Tag: why

Picked for a Purpose

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(1 Peter 2:9-12)

The lone remaining member of the family is the only one to have survived the car wreck. It took the lives of everyone else in her family, leaving her to spend the rest of her life wondering, “Why me?” Why, of everyone in the family, was she the one who was spared? Veterans who have come home to their families after war have felt the same nagging question when reflecting on all of their friends who were not as fortunate to return: “Why me?” “Why me?” is also sure to shape the thoughts of the patient who was just told it’s terminal after leaving the follow-up appointment with his oncologist.

The answer to the “Why me?” questions in those scenarios is this: we don’t know. God hasn’t revealed his specific answer to those situations in his Word. The Bible doesn’t explain why it wasn’t another family member who lived, why the surviving veteran wasn’t KIA and others were, or why the tumor wasn’t found to be benign. We can speculate all we want, but that will never satisfy us if we demand an answer that ultimately will remain known only to God.

However, just because we don’t know the specific answer to those specific scenarios doesn’t mean that everything remains unknown to us. We can direct our thoughts to what we do know about God and his promises in his Word and apply those to our situation. As we do that, the Holy Spirit sheds light on some possible answers to those questions, “Why me?” In one case, God may have allowed that tragedy for the purpose of uniquely qualifying that individual to comfort others who experience something similar. In another case, the loss may be what God uses to draw someone closer to him in faith. God shapes and refines us most often not through ease and comfort, but through hardship and adversity.

Whether or not we have endured any experiences related to those mentioned, we do have answers to another “why me?” question. It’s one most believers have considered at one time or another: why did God choose me? Why am I a believer? Why not some other religion or belief? Why Christianity? Why am I a Christian?

The answer? You were picked for a purpose. Actually, you’ll discover many purposes if you read through the whole Bible. But we’re going to give our attention to the two purposes revealed in the verses from 1 Peter. One of those purposes is very well known to just about every believer. And we’ll get to that one. 

But the other purpose is no less beautiful, even if it is not as well known. I believe that this purpose, if not only known, but embraced, believed, and lived, has the potential to significantly alter the lives of those who hear it.

Some of you know it; others, not so well. Others know it, but have not combined it with the faith to change their outlook on life. When I say this purpose can be life-changing for people, I mean it. It can eliminate the need for pills. It can result in the cancellation of the remaining counseling sessions. It can improve relationships.

Do I have your attention? Are you ready for it? Do you want to know what this purpose is for which God picked you? Read 1 Peter 2:9 with again, but stop after the fourth comma. “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession,…” Why did God pick you? To be his. That purpose stands on its own. Yes, there is much involved in living out our callings as Christians, but we cannot zip right past this purpose just to get busy with the doing. We have to bask in the “being.” 

And we have our choice! Who doesn’t like choices? We want options. We want things our way, the way we like them. So God puts together a list, and although all of them are true for believers, some may have more meaning than others. Think of the individual who has lived life always being overlooked or passed over for someone else. Not by God! No, because God chose us – he didn’t settle for us or get stuck with us, but chose us. And “a royal priesthood” carries with it a social status that some have never experienced, having been born into what they perceive to be a low rung of the socio-economic ladder. The believer with a tender conscience, crushed by the slightest sin or slip-up, is part of a “holy” nation. And the person from a broken home or who was adopted and perhaps has always struggled with feelings of being unwanted is God’s own possession. You were picked for a purpose: to be God’s!

We heard all about this in my last sermon post. Does that mean I shouldn’t be repeating the same thing again? Am I so unoriginal that I have to regurgitate the same stuff week after week? How about this? I’ll stop repeating it when 1), the Bible quits bringing it up, and 2) you start believing it. When those two things happen, then I’ll give it a rest; I’ll quit repeating the same thing.

But until then, hear it again: you are special. God used Peter to call you his “special possession.” And yes, that is what you are! And yes, that is one of the purposes for which God picked you!

And it sinks in more when we recall how drastically different our natural status before God ought to have been. Our natural arrogance of denying there’s a God or turning from him should have classified us as a “rejected” people. Our boorish behavior and classless treatment of others is a far cry from any designation of royalty. Our hatred and unholiness speak for themselves. Peter reminded us in this way: “Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy” (v.10). 

But grace doesn’t call us what we are by nature, but what God has picked us for. Grace doesn’t force us to live under the labels we earned for ourselves, but calls us what God has made us. Chosen. Royalty. Holy. His prized possession. That’s what you were picked for.

This life-changing truth can impact everything in your life: how you view God, how you view yourself, and how you view others.

If it’s true that God feels that way about me – that he picked me not out of obligation or as some random name out of a hat, but because he deliberately, willingly, knowingly wanted me to be his, then that reality absolutely affects how I think and feel about God. There is no one and nothing in my life that could ever matter more! Someone who feels that way about me doesn’t have to ask for or demand my love and loyalty in return, because he’s already got it. 

And, if the Almighty God calls me all of these things, and backs it all up through the redeeming work of Jesus on my behalf, then it also shapes how I feel about me. Whose opinion of me matters more than that? Not someone else’s. Not even my own! So if the One who knows me better than I even know myself feels that way about me – and my best or worst days have no bearing on it, then how can I feel anything but positive about the person looking back at me in the mirror?

If God calls me his chosen, royalty, holy, prized possession, isn’t it the height of arrogance to think I know better than he does and think so little of or so negatively about myself? There’s simply no place for such a view. I need to start seeing myself as he does.

Finally, when I know how my loving God feels about me, which positively influences how I feel about me, then it also changes how I view others. I don’t need to pour myself into people pleasing (at least not for the purpose of earning the praise or affection of others!). I don’t need to pretend I can get everyone to like me. I don’t need to stress out over finding Mr. or Mrs. Right when I know it has zero impact on how God feels about me. And, I start to view others the way God views me. The bitterness, resentment, animosity, hatred, indifference, etc. that I may have felt about certain individuals or in general toward certain groups begins to disappear. It is replaced by an increasingly genuine desire to love them as God loves me and to want them to know how much God loves them, too. 

Lo and behold, that brings us to the second purpose for which God picked us. Recall early on that I mentioned two purposes Peter provides in these verses. The second is more familiar, and it’s found after the comma where we stopped earlier. “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light” (v.9).

You – chosen, royalty, holy, prized possession of God, you – were picked also for this purpose: to “declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” You were picked to talk up God, to make him known, to let others know who he really is. That means we’re not content to let whatever hair-brained or half-baked ideas about God that others have drummed up in their own minds or regurgitated from some other teacher or teaching go unchecked. We simply treasure God and that other person too much to allow anyone or any teaching to falsely misrepresent him. 

The Bible’s doctrines and teachings are absolutely essential – after all, they’re how our understanding of and relationship with God grows. However, too many people choose to be so put off by the “rules” and teachings of the Bible that they’ve never actually taken the time to get to know the God of the Bible. When unbelievers are consistently quick to explain that they can’t believe because they don’t agree with this or that teaching, all they’re revealing is that they’ve never really gotten to know God first. They’re turned off by the teachings, but why should we expect anything else if they don’t know the Teacher? They have not come to know the One who reveals himself as the embodiment of love! 

Peter seemed to be aware of this, since he didn’t write that the purpose for which we were picked was to argue or debate others into the kingdom by proving the validity, the wisdom, or the correctness of all of the Bible’s teachings, but by declaring the praises of God.

Praise who he is and what he’s done. Lead others to get to know who God is – the gracious, merciful, patient, loving God who has sacrificed so much to demonstrate the depth of his love for us. You are uniquely equipped to declare those praises to others! Not because you went to the Seminary or aced a class or had some intense, in-depth training, but because you know from experience what it’s like to have been called out of darkness into his wonderful light. You know how wonderful it is. You, therefore, are as qualified as anyone to declare to others the praises and promises of God!

And one last thing. Please, literally for the love of God, please back up your words with the way you live your life. “Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us” (v.12). Others aren’t just listening to the words that come out of your mouth. They are paying attention to your life to see if it validates your words.

If the impression they get from you is that grace means it doesn’t really matter how a person lives, how is that any different from how they’re already living? They already live however they want to. They’re already doing whatever they want. If all your talk about Jesus and faith has not resulted in any noticeable change in your life, then why should they be drawn to a life that looks no different from theirs? No, “live such good lives” that the quality and character of your life stands out so much they can’t help but be drawn to know more about the God who made that change in you. 

Why me? Why you? You were picked for a purpose – to be known by God and to make God known. He picked you to make you his own – chosen, royalty, holy, prized possession – and to make him known. Others are wrestling with “Why me?” for countless reasons. Give them the best answer to that question. Make known to them the One who has done everything to make them his own, too.

He’s Risen – Really!

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(John 20:1-18)

A friend recently ordered us seafood takeout from a specific place that he liked because it doesn’t use imitation crab in its dishes like other places often do. He wanted the real thing. If you’re visiting a friend for a few days and he tries to pass off turkey bacon as the real thing at breakfast well, that might just be enough to rethink who your friends are. You might be able to fool an amateur with a generic brand of clothing, but someone who knows their stuff can tell if it’s not a designer label. Even with AI on the rise, AI-generated images often still have glitches that reveal them to be fake. While their are some pretty good attempts at imitating the real thing, for the most part we still have the ability and means to be able to distinguish between what is real and what is fake. 

Nowhere does that matter more than on Easter Sunday. On Easter, Christians of every nation, tribe, and language gather together to celebrate the most significant event in human history: the resurrection of Jesus. If this event is not real, if it is in fact made up or a complete fake, well then, what Paul wrote in First Corinthians 15 is soberingly true: our faith is useless and we are still stuck in the damning reality of our sin. If the Resurrection of Jesus Christ isn’t REAL, then neither is forgiveness, grace, or eternal life. Instead, we’d be destined to find out just how real hell is. Without those realities, the only thing that would be REAL would be our hopelessness. 

This would be a great place to reference the number of convincing proofs that strongly support the reality of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. But I’m going to skip right over that in this post (besides, you can always just google it). Why? For one, because John’s account recorded for us simply doesn’t read like the stuff of made-up fairy tales. It’s an unblemished look at flawed participants who not only could have painted themselves in a much more favorable light if this was all fake, but also would not likely have included so many unnecessary details.

But there’s another reason I’m not going to spend more time making a case to prove how plausible the Resurrection really is. Because the Resurrection isn’t the real issue for most skeptics. No, the resurrection is actually not so implausible… if one acknowledges there actually is a God.

After all, if there is a divine being, an entity who created and oversees and governs all things, then Jesus being raised from the dead wouldn’t be much of a stretch at all for God to pull off, would it? No, the real issue isn’t the resurrection, but whether or not there is a God behind it. So rather than spending time trying to prove the Resurrection, we simply proclaim it. We testify to it, and we let God show us the difference in made in people’s lives that first Easter and still today.

The question I want to focus on is the one asked of Mary to help her uncover the real significance of what has happened. The angels asked it first. “They asked her, ‘Woman, why are you crying?’” (v.13). Now angels aren’t omniscient, but one would not have needed the sleuthing skills of a Sherlock Holmes to figure out why Mary might have been crying. The answer was really quite obvious. Nevertheless, Mary provided the reason. “‘They have taken my Lord away,’” she said, ‘and I don’t know where they have put him’” (v.13).  Mary was saddened by the obvious lack of Jesus’ body in the place where she had seen him laid. He wasn’t where he was supposed to be so that she could carry out her last act of humble service for her Savior.

Immediately on the heels of her answer, Mary turns and is asked right away again by a man she takes to be the keeper of the garden, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?” (v.15). Had he not been within earshot to hear the response she had literally just given? Was it really necessary to repeat the exact same question? 

It was. But not for the angels’ sake, because they might have somehow missed her answer. And not for Jesus’ sake, who doesn’t ask questions for his own sake, but for the sake of others. No, the question was asked – and repeated – for Mary’s sake. It was really asked to set the stage for the revelation of the greatest miracle that has ever taken place in the history of the world: the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead! 

Mary was not really in much of an emotional state of mind to consider the significance of the question that had been asked twice of her. From her vantage point, she saw nothing unnatural at all about the tears she was shedding. She had wanted to honor her Jesus by properly caring for his beaten and bloodied body. It was a simple thing, but it was something she longed to do. So when there was no crucified corpse in the tomb, her heart sank. In the end, she didn’t care about why the body of her Jesus was not there or who was behind it – she just wanted to know where it was, so she pleaded for the man she thought was the gardener to point her in the right direction. 

But we can consider how remarkable the question really was, for we know why there was no body in the tomb. Christ had risen! Death could not detain him! Hell could not hold him!

Knowing that, when we consider the question asked of Mary, it leads us to realize how backwards everything really was that first Easter morning. The only crying at Jesus’ empty tomb that would have made any sense would have been tears shed in sheer joy!

Tears of grief or sorrow would only have been appropriate if the body was still in the tomb, wrapped in the linens and covered in the cloth. But John goes out of his way to spell out that detail for us – there was no body – just the coverings. Therefore, there was no reason to cry! Had Jesus still been dead, had Mary and the other women and Peter and John all arrived at the tomb that Sunday morning to see what they expected to see – the dead body of Jesus – then there would have been reason to cry! A dead Jesus would have been reason to cry uncontrollably because it would have meant no Easter. No Resurrection. No victory over death. No forgiveness. No salvation. That would have been cause for tears!

Because we’d still be in our sin. We’d have reason every day of our lives to absolutely dread death and be terrified of when it might strike us at any moment. Because we’d know deep down inside that we’d finally have to answer for our past and we’d be left to what rightfully awaited us: hell. Condemnation. The punishment our daily sins deserve.

But since Jesus wasn’t in the tomb, we see the question asked of Mary in a different light! He lives – really! He’s risen – really! It really happened! So then… why was she crying???

It’s a good question for us to ask ourselves. Why are you crying? Maybe the tears are literal, physical tears that run down your cheeks. Maybe it is just a sad, heavy heart – one that you might hide well from others, but still carry with you wherever you go. What is the cause of it? What is pressing down, weighing on you heavily?

It is so easy for us to downplay this Easter stuff in favor of “real” issues we have to deal with. Sure, we’ll do the Easter Sunday thing. We’ll sing a familiar Easter hymn or two, probably followed by a brunch. The family photo of everyone all dressed up has been taken. The kids will have snatched up their eggs filled with candy. Perhaps we have Sunday afternoon or evening plans with family or friends. Yes, it will all be a nice little escape from the daily grind of life. 

But then it’s right back to real problems on Monday morning, if not sooner. Another Easter will have come and gone, but the real problems still remain. The money going out exceeds the money coming in but those bills and debts don’t care. That means I still have to show up at a job I hate, working with people I don’t care for. The roof still leaks. The car is still having trouble. I can’t figure out what is behind my child’s recent behavior. Being single is wearing thing. Depression and anxiety are real. There’s the health issue I’m putting off because if I go to the doctor I know it’s going to be something that I just can’t handle right now. I’m still crawling through so many firsts without a loved one in my life. So many “real” issues!

But that’s the point of asking the question. If Jesus really rose, then why are you crying? Let’s not so quickly default to the “yeah, but’s…” as we breeze past Easter. Enough with the “real” problems that we don’t see how Easter could ever fix.

Jesus REALLY rose and it REALLY matters more than anything else on your mind right now. Yes, it may feel like the boulder-size problems plaguing you right now are slowly crushing you – and Jesus doesn’t diminish those problems! In fact, it’s just the opposite! The One who denied eternal death its claim on him by REALLY rising from the dead is the same One to assure you he’s here to handle the other stuff! If Jesus Christ can unloose hell’s grip and deny its rightly-deserved demand on our souls for our track record of more sins than we could ever possibly count, then Jesus Christ REALLY can deliver us from anything and everything else we’ll ever face!

Do you hear Jesus asking you what he asked Mary? “Why are you crying? Why are you worried about ______?” No, he’s not diminishing your REAL problems at all; rather, he’s amplifying the significance of what we celebrate at Easter! With his “Why are you crying,” Jesus was stacking up all of our worldly concerns right next to the reality of his Resurrection and showing us how small they suddenly appear!

Yes, those things are REAL problems, but the Resurrection is also REAL. If death and hell could not prevail against Jesus, is he so weak to rise from the dead only to turn around and succumb to your much smaller problems? Of course not! He’s risen – really! He lives – really! And his promise to you who have been freed from the damnation of your sin is that he can – and will – also handle the smaller things. 

He’s risen – really! Why are you crying? May the only tears we shed be tears of joy over how small and insignificant our worries begin to appear when stacked up against the enormity of Jesus’ resurrection!

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed, Alleluia!

His Why Is Joy

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(Hebrews 12:1-3)

I think it’s already hit the pinnacle of popularity, but you are probably familiar with the encouragements on the part of businesses, organizations, and even individuals to really focus on your “why?”. Authors and TED talk speakers like Simon Sinek made it popular once again for organizations and businesses to emphasize their “why.” When the emphasis is on the “why,” people are attracted to working for you and with you. When they are clear on the “why” then the “what” and the “how” come much more naturally. 

Churches do the same thing. It’s a popular notion among Christians that belong to a local congregation that having membership simply means that you show up sometimes on Sunday morning. But the “why” is actually much more than that. It’s about joining together and carrying out the mission and ministry that Jesus has given us to do together. Where I serve at Shepherd of the Hills, our why is “Seeking the Lost and Serving the Found. 

Individuals may have a “why,” too. Mark Twain is credited with saying that the two most important days of your life are the day you were born and the day you figured out why. My personal why is quite simple: to bring people closer to Jesus. Whether you already know him by faith or not, my why is the same. My fulfillment, my satisfaction, my joy in life is when God can use me to bring wherever you are closer to Jesus. 

Speaking of Jesus, he had a “why,” too. Understanding it is key to grasping what he did during Holy Week. Why would he do what he did? What drove him? What fueled him to knowingly take on all the suffering and be willing to be crucified?

It’s one thing for the criminals crucified with him – they had no choice! They committed a crime. There were consequences. They didn’t have the option of saying, “That’s all right. I’ll skip the cross, thank you.”

But Jesus did not have to endure it, so what drove him? Here are the first three verses from Hebrews, chapter 12. As you read through them, see if you can capture Jesus’ “why.” 

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”

Did you catch it? Was his why clear?

“For the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” For the joy set before him! That was Jesus’ why! And you know what I love about this section is that the writer to the Hebrews does not expand on what that joy was. He doesn’t say, “By the way, here’s the joy that Jesus was focused on: …” And so we are kind of left on our own. We’re on our own knowing Jesus’ words and actions recorded for us in Scripture and God’s gracious promises, trying to wrap our hearts and our minds around exactly what that joy was.

There are so many possible answers, aren’t there? And maybe it’s not just one or the other, but collectively all of them. The joy that would come from knowing he was going to finally crush Satan’s head, that he was going to win the victory.

The joy that would come from knowing that he set sinners free from the condemnation of sin.

The joy that would come from knowing that he made salvation possible so that literally no one else would have to experience the hell that he did on Good Friday.

The joy of being able to see his people forgive one another.

The joy of returning to his rightful place in heaven.

The joy of being with his Father once again and having perfectly fulfilled his Father’s will.

The joy of being there, not just with his Father, but with you, too. To know that because of what he would endure on the cross that he would not spend eternity alone in heaven but would be with all of those who by God’s grace through faith cling to him as their Savior. We cannot begin to imagine the agony, the pain of being separated from and abandoned by the Father as Jesus was, and yet imagine how great that joy must be if the level of joy exceeded that level of suffering!

Jesus had his why and you are included in it. And so Jesus naturally becomes our why, too. Now we turn that around as the writer to the Hebrews did. The joy that Jesus won for us is also the joy that drives us to follow in his footsteps.

I captured the writer’s encouragements as I saw them in these verses with three simple words: Release, Refocus, and Reflect.

Release is really what he had in mind when he said “Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles.” Release. Let go of it. Imagine running a race if you were the only one on the track who still had his warmups on. Not only would everyone look at you foolishly, but you’d lose the race! Take it off. You don’t want that extra material dragging you, and neither would you have your watch or your headphones or a backpack or anything else. You take that stuff off so that you can run more effectively.

Jesus encourages us to do the same as we follow him. Release those things, not just the stuff that tangles us in sin – clearly that as well – but notice he says even the things that hinder us, and not just some things, not just a few things that are easy to release or let go, but everything.

I think there are a lot of us within Christianity who are pretty solid, pretty content to say, “I can part with or give up 50%, 75%, or 90%, but what is that remainder for you that you can’t let go of? That may not even be sinful. It may be a good thing, and yet it’s hindering you from a closer walk with Jesus.

Is it the validation that you’re seeking from somebody else? Is it a toxic relationship that needs to be done in your life? Is it some goal that you have been pursuing for far too long that is distracting you from the one thing needful?

And my encouragement for you, especially this Holy Week, is to reflect personally on that and ask, “What is it that I, for maybe as long as I have been a Christian, have been hanging on to that I need to release and let go because it is hindering me from a deeper walk with Jesus and a stronger faith?

Release that.

And then refocus.

That’s what the writer to the Hebrews is saying when he encourages us to “fix our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.” If you’re running that race and you take off your warm-up gear or maybe your backpack and all of your stuff with it, that’s great, but if you are still looking back at it while running then it is distracting you and you need to refocus. And the same is true if you were to turn and look back at all of the other competitors that you are racing against.

We do that too in Christianity, don’t we? We think that the competition is really gauging myself against other Christians. How do I match up? How do I compare to this Christian or that Christian?

But that’s not the game. That’s not the race that we’re running. Jesus has not said anywhere, “Make sure that you’re just a step ahead of another Christian.” We’ll always find somebody behind us. We’ll also, always see people ahead of us. Ahead of us is where Jesus wants us to look, but not at the other competitors; rather, at our Savior, the one who has already crossed the finish line for us, the one who has already won the victory for us. It’s already guaranteed. And that’s why you can exert all of your strength in the race. That’s why you can be fully focused on crossing that finish line. Imagine your Savior Jesus there waiting for you, the loudest one cheering for you with open arms, ready to greet you, to embrace you when you spill across that finish line.

Refocus. Fix your eyes on him as often as you need to.

The final one might be the one that we struggle with the most: reflect.

The writer to the Hebrews said it this way, “Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” Consider doesn’t just mean, “Hey, you know this information, right?” Consider means chew on it. Reflect on it. Meditate on everything that your Jesus has done for you.

That’s what we were doing earlier when we were reflecting on the joy that was driving Jesus to endure what he did. To reflect is to stop and ponder and think, how much must my Savior, love me to endure what he did for me?

We are so busy and so preoccupied running from one thing to the next that we rarely pause, not just to read the Bible, but to reflect on what it means for us. To consider who it reveals Jesus to be for us and the difference that makes in our lives.

Reflect, and you will find more inspiration and more gospel – good news – motivation to keep running your race faithfully.

Jesus, our why, prompts us to do these three things: release, refocus, reflect. It’s an ongoing and repeated pattern. And it’s one that we carry out because we know the finish line has already been crossed by our Savior. But we don’t have to wait till we get home to heaven to experience the taste of the joys that he won for us. Those joys can be ours right now because Jesus allowed that joy to be his “why” and drive him to do all that he did this week for us.