Living with Purpose

Introduction

Several months ago I was at a conference in Nashville. During that conference several speakers had similar threads through their messages. So credit first to those speakers: Larry Crabb, John Ortberg, Mike Huckabee, Linda Mintle, Henry Cloud, Lee Strobel, and John Kasten. After reflection and prayer about those messages I wanted to bring a short series of lessons for us to consider. The title of the series is living with purpose as is today’s lesson. Over the next six Sundays we are going to refocus our attention on what it means to live as God’s people in this world. The intent is to help us renew our priorities and to remember why we are here in 2012.

Today’s lesson comes from Philippians 1. Paul is in a Roman prison when he writes this letter. Prisons in the first century were quite different than today. The prison was a holding tank for those who were awaiting trial. This holding could last for months. Prisoners depended on family and friends for food, blankets, and basic needs. The state gave nothing to the prisoner. Many prisoners starved to death before their trial. Roman citizens were not supposed to be beaten or abused but as we know being a Roman citizen didn’t always keep a prisoner from being mistreated. After a trial, people were not sentenced to prison. They were fined, beaten, exiled, or killed. If they could not pay the fine then they might be retained in prison. But incarceration as we understand it did not exist.

Paul is in prison in Rome. He is surrounded by a special Roman guard. He is waiting his trial. The short letter to the church at Philippi has one word which appears at least 13 times. It is the word “joy” or “rejoice.” Paul’s emphasis on joy is enhanced when one considers that he is in prison; his future hangs in the balance; freedom is limited. At the beginning of this letter Paul offers a prayer which speaks not only of his heart but to help his readers to understand what is important. Today as we study together we are going to be reminded that important things exist and that as followers of Jesus we are to make sure that our lives reflect what is truly important.

The Text

The initial prayer in this letter comes at a time when Paul is under great stress. There is a problem of unity in the church at Philippi. We find that tidbit out at the end of the letter. Paul uses himself, Jesus, and Epaphroditus as examples of humility and focusing on what is really important. This initial prayer calls on the readers to focus on what is really important. Let’s look at the text closely. Verse 9, Paul prays that their love would increase in both knowledge and depth of insight. This self-sacrificing love already existed in his readers. Paul’s prayer is that it would increase and through that increase that their knowledge and insight would also increase. Notice Paul doesn’t pray that their emotional responses would increase. Don’t be confused. This love has to do with greater understanding. The more we love the more we recognize God’s love for us.

But Paul prayer for increasing love is not left with increased knowledge and insight but so that the readers would be able to discern what is best. There are a number of different translations for this phrase in verse 10. The KJV says “that you may approve things that are excellent.” The NLT translates “I want you to understand what really matters.” The word that Paul uses is properly translated in multiple ways. The gist of all the translations is the same from “best” to “excellent” to “what really matters” this love which leads to greater insight is to also lead to understand what really matters.

Paul could have prayed for a lot of different things. He could have asked his readers to pray for his release. No one would blame him. But he didn’t pray for release. In fact, in verse 21, Paul is absolutely okay with dying in prison. Prison didn’t take away his freedom nor did it limit his faith. He wasn’t worried about what was going to happen to him. That was important but it wasn’t what really mattered. Paul uses this same word in Romans 2:18 in which he speaks about the Jew who knows what really matters or he knows the more excellent thing and doesn’t do them.

Paul finishes his prayer with two consequences. First, his readers would remain pure and blameless until Christ’s return. He prayed that the readers’ lives would be a reflection of the righteousness of Jesus. When people saw a follower of Jesus they would see Jesus. Second, that all this purity of life would result in glory and praise to God. This is what really matters. Notice in 1:18. “The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice.” Joy for Paul came from God getting noticed.

What Really Matters

Do you think this prayer still matters? Paul didn’t pray for release but for purity of living resulting in praise to God. Isn’t that what really matters? We have gotten confused about life. We live in a culture of entitlement. We live in a culture in which the unstated truth is to find what brings pleasure. Don’t allow anyone to take anything from you that you believe is rightfully yours. We are entitled to so many things. Paul says the thing that really matters is self-sacrifice which results in living a pure life so that God is praised. That really matters.

Oswald Chambers wrote: The root of all sin is the suspicion that God isn’t good. There is a part of us that believes that God has somehow forsaken us when things are not going well; when we don’t get what we want or think we deserve. God is supposed to supply what we need and our list of needs keeps getting longer.

When you can give up your sense of being entitled then you will discover what really matters. We want good health but when health isn’t ours, God needs to be glorified in your lack of health. We want wealth, but when wealth isn’t yours God needs to glorified in your being the 99%. We want retirement but when we have to keep working to make ends meet, then God is to be glorified. Whatever the circumstances of life, God is to be glorified.

C.S. Lewis in the Problem of Pain wrote, “What would really satisfy us would be a God who said of anything we happened to like, ‘What does it matter so long as they are contented?’ We want, in fact, not so much a Father in Heaven as a grandfather in heaven—a senile benevolence who, as they say, ‘liked to see young people enjoying themselves’ and whose plan for the universe was simply that it might be truly said at the end of each day, ‘a good time was had by all’.”

That is the world that we live in. Paul in prison knew it was the world he lived in. He prayed for deeper love for others and for God. A love that helped to see the truth—life is to be lived with God in mind. All that really matters is purity of life so that God is glorified. It isn’t easy. It only makes sense to those who long to belong to God. It really matters to those who follow Jesus.

In “Mere Christianity” Lewis wrote, If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. There are some things that cannot be satisfied in this world. We pursue them with all that we have and at the end of the day and at the end of life we still find ourselves uncertain, isolated, desolate, and unsatisfied. That lack of satisfaction is the image of God that exists in each person. As the psalmist wrote in Psalm 62:1, “My soul finds rest in God alone.” It isn’t until we rest in God that we find real rest.

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