Paul: Living Life with Purpose

If you were to die tomorrow, and somebody had to write your obituary, what would they write? What would be the things they would focus upon that would capture the essence of your life?

Not too many people ever get a chance to find out. Usually, you’re not around to read your own obituary! But that very thing once happened to a man about a hundred years ago. He read his own obituary and it changed his life.

Alfred Nobel was a Norwegian industrialist who invented dynamite. He made a great deal of money by blowing things up. One morning in the year 1888, he picked up his newspaper and, to his shock, he found himself reading his own obituary. The obituary had been printed by mistake. Alfred’s brother had died but the newspaper, thinking that Alfred had died, printed his death notice instead.

As Alfred Nobel read his own obituary, he began to realize, with dismay, just how the world saw him. The newspaper called him the “Dynamite King”; the great industrialist who had made millions from high explosives. As far as the general public was concerned, that had been the main accomplishment of his life. He left a legacy of death and destruction.

By the time he finished reading that obituary, Alfred Nobel resolved to make some radical changes in the way he would live the rest of his life. Making dynamite would no longer occupy his time. He would give himself full-time to the work of world peace. And, because he was getting to be an old man, he determined to change the way he planned to dispose of his fortune.

Nobel set up a foundation to award international prizes each year to the scientists, artists, and statesmen who made the most significant contribution to peaceful world progress. Those prizes would become a lasting testimony to the values and ideals that Alfred Nobel held dear. Today, when we hear about the Nobel Peace Prize, we remember what Alfred Nobel’s life and values were really all about.

And it all happened because he read his own obituary.

This morning, I want to ask you to do something that Alfred Nobel did one hundred years ago. I want you to ask yourself “What is my life all about? Why am I here? What is my reason for living? When the time comes for me to die, as sooner or later it must, how will people remember me? What will they think were my deepest convictions and values?”

Were the Apostle Paul to have asked those questions during the first part of his life, he would have been able to come up with some very specific answers. In fact, he tells us what the first twenty or thirty years of his life were like in the Bible. Let me quote his words, taken from various places in his writings…

“I was circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee.

“I was advancing in Judaism beyond many Jews of my own age and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers. I was thoroughly trained in the law of our fathers and was just as zealous for God as any of you are today. According to the strictest sect of our religion, I lived as a Pharisee. As for legalistic righteousness, I was faultless.

“I was convinced that I ought to do all that was possible to oppose the name of Jesus of Nazareth. I persecuted the followers of this Way to their death, arresting both men and women and throwing them into prison. Many a time I went from one synagogue to another to have them punished, and I tried to force them to blaspheme. In my obsession against them, I even went to foreign cities to persecute them.”

Paul was clearly a man on a mission. He thought he knew what he had to do, and he was busy doing it. He had invested his life in what he regarded to be important, meaningful activity. He was pouring his time, energy, and intelligence into it with incredible zeal.

But then one day, it all came to a screeching halt. That was the day he met Jesus. We read about that encounter in Acts ch.9. (Page 1087 in the pew Bible)

You see, Paul thought he had been doing God’s will. But what he was really doing with his life was diametrically opposed to God’s will. He was zealously seeking to destroy what God was building, all the while thinking that he was doing God a favor.

Paul had lined up on the wrong side of the battle; he was marching in the wrong direction; he was serving the wrong master.

And it wasn’t until he personally met Jesus that Paul began to grasp that fact. Meeting Jesus Christ totally altered his priorities, his outlook on life, his beliefs, and his personal agenda.

Notice Paul’s response in v. 5 when he fell to the ground blinded by the great light and heard the voice from heaven saying “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” He asked a question. “Who are you, Lord?” Now don’t read too much into the word “Lord” there. It was merely a form of salutation. Paul didn’t quite realize yet that he was talking to God.

But the incredible, blazing light of God’s glory was so great that Paul was sprawled on the ground, blinded. Clearly, he knew that something supernatural was going on. This light was so bright, that Paul was going to be physically blind for the next three days. His eyes were tightly closed. But at the moment the voice of God answered “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting” the eyes of Paul’s heart were opened.

Paul realized that Jesus and God were one in the same person. That troublesome Galilean rabbi whose followers he had been persecuting was really God in human form. The followers of Jesus were right: Jesus was alive, and what’s more, he had always been alive, because he was God.

Suddenly, everything came into focus for Paul. Although he was physically blind, he could see life clearly for the first time. Now he knew who Jesus was, and now he could see how he had been so misguided. All this time, he had been wasting his life.

You can only come to grips with who you are when you come to grips with who Jesus is. Jesus is God. He came here to live and die for you. And that fact changes everything; especially the way that you think about yourself and the way that you live your life.

You see, Jesus has a claim on your life. He not only created you, but he died to redeem you. He shed his blood for you. Your life is not your own. It’s not yours to just do with as you please. He’s got a reason for your being here on this earth.

Victor Frankl was a Jewish philosopher who survived the concentration camps of Nazi Germany. As he went through that horrible experience, he observed that many of his fellow prisoners died even though they seemed to be in relatively good condition, while others survived even though they were sickly and weak.

Slowly, Frankl came to realize that the prisoners who died were the ones who had lost their reason for living. They had given up hope, they could find no purpose for their existence, and no meaning in their suffering. There was nothing left for them to live for. And so they died.

There is something deep inside each one of us that desperately yearns for significance. We want our lives to have meaning. We cannot bear the thought that our brief time on this earth might not have any purpose to it. But we cannot find that meaning and fulfillment we so deeply need without knowing Jesus Christ. Because Jesus has the master plan for our lives.

When Jesus met Paul on the road to Damascus, he not only revealed himself to him, he showed him that he had plans for him.

Acts 9:6 Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.

Acts 9:15 But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel.

Jesus said to Paul:

Acts 26:16 I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen of me and what I will show you.

The Son of God had a plan for Paul’s life. And He has a plan for your life too. And knowing that plan, and following it will give you the three things that Paul had from this point forward in his life:

1. Purpose

2. Peace

3. Productivity

1. Purpose:

The only way to have a meaningful life is to fulfill the purpose that God created you for. Living outside of God’s purpose for you is like sewing with a needle without thread. It’s like writing your own biography with a pen but no ink.

Living life without God’s purpose gives you about as much impact as a ship has on the ocean. After a ship passes, it leaves a wake. If the ship is large, that wake can be quite impressive. Some people seem to make great waves as they pass through life. But no matter how large or small a ship, pretty soon its wake is gone without a trace, and the ocean is just as it was before—as though the ship had never been there.

God said about Paul, “This man is my chosen instrument.”

When I was going through Seminary, I worked for awhile at Sears in the hardware department selling Craftsman tools. Now as you probably know, Craftsman tools come with a lifetime guarantee. If a Craftsman tool ever fails or breaks, Sears will replace it free of charge.

When I worked at Sears, people would bring in their broken Craftsman tools to get a replacement. And I would usually ask them why the tool broke. And more often than not, I would discover that the tool broke because the person wasn’t using it for the purpose for which it was designed.

Take screwdrivers for example. You would be amazed at what people use screwdrivers for. They use them as can openers. They use them as chisels. They use them as levers to pry things with. They use them to countersink nails. They use them to stir paint. They use them to carry things. They use them as wedges, and probes, and drills. But a screwdriver was designed to drive screws.

God had a specific purpose for you in mind when he created you. You’re like a Craftsman tool, and He’s the Master Craftsman. He wants to take you in his hands and use you for a special purpose.

But how often do we want to do something different with our lives? We don’t want God’s plan. We don’t want to accept the role for which God designed us.

Oswald Chambers said, “Joy comes from seeing the complete fulfillment of the specific purpose for which I was created and born again, not from doing something of my own choosing.”

2. Peace

When Paul was pursuing his own purpose in life, he wasn’t a very happy man. Acts 9 tells us that he “was breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples”. Not the nicest sort of person to be around. You can almost sense the unrest in his soul.

When Jesus called Paul on the road to Damascus, he gave him a new purpose for living. But he didn’t promise Paul an easy life.

Acts 9:16 I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.”

Acts 26:17 I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles.

And Paul’s life from that point on was going to be full of hardship. Listen to his testimony in 2 Corinthians 11…

2 Corinthians 11:24 Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea,

I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers.

I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches.

If any man had reason to be bitter about God’s plan for his life, surely it was Paul! But listen to what he says in Philippians 4…

Philippians 4:11 …I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.

He had a peace which came, not from his surroundings, not from his circumstances, not from his environment, but from within—from knowing that he was in the will of God; that he was fulfilling God’s purpose. And you will too when you live according to God’s plan for your life.

Personal peace. Everybody wants it; few people have it. It comes from living according to God’s purpose.

3. Productivity

Sometimes we try to con ourselves into believing that because we’re so busy, because our schedules are so full, because we seem to have so little free time on our hands, that our lives must be meaningful. We must be making an impact. After all, we’re getting things done! But what are we getting done? And what is the purpose behind all our frantic activity?

In his book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, author Stephen Covey writes “It is incredibly easy to get caught up in an activity trap, in the busy-ness of life, to work harder and harder at climbing the ladder of success only to discover it’s leaning against the wrong wall. It is possible to be busy—very busy—without being very effective.”

When you look at Jesus, you realize that his life was full, but not frantic. There was a deliberate purposefulness to all that he did. He was living his life in accord with God’s plan for him. And at the end of his life here on earth, he was able to say to God, “I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work that you gave me to do.”

At the end of Paul’s life, he was able to say, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” He lived a life of incredible productivity. He made an indelible impact on people, and left an indelible mark on history. Today, 2000 years later, we’re still feeling the impact of Paul’s life.

Life is too short and too precious to throw it away. There’s no greater tragedy on this earth than wasting your life trying to pursue your own agenda, trying to find your own meaning, and ignoring God.

When your life is over and they come to write your obituary, what will they write?