Colossians
(It Begins with God)
What to do with Rick Warren?
For those who don’t know the
name, Rick Warren,
was on
the cover of Time Magazine three weeks ago,
and on the cover of Time Magazine in 2004.
In 2004, the Time article described
him
as one
of the most influential people in all of
He’s a publishing phenomenon,
selling
over 20 million books and practically owning the number 1 spot on the New York Times
Best Seller list.
Does the name ring a bell
yet?
He is the one who coined the
phrase:
“The Purpose Driven Life” and
“The Purpose Driven Church.”
If you have drove through
you
must have seen the sign at First Church, asking:
“What on earth and I here
for?”
That
too was created by Rick Warren.
Rick Warren has stuck a chord
in
Now, I have to admit, whenever
something or someone is this popular,
I’m skeptical.
I wonder:
Is this
a fad? What are they selling?
If it has to do with
Christianity,
I
wonder:
Is someone packaging self
help or seven secrets of success
in
the guise of the gospel?
But as Mr. Warren keeps
appearing on the cover of Time Magazine,
and the landscape of religious
either we can ignore “the elephant in the room,”
or talk about it.
So here we go.
What I would like to do
is
invite you on a journey.
I would like for us to look
at the “Purpose Driven Life” as defined by Rick Warren
and
see what is right,
and what is missing.
I would like for us to
identify what is consistent with what we believe
and
what is
not.
But as we begin, I want you
to take notice of something.
This sermon series is not titled, “The Purpose Driven Life.”
It is titled, “Driven by
Grace.”
And the change is significant;
for
we believe that everything begins and ends in God.
How we respond to God’s grace
is important.
What we do with our lives is
important.
How we understand the cross and
the resurrection is critical.
But the only way to truly understand
life.
The only way for us to understand
the cosmos and created order.
The only way for us to
rightly interpret what happens today,
what
happens in our lives,
and what happens in the world,
is
to begin and end with God.
John Calvin, the great reformer
of the 16th century, put it this way.
“Without knowledge of God,
there is no knowledge of self.
Humanity never achieves a
clear view of itself
unless
it first gazes upon the face of God.”[1]
There is something that I
find very interesting.
“It is not about you.
The purpose of your life is
far greater than your own personal happiness.
It’s far greater than your
family,
or your
wildest dreams or even your ambitions.
If you want to know why you
were placed on this planet,
you
must begin with God.”
In some ways it is ironic.
A preacher
from
a background that is known first and foremost
for demanding a personal and individual decision for
Christ
and the
appropriate baptism,
begins
his book with a topic that is thoroughly Presbyterian.
The first pages of The
Purpose Driven Life,
are
almost identical to Calvin’s first pages of his treatise on faith,
titled The Institutes.
But Calvin never sold 20
million copies.
Shouldn’t the Presbyterian
church or at least Calvin get a little credit?
Obviously, some of my
spiritual bias is shining through,
but
it is important to note that
and our beginning point,
are almost identical.
In this land of self actualization
where the me generation has come of age.
“When it comes to faith,
if you are obsessed with
being the best you can be,
or trying to get the most out of life,
or simply
doing a good job.
you will be forever be frustrated.”
The only way to find your
real purpose in life is to focus on what God created you to be.
The only way to find real
meaning
is
to understand that you were made by God and for God.
The Bible says:
“Self help is no help at
all.
Self sacrifice is the way, God’s
way, to finding yourself,
your
true self.”
Calvin and Warren begin with an almost identical world
view:
“Everything begins and ends
with God.”
They help us realize that as
long as we see the world revolving around ourselves
we will miss the boat.
Only when we understand that
we have been created by God for a purpose.
Only when we see God at the
center of all things,
and our lives orbiting around a Holy center,
then and only then, will life make sense.
The way we see the universe has to change.
It is almost as if a
Copernican shift has to take place.[2]
Do you remember the story of
Copernicus, a leading scientist of his time?
After countless observations
he came to the realization that the earth was not at the center of the
universe.
Copernicus, pointed to the
sun, and said, this planet moves around that sun.
It sent shock waves through
the scientific community and the church.
It was
heresy.
Copernicus was forced to
recant
or
be thrown out of the church.
Eventually Copernicus
recanted,
but
it was only a matter of time before another scientist would come to the exact same
conclusion.
This time is was Galileo.
Now Galileo was so certain about
his observations and the body of evidence that he was unable to recant
and
what did they do to him.
They locked him up.
One author observes:
“People
don’t
take well to demotions.”
People didn’t then and we
still don’t.
We still stubbornly cling to
being at the center of the universe.
We chase other gods,
serve
other masters,
pursue other hobbies,
but we will only get it right
when we like Copernicus and Galileo,
make
a shift and understand:
“We are not the center of the
universe.”
I want to tell you a story of
two brothers.[3]
One brother you know, the
other brother, most don’t.
One brother is famous, the
other, relatively obscure.
One brother was content, the
other, desperately unhappy.
Richard Ben Cramer, in his autobiography
of Joe DiMaggio, writes about the man with the 56 game hitting streak.
The man with batting titles
and the World Series victories,
and a
marriage to Marilyn Monroe.
But he also describes a man
who developed no substantial relationships,
who
became resentful of Ted Williams and Mickey Mantle
for stealing the limelight.
A man whose marriages ended
in disarray,
a
man who became fixated on money, selling coffee,
signing thousands of baseballs to increase his
fortune.
The world revolved around Joe
DiMaggio and it led to utter frustration.
His brother was different.
Not many people know about
Dominic DiMaggio.
While Joe was playing of the Yankees,
Dominic was playing for the _____
that’s right, the Red Sox.
(Not a whole lot of titles
there.)
While Joe was dashing and
handsome,
Dominic
was small and wore glasses,
and he had a bad hair cut.
He was a good player, but the
world didn’t revolve around Dominic.
In a book titled, Teammates,
he describes his marriage to his wife
Emily,
the
cornerstone of his life.
A company he started after
baseball to give back to his community.
His
faith.
And some teammates.
He tells of a 1,300 mile trip
he took with teammates to visit a dying Ted Williams.
Dominic was a teammate.
The world didn’t revolve
around him
and
he was deeply blessed, and happy.
Two brothers. Two stories.
Two men, driven by different masters.[4]
One, “Driven by an
unrelenting master.”
Another,
“Driven by Grace.”
The most important question
for us, is:
What is driving our life?
There are a number of things
that can drive us.
Some of us are driven by
guilt. We have memories that haunt us;
memories
that drive our lives.
And we are serving an unrelenting
master that forces us down a dark road.
Some of us are driven by
resentment and anger.
People hurt us yesterday, ten
years ago, fifty years, and we’re still angry.
The pain is still fresh, and
it drives our lives.
For others, we are driven by fear.
Fear of failure or fear of looking
foolish.
So we work ourselves to the
bone enjoying little in life
or
cautiously doing what is expected of us;
robbed of joy or thanksgiving.
For others it’s materialism.
We believe if we just reach
the next step,
if
we just have a little more,
if we simply attain a little more
security,
a
little more education,
a
little more stuff and it will make us feel better about ourselves,
and we will be happy.
What is driving your life?
What master are you serving?
Jesus says:
“Come to me all you that are
weary and are carrying heavy burdens,
For
I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and
learn from me,
for
I am gentle and humble in heart,
and I will give you rest for
your souls.”
The apostle Paul interprets
Jesus’ invitation and says:
Long before you heard of
Christ, God has his eye on you.
Long before you began this
journey,
God
had designs for you,
designs for glorious living,
part of the overall purpose.”[5]
We know this to be true
because we’ve seen the difference between someone who lives for themselves
and
someone who lives for God.
Why did Martin Luther King
Junior,
walk to the point of exhaustion,
work through
the dead of the night,
and
risk his life again and again and again?
Why did Mother Theresa,
leave a comfortable and secure life,
to care for the loveless and the crippled in
Why did the one we know as
Jesus,
go
down the long painful road to
Why did the one without
blemish,
lay
down his life for the sinful?
Why did God’s only Son hang
on a cross?
Because he knew, they knew, a
life of meaning,
begins
and ends with God.
They knew they were not the center
of the universe.
They knew that they were part
of something bigger and grander and larger.
They understood that
everything,
absolutely
everything,
begins and ends in God.
And they were driven by
grace.
God offers the same to us.
We were not intended to go it
alone.
We
were made for a relationship with God.
We are not meant to randomly
bounce through life.
We were
made for a purpose.
We were not meant to be
driven by greed or anger or fear,
we were designed to be
“driven by grace.”
Praise be to the One who
loved us into being,
and calls us forward from the cross.
Amen
[1] Calvin,
John, Institutes of the Christian Religion, p. 37.
[2] Lucado,
Max, It’s Not About Me, p. 4, as written by Mark Barger Elliott in
Purpose Driven Life-1, p. 3
[3] As told
by Mark Barger Elliott in The Purpose
Driven Life-1, p. 8-9.
[4] As told by Mark Barger Elliott, PDL-1, p. 8.
[5] Ephesians 1:11, The Message.