Living With Purpose

Scott McFarland
08/20/23 - Sun AM Worship

Scripture: Luke 9:51-56

This past week we opened our mini-series talking about the fact that you are not an accident. No matter what the circumstances of your life are or were, you are not here by chance, nor does our God in heaven want you to believe your existence is the result of some random coincidence of events. As we continue and close this two-part series, we will look at Jesus’ life and the purposeful way He lived and ministered. As we do, I need to discuss another topic…

Often, when we hear Jesus used as an example of something in a sermon or class, we unconsciously think, “Well, of course He did that, He’s Jesus…” Unknowingly, we discredit the entire message/example because we see Jesus as untouchable or unrelatable because, well, He’s God. What I want you to consider this morning as we look at Jesus and His example of purpose is to think about Him the way Hebrews talks about Him in Hebrews 4:15, as “...one who in every respect has been tempted as we are…” This means Jesus was tempted with the same thoughts of apathy, mediocrity, and complacency as we are. In fact, do you remember His prayer in the Garden the night He was betrayed? “Lord, if there’s any other way, take this cup from me…” I don’t know how you see that prayer, but it sounds like a request to get out of the cross to me. The cross was His entire reason for coming. If He skipped the cross, Jesus would have been sucked into taking the easy way out, the path avoiding purpose.

So, when you hear the message this morning, or think about Jesus’ life of mission/purpose, don’t think He had it all locked down going in. There were moments of fear, temptations to quit. He could have, but He didn’t. Jesus followed through with His purpose. Will you?