1. As we turn our focus to the Word of the Lord this morning we are in week 2 of our series of messages on seeing ourselves as managers of our lives. The series is entitled “What’s It All About?”

--In the preview week message two weeks ago we asked and answered the questions that all of us ask ourselves when the lights are out and no one else is around. What is life really all about? Is it about amassing things for me, my spouse, and our descendents who will come after us? Is living for the here and now all there is to it? Is this really all there is to life?

--We noted that to answer that question well requires that we ask and answer a much bigger and more important series of questions. Who is God? What is He like? What does He want from me?

2. In the message last week we looked at the truth that life is really all about reconnecting with God through a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. We noted that there is no verse in the Bible that says we can be partially committed to knowing and following Jesus. We looked at Abraham’s life and saw how God took him through a progression of events that deepened his personal commitment to know and walk with God.

--He got past the world’s cheap treasures, past what he could provide for himself, and as in the case of his son Isaac, past what God had provided for him. He went after a committed walk with God himself.

3. Today as we look at the theme, which introduces our study for week 2, we are looking at what it means to live life with purpose. This comes back to the question I asked us to consider as we began this series of messages. Why am I here? What is my ultimate purpose in life? How do I truly find fulfillment in the ways that I choose to live?

--The answer to that question cannot be found in beginning with myself. The real and in-depth answer to that question can only be found in a relationship with the Lord God who gave me life in the first place.

--Proverbs 11:28 MSG “A life devoted to things is a dead life, a stump: a God-shaped life is a flourishing tree.”

--Jesus said in Luke 12:15, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” In that context Jesus told them of a rich man whose fields produced so well that he thought the only thing he could do was to tear down his barns and build bigger ones to store up all his good things for himself. God came to that man that very night and demanded an eternal accounting of punishment for his choices in life.

--Jesus ended that parable with these words, Luke 12:21 “This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.”

4. Rick Warren in his book, “The Purpose Driven Life,” makes the following two statements, which I think are incredibly important to our thought processes for the message today.

“If you want to know why you were placed on this planet, you must begin with God. You were created by His purpose and for His purpose.”

“You exist only because God wills that you exist. You were created by God and for God – and until you understand that life will never make sense.”

--To begin to ask and answer the purpose question demands that we begin with the one who had a purpose for our lives before we were born. It is only in a relationship with the One who created us that we find our ultimate meaning, purpose, and sense of significance.

5. The Psalmist David wrote an incredible word about God’s fashioning love for us in Psalm 139:13 – 17.

“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts O God! How vast the sum of them!”

6. How can we think about living our life in the purpose we were put here for without thinking about the Lord God who willed our existence and asking Him what He put us here to accomplish with Him? The truth is one can be extremely successful and skillful, one can make a great living and have a successful career path, without fulfilling one’s God-ordained purpose.

--It seems to me the greatest question I can ask the Lord Jesus each morning is: “Lord my Master, what are you going to do in your kingdom plans today that you would like me to join you in doing?”

7. One last thought as we begin to think together about what the Bible says to us about living life in the purposes of God, walking with Him in His will and purposes. Please remember that we are all Engaged in a Battle for our Hearts. Proverbs 4:23 “Above all else guard your heart for it is the wellspring of life.” Please remember that God’s will for your life is opposed by the purposes of the enemy to steal, kill, and destroy the glory of God being revealed in and through you! Too many Christians in North America fail to take this into consideration!

I. Living Life With Purpose Results in Contentment:

1. In each message of the previous three weeks, we have talked about the fact that in all of our lives, in the depths of our souls there is an inner sense of discontentment. All of us have a nagging sense inside us – whether we are Christians or not – that there just has to be more to it than this. That inner sense of being incomplete is really a God-shaped vacuum the Lord created in us, a Heart Longing to know and walk with God. And the truth is that is the one thing that makes the playing field level for all human beings – our longing to know and walk with God.

2. I can’t think about living my life on purpose without thinking about one more question. When my life is over, what will have brought me Contentment in the depths of my soul? When it is all said and done what will have made my heart happy? The central truth of Scripture is that God is alive and active in the lives of people who seek to know Him with our whole heart. He dwells with and walks through life in fellowship with those who have chosen to welcome Him into our hearts as our Savior and Lord. His presence in life is the ultimate source of inner contentment.

3. The Bible has a lot to say about the inner issue of contentment, of having a happy heart:

Philippians 4:10 – 13 “I rejoice greatly that at last you have renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you have been concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it. I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.”

I Timothy 6:6 – 10 “But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”

Hebrews 13:5 “Keep lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”

4. Where do most North Americans go to find fulfillment, contentment, and to develop a happy heart? The answer: To the “Great American Dream.” We turn to just about everything but to knowing and walking with God in a meaningful relationship with Him. Another quote from Rick Warren’s book, “The Purpose Driven Life,” “You won’t be in heaven two seconds before you cry out, Why did I place so much importance on things that are temporary? What was I thinking? Why did I waste so much time, energy, and concern on what wasn’t going to last?”

-- Most of us have dreams, that is something that pushes us to sacrifice and give our energies to accomplish. We have desires that we give our heart and soul to accomplish.

--We dream of financial things – a certain level of savings, a certain kind of house, a certain car or truck, or a certain level of safe investment.

--For some the dreams are stuff because we just like our toys – boat, cabin, vacation home, or the latest greatest electronic gadgetry.

5. Dreams can be good. They can give life meaning and excitement. They can motivate us to go for the best that life has to offer. We live in a world that is designed to foster dreams.

When I think of all that is out there – to have, and to experience, and to attain and to love – something inside me begins to dream of what life might be like if I had everything my heart desired. It happens all the time. The desire in me wells up an imagination of life as it could be…no should be…for me.

6. There is another side to me though. There is the part of me that loves Christ and usually remembers that all the things I pursue and make a priority will at some point disappoint me. Often the chase is more fun than the attainment. What life has taught me just what Jesus taught, that the things that I treasure can never bring lasting contentment to me or make my heart happy.

--Jesus said it like this in Matthew 6:19 – 21 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is there your heart will be also.”

7. Jesus’ meaning is very clear when he talks about what the dreams of our life should be focused on. When Christ closed his eyes and dreamt…he dreamt of a Kingdom that was different from anything our world had known or expected. He dreamt of a kingdom that wasn’t set up on power, or money, or on personal happiness. He dreamt of a Kingdom that would change the world forever. He talked of a Kingdom that was filled with Treasures in heaven.

8. As a follower of Christ the prime object of my dreams and hopes and desires – my treasure or my crown – must be different than that of my neighbor. God calls us to a higher purpose. God invites us to a higher calling. And he has been about the business of calling people to something more through out all of human history.

--God’s concern isn’t comfort or happiness.

--God’s concern isn’t about new experiences.

--God’s concern isn’t for stunning success.

--God’s concern is about a world made different. A world that is changed. A world where sin has lost its power and influence. A world that is freed from the bondage of money. A world that is free from dreams that never deliver the promised fun and the promised hope.

II. Living Life on Purpose, Following Jesus:

1. That’s where stewardship, seeing ourselves as managers of life and all that has been entrusted to us, comes in. Jesus invites us to pursue a different kingdom. A kingdom where the things we are to store up as treasures are investing in a future world. He invites us to abandon the control our own hopes and dreams have on our lives and to live lives by a different agenda. But you and I have a choice.

--We must decide what’s most important.

--We must decide what in our life is worth chasing.

--We must decide what treasure we pursue

--We must decide what crowns we will strive to win.

2. And that is what stewardship is about. For Jesus, stewardship isn’t simply about raising money or managing what we have got in such a way as to God-honoring. It is about something much bigger. For Jesus, stewardship is all about choosing what we will treasure in our hearts. Another way of stating the same truth is choosing what we will Chase in Life. It’s an issue of living life in tandem with Him and accomplishing His will in our lives, living life on purpose.

3. Like so much of what Jesus spent his time talking about…some people got it and some didn’t.

Zacchaeus

We don’t really know what it was that compelled Zacchaeus’s interest in Jesus. We don’t know why the crooked tax collector would care what an itinerant preacher from Galilee would say. But something about Jesus life stirred interest in Zacchaeus. And after a lifetime of cheating and bullying people and stealing from people….after a lifetime of simply pursuing his own kingdom…Zacchaeus switched agenda’s. In Luke 19:8 we read…[read passage]

Zacchaeus made this massive transition from kingdom of this world – from the pursuit of what mattered to him to the pursuit of the Kingdom. He took his worldly resources and invested them in people. And that transaction totally changed his life.

On the other hand…

Rich Young Ruler

This guy had what I would deem a sincere desire to follow Christ. I think he knew that the life he was living was empty. I think he knew that his pursuit of wealth was leaving him empty. I think he knew something was missing from life. That life needed a new orientation, a new purpose. I think the same thing that drew Zacchaeus to Christ is what pulled this successful, wealthy and religious man towards Jesus. He had it all but he wanted Jesus too. And then in Mark 10:21 we read, “One thing you lack, he said, ‘Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will heave treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

In other words Jesus is saying, “to follow me means a total restructuring of your life.” My kingdom is a calling to a new purpose, a totally new way of living. And for you: begin by giving it all away. It wasn’t a model that Jesus was establishing but it was the word of God challenging the heart of a person about the pursuit and purpose of his life.

And the rich young ruler couldn’t do it. His desire to follow Christ and his desire for riches were all tied up together. The text says, “…the man’s face fell, and he went sadly away because he had many possessions.” He couldn’t reorient his life. He couldn’t put the things of God before the stuff he had accumulated.

Question: When you think about it, what’s your treasure? Not what do you want it to be, but what is it?

It may be your money…the pursuit of bigger balances at the bank.
It may be your time…maybe the highest value in your life is the ability to control what you do with the time you’ve got.
It may be your career…always working a new angle…to get ahead. To stay on the upward climb.
Maybe it’s your car.
Maybe it’s eating out.
Maybe it’s your family. Family can be a kingdom – a desire to keep the kids close – to pursue family at the cost of a kingdom perspective.
Maybe it’s sports…it’s the Steelers that win the day in your heart

III. Living Life on Purpose – Its About People

1. For Jesus, and therefore to me as a person who is after His kingdom values, the truest Treasure that will last is People. God doesn’t care about success, status, and stuff. But rather when you look at the life of Jesus, when you look at the history of God through the Old Testament, you see that the prime emphasis of God through human history is people.

--Jesus invested a lot of his time in people.

--Jesus said, “I have come to seek and to save the lost.”

--Jesus said, “I have not come to be served but to serve and to give my life as a ransom for many.”

2. Jesus shared the Father’s love and concern for people. It’s what drove him to the cross. People are the only thing that will last. People are the only thing that will make it when time stops and history ceases.

3. Seeing my life as a Servant of God, managing resources with a Bible-based understanding of stewardship is all about Chasing the things God Chases. Investing our lives in God’s purposes. It happens as I love and serve and touch and feed and clothe and seek and save and give. Stewardship happens when I live life with a divine commission to spend my life investing in people.

It happens in the work place when I put the needs of the person before the bottom line.
It happens in the home when I seek to raise kids who love God and want to follow God…even when that means God could call them to something that pulls them away from me or my grandchildren.
It happens in the gas station when I spend the extra time getting to know the attendant and I care about him and his family as much as I do the price of gas. When I find out he’s lonely and I give him value.
It happens in my church when I give my money…not to propagate a ministry…or as a ploy to get my way…but because that ministry touches the lives of people every day. And that matters.
It happens in my neighborhood when I live in such a way that people wonder what makes me different and I take the time to share the love of Christ with them.
It happens when I go about normal life activities with God’s for people at the forefront of my mind.

QUESTION: What would happen…what would it look like for you…what changes would need to be made in your life…for you to live like the Kingdom of God mattered above all the other stuff?

It probably would mean a brutally honest conversation with yourself. An honest assessment of what you truly treasure in this world. It would probably mean a reorganization of how you invest what God has given to you…your time, your energy, your car, your home, your clothes, your money.

QUESTION: What needs to change in your life…what needs to happen to align your life with the Kingdom of God, with treasures that last? What things do you treasure now that are getting in the way of eternal treasure and the purposes of God? Look at your calendar. Look at your bank statement. Look at your giving record. What do they say about your treasure?

Think about it for a moment. What would happen if we took the words of Christ seriously and churches all over North America did the same? What would it look like if thousands of followers of Christ began to give away and trade in their treasures, so they could re-invest in God’s greatest treasure? What if it actually happened?

WELCOME