March 26, 2023
I want to thank everyone here for all you do. It’s wonderful that God’s spirit is working through this church!
I want you to imagine that everyone likes you, everyone approves of you. No matter what you do, everything thinks you’re awesome! Enjoy how that feels for a moment. Did you enjoy that? Good, because it will never, ever happen!
Now I want you to imagine something that I believe really can happen! Imagine you are so consumed with pleasing God, that the approval of other people doesn’t matter much to you. Imagine waking up every day with purpose and passion that drives you, knowing deep down that you are doing what you were created to do. It drives you, and you don’t care about the approval of others. It’s the choice I want to encourage you to make. I believe it’s not only possible to live for your purpose, but I believe that’s what God wants for every single one of us.
I want you to say, “I choose…“ Now say, “I choose purpose over popularity.” Say that. The problem is, by default we look around to see what other people think of us. Because we don’t know what our purpose is. So, we ask questions like: “What do you think of me?” “Do you like me?” If we don’t know the purpose of our lives, we don’t live it out. We don’t do what we are created to do. If we don’t know the purpose of a thing, we’ll misuse it.
Once my sister-in-law, Kim, sent us a Christmas present. She mailed it from Texas. She and her husband would often make gifts. It was sort of a wooden cabinet. It was a few feet tall, but very narrow. It had a door. When you open the door, there was only one shelf near the top. You would have to store something tall and thin in there. Above the door portion, there was a hole in the top. We thought about asking Kim, “Hey, love the gift, what is it?” But we thought that didn’t sound nice. We didn’t know what it was for. The kids played with it. They would have an action figure fall in the hole at the top. But after a while, we didn’t know what it was or how to use it. It went to Goodwill.
I later saw it advertised in a catalog: it was a toilet paper roll holder! You stack the rolls of toilet paper inside the door. You put a square tissue box on the top shelf and pull a tissue out of the hole in the top! If I had known what it was for, I would not have given it away!
If you don’t know the purpose of a thing, don’t ask the thing, ask the one who created the thing. I should have asked the creator. If we want to know our purpose, we ask our creator: God. We don’t ask other people what they think of us or what our purpose is. The problem is this: living for the approval of people keeps you from the purposes of God.
Today we’re going to hear about Jesus as he follows his purpose in Jerusalem and shows us what it means to live for your purpose.
Back in chapter 9 of the gospel of Luke, Jesus set his face toward Jerusalem. He knew where he was headed: he was meant to go to Jerusalem to be crucified. Next week is Palm Sunday and we’ll hear about his entry into Jerusalem on a donkey. Today we’re talking about what happened right after the palm procession. Jesus is in Jerusalem for his final week of life. He was driven by his purpose and passion in Jerusalem.
When Jesus rode up to Jerusalem he was on a colt. People said, “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.” They recognize Jesus as Messiah, the chosen one sent by God.
The Pharisees were a group of people who strictly followed many traditions in and outside of the Bible. When they heard the people praising Jesus, they got nervous. They worried that the Roman governor, Pilate, or King Herod would be angry or jealous that Jesus had a following. They worried the Jewish religious leaders would feel upset as well. So, the Pharisees said to Jesus: “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!”
Jesus refused! He would not silence them. Jesus said, “If they are silent, the stones will cry out!” He was not here to please people. He was in Jerusalem to please God. He didn’t care if the authorities got angry. He had a purpose to do God’s will. So, he didn’t listen to what others thought. Because living for the approval of people keeps you from the purposes of God.
Then Jesus weeps, but not for himself. He isn’t crying because the Pharisees are mad at him. Jesus weeps for Jerusalem. The people of Jerusalem aren’t doing what God wants. Violence is coming. In thirty years, the Jews will revolt and refuse to pay taxes to Rome. The Roman empire would then send in the troops. There will be a war that lasts 7 years, over 1 million Jews will be killed, and the temple will be destroyed. Jesus says, ”If only you knew what would bring you peace. But you didn’t recognize God visiting you.” They didn’t know God’s purpose for them, which is tragic.
After weeping for Jerusalem, Jesus goes to the temple courts. He begins to drive out the sellers. The temple was the religious center of Judaism, and people would travel there to make sacrifice for their sins. They needed an animal to sacrifice. It would be cheaper if they could bring their own animal. But then somebody wants to make money off this and the authorities would find blemishes with your animal. It was no good. They would say, “Buy them here in the temple courts, where they’re perfect.” Jesus felt it got out of hand! He drove out the sellers. He made them leave the temple courts! This would get the religious leaders upset. But Jesus really doesn’t care what people think. He is on a mission from God. Jesus isn’t seeking anyone’s approval but God’s.
So Jesus blazes into Jerusalem. “I’m here for a purpose. I’m here to do God’s will. Doesn’t matter what anyone says about me. I stand for God.” And what you see is Jesus’ approval rating on Palm Sunday is sky high. And by the time you get to his arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane, his approval is extremely low. Even Jesus’ disciples run away. Jesus didn’t care what others think of him. He was living for his purpose: to turn people back to God, to be the final sacrifice for our sins, to be our redeemer. He chose purpose over popularity. He chose calling over comfort.
Now I want to take a moment to talk about your purpose. Sometimes we can get all worried about our purpose, like “I think maybe my purpose is to be a missionary somewhere. Or maybe I’m supposed to find the cure for cancer.”
But I want to ask you not to think of your capital P purpose. I want you to think about your lowercase p purpose. It’s to think about, day after day, moment by moment, you serve God’s lowercase P purpose for that time and for that person. You’re listening to someone, and you realize: my purpose is to encourage them and be a voice of hope. You may see someone that has a need, and you realize, “I can help them, I can meet that need.” You may have a psycho boss and you realize, “I’m here in this office to pray for psycho boss. That’s my purpose here: So, you start thinking about your purpose in the moment. And as you listen to the Holy Spirit, soon you move on to a medium purpose, you tune into God in prayer, into where God wants you to help in a situation. And then on to a Capital P Purpose, where you see, “This is what God created me for” Still there’s power in the small p purpose, recognizing for this person I’m seeing, through God’s power, I’m called to make a difference!
My challenge for you this week is to ask God, “Help me be faithful in one moment. God how do you want me to be a help to someone?”
There is value in being liked by people. But there’s greater value in being loved by God! There’s value in being popular. There’s greater value in serving God’s purpose. You will never achieve everyone’s praise. But if you live for the approval of God, you can make an eternal difference in the lives of others, when you follow your purpose from God. Amen.
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