifting up God, making a huge deal of Him, making everything all about Him and nothing else. Through your words, attitudes, life posture and ultimately actions this purpose must be at the foundation. Your purpose and mine might result in a million different actions, but they all share that same core of giving God glory due Him. Make everything- literally everything- about God.

o Rom 11:36 For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.

And so we've come to what glorifying God looks like.

In 1 Cor 10, Paul traces the function of eating back to our purpose of glorifying God. This was Jesus' express purpose too. As a man, Jesus also accepted our purpose: to glorify God.

o Jn 17: 1After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.

How did Jesus glorify God?

o … 4I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. 5And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began…. 24“Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.

Notice Jesus' emphasis on being with God + experiencing Him. That was real glory! Being loved by God eternally: glory! Being in God's presence: glory! …And doing what God desires: glory! Now, what God chiefly desires is to be glorified. So your purpose is to glorify God, which means you'll do the work He gives you, which is primarily to bring Him glory… Get it?

Our purpose: Glorify God by loving (and obeying) Him.

You can't obey Him if you don't love Him ("Love the Lord your God with all your heart= 1st Command!"); And you can't love Him if you don't obey Him (Jn 14:15 “If you love

me, keep my commands.") And his command is to love God… See how it's not really about your functions and it's all about your relationship of love with God that glorifies Him?

It looks like this: When you drive to the store or work, you're not primarily traveling to get there (function). Your primary purpose in traveling is to enjoy God's presence, glorifying Him first in mind and then in action if the opportunity arises. When you get to work, you're not working to finish the project or to keep your job or even to collect a paycheck (f(x)). You're working to witness and praise the work of God in your workplace and when given the chance, directing others' attention to Him as one worthy of praise and attention. When you're parenting your kids, going to their recitals and games, helping them, preparing them for their day and their life. Your

main job is not to do anything for them. It's primarily to be something for them: a mirror that applauds God, makes Him huge and important in every way, every day. That leads to peace in the home and joy in your heart. You see? Whatever you do, do it because God is glorious and because your purpose is to glorify Him! Wake up to make Him important and enjoy Him. Go to sleep to enjoy His grace and control. Work to pull on His strength and wisdom. Vacation to trust Him and present Him as the God over time He is. Eat to celebrate His goodness and creativity and provision. Digest to praise Him. Whatever you do… do it all for God's glory! - Your money- a tool to make God known, used as God would use

it. - Your stuff- tools to point to Him, enjoy Him, share Him. - Your health- for him

o 1 Cor 6:20 You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

- Your relationships- for Him - Your job- for Him

o Johann Sebastian Bach wrote "S. D. G." Soli Deo gloria= Glory to God alone at the end of most of his compositions

- Your hobbies- for Him - Your free time- for Him - Your skills- for Him Say to yourself throughout the day: "I'm _______-ing to glorify

God." (And if that doesn't jive with what you're doing, then stop what you're doing!)

Just like you are made of millions of cells, and they are made of tons of tiny parts, and they all have a purpose, so the sum of all of you is to glorify God… "and enjoy Him forever."