Doing Life on Purpose

Text: Ephesians 3:1-12
Title: Doing Life on Purpose
1/3/10 Clarksville - Epiphany, 2 yr anniversary at Grace

By the time she started her sophomore year of college, Rebecca was going 90 to nothing down a dead end road. She was headed for destruction and she was getting there fast. The longer the semester went, the more time she spent with a bottle, and less she spent with her books. Her choice was escape over education. Parties weren’t just her preference, they were her priority. The consequence was a college career that was cut short. She started that year at college in Bowling Green, Ohio and ended it in desperation in California. That’s where she reached the point I pray everyone gets to - the point where she knew some things needed to change. She finally faced the truth that was headed nowhere.

In desperation, she walked into a church. It wasn’t a Sunday and as it turned out the pastor wasn’t there. The secretary who would have had at least some experience in spiritual conversations with needy people wasn’t there either. The only one in the building was the janitor. He could have said “you’ll have to come back when someone else is here.” He could have seen himself as inadequate to the task of talking to someone so desperate about their spiritual condition, concerned that she might have questions for which he did not have answers. Instead, he spoke truth to her with confidence and conviction because he knew he had a purpose that was bigger than keeping a building clean. “God loves you.” That’s what he said and God used the power and truth of that statement to change her life. It was an epiphany, a revelation, an insight into a mystery that she was accepted by the Creator, that God’s unconditional love was directed at her. She was captivated, caught by the amazing grace of a loving God. It struck such a powerful chord in her heart that from that day on, a new life was begun. She never took another drink, and the messenger God used to make it happen came from a janitor who was doing life with a purpose.

Last month (Dec. 09), decades after dropping out during her sophomore year, Rebecca Tirabassi was the commencement speaker at her graduation from BGSU. In the time between her first run as a sophomore and when she walked across the platform as an adult graduate, Rebecca went from alcoholic with no future to nationally known speaker and author who has helped thousands of other people with everything from spiritual life to physical health to marriage. It all started for her when a janitor who could have seen himself as ‘least of the people of God’ owned the fact that while his job may have been to clean the church, his purpose in life was to share the Gospel that included desperate drunks and college drop-outs. Lives are changed when common people in humble positions know the difference between making a living, and having a sense of purpose that makes a life.

That’s one of the things that most impressed me when I read Tony Dungy’s book “Quiet Strength.” The Super-Bowl winning coach of the Indianapolis Colts and future Hall of Famer is one of the most widely known and respected people in professional sports. He wrote:
“I coach football. But the good I can do to glorify God along the way is my real purpose. I want to help people see the path to eternal life through Jesus Christ, to enjoy an abundant life now, and to fulfill their God-given purposes here. (Tony Dungy, Quiet Strength, pg. 301)

He’s not a pastor, preacher, or missionary. He’s not theologically trained or denominationally credentialed. He’s a former football coach, now football analyst who has given his life to something bigger than his job. He knows there’s a big difference between making a living a making a life, and because of that has influenced athletes, coaches, and entire communities for the sake of the Gospel. He has visited prisons, help start “All Pro Dads”, (an organization aimed at helping men become better fathers) adopted kids and taken countless opportunities to talk to people about Jesus, letting them in on the same mystery that the janitor shared with Rebecca, the truth that God’s love is unconditional and His plan for salvation includes everyone who will accept it. He’s doing life with a purpose. Lives are changed when extraordinary people in high profile positions know the difference between making a living, and having a sense of purpose that makes a life.

Rose (Murphy) is a stay at home mom. She’s never been to seminary, felt a call to preach, serve on a mission field on some other continent, or invest her time in a formal theological education. She doesn’t’ have any credentials or titles but what she does have is a soul-deep awareness that her purpose on this planet is to make sure that everyone she meets gets in on the mystery - that God’s love includes them. The men who came to work on her roof, the people she meets in Wal-Mart, the doctors and nurses she has met this last year as she faced cancer, and her primary place of influence - the kids who call her mom - can all attest to the fact that they have heard about God’s love because Rose has communicated it. And she communicates it every chance she gets because she’s doing life on purpose.

I’ve heard it in conversations with Larry (Cardwell) too. The fact that he’s doing life on purpose shows up when he brings God into the conversation in the truck while on the way to a job, or standing with men with messed up lives while they are working in a ditch. On more than one occasion, Larry has brought names and needs of co-workers to our board meetings when it’s time to share requests for prayer. John Lumpkin does the same thing in the plant where he works, and Lynn Claywell does it as a nurse. Charlotte Moore does life on purpose at the bus barn on Fort Campbell, and Mike Rucker does life on purpose at his business that is filled with images of a Christ-following life. I could say the same thing about teachers who know the difference between what they do for a living, and what they do to have a life, which is influence students and co-workers for Christ. Every day in classrooms and halls in our school system, people are carrying the mystery that God’s love encompasses everyone. It happens with soldiers at Ft. Campbell when they are here, and when they are deployed. When they tell me about guys in their unit who they are praying for and witnessing to, I say there it is again - people who know the difference between what they do for a living and what they do to make a life, who understand that their purpose in life is bigger than bringing home a pay check. Their purpose is proclaiming the mystery of God’s love.

His day job was an artisan, one who worked with his hands and made tents. That’s how he paid the bills. But he definitely saw His purpose in life as something bigger than bringing home a pay check. Paul was a missionary, preacher, church planter and leader who also happened to be a tent maker. He made a living making tents, he made a life fulfilling his purpose of telling the mystery of the Gospel, the message of God’s love that was the same for Gentile and Jew, male and female, slave and free. His purpose was share the same life changing message that a California janitor shared with a desperate drunk- “God loves you.” I think Paul would say without question, that is why He was put on the planet. Read text.

He says God’s grace was given to me, for you. Received to be extended, that’s how He saw grace. Paul understood grace had been given him to fulfill his purpose which was to share the mystery that “God’s love and salvation includes you too” with as many people as he possibly could. Lives are changed when people know the difference between making a living, and having a sense of purpose that makes a life.

Rebecca Tirabassi’s world was changed by a janitor who knew his purpose was about something bigger than His job, and who saw Himself as God’s vehicle for revealing the mystery. No feelings of inadequacy. No “if you can just wait for the preacher to come back…” He was convinced and could speak with conviction a very simple truth that God used to touch the heart of a desperate college drop-out whose best friend was a bottle. “God loves you.”

A janitor in California, a Super-bowl winning football coach, a stay at home mom, an electrical contractor, a nurse, a business owner, a tentmaker - these are people who get it that they have a God-given purpose. They see their jobs and homes as the places where their purpose can be fulfilled. When you go back to your office, the construction site, your unit, classroom, squad car or the home you keep, I want you to know you have a God-given purpose. Proclaim the mystery. Share the story. There are people who need to hear “the mystery” that God’s love includes them and they need to hear it from you. No feelings of inadequacy. No “if you could just wait the preacher will be back in a few hours.” A simple truth with confidence and conviction: “God loves you. His plan of redemption has you in it.” Who knows, the drunk or drop out, student or athlete, son or daughter who hears it from you may just find God using that truth to change their lives too.

Prayer

Communion - John 17:1-5 Jesus lived on purpose and because he did, we can know the only True God, and Jesus Christ…

Benediction: II Thess. 2:16-17