Live With Purpose! Life Is Not a Game

Reverend Leo H. McCrary II

God has put you in this world for a reason and purpose, and it is incredibly important that you understand your purpose.

Introduction

In my sermon this week, I want to share scripture with all of you from Jeremiah 17:5-8.  The reason why I want to share this scripture with all of you is because I have been thinking about life, living, and purpose a lot recently.  I have been looking around, seeing all of the headache, and thinking to myself, this is not what life was meant to be. There is more to life, more to our purpose than repeating the same monotonous routine every day.  

Over the next few weeks, I want to dive into living, life, and purpose by focusing what it means to live.  God put us here for a reason, I truly do believe that.  So, again, to kick this series of sermons off, I want to share with you what the Lord said through the prophet Jeremiah.

In my sermon this week, I want to focus on:

1. There is a purpose to the life you live.
2. What the purpose of life is.
3. Trusting God to help you fulfill your life’s purpose.

Life’s Purpose

To explain life’s purpose to you, I want to first speak from the perspective of a gardener, by pointing specifically to the tree that bears fruit, mentioned in Jeremiah 17:8.

What we can learn from plant life about our life

When we gardeners sow seed, we do so with the hope of harvesting the fruit of the plant.  Many will think to themselves that the fruit of the plant is what is most important because the fruit is what we consume.

However, the goal of the plant itself differs from what most may  think.  Genesis 1:11 tells us, “God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth”; and it was so.”

Sure, God ordained that the tree yields its fruit but within that fruit is the true goal of the plant.  You see, the fruit of the plant is merely the shield, the protective cover, of the seed(s) that is/are within.  God ordained that the plants yield seed so that they may be fruitful and multiply.  That sounds familiar, doesn’t it?  Genesis 1:28 tells us that when God made man, He said to mankind, “Be fruitful and multiply”.   

The plants help to teach us that life’s purpose is not to end, but rather  to continue, to reproduce.  Many of us view Genesis 1:28 as direction for mankind to sexually reproduce, to which we certainly have had no problems doing that.

However, I want to point out that within the seed of the plant is much information.  A plants seed stores up its genetic information, DNA, history, so that when it reproduces, it reproduces an exact copy, for the most part.  Many of us are eating fruits and vegetables that are generations old.

The direction to be fruitful and multiply, I want you to understand, means more than just sexual reproduction.  We ought to be reproducing in a similar, if not better way than the plants.  We should be passing on information to each other, and we should be passing down information to the next generation so that it can be more prosperous than our generation.

Are We Truly Living

With that thought in mind, I have to ask:  Are we truly living?  Are we living the kind of life that is helping to seed and give life to the next generation?

Scripture plainly tells us how to live a more productive life.  Starting in Galatians 5:22, Paul told the Galatian believers that we should be passing on love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, and self-control.  We ought to pass on such fruit, seeding and giving life, because the Holy Spirit dwells with all who are of faith and believe.

You believe in the Lord, right?  You are a follower, a disciple, of Christ, right?  With that in mind, in Ephesians 5:8-9, Paul taught that the children of light are intended to bear the fruit of the Spirit in all goodness, righteousness, and truth.  Are you passing on and down goodness, righteousness, and truth?

God’s children ought to be imparting goodness and wisdom to all people, because we have received the Holy Spirit.  Let me remind you of what Jesus taught about the role the Holy Spirit plays in our lives.

In John 16:13-14, Jesus told the apostles that the Spirit of Truth would lead them into all truth.  Jesus clarified that the truth the Holy Spirit would declare to them would not be a fable, myth, legend, or fantasy.  Jesus told the apostles that the Holy Spirit would declare to the truth that it had received from Christ.  Therefore, the Holy Spirit leads one in righteous truth – a truth that is undisputedly fact, regardless of how many will attempt to argue against it and deny it.

Along those lines, in Luke 12:12, Jesus told the apostles that the Holy Spirit would train and teach them what to say in ministering the gospel.  Therefore, when the apostles ministered, they ministered the righteous and everlasting truth!  The apostles did not minister a fable, myth, gossip, or conspiracy when they ministered the word of God.  

The apostles ministered a saving message that brings life to the soul – they fulfilled their purpose!  Where would we be today had those men not fulfilled their purpose?  We would be lost in sin without the gospel of God’s salvation through faith in His only begotten Son.

  Do you understand that you, the child of God and disciple of Christ, share in the same purpose that the apostles had?  You are meant to impart both grace and wisdom!  As Proverbs 10:11 states, the mouth of the righteous is a well of life.  Just like the apostles, we ought to be a well of life that ministers the eternal doctrine!

You’re not truly fulfilling your intended purpose if you aren’t imparting grace to your neighbor.  You’re not truly fulfilling your intended purpose if you are imparting the righteous truth to your neighbor through word and deed.  

I ask again, are you truly living?  Life is not a game, as it comes with a heavy consequence if one is not bearing the kind of fruit that helps plant a good seed in others.

A Fruitless and Unproductive Generation

At the end of his life, Solomon looked back over how he had chosen to live and  proclaimed, “All is vanity (meaningless).”  Now, Solomon made that declaration after he had chosen to depart from God and devote himself to labor, to pleasure, and to prodigal living.  By the end of Ecclesiastes, Solomon saw the time he had spent being devoted to such living as being fruitless and unproductive.

Sadly, many have chosen a lifestyle that is unproductive and fruitless.  This is a choice that has been made in two measures.

The produce of useless devotion

The first measure:  By devotion.  As the Lord said, man has put his trust in himself or another man rather than the Lord.  

We live in a day when many live in devotion to certain men who promise to bring about peace and enrich others.  However, they can’t bring about peace because they are the ones who stir up war, and rather than enriching others, they enrich themselves.

We live in a day when many devote themselves to certain religious men, institutes, and political parties that proclaim to be of God, but their actions say their allegiance is elsewhere.  My God does not move out of bitterness and hatred, as His nature is that of love.  

Many continue to be devoted to a system that causes them to grind and hustle.  Yet, they forget that they are in a game of who can gather the most wealth, and the wealthiest love to play keep-away, as they enrich themselves while leaving others little to even fight over and gather.  What good fruit can come from such devotion?

The produce of poor examples

 The second measure:  Setting poor examples.  

I want you to take a moment to consider the seeds that are being planted today through our actions.  Selfishness, greed, and covetousness are what the actions of this age teach.  The blessing is in material wealth, is what this age continues to teach, and generation after generation grows up chasing earthly riches.

Funny enough, generational wealth is a major talking point in this day.  Don’t get me wrong, there is certainly nothing wrong with leaving some wealth behind to your children and your grandchildren.  However, leaving no generational wealth in the wisdom of knowing the Lord is a problem.

In Judges 2, the scripture speaks of how there was a generation of Israel that rose and did not know the Lord, which is to say, they didn’t have an intimate relationship with Him.  Because that generation didn’t have an intimate relationship with the Lord, they forsook the Lord for the Canaanite gods and provoked God to anger.  This led to Israel living under constant oppression throughout the book of Judges.

My concern today is that there is a generation on the rise that does not know the Lord.  To be clear, they do not know the Lord intimately, which is to say, they do not dwell in fellowship with Him, nor do they have the desire to do so.  What good can come from living out of fellowship with the Lord?

Living in a Cursed Day

In Jeremiah 17:5, the Lord said that when man puts his trust into another man, rather than Him, the man is cursed because he departed from the Lord.  

Because so many have put their trust into certain men and certain systems, we, mankind, have cursed ourselves.  Consider what has come from all of the misplaced trust:  there is great struggle in this land, and war on the other side of the world, and at home.

In this cursed day, many are struggling as we all wander in the wilderness, headed to a promised land.  God has promised that those who walk by faith, being led by the Holy Spirit are journeying to His kingdom.  Whereas those who are not led by the Holy Spirit are headed to the promised condemnation.

While we who are of faith are on this journey, we must not be as a shrub in the wilderness.  One is as a shrub in the wilderness because they have departed from the Lord (Jer. 17:5-6).

One may consider the desert shrub to be resilient for being able to grow in the wilderness, but to what purpose does the desert shrub serve?  Sure, it may provide some protective cover for small animals, but to what purpose does the shrub serve to a wanderer in the wilderness?  The symbolism of the desert shrub is one of hopelessness because the shrub bears no fruit.  

What Life Is Not About

Life is not a game, because again, we are all wanderers in the wilderness of life, trying to make it.  So, life is not about grinding and hustling for earthly riches.  Life is not about the selfish ambition of esteeming oneself higher than others.  Life is not about worrying and being anxious about getting ahead of others.

If you think that I am off base about this, I turn to the teaching of Christ, as shown in Matthew 6:25-34.  Jesus taught against one worrying about gaining earthly riches.  Jesus taught against being anxious and worrying about what you do not possess!

Why did Jesus teach against what so many have lived for and are living their lives for today?  Firstly:  Because the Lord provides what we need to live.  

Secondly:  Because there is nothing those earthly riches can do to benefit our souls!  In Matthew 6:29, Jesus noted that Solomon, in all of his riches, was not more arrayed (beautifully dressed) than the lilies that God clothed in fields all over the world!  

Here is what I want all of you whose sole desire is to be rich to keep in mind:  Paul told Timothy that godliness with contentment is great gain.  In other words, the teaching is that it is more beneficial to you to be satisfied with God’s providence than anything you think will make you rich today.  

To Live a Purposeful Life

Therefore, to live a life of purpose, you must choose to live for the soul rather than the flesh.

You see, when we live in consideration of the soul, we realize how limited the world is in being able to care for and satisfy our soul.  When we live in consideration of our soul, we will also realize how limited we are in satisfying our own soul.  It is the flesh and seeking to fulfill its wants and pleasures that continue to plague us in sin.  It is the flesh and seeking to fulfill its wants that hinders us from doing the good work.

When we live in consideration of our soul, that is when we realize our need for God.  As the Lord said in Jeremiah 17:7-8, one who trusts the Lord is blessed (has been made happy), and I want you to pay attention to the circumstances God said one will be blessed in.

The Lord said that the one who trusts in Him is like a tree whose roots flow into an unending supply of water.  When heat comes, the Lord said that the man who trusts in Him is blessed.  When heat comes speaks of overbearing and oppressive times.  So, in overbearing times like today, if you have put your trust in God, you are made happy in your soul because God still provides in such times.

Again, the Lord said that one who trusts in Him is like a tree whose roots flow into an unending supply of water.  In the year of drought, the Lord said that those who trust in Him are blessed.  In the year of drought speaks of seasons when the world and its treasures are running dry.  While those of the world are left empty, the one who trusts God is made happy because God still provides in such seasons.

I believe that we are caught in the middle of a season of great drought, as wickedness and foolishness abounds.  We live in a day of spiritual ignorance which is causing much pain and suffering.

Yet, it is in such a season that we, God’s children, should be yielding even more fruit because God is still sustaining us.  Yes, in this season of drought, we should be bearing even more fruit to help sustain all of those who are around us by imparting the wisdom stored up in all that we have lived through.

Do you believe that God has brought you through so much in your life for you not to impart that wisdom?  The beautiful thing about the fruit you have to bear is that you can bear it regardless of how young or how old you are.  

Has God been good to you?  God is good all the time, and all the time God is good.  If you know that God is good because you have experienced His goodness for yourself, let someone know today that God is good – they need to hear it!

God has brought you through all of those storms you have faced, right?  Let someone know that God will bring them through their trials, tribulations, and afflictions – impart that wisdom!

Impart this wisdom to others:  Turn to God, and not man; God will sustain you – everything will be alright!  I genuinely believe that we are in a season where we should be in the prime of bearing this kind of fruit.  IF in times like these, God’s children aren’t ministering the name of God, then what is the purpose of the faith we proclaim to have?  Stop living for only yourself.  Impart grace.  Impart wisdom.