Outward: Purpose
by David Matranga
What do we do now?
We started out this series talking about discipleship and community. We look upward to God to remember that the greatest opportunity we’ve ever been given was when Jesus said, “Follow Me.” If we surrender to Him, this begins the process of imitating Him and becoming more like Him. We look inward to our community to bear one another’s burdens, finding that we can carry more together than we ever could alone. But if we stop there, our understanding of life is incomplete.
We were not designed to take our discipleship and community and create a commune.
Jesus said in Matthew 5 that we are to be salt and light, that a city on a hill cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a bowl. No one buys a bowl of salt so they can eat it with a spoon. Light is meant to be lifted up to give illuminate the whole house. Salt is meant to be added to meat to flavor it, to preserve it, to change its chemical makeup. A city on a hill is meant to be seen, to offer hope, to stand firm.
Jesus said in John 17 that He sent us into the world, but we are not of the world just as Jesus is not of the world.
We are not meant to be merely an enclave.
We gather to support one another, point each other to Christ, to worship God, and then to send each other back out to reach the world with God’s truth and love.
So what does this look like?
Our Purpose
As a pastor of a young adult ministry, I can’t tell you how often I hear people ask me how to find out what they’re supposed to do with their lives, what their purpose is. You can’t reach outward very well without a purpose, and so this central question needs to be dealt with biblically.
But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
- Matthew 6:33
The most important thing to remember when looking outward is that you can’t miss the forest for the trees – you can’t get so focused on the little things that you miss the big picture. As Neil Hoffman once said, 90% of God’s will for your life is the same as His will for everyone else’s life. And guess where you can go to find it? You can go to His Word, of course. There, we find that your purpose is to:
- Follow Christ
- Love your neighbor
- Glorify God through excellence
- Worship God and put Him first
- Love God through obedience
Someone who takes care of these big things is going to be a force for the kingdom and will be saved from a common error.
Let me tell you a story:
I once had an old bike that I decided to fix up. I scraped and sanded all of the rust off, painted the rims, fitted it all together, and the first time I rode it the front wheel fell off. I took care of the cosmetics without really considering the structure.
Make sure the bike works first. Then make it look good.
Your Purpose
In so far as the specifics go – what sort of job you ought to take, how to go about loving your neighbors, who you should marry, etc. – prayer, advice, and experimentation is a good way to find out. Thankfully, church community is a great place for all of these things! Ask God how you can be most effective in being a light to the world. Ask your friends, mentors, and pastors where they think you might be best used. Practice using your gifts in the safety of a ministry.
When my wife and I watch The Voice, the singing competition on NBC, we used to be amazed at how many contestants were worship leaders. We aren’t surprised anymore because it makes sense: They had a community and discipleship available in their local church that helped them identify their gift and shape it.
Whatever God has gifted you with, however you can reach outward with His love into the world, this can be true for you as well.
It doesn’t always look quite like what you expect. Not everyone has a burning passion for some particular work or a scroll that descends from the heavens telling them what to do. There’s a man named Marc Serrao who owns one of America’s most successful bakeries. He’s donated a ton of money to charity, not to mention food, and he employs a lot of people. He’s a force for good in his community. When asked why he became a baker, he said, “It was the closest place to my house when I could start working at 15.”
The Takeaway
Most people don’t enter kindergarten thinking they want to be a doctor and then walk a straight line for twenty years right up to and through medical school. And don’t forget, David was anointed to be king, and then he went back to herding sheep for a while. If you feel called to run a business, don’t be too proud to be the janitor until then. The path to your purpose does not always fit your plans. Trust God anyway, no matter what the process looks like.
Just make sure to do the big things first. It’s 90% of the problem solved.
