Saved for a purpose

This morning’s sermon looked at Judges 2:10 as we begin this tour through the book.  “When all that generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them who did not know the Lord nor the work which He had done for Israel.”  What a sad commentary!  I remember when Tom Brokaw’s book, The Greatest Generation came out, with stories of those who lived and saved our country during the Great Depression and World War II.  I was talking with a man the other day who is 100 years old who shared that having lived through the Depression stamped on him the value of every penny.  If you are like me, you wish some of the younger generation could glean some wisdom from one who had gone without, yet worked hard and valued what that hard work produced.  We see many today who value neither work nor the products of that work, instead live with a sense of entitlement and expectation of being taken care of.  And we then see the condition of our workforce, country and values.

In our passage, the emphasis is on knowing the Lord.  We could easily make the same application in today’s society.  When the once great educational institutions that were established for the training of men for ministry begin to take their eyes off their founding principles and purposes, we ended up with the liberal bastions of education we have today.  Harvard College, William and Mary, Yale, Princeton and Brown, to name some you may have heard in the recent news — not for their adherence to the gospel for which they were established.

The founders set those schools of higher learning for one purpose. God called out the people of Israel as His people show His glory through and thereby draw the nations to Himself.  And now a generation that does not regard — nor is acquainted with — God and His works on their behalf have arisen.  Just as the same thing happened in Israel, the same has happened in those educational institutions.

But what about us today?  Those of us called and saved by the gracious hand of the Lord have been saved for a purpose.  And that purpose is more than heaven.  Heaven is the end destination, but it is not the purpose.  I find at least part of our purpose in 2 Corinthians 5:14-21, “For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again. Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”  

I fear that many have made heaven their goal (read John 14:1-6 to dispel that thought) instead of what we find in these verses; a new creation, ministers of reconciliation, ambassadors for Christ, showcases for the glory of God to draw the lost to Him.  I don’t want to be part of a generation that forgets God and forgets to pass on His mighty works to the next generation.

Pressing On…

Ron Tipton, Senior Pastor