Introduction
One of my favourite modern films is Apollo 13. This is for a number of reasons. I am a science fiction fan and although this film is about a true life mission, it involves space travel. I am fascinated by the film as I just about remember the stories about the men on their way to the moon who got in trouble. And then I am fascinated as it is a film about a mission that went wrong. The mission was so well planned and prepared for - yet it went wrong. Even the best planned missions often fail. Even missions with precautions often fail.
For six weeks we’ve been looking at your personal life mission – developing a Purpose-Driven Life. We want to continue in this series today looking at Sustaining or Maintaining your purpose in life. But I want to help you with this mission so that you don't fail in it.
I have to say to you that as a pastor, the thing that disappoints me and saddens me more than anything else in ministry is when I see good people burn out. People who start in the Christian life and start in their life mission with enthusiasm, with such joy and potential and talent, yet somewhere along the line they get sidetracked. They loose heart, they get discouraged or distracted. They quit the race. They don’t make it to the finish line. They don’t complete their mission. That breaks my heart when I see what happen in people’s lives. As your pastor I’m committed to helping you make it across that finish line, helping you complete your life mission. Not just discover and develop it. You could have done all of what we’ve talked about up to this point so far and written out a life purpose and looked at your values and started scheduling your life around those values and those goals, but unless you develop certain skills and habits and relationships, you won’t make it to the end.
Spiritual Warfare
If you are anything like me you may have noticed that whenever you take a decision to live your life in a way which is more pleasing to God, or whenever you try to put Jesus ever nearer the centre of your life, it is as if all Hell breaks loose. Over the years as a pastor I have seen this time and time again in the life of the churches I have been involved in. This happens as the devil, instead of ignoring us quietly going about living our lives in destructive ways, now notices that we have taken steps towards healthy whole lives where we live in true freedom. The devil, of course, does not want us to live the kind of life God put you on this earth for. So all kinds of forces will conspire to keep you from completing your life mission.
I don't want to give any of you bad dreams or to worry you, but to alert you to this simple fact. We can resist these attacks, but we need to recognise they are happening. Then we must have the skills, the habits and the relationships in place to support us over the long haul as we journey through life seeking to be ever more faithful disciples of Jesus.
Today we’re going to look at four important skills which will help us in this journey. If I want to become all that God wants me to be, if I want to fulfil the purpose God put me on earth for I must do four things. You may find the sermon notes on the back of the song sheet helpful here.
1. I MUST MASTER MY MOODS
You’ve got to be able to not just do what you feel, but do what’s the right thing to do regardless of how you feel. We know, for example, that coming to church each week is a good thing, but sometimes we say "oh, I am not in the mood today". And, often, we find that we feel worse about ourselves than if we had come.
Often we know something would help us and we’ve known it would be good for us, but we just never could find the time to do it. A specific example might illustrate the point: for the past few weeks, I’ve been giving you a homework project. And I know you’ve had every intention of doing those. But I’m not going to ask for true confession and find out how many of you are saying, “I’m going to get around to it. I intended to write out my values. I intended to put together a purpose statement for my life. I intended to set some goals based on that purpose. I intended to start organizing my life and schedule.” But here we are in week six and you still haven’t done it. What’s happened?
We were manipulated by our moods. We say, “I intend to” but good intentions are not enough. We say, “I just don’t feel like doing it right now.” Have you ever realized that most of what gets done in this world is done by people who don’t feel like doing it? If I only taught in schools when I felt like it, I’d starve. I do the supply teaching to earn some more money, but I very rarely feel like going in! And if you only went to work when you felt like it, you’d only go to work every once in a while. True maturity is when you learn to do the right thing regardless of how you feel. It’s learning to master your moods.
So how do I learn to master my moods? There are two very practical ways.
1: By guarding our minds.
Whatever we think about is going to determine our mood. Our moods are determined by whatever we focus on. If we’re depressed, it’s because we’re focusing on depressing thoughts. If we’re happy, it’s because we’re choosing to focus on happy thoughts. The way that we think determines the way that we feel. And the way we feel determines the way that we act. If we're acting depressed. it’s because we feel depressed. And if we feel depressed, the real reason is because we’re thinking depressing thoughts. And if we want to change our lives, we don’t change our behaviours or our emotions. We can’t force emotions. We have to change our thought life.
Our brains are like computers and our thoughts are like the software in it. The quickest way to change our life is to change our software. So if we want to fulfil our mission, it means we’re going to have to guard what thoughts we allow in our minds. This might mean we’re probably going to have to change some things that we read. I remember changing the paper I read because I got so annoyed with it a couple of months ago; and this was effecting my thoughts. We’ll probably have to change some things that you listen to – music or television shows or conversations. If we end up feeling worse after watching or listening to something, it is not doing our thoughts much good. If we’re filling our minds with all the negative things, things that tear down our lives, that make us feel bad, that make us feel discouraged, of course we’re going to give up. Of course we’re not going to make it to the end of your life mission. We need to choose thoughts that support our life mission and don’t fill our minds with negative material.
2: Affirming God’s Truth.
Every time we sing a song here on a Sunday, we’re affirming God’s truth for our lives. We’re affirming the truth rather than filling our minds with trash. Affirming God’s truth means believing what God says about my life rather than what I feel about my life. I might feel incompetent but God says, “You’re competent.” I may feel unloved but God says, “You are loved.” I might feel unworthy but God says, “You’re worthy of My grace just because I made you. You’re a child of God.” I may feel like it’s hopeless but God says, “With Jesus there is hope.”
So we begin to affirm what God says is the truth rather than listening to our feelings.
Feelings can lie. Feelings are often the result of something we eat - talk to me about half an hour after a good curry with lots of ghee and I will share some very strong feelings until I find some ant-acid! Or our feelings can be the result of the weather outside. In teaching I have come to hate the autumnal rain and wind - as on days like that the children are rather crazy and very difficult to teach. Have you ever been in a conversation and somebody says something and all of a sudden your mood changes? Why? Because thoughts determine feelings and feelings determine actions. So if you’re listening to negative stuff all the time and you’re always around people who are always down. We can’t soar with the eagles if we run with the turkeys.
Faith is acting before feeling. It is doing the right thing whether I feel like it or not. This is an amazing truth. If you wait until you feel it, that’s not faith. Faith is doing the right thing even though you don’t feel it. The amazing thing about this is that motion creates emotion. In other words, you can actually move yourself into a new mood. In our reading we heard an amazing affirmation of faith. The writer of Habakkuk says "For the fig tree is not going to blossom, nor will there by any fruit on the vine, the yield of the olive tree will fail, and the fields afford no food. The sheep will vanish from the fold, nor will there be any cattle in the stalls, but I will rejoice in the Lord, I will exult in God my saviour. The Lord is my strength and makes my feet as light as a does and sets my steps on the heights." The prophet is living in an agricultural society and he says that even if all the crops fail, even if he has nothing to eat, even if the sheep disappear he will still praise God. In other words, his feelings - which would be pretty intense if all this happened - would not dictate his attitude to God.
Faith, therefore, is rising above our feelings and still following and praising God in all things. This is difficult and requires us to be disciplined. Faith is acting before you feel it. It’s doing the right thing whether your mood says to do it or not.
It’s always easier to act yourself into a feeling than it is to feel yourself into an action. A couple will come to me and say, “We don’t love each other any more. We just don’t feel any love for each other any more.” I say, “Why don’t you start acting lovingly toward each other.” They say, “Oh, no. When we feel loving then we’ll start acting loving.” I say, “Wrong. Start acting loving.” If you start acting lovingly toward a person, the feelings will come back. They will. Because feelings are always influenced by actions – thoughts or actions. You can’t work on them directly. You have to work on them through feelings or actions.
That’s what faith is all about. When you affirm God’s word, you say, “I believe what God says,” you’re changing your thoughts and it affects the way you feel.
I have no doubt that in the last six weeks, God’s been talking to many of you. You know that God’s been telling you to do something. And you’ve been giving God all kinds of excuses and you say things like, “God, I don’t have the time! I don’t have the energy. I’m too old… I’m too young … I don’t have the money … I don’t have the education… I don’t have the talent to do this.” Stop making excuses and start affirming God’s word. St. Paul said “I can do anything… There is nothing I cannot master with the help of the one who gives me strength.” Is Paul just psyching himself up? Is this some kind of positive, pop psychology? No, this is called faith. Whenever you affirm God’s word, it’s faith.
In your mind there’s some scales. On one side are the negatives you’ve heard all your life. On the other side is the truth about you, what God says. We live in a very negative world. So you get far more negative pokes than you get positive strokes in life. Everything is telling you life is rotten, there is no meaning, there is no purpose, everything’s going to the dogs, you’re worthless. All of these things you’ve heard all your life. Some of us have been hurt very, very deeply in life. We’ve been scared. And as a result we struggle with re-occurring depression. Because of all the negatives on this side of the scale.
What we need to do is start putting pebbles on the other side of the scale. That is affirming what God says about you. You start memorizing some Bible verses, memorizing some scriptures, making some affirmation cards. Every time you do it and you say, “I am loved,” you put a pebble on the positive side. “I am valuable… God does have a purpose for my life… I am competent… God has shaped me and gifted me to do something in this world... There is a place for me…” The more you put pebbles on the positive side, the more the scales begin to tip. And when the scales become about even, you’re not going to be depressed any more. But you keep putting pebbles on this side, affirming God’s word in your mind, 15-20 times a day, eventually there’s going to more on the positive side than the negative side and the scales tip and you’re going to understand real joy. The joy that comes regardless of circumstance, regardless of problems. It’s made by the truth of God’s word in your life.
When you’ve got a bucket and it’s full of water, there’s two ways to get rid of the water – you can pour it all out or you can start tossing pebbles in it. Each time you put a pebble in, it displaces some water. Eventually if you put enough pebbles in, you displace all the water.
Many of us have been carrying a bucket of pain with us all your life – from things that people did to us, the ways that people hurt us, the scars we had from even people who supposedly loved us, but they let us down, they disappointed, they were unfaithful, they didn’t turn out to be what you thought they were going to be. Boyfriends, girlfriends, parents, former spouses. And we’re carrying this bucket of pain around. What we need to do is start tossing pebbles of God’s truth into it, affirming what God says about you. That means we have to spend time everyday reading some of the Bible and hearing what God says to us through it. As you fill that bucket, the pain will be displaced.
Here’s your homework for this week: I want you to take one of the cards that were put out for you with the service sheet. There is a Bible verse there and a positive truth next to it. Read it, put it up somewhere you will see it at home, say the verse over and over again. Begin to fill your mind with what’s right, not what’s wrong. The Bible says we’re transformed by the renewing of our mind. You’ve got to master your moods.
The second skill is learning that:
2. I MUST MANAGE MY ENERGY.
Even if you know your life mission, if you’re tired all the time, it’s not going to get fulfilled. So you’ve got to learn how to manage your energy. If you’re in a state of continual fatigue, 1) you will always have a bad attitude because you’re grumpy when you’re tired, and 2) you will miss key opportunities because “I’m too tired to do that,” and 3) you’ll limit your performance.
There are two types of fatigue. There’s physical fatigue and spiritual fatigue. Physical fatigue happens when your muscles are tired. Spiritual fatigue occurs when your emotions are tired. Spiritual fatigue is much more common in our culture. Spiritual fatigue comes from things like frustration, expectations of other people, conflict, resentment, worry, anger, all these kinds of negative emotions create spiritual fatigue.
When you’re physically tired, all you have to do for that is get some rest. You sleep, you wake up feeling better. Spiritual fatigue takes more than rest to get recharged. That’s why a lot of people are all stressed out. They go for a week's holiday and come back and they don’t feel any different. The problem is that they took themselves with them! The problem was inside. Lying on the beach, you can get the darkest tan in the world but it’s not going to take away emotional or spiritual fatigue. You still, on the inside, will be stressed out. That’s why you’ve got to get into a relationships where you can talk it out with other people, get into God’s word, fellowship, do some ministry to help other people. There are other ways to replenish emotional or spiritual fatigue.
1) By eliminating non-essentials in my schedule. Things that really aren’t important. Eliminating the trivia. You need to be aware of time wasters. Jesus once said it like this: “Let the dead bury the dead.” The first time I read that verse I thought, “That’s pretty crude!” That seems very insensitive. What’s He talking about there?
He’s simply saying, Be indispensable. There are some things in life anybody can do. You don’t have to be a believer, you don’t have to know the purpose of life do it, anybody can do it. Let those people who don’t know the meaning of life do those things that aren’t involved in the meaning of life. You be indispensable. You know what life’s all about. So make sure, in your schedule, the important things get done first before anything else gets done. “Let the dead bury the dead” because you don’t have time for everything.
2) The other way you manage your energy is by taking time to relax. The Bible says “A relaxed attitude lengthens a person’s life.”
There are three kinds of time that you have. There is prime time, grind time, and unwind time. Prime time is when you’re at your best. And you ought to use the best part of your day for God and for the things that are the most important tasks. Whatever you’re really good at, whatever you really need to get done first, schedule that in the prime time of your day. Grind time is when you have to do the stuff of life that everybody has to do. Obviously, not everything you have to do in life fits your life mission. It’s just stuff that has to be done. Unwind time. You need to plan where you make time to relax. In order to truly relax we need to do three things divert daily, withdraw weekly and abandon annually!
First, divert daily. You need to have little mini vacations, everyday. You know what relaxes you – sitting down and banging on a piano, playing a guitar, doing needlework, gardening, whatever. Know what unwinds you.
Then, withdraw weekly. Every week you take one day off. The Bible says it. Every seventh day you take a day off. That’s called the Sabbath. If you work on Sunday, you’d better take another day off because God says so. You need it.
Then, abandon annually. Once a year you just blow it all out and go have a holiday.
There’s a third skill you have to learn if you’re going to sustain your mission.
3. I MUST MAXIMIZE MY ABILITIES
I must maximize my abilities, the ability that God has given me. We’ve been talking during this series how each of us have a God given shape or abilities and we can see in that SHAPE and abilities the way that God wants to form our life mission. Also we need to realize that that shape that God has given to us, those abilities, are something God’s given to us to manage.
How do I do that? There’s two life long habits we can develop that will enable us to do that:
1: Through the habit of continual learning. As it says in Proverbs “Do yourself a favour and learn all you can. Then remember what you learn and you will prosper.” First learn, keep growing, never stop learning what God’s put into your life. Keep growing, keep learning by observing, studying, learning from everything you can. Learn from your mistakes. Learn from others.
2) A second key to maximizing my abilities is by continuous serving. St Paul, in his letter to Timothy writes about the fact that God has given you and I abilities in our lives and wants us to use those abilities to serve other people. Every day ask yourself the question, “How can I help somebody today?” How can I help somebody else? Serving is the essence of the Christian life. Jesus, when He came, said, I came not to be served but to serve. I came to give My life.” If I want to follow His example, I’ve got to give my life in service to others too.
A lot of us would like to serve God but in an advisory capacity only. But God has something for us to do in life. I’ve noticed in my own life, how easy it is to slip into this thinking that says, “I want to be served by somebody today.” Somebody at my house or somebody at my work. Do you ever slip into that? Like “It’s my turn to be served today.” We play the game like this: your turn/my turn/your turn/my turn. Then my turn/my turn, my turn, and I’ll take another turn because I had a really tough day at the office today. Before long, we think we’re on this earth to be served. Something inside of us dies when this happens. Because God very clearly tells us that it’s through serving others we develop the abilities in our lives.
There’s an aqueduct that the Romans built in 109 A.D. outside the little city of Segovia in Spain. It served that city for 1800 years, bringing water into the city. After that long they thought of it as a museum piece. They built some pipes into the city and stopped using the aqueduct. As soon as they stopped using it, as soon as it stopped serving, it began to dry up and crumble.
We’re made to serve. We’re made to make a difference in this world. So don’t fall into the trap of thinking, “I’m put in this world to be served by others.” Here’s a personal benefit of serving others. When I use my gift to serve others, St Paul says then what happens is that everyone notices my improvement and my progress. I start to grow because of the service that happens in my life. One of the main growth tools in life is service. If you want to be a better partner – serve. If you want to be a better friend – serve. If you want to have a better sex life – serve your partner, giving myself to meet somebody else’s need is the key to every area of life.
Serving others builds spiritual muscles. Even if you serve in an area that’s not your life mission that you’ve written down. Sometimes you serve just because there’s a need there. Even when you’re serving in that kind of an area, it builds your SHAPE, the spiritual muscles in our lives so we can become the kind of people God wants us to be.
There’s a fourth key, a fourth skill to sustaining our life mission.
4. I MUST MAINTAIN MY FOCUS
If I’m going to fulfil and sustain my mission, I must Master my moods, Manage my energy, Maximize my talents and Maintain my focus. I told you in the very first week of this series that nobody intentionally plans to waste their life. I’ve never met anybody who’s said, “I’m planning to fail.” People who waste their lives, do it by default. And the problem is we get distracted. It’s human nature to get distracted.
It is so easy to be distracted from doing anything, especially to follow through on what we look at in church. Even before leave the building we’re going to be distracted. We walk out that door, we start talking with some friends, we get in a traffic jam, we go home and there will be something good on television, we will have a list of things you want to get done before the new week starts, we’ll wake up tomorrow morning and one crisis after another will hit us and we will have forgotten everything we’ve talked about. And then it will be next Sunday and we’ll be on to another subject. We don’t intentionally intend to get distracted, but we don’t intentionally intend and plan to stay focused either. It’s human nature to get distracted.
Staying focus takes time. It requires us to spend time in prayer and in thinking about God's calling to us. We need to do this daily, to spend time with God in prayer each day and to spend time reflecting, each day, about God's call to us, our priorities, our values and our opportunities for service.
Will you pray with me?
Prayer:
Loving God, I
want to have a quality life.
I want to fulfil the purpose You made me for.
I want to build my life on the values that are important and will last.
Jesus, I need Your power to do what I know is best to do.
I need Your help in becoming what You intend for me to become.
Please help me to master my moods.
Help me not to live based on feelings but based on truth.
Help me to live by faith, to do the right thing even when I don’t feel like
it.
Help me to take action on what I know is right and to affirm Your truths and
promises so that my mind can be renewed.
Help me to fill my mind with Your word so that the scales will be balanced to
the good side of truth not trash.
And, dear God, please help me to manage my energy,
to make sure that the most important things get done.
Help me to maximize my talents, to never stop learning, to never stop growing,
to never stoop serving.
I realize that all I am I owe to Your graciousness and I want to use the rest
of my life learning about You and Your plan.
I want to use my gifts and talents to help other people.
Most of all, God, I ask You to help me maintain my focus,
to keep a close watch on my lifestyle and to not let a day go by that I don’t
take some time, even if it’s just a few minutes, to sit down and talk to You
about my life and look at it seriously and let You talk to me through Your word.
I ask You to help me in these areas. In Jesus’ name.
Amen.
This sermon was first preached in the Metropolitan Community Church of Manchester. Click here for further information.