Understanding the Power of Purpose, Part 1

We tend to think the shortest distance between Point A and Point B is a straight line.  That’s how we think.  And in geometry, that’s absolutely true.

Now, here’s what I want to tell you in God’s economy –with God, you’re at Point A, and He wants to take you to Point B.  Sometimes, the shortest distance between Point A and Point B is a zigzag line.

You go through person after person after person after person, and you will find, whether it’s Moses or David or Joseph or Jesus . . .  Jesus is born as a Baby, and He’s the Savior of the world, and He is going to complete God’s promise.  He’s going to forgive the sins of all men, for all time.  “And You are going to reign.  You started here, and You’re the King of kings and the Lord of lords, and angels, and myriads of angels, and they bow down and they worship You as the second Person of Trinity, in the council of the Godhead.  Before the world was ever created, the Godhead determined that You would be the Savior of the world.  You’ll be born of a virgin.  You’ll come at just a specific time in world history, where there’s peace and where there are Roman roads and where synagogues are out everywhere, so the preaching of the Gospel can go forward.  And You will live a perfect life, and You will do miracles.  And You will die on a cross, and You’ll be raised from the dead, and You will reign again.”

And He is born, and His life looks anything like a straight line.  He is beaten, He is rejected, He’s attempted to be killed, as a small child, by Herod.  His entire life is a zigzag line.

And at the end of His life, He looks like a total failure.  He was going to usher in a kingdom.  He was going to deliver the people.  “Hey, You saved others, why don’t You save Yourself?”  And the end of the zigzag line is, He dies upon a cross, He is raised from the dead three days later, and then, miracles happen, and what’s He doing now?  Exactly what the Godhead predetermined – reigning in heaven, forever and ever.

And if you’ve believed in Him, you’re seated with Him in the heavenly places, and He’s provided salvation, and He’s provided purpose, and He’s provided the Spirit of God to dwell in every single believer.  And all the spiritual blessings, He has purchased for you and made available.  And He takes people out of the kingdom of darkness and places them in the kingdom of light, and He changes lives.  And if any person – any man, any woman – is in Christ, they’re a new creation.  All things become new.  The old has passed away.

But here’s what I want to tell you in that journey: The shortest distance between two points is a zigzag line.  And what we’re going to learn is what that has to do with perspective.

God’s ultimate purposes for our lives are often achieved by circumstances that seem to make no apparent sense.  Is there anyone here that have any circumstances going on in your life that, at times, just in a little bit of a weak moment, you’re saying to yourself, If God really loved me, and I’m doing what I think I’m supposed to be doing, this doesn’t make sense.  In fact, you know, that would be putting it mildly.  This stinks.  I hate this.  This is , “God, where are You?”  This is, “Hey, what’s up with the deal?  I love You, I’m obeying You, I’m . . .”  And my circumstances appear to be doing just the opposite of what a good God would do for His son or for His daughter.  And you’re frustrated.

We learned our little formula last week: C + P = E.  That’s the thesis of this whole series.  “C” stands for “circumstances,” plus perspective equals your experience.  Right?  Circumstances – the stuff that comes into your life that you can’t control – plus perspective – how you choose to look at those circumstances – will equal your experience.  That’s why we have people suffering with cancer that have amazing joy and gratitude in their heart, and that’s why we have people who have a splinter in their hand and have a mild dip in the economy, and they’re clinically depressed.  Because that’s the power of perspective.

Circumstances do not have the power to make your life; circumstances do not have the power to break your life.  But there is a choice.  There’s a choice about how you see  and how you look.

And what we’ve talked about is, every time you get in one of those circumstances, where you’re tempted to look at it, and the glass is half empty, and life stinks, and, “Where is God?” and, “What’s wrong with me?” and, “This is unjust,” and, “Why did they do this to me?” and, “I don’t understand why,” and, “Poor me” – before you get there, the first thing you do is – what?  Key number one was, focus.  Remember?  Focus.

The apostle Paul, the last time he was in prison, his focus – remember? – it was upward – “I thank my God in every remembrance of you” – and his focus was outward – “For God is my witness, how I long for you” – or have the affection toward you – “. . . of Christ Jesus.”  He’s in prison, and he should be having a pity party.  His focus is upward, and it’s outward.

The question, when you hit difficult circumstances, is this: Where’s my focus?  Is my focus inward, on me, or is my focus upward, on God, and outward?

Remember my buddy who had the fire?  And in fire number one, his focus was inward.  And, literally, he got clinically depressed, had to go get medication.  Fire number two – within 48 hours, all of his cabinetmakers had jobs, and he was willfully choosing to thank and praise God, even though he didn’t feel like it.

Now, today I want to talk about key number two, which is purpose.  Write the word purpose.  And the second question you ask, when your circumstances stink, when things just don’t seem to be fair, when they don’t seem to be right, when you’re feeling discouraged, when you can feel the energy kind of seeping out of your heart, like mine did last night, you gotta ask this question.

Not only, “Where’s my focus, is it upward and outward?” but, “What’s my purpose?  Why am I here?  God, I want to look at this through the lens of focus, but I also want to look at this through the lens of, what might You be up to?  What are You doing in my life?  What are You trying to do through my life?  Why am I here?  What is it about these circumstances that You might be using to fulfill Your agenda, even though, honestly, in my heart, I’m thinking, This is not fulfilling my agenda?”  Because when you begin to ask the question of purpose, then, you’ll get perspective.

We pick up our story of Paul, still in that Philippian jail, and it’s not looking good.  And so, he is going to get a little visit.  He is actually writing to the Philippians, and he’s in a Roman jail, and he’s getting a visit from one of the Philippians who cares about him and thinks, I wonder how Paul’s doing?  I mean, he helped start the church here.  We’re really close to him.  In fact, they sent a financial gift, and it came through a man named Epaphroditus, and – and they want to know about what’s going on.

And so, Epaphroditus comes, and he talks with Paul, and then, this letter is carried back to the Philippian Church, to let them know what’s happening.

And beginning in verse 12, you get Paul’s report.  And by the way, this is the thesis of verses 12 through 18.  He says, “Now I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel.”  I mean, they’re thinking, Paul, you’re our hero.  I mean, you preach the Gospel. You’re this great spiritual leader, and now we hear you’re in prison, and it’s very difficult.  And we hear that you’re chained to these Praetorian guards.  And every six hours they change, and they put more chains on you, and the conditions are very difficult.  How are you doing?  I mean, are you discouraged?  Are you depressed?  Are you making it?  I mean, what can we do to help?

And he says, “I want you to know that these circumstances” – literally, or, “what has happened to me” – “has really served to advance the gospel.”  Put a line under advance, if you will.  It’s a military term.  It’s used for the advancement of a military campaign.  It’s used for cutting down of trees, undergrowth, and the removal of barriers that thwarted the army’s progress.  He says, “These circumstances that, from the outside, look so negative – me in prison, me chained to Praetorian guards, me being stuck in a Roman prison – really have advanced – it’s removed some barriers to the Gospel, so that the purpose that God put me on the planet, it’s really moving forward.  It seems bizarre that I would be in chains, but God is using this difficult circumstance to fulfill His ultimate purpose.  And He’s advancing the Gospel.”

And put a circle around the word Gospel, and I want to take just about a two-minute detour, because I don’t know where you’re all coming from.  And the word Gospel, you know, depending on your background, means a lot of different stuff to different people.  I didn’t open the Bible until I was 18, so if someone said “Gospel,” I thought they were talking about a style of music.  There’s country music, there’s gospel music, there’s rock, there’s hip-hop, you know, gospel was just a style of music.  And so, I didn’t know what the Gospel was.

The word Gospel is a compound word that literally means “good news,” or, really, “happy” is a better translation – “happy news.”  Ooh, good, euaggelion news.  That’s what the Gospel is.  Something happened that people need to know.  Something great happened over here, and we need to proclaim and let everyone know this good news.

Jot down, under this, if you will, Romans chapter 1, verse 16, because the Gospel is not just happy news, but it’s a powerful, powerful force.  The apostle Paul would write to the Romans and say, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel [of Christ], for it” – the Gospel – “is the power of God . . . salvation . . . to the Jew first and also to the Greek.  [To anyone who believes.]”  And so, the power, what we always need to remember, the power of God is never in a messenger.  The power is always in the message.

And God will do that, over and over and over again.  And now and then, He’ll speak through a donkey, or now and then, you’ll be tired and discouraged and bring nothing to the table, and you’ll limply, weakly, terribly, not very intelligently share the Gospel, and – Bang! – something will happen, and you’ll go, Wow!  How did that happen?  I haven’t prayed in a couple of days very well; I’m kind of discouraged.  My life’s not working that well, and I only did it out of obligation . . .  Because the power is not in you; the power is in the Gospel.

What is the Gospel?  Jot down, under this, 1 Corinthians 15, verses 1 to 4.  And there, the apostle Paul clearly explains: “Now I want you to know, brethren, that which I taught you that was first of things" – and then, he just describes the aspects of what the Gospel Message is.  The Gospel Message, put very clearly, is that God became a Man in human flesh – Jesus – He lived a perfect life upon the earth; He died upon the cross to pay for the sins of all men, of all time; He was raised, according to the Scriptures, on the third day; and there were eyewitnesses, both Peter, James, and others; and that this message that the proclamation that the payment for sins have been accomplished, and it has been proven by His death and resurrection is the Good News that we’re to take to every man, every woman, every child on the planet.

The Good News is, regardless of where people are, where they’ve been, what they’ve done, no matter how deep the hole they’ve dug, no matter how terrible, no matter how vile – rape, murder – whatever we have done, inwardly, outwardly – the Gospel Message is, when Jesus died upon the cross, He paid for your sin.  And He wants to forgive you and give you a second spiritual birth, and the moment you repent, turn from your sin and, in the empty hands of faith, ask Jesus to forgive you and come into your life, you’re taken from the kingdom of darkness to the Kingdom of His beloved Son.  The Spirit of God comes into your life.  You’re sealed with the Spirit.  You’re given spiritual gifts.  You’re a part of God’s family.  You have a new purpose; you have a new power.  And He will begin to change and radically make you more and more and more to look like Jesus, in the way you think, in the way you talk, in your values, in your priorities.

And it’s a process.  It’s to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord.  So, it’ll be three steps forward and two steps backwards, and you will mess up, and you will have ups, and you will have downs.  But if you step back, you’ll see, you will grow, and you’ll become like Him.

The Gospel – this was what Paul lived for.  And he says, “I want to report to you that, yes, the rumors you’ve heard of my difficult circumstances – they’re true.  But I want you to know, it has really turned out for the advance” – or, “the progress” – “of the Gospel.”

And now, in verses 13 to 18, God is going to allow us to see, through the apostle Paul, how He uses circumstances, negative circumstances, in Paul’s life.  Now, the apostle Paul is going to give us almost, like, a legal brief.  He’s giving a report: “Now I want you to know . . . [concerning] my circumstances” – literally.  I like the New American Standard in that one.  Instead of, “What has happened,” the literal word is, “I want you to know . . . that my circumstances have turned out for the [advancement] of the gospel.”  That’s his thesis.

Now, like an attorney standing before the jury, he’s going to say, “And if you don’t think that’s really true, Exhibit A, I’ll tell you what, because of this, the Gospel has gone forth.  Exhibit B: Because of this imprisonment, difficult circumstances, the Church is growing up.  And Exhibit 3, in case you think that’s all there is, not only has the Gospel gone forth and the Church been built up, but I’m going to tell you something.  This man has grown deeper.”

And I want to suggest that those three purposes that God did in Paul are the three purpose He has for my life, and those are the three purposes for your life.  And that if you, in the midst of your difficult circumstances, can start to ask, “God, in what ways do You want to take this difficulty in my life so more people can hear about Your Son?  God, through these difficult circumstances, how would You like to orchestrate it so other believers get built up and encouraged?  And God, how would You like to take this difficult circumstance and make me more the man You really want me to be?”  You start asking that question, and you will turn in your pity-party papers for a purposeful, energized, focused life in the midst of real difficulty.

Let’s dig in together – Exhibit A: The Gospel goes forth.  He says in verse 13, “As a result” – okay.  So, the Gospel is advancing.  Well, how?  Well, “As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace” – or, literally, Praetorian – “guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ.”  He says, “Yeah, it kind of looks kind of bad.  But you don’t understand.”  He said, you know, “Think about the world situation.  The world situation is, for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years, you have all these religions going all these different directions.  You’ve got a Roman rulership, but you’ve got Greek culture.  So, you’ve got gods on every corner, about this, about that – everywhere.

And then, you have an itinerant preacher who claims to be God.  We’ve got 2,000 years of history that is just amazing.  But they didn’t.  This is happening in 62, 63 A.D., so Jesus died plus or minus 30 years ago.  And this sect, this weird – these people who call themselves “the Way” – all the world knows is, as I just read this morning in Acts, that they are filling the world with their teaching.

The world is being turned upside down.  In about 30 to 40 years, no CDs, no video players, no satellite TV, simply by word of mouth, these people believe this crazy story that God visited the planet, died on a cross, paid for sin.  And then, they make outrageous claims that He was walking around for 40 days in this resurrected body, could walk through walls, actually wasn’t a ghost, because He ate actual food, and everyone who gets near Him – their lives dramatically change.  And they love one another.

And no matter what we do, we can’t shut them down.  We make them human torches for Nero, and we light them up.  We throw them into the lion’s den.  We put skins around them and feed them to dogs, and then we laugh at watch them die.  And they go into these stadiums, asking God to forgive us.  And all we know is, they’re sacrificial, and their lives are sacrificial, with their money.  Some of them have depleted all their savings to meet the needs of other people.  All we know is, they believe in this Person named Jesus who showed up 30-some years ago, and they love each other in these radical ways.  And now, their leader, their spokesman, is in prison.

And notice, if you were trying to figure out what’s the center cultural capital of the world, it’s Rome.  And here, how many prisoners are there?  Probably a zillion.  And the apostle Paul says, you know, “We’ve written letters.  The Gospel has multiplied in many different ways.  But you think it’s bad, the circumstance that I’m in prison.”  And I don’t think he’s high-fiving people, going, “Hey, the chains feel great!  Wow!  You know, when the rats come by, I just thank God.  It’s wonderful.”  You know, I don’t think he’s Pollyanna yet.  I think there’s days he gets up and says, “Man, this is tough.”

But when he looks at it through the lens of purpose, he says this: “As a result, it has become clear” – or well known – “throughout the whole palace guard . . .” Now, emperors, in that day, the way they usually lost their job was assassinations.  And so, what they would do is – rather than a military coups like today, they would get the crack, most elite troops, the cream of the cream, and they would build a small, little army that was committed just to the emperor, and they were called the Praetorian guard.  I mean, these were the super sharp guys.  And there were about nine to ten thousand of them.

And they were highly, highly esteemed, the most prestigious military, elite, super-duper guys in all the Roman Empire, every six hours they are getting chained to Paul.

Well, what happens when you get chained to Paul?  “How come you’re singing, dude?”  “Because Jesus.”  They say, “Who’s Jesus?”  “Well, here we go.”  Then, Fred comes to Christ.  Then, Joe comes to Christ.  Then, Bob comes to Christ.  And pretty soon, you read in the Book of Romans, and you find out – what?  Some of the, even, leading people in Herod’s household come to Christ.