Unshakeable #6 - Purpose
Description
Join Pastor Dan Irvin as he explores 2 Thessalonians 3:1-5 to discover how Jesus Christ is the ultimate Logos—the divine purpose and meaning we're all searching for. Learn how finding your true purpose in Christ transforms ordinary moments into part of God's greater mission, sustaining you through life's challenges.
Summary and Application
Have you ever found yourself stuck in a routine, wondering, "What's the point of any of this?" Whether it's the Monday-to-Friday grind, pursuing achievements that feel empty once attained, or simply going through the motions of daily life, this sense of purposelessness is more common than we might think. In his recent message on 2 Thessalonians 3:1-5, Dan addresses this universal human struggle and points us toward a purpose that can sustain us through both ordinary moments and life's greatest challenges.
We All Need Purpose—Without It, Life Falls Apart
Dan begins with a compelling observation about human nature: we instinctively recognize when something isn't being used to its full potential. Just as we want to help someone switch from standard definition to HD television, "there's something inside of all of us that when we see something not being maximized to its greatest potential, we're like, 'No, we can do more with that.'"
This isn't just about technology—it applies to human life itself. The ancient Greeks understood this deeply, spending centuries searching for what they called "Logos"—the rational principle that held everything together. As Dan explains, "The Greeks actually believed this to the core, that there needed to be a purpose for people, a reason for living, or else culture would fall apart."
When the apostle Paul writes in 2 Thessalonians 3:1, "pray for us that the message of the Lord may be spread rapidly and be honored just as it was with you," he's demonstrating someone who has found unshakeable purpose. Even while facing persecution and imprisonment, Paul doesn't ask for comfort or safety—he asks for the mission to continue. As Dan notes, Paul realized "that his life would be meaningless without this kind of purpose."
Purpose Is Easy to Lose When Life Gets Complicated
Even when we think we've found our purpose, it's remarkably easy to lose sight of it when circumstances become challenging. Dan illustrates this with a humorous but relatable story about a disastrous Christmas tree expedition that left him frustrated and far from his stated purpose as a loving husband and father. "In that moment, in those moments, I was not thinking about my greater purpose in life as a husband and a father and how I could show my family love and patience."
Paul acknowledges this reality in verse 2: "And pray that we may be delivered from wicked and evil people. For not everyone has faith." There are forces—both external opposition and internal struggles—that constantly pull us away from our true purpose. Dan observes, "It is easy, it is easy though, to lose sight of this" when we get caught up in the immediate pressures and frustrations of daily life.
The danger isn't just in dramatic failures but in the gradual drift toward living without any transcendent purpose at all. Many people wake up thinking, "Okay, it's Monday, I gotta get to Friday because my job... it's a job and it's hard," feeling anxious and wondering about the point of it all.
True Purpose Is Found Only in Jesus Christ
Here's where Dan's message takes a profound theological turn. The Greeks searched for an abstract Logos—a principle they could understand but not relate to personally. The Jewish people knew God's word as active power but never imagined it could become personal. But John's Gospel makes a revolutionary claim: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word, the Logos was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1).
Dan explains the significance: "John dares to say here that both were right in a sense, the Greeks and the Jews. But both were missing something. The word that the Jews cherish so much, this Logos and the meaning that the Greeks were looking for had now become... Jesus has entered the scene as a person."
This means our ultimate purpose isn't found in career achievements, family relationships, or personal approval—good as these things may be. Dan warns, "All of these things, all of these things, good things, necessary things for life, but they were never designed to be the ultimate thing. They can never bear the burden of being our Logos."
Even Scotty Scheffler, the world's number one golfer, demonstrates this truth: "This is not a fulfilling life. It's fulfilling from the sense of accomplishment, but it's not fulfilling from a sense of the deepest places of your heart."
How to Hold Onto Purpose: God's Love and Christ's Perseverance
The key to maintaining purpose through life's ups and downs is found in Paul's final words: "May the Lord direct your hearts into God's love and Christ's perseverance" (2 Thessalonians 3:5). Dan explains that "our hearts need to be captured in a way that reshapes our affections, the love of God." When we truly grasp that God's love isn't based on our performance but on His character, we stop striving for approval from fragile sources.
This transforms even mundane activities. Dan challenges us to think differently about work: "What if you went to work and you think, 'How can I contribute to the very purpose of God, for God's very mission to move forward in my job?'" The same applies to relationships and difficult seasons—everything can become part of something bigger when rooted in God's unchanging purpose.
The message concludes with a powerful quote from Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl: "Those who have a why to live can bear with almost any how." When our purpose is rooted in God's love and Christ's endurance, Dan assures us, "nothing, no suffering, no failure, not even death itself can take that away."
Reflection Questions
What has been functioning as your "Logos" lately? Consider what you've been living for—career success, family approval, financial security, or something else. How has this source of purpose held up during difficult times, and what does this reveal about its reliability?
How might your daily activities change if you viewed them as part of God's greater mission? Whether it's your work, relationships, or community involvement, what would it look like to approach these areas with the mindset of contributing to God's purpose rather than just getting through them?
-
"This is not a fulfilling life. It's fulfilling from the sense of accomplishment, but it's not fulfilling from a sense of the deepest places of your heart... It feels like you work your whole life to celebrate winning a tournament for a few minutes, and it only lasts for a few minutes." - Scotty Scheffler (professional golfer)
“Those who have a why to live can bear with almost any how." - Victor Frankl (psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor)
-
Well, good morning. It is just a privilege to be together this morning. It's a privilege to be here. Whatever Orchard Hill campus you call home, wherever you're joining in from today, welcome in Bridgeville and Butler online and my friends in the Strip district. I'll see you soon.
Excited about today, excited about this time of year. I mean, we're back, right? The fall is here, school's back. You know, things are happening. And I love football season.
I do. And even if you're not a football fan, I think one thing that is true that you can probably attest to is that you can't hide from the popularity of football. Like college football, NFL, it's all back. It's all TV commercials, it's all you see, right? And I think one of the things that kind of launched football into the place where it is today in our society is the inception of HD television in your home.
And I'm old enough to remember the day where those TVs were first hitting houses. And so there was standard definition how we used to watch TV and then now there's these HDTVs in your house. And I remember a friend of mine had bought one of these TVs. They were not cheap at the time when they came out and he's having this party. He's like, "Hey, come over, watch the game. I got this new TV, it's going to be great." And we go over and he's got the game on, but he has the game on in a standard def channel. You could choose the standard def channel or the HD and he didn't know the difference. And we were trying to be polite. We're like, "Hey, do you think he knows?" Like, it's pretty obvious. And so we kind of nudged him and we're like, "Hey man, you want to change it to the HD channel?" He's like, "Nah, it's the same. It doesn't even matter. It's the same picture."
And we were like, "It's different. It could be a lot better. It could be a lot more than it is right now." Or maybe you've had an experience where you've given your iPhone to a two-year-old and the two-year-old picks up your iPhone and they know how to get to their favorite game or their favorite show or, you know, one thing, two things that they know how to access on the iPhone. They are not using that piece of technology to its fullest extent, much like the TV was not being used to its fullest extent.
You know, there's something inside of all of us that when we see something not being maximized to its greatest potential, we're like, "No, we can do more with that." And we want to make it better. You know? And as we continue in this current message series that we've been in, looking in 2 Thessalonians today, we find Paul in 5 verses that he's using as a way to encourage his friends in Thessalonica and draw them in to help them realize this unrealized, perhaps, potential that they have in their lives, this unrealized purpose that they have for their lives.
You know, I don't know if you've ever gotten to a place in your life where you've been caught up in an activity or a hobby or a place you go to and you get to a point and you realize, "What am I doing here?" You're like, "How did I get to this point? Why am I wrapped up in whatever I'm wrapped up in?"
I, years ago, thought it'd be a good idea to pick up the guitar and learn how to play guitar. Now, what you don't know about me probably, is music. Not my thing. Never been my thing. Never played an instrument growing up. In fact, my seventh grade chorus teacher pulled me aside one day and was like, "Have you ever considered doing general music?" Which I think was his way of cutting me from chorus. Which I didn't know you could get cut from chorus in seventh grade. But I got cut in seventh grade from chorus, so that's my music background.
And so I'm picking up the guitar. I'm in my 20s, and I'm thinking, "Okay, maybe the girlfriend that I'm dating at the time, who's now my wife, would think that I'm cool if I knew how to play guitar. Maybe some of my friends will think I'm cool. Maybe it'll unlock some different groups that I can be a part of if I know how to play guitar." So I bought a guitar. I taught myself how to play it for six months, watching some videos on my own. Never got a lesson. Just thought, "Oh, I can do it on my own."
And you know, got about six months into this guitar learning process and had a moment of realization where I'm just sitting there. I'm at square one. I haven't moved anywhere in six months, probably because I'm not practicing and I haven't gotten anywhere. In fact, I think I've gotten worse. And I had this moment where I'm like, "What am I even doing? What is the point of any of this? Why am I... No one's forcing me to do this. This is not a class. I'm just... Why am I doing this? I'm not gonna be a professional musician. I'm not even gonna help lead a group or teach anybody how to play guitar. This is going nowhere."
And when we lose sight of that, when we lose sight of the purpose of the why, of the why are we doing what we're doing, we lose all motivation to do the thing. And I dropped the guitar, sold it. I don't have it, and it was gone. I had lost my purpose for wanting to do that.
You know, maybe for you, that's a lighthearted example, but maybe for you in your life, you think about where you've gone and where you've been, and you think, "Okay, there's this place I wanna get to, and it requires me to go to this kind of school." And you went to that kind of school, and you got that kind of job that you were hoping for. And then you got there and you're like, "Man, this is different. This is harder than I thought it was gonna be. Or this isn't providing in the way that I thought it would."
Or maybe you fell in love and you got married. And the wedding day was beautiful, and you were excited, and you were like, "Yes." And then years down the road, things are not what they once were. Things are different. The love has faded a little bit. Or maybe you just bought something recently and you were excited. You saved up. This is a big purchase, and you bought it. And then months later, reality kind of sets in. You're like, "How am I gonna pay for this? This is a lot to handle."
Well, this occurrence is common. To see something, we want to go for it. And I think so many people in the world that we live in go for it. And they get there, and then they realize there's another thing. There's something else that they want. There's something else that they have their sights set on, and it's never enough. And you're left restless, anxious, wondering, "What is the point? What is the point of any of this?"
You know, this summer, the U.S. Open golf tournament was in town. And even if you're not a golf fan, you've maybe heard the name of this guy, Scotty Scheffler. He's the number one golfer in the world right now. He's better than any of us in this room. He's better than any golfer on Planet Earth, according to the rankings, okay? So top of his profession. Think about how many people in the world just play golf. He is better than everyone, okay?
And ESPN interviewed him at the US Open just kind of about this success that he's been having, this run he's been on. And here's what Scotty Scheffler said about all of this success. He said, "This is not a fulfilling life. It's fulfilling from the sense of accomplishment, but it's not fulfilling from a sense of the deepest places of your heart." He went on to say, "It feels like you work your whole life to celebrate winning a tournament for a few minutes, and it only lasts for a few minutes."
You know, even at the very top, there's more. There's something more. There's something that he desires. That's bigger than golf. What's the point? What's the point?
So as we look at today's passage and we see what Paul is saying, I want to look at three questions as it relates to this idea of what is the point? What is our purpose? Why are we here? And the first question I think we need to answer is, do we need it? Do we need a purpose at all? Why do we need purpose? Why is this so important that we find out this true purpose, meaning in life?
Look at verse one for just a moment. Again, Paul writes, "As for other matters, brothers and sisters, pray for us that the message of the Lord may be spread rapidly and be honored just as it was with you."
You know, Paul was in the middle of it right here. Paul was being persecuted. Paul was being thrown out of cities. Paul was being imprisoned. You know, he was going through it. And in all of that, he doesn't say, "Hey, pray that I would be more comfortable. Pray that things would start going better for me. Pray that I would survive. Pray that I wouldn't be in jail." Paul says, "Pray that the mission of God, that God's message would move." That is the most important thing for Paul. Why? Well, I think it's because he realized that his life would be meaningless without this kind of purpose.
And maybe you're here today and you're convinced that maybe life is just a series of happy accidents all strung together one after the next. And sometimes things work out good, sometimes bad, but there's no rhythm or there's no reason to anything that is happening. There is no grander purpose. There's no greater higher power. You know, well, if this view of life is true, then really nothing really matters that much. This church doesn't matter. Heaven and hell probably don't exist in this kind of reality.
And what would probably ultimately happen if everybody, 100% of people believed this to be true, is that society as we know it would fall apart. Lawlessness would take over, people would take to the streets because there would be nothing left but living for yourself and momentary pleasures and happiness.
And you can trace this idea of this desire to find purpose and meaning all the way back to ancient times. The Greeks actually believed this to the core, that there needed to be a purpose for people, a reason for living, or else culture would fall apart. So they would obsess over finding it. If there's not an order, a reason, a divine nature, then there is no reason to do right by anyone. And so they would conclude that people would do whatever they wanted. And so they were obsessed with this idea, this purpose, this word that they talked about, that they used in Greek was Logos.
And I want to jump over to John's Gospel for just a moment where we see this word Logos. John uses it. He begins this gospel in a way that would have captivated both his Greek audience and the Jewish audience. And we'll see in just a moment why. But it says this in John chapter one:
"In the beginning was the Word," that's the word Logos. "And the Word, the Logos was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made. Without him, nothing was made that has been made. In him was life. And that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it."
You know, see, for the Greeks, that word Logos, it was the logic of the universe, the rational principle that held everything together. And they spent centuries asking, "What is the Logos of life, the reason, the meaning that explains everything." But for them, this word Logos, it was an abstract idea. It's much like gravity, where they couldn't really, you know, they knew it ordered the universe, but you couldn't know gravity. You couldn't love it. You couldn't have a relationship with it.
And as for the Jewish audience that would have heard these words, the Logos meant something very different. God's word was active power for them. You know, this writing that John wrote in John Chapter one, it was drawing resemblance to the Genesis creation account, if you remember the Genesis creation account. "And God said, let there be light," you know. And John writes in a similar way. The Word brought creation into existence. The Word came through the prophets to reveal who God was. And the Word was the wisdom by which life was lived. For the Jewish people, this word was personal.
But even the Jews would have never, in their wildest dreams, imagined that the Logos would have become a person, as John writes in chapter one, in the person of Jesus. So John dares to say here that both were right in a sense, the Greeks and the Jews. But both were missing something. The word that the Jews cherish so much, this Logos and the meaning that the Greeks were looking for had now become... Jesus has entered the scene as a person.
Why does all this matter? Why did I go through all this? Well, if that's true, if the person, the Logos has entered the picture in the person of Jesus Christ, then our only purpose can be found in the person of Jesus. We're going to come back to this in a little bit. And John, chapter one goes on. "In him was life, and that life was the light of men" saying that, you know, in a stunning way, that Jesus is not just life or not just explaining life, but he is life. He is the source. He is the source.
You know, every single one of us, we have a Logos, whether we realize it or not. Something that's functioning as our reason for living. You know, maybe it's our career accomplishments, thinking about, "Okay, if I can get to a place, then that will be... That is what I'm striving for." Maybe your family, you know, your children, your marriage. Maybe it's just approval of people and just hoping that people might think well of you. We all live for something.
But what Paul is saying here, what we need is a truer purpose. A purpose that will stand the test of time, that will not let us down. Because if we live for success, think about it. You've had failures. What happens when you fail? You're crushed. Or if you live for your love, you know, your marriage, your relationships, your friendships. What happens when people let you down? You're lonely, you're isolated, you're disappointed. And if you live for your family, what happens when they're gone one day?
All of these things, all of these things, good things, necessary things for life, but they were never designed to be the ultimate thing. They can never bear the burden of being our Logos. We need a purpose that's bigger than our achievement, bigger than our comfort, bigger than success, because all those things can be taken away. We were created to live for a purpose.
You know, imagine it like this for a second. If I would say, "Hey, meet me on the corner of 18th and Penn Avenue in the Strip district this week," you would say, "Why? What are we doing? Are we having lunch? What's going on?" But I wouldn't give you a reason. I would just say, "Now just meet me there. Meet me on the corner of 18th and Penn this day, this time. I'll see you there." You would say, "I am going to need more than that because I don't think I'm going to get in my car. I don't think I'm going to spend the time driving down and meeting you there if I don't even know what we're doing when I get to the corner of 18th and Penn Avenue."
We need a reason to move, to do what we're gonna do. We need a purpose to help us go.
So maybe you're convinced of this. Maybe this is, "Okay, I get it, we need this." But here's the reality. It's really easy, and this is the second thing. It's really easy to lose sight of our purpose. And why is our purpose so easy to lose sight of?
Look at what Paul says in verse two, back to the text: "And pray that we may be delivered from wicked and evil people. For not everyone has faith."
You know, if you're here today and you have a relationship with Jesus, you can probably understand that there are forces of evil. There's people in this world that are intentionally drawing you away from the things of God, maybe sometimes unintentionally drawing you away from the things of God. This evil exists in the world and we know that because of this, it leads to all kinds of uncertainty in our lives. Big moments, small moments where we're left kind of wondering, "What is happening, what is going on?"
Maybe you'd love to have this kind of purpose that we're talking about today, but most of the time you wake up in the morning and you think, "Okay, it's Monday, I gotta get to Friday because my job... it's a job and it's hard." And you're just trying to make it through. You feel anxious most of the time. And you're wondering, "What is the point of any of this?" It's easy. It is easy to lose sight of true meaning and purpose when we get caught up in life.
One of the purposes that God has graciously gifted me with in the course of my life is to be a husband and to be a father of three kids. I love it. I love being a dad. I love getting to be a husband. And there's days when I do the husband and dad thing pretty well, and there's days where I don't do it very well. And I can remember one such instance.
We were going to get the Christmas tree, you know, the Griswold family Christmas tree. And we get in the car and we're going. And we do this every year. This has been a tradition since my oldest son was very little. And we go up to a farm, and we chop down the tree, and at the farm that we'd always go to, they would tie it to the roof of your car for you. That was their deal at this farm.
And so one year, we needed to go to a different Christmas tree farm because the farm that we always go to was out of trees that year, and they were short. So we're like, "All right, let's just go to the farm up the road and we'll get our tree there." In my head, I thought, "Okay, it's going to be the same operation as I'm used to, right? You're going to get the tree, chop it down, they tie it to your car. You go home. It's great. Easy."
Little did I know that when you get to this Christmas tree farm, yes, you chop your own tree down. Yes, you take it to the car, but you have to bring your own rope and tie it to the car yourself. They don't do it for you. Okay? So we get there. I'm totally unprepared. I have no rope to tie my tree to the car. And the walk to get the tree at this Christmas tree farm was much farther than we were used to and anticipating. And my kids were little at this time. And it's raining. Of course, it's not snowing, because it's Pittsburgh. It's raining, okay, so we're walking through the rain. The kids are littered. They're cranky. They're hungry, they're tired. So am I.
You know, and I'm in my moment at this point. I'm like, "Okay, let's just get the tree. Let's just get to the car, get back to the car." They're like, "Okay, pay for the tree. You're good to go." I was like, "I don't have any rope." They're like, "We don't have any rope." I was like, "How do you not have any rope? No rope."
So I think at one point, I asked my wife about this. I was like, "Did I try to put the Christmas tree inside of the car?" She's like, "Yes, you did. You tried to put the Christmas tree in the car with the three kids and take it home that way." It did not work. The Christmas tree stayed on the ground. We left the tree. We had no Christmas tree. We went home without a tree that day.
Now in that moment, in those moments, I was not thinking about my greater purpose in life as a husband and a father and how I could show my family love and patience. I probably said some things in that moment as a husband and a father that I wish I wouldn't have said. It was easy for me to lose sight of my God-given purpose in that moment when life kind of hits you in a way that only life can.
You know, Paul points out something here in verse 2, that there will be opposition, that not all have this faith. And that is precisely why Paul writes what he does, that it is important to stay grounded and rooted in reality. And maybe you're here today and you've found purpose in Jesus and you know that there are many that oppose the message of the Bible. Or maybe you even know that there are some that have never even heard the message of the Bible. It is easy, it is easy though, to lose sight of this.
And here's the encouragement that I think Paul was trying to get across. This is verse three. He says, "But the Lord is faithful and he will strengthen you and protect you from the evil one. But the Lord is faithful."
You know, if it depended on us, on our own power, our sheer strength, we would be in big trouble. But if we're rooted in the faithfulness of God, even in our moments where we fall short, we can press on, we can go forward, because there's people, as I mentioned, that are pulling us the other way.
And maybe you've grown up in church or in a church your whole life, you've been a part of communities like this. And I think even in that, even in church, it's easy to see that not all have faith. Maybe you're new to coming to church. I mean, this is one of the first Sundays you've been in a church in a long time. You're getting back to it and you're wondering, "Okay, what is going on here? The music, the singing... what's the big deal if one person has faith and someone else doesn't? Why does it matter as long as they're not living their lives in a way that's hurtful to other people? Can't we all just exist in a way... you know, what's right for them might be right for them and that's okay."
But imagine, and think about it this way for a moment. Imagine the message of who Jesus is and what he's done for us as treasure. As a treasure. A treasure to be discovered. And just this week actually, I was walking through my neighborhood with my dogs and up comes my neighbor and his little three-year-old son with their dog right next to me. And so we're walking along for a minute and the little three-year-old guy, he pulls out a piece of paper from his pocket. He's like, "Mr. Dan." He's like, "I got a treasure map." He's like, "You want to go on a treasure hunt with me?" I was like, "Yeah, I like treasure, let's do it."
And so we are on this treasure hunt, we're just walking through the neighborhood and all of a sudden he stops and he says, "You know, when we get to the treasure," he's like, "I just want to let you know, I'm going to share the treasure with you because you're on this hunt with me." I'm like, "Oh, that's pretty cool." Here's this three-year-old little guy. To him this is a real treasure hunt. And when we get to the treasure, he said, "You know, I want to share it with you because it's treasure. We have to share it. We can't keep it for ourselves. It'd be too much."
You know, if we've truly found this treasure, this purpose that Paul is talking about, that is only unlocked when we know who Jesus is, it's a gift. But oftentimes I think what we do is we look at Jesus and we say, "Okay, I found something that is available for everybody and I could share it. But sometimes it's easier to hold onto it and say, 'Well, it's just working for me. And maybe it wouldn't work for them. And I just hope everybody can find something that works for them.'" And what we do is we hang on. We hang on to something that was meant to be given away, to be shared, to be experienced by everyone.
We need to find this purpose, but it's hard to hang onto. So where do we go? Where do we go from here?
Here's the third question I want to look at this morning, is how do we hang on to it? How do we hang on to this purpose?
Verse 5: "May the Lord direct your hearts into God's love and Christ's perseverance."
Paul is saying something here that our hearts need to be captured in a way that reshapes our affections, the love of God. When that love of God, when you grasp it, when it becomes more than just not your achievements, not because of how good you are, but God is choosing to love you just because he is who he is, then we don't have to strive for the approval, the applause. We don't have to build our identity out of fragile things. But we can see that God's purpose, God's way, is what we were created for.
Think about Jesus for a moment. Just what you know about his life. If you don't know much at all, you probably know that he was crucified on a cross. And before that happened, he was betrayed by some of his closest friends. He was rejected by the masses. He suffered physically, emotionally on the cross. And he went to the cross and he endured the pain of it. Why? For you and for me. Because he knew that we had to be brought back to the Father. He knew that there is no way back to God the Father unless he would pay the penalty of sin.
This is the purpose, this is the mission that Paul was talking about. That if people knew this, that it would draw together communities, it would draw together people in a common way that would unite and would change the course of history.
This past summer, if you were around the church at all in early August, there was a group of middle school students that hopped on a bus with some adult leaders and went to camp, summer camp for a week, Surf City this summer. And my son got to be one of those students this year. And I remember the drop off time at the bus. You know, all the students, all the leaders are excited, they're refreshed, they smell normal. And then they get back, the bus returns, things have changed. Kids are missing shoes, one shoe on, one shoe off. The smell coming off the bus is a different kind of odor. It's unique, let's just put it that way.
And the leaders get off the bus. You know, the kids get off the bus. There's still a general level of excitement. "This was awesome." They're tired. But then the leaders get off the bus and it looks like the walking wounded. I mean, they are staggering off the bus. And many of these leaders have given up. You know, they're volunteers, they've given up time off of work, time away from their families to do this, you know, and imagine there was people in the crowd, parents there picking up their kids that day, thinking, "What in their right mind are they thinking? Why would they do this? Why would they sign up for this volunteer? Is this some sort of community service punishment? Why would they do this? And who in their right mind would sign up for this?"
Well, I'll tell you what. The only reason they would sign up for it is because they've been gripped. They've been captivated by the love of God, and they said, "There's nothing else that we could do that'd be so important than to tell middle school kids about this."
You know, years ago, I was at a camp like that myself. Had a chance to be a leader in my time in student ministry. And I was walking through the camp one day with a student, and it was that time of day where the leaders would go off to their leader meetings. Once a day, we'd get together as leaders, and we would pray. We would encourage each other. We would say, "Hey, how you doing? You holding up okay? What's going on?" And we needed that time.
And I remember this kid asked me. He's like, "Hey, where you going?" I was like, "Oh, I got to go to the leader meeting now." He's like, "What's that?" And so I tell him, I was like, "Oh, this is what we do at the leader meeting." He's like, "Why do you do that?" And I tell him, I was like, "Listen, if we didn't do that, like, this camp wouldn't last very long. All right? You wouldn't be having the week that you're having. Because we, as leaders, we need that time to connect in community with people, with other people that are with us in it."
You know, as we enter this season as a church to the fall season, whatever Orchard Hill campus you're at, it doesn't matter. There are things starting. There are events, there are groups, new groups, old groups, seasonal studies, all sorts of things. Ways to plug in to community. And the point behind community is that we would grow together in a common understanding of who God is. We would ask each other questions. We would get to know each other and live in a way that when we come together in community, that it changes not only our lives, but the world we live in.
Don't miss out on that this fall. If you're thinking, "Man, it's been a while or it's never been," this could be the time. This could be the moment for you when you see what Jesus has done, when you grasp the love of God, all of a sudden, every ordinary act that we do in our life, every moment of caring for our family, showing up at work in a way that is integrous and loving your neighbor this becomes part of something bigger. Our purpose can change even in the mundane.
Look back to John, Chapter one, for just a moment. Here, this is what John is saying. "Here is the Logos you were made for. Here is the meaning behind the universe. Here is the word that called the galaxies into existence, Jesus Christ. And he became flesh for you. He came not just to explain life, but to give you life. The Logos went to the cross and allowed his life to be extinguished so that we could live, so that we could have access. This is the reason. This is the ultimate reason for living."
So where do we go? Where do we go at this point? Where do we go here if we want to tap into this kind of purpose?
Well, think about your work for just a moment. Maybe you wake up and you think... or you're just work in general. You're thinking, "Okay, how can I maximize what I'm earning? How can I make the most money so that I can provide for the people that I love?" Well, what if it was different? What if you went to work and you think, "How can I contribute to the very purpose of God, for God's very mission to move forward in my job?"
Or maybe it's in your relationships and you're thinking about your relationships in a way... It's like, "Okay, we're cruising. We're on autopilot. I don't have to put much in. Things are going to be okay." But what if you looked at your relationships in a different way and you said, "How can I point people in my life towards the love of Christ? How can I endure when it's a difficult season because I know that Jesus was willing to endure for me."
Or maybe you're in a season and things are hard and you wonder if things will ever get better because they've been hard for a while. You know, Paul writes about God's faithfulness. And this isn't Paul saying, "Hey, just pretend like it's not happening. Pretend like your pain isn't real." I think what Paul is inviting people into is saying, "You know, understand that what God is doing in the middle of a hard season could be bigger than we understand, could be more than we understand."
And I recognize for some of you as you walk in here, you wonder, you say, "Okay, I get it. But I've tried to live the right way. You know, I've even tried church for a while, and I still just feel empty." Let me encourage you in this way. You know, we are free to live as we want to live, to do as we want. But when life becomes just a series of one event after the other that is just circling around and we're just living for our own desires, our own pleasures, we will ultimately be let down. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but someday those things won't last. Like the pro golfer at the top of his sport wondering, "Is this really it? Is this really it?"
Last illustration I'll leave you with today is from a psychiatrist that survived some concentration camps during the time of the Holocaust. This guy by the name of Victor Frankl. And what he experienced... He was in these concentration camps for a couple years and so he began to study people because that's what he did. And he determined that the people that were making it out, that were lasting longer, that were surviving in these concentration camps longer, had a reason, had a purpose for living, a grander purpose that was bigger than themselves. Maybe it was faith in God, maybe it was loved ones that were waiting for them.
But he said the people that usually passed away, it wasn't because their health was bad or because they were older in age. It was because they lost sight of their reason for living. They had lost hope in their reason for living.
And here's what he said. Here was his famous line that came out of this study. He said, "Those who have a why to live can bear with almost any how. Those who have a why to live can bear with almost any how."
If our purpose is rooted in the love of God, the endurance of Jesus Christ, that nothing, no suffering, no failure, not even death itself can take that away.
So living with a purpose, it matters so deeply because it connects us to community, to the very mission of God. It sustains us when we're in the middle of hard seasons and it can transform the way that we experience life.
"May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ, his perseverance."
Let's pray.
And here's what he said. Here's was his famous line that came out of this study. He said, those who have a why to live can bear with almost any how. Those who have a why to live can bear with almost any how. If our purpose is rooted in the love of God, the endurance of Jesus Christ, that nothing, no suffering, no failure, no not even death itself can take that away.
So living with a purpose, it matters so deeply because it connects us to community, to the very mission of God. It sustains us when we're in the middle of hard seasons and it can transform the way that we experience life. May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ, his perseverance. Let's pray.
God, thank you for the way that you give us purpose. God, that you give us a reason to live, that you give us a reason to gather in community, that you give us a reason to go out into the world. God, I pray that there's any here this morning that have never understood this, that have never realized this. God, that you would help them today, that you would help them realize the true purpose that you invite us all into today. God, thank you for your open invitation to all. Thank you. That we need to have nothing about ourselves that is attractive or that is beautiful. But in your sight, God, we. We are those things just because you created us and you made us. Thank you, Jesus, for who you are. Thank you for your word today. It's in your name that we pray all these things. Amen.
Have a great weekend, everyone. See you soon.
AI-Generated Disclaimer: This transcript has been processed and formatted using artificial intelligence. While efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, there may be minor transcription errors or formatting inconsistencies. Please refer to the original audio recording for the most precise version of this sermon.
