“Your
Purpose” By Parrish Lee June 3rd,
2012 Purpose—noun, verb, purposed, purposing 1. The reason something
exists or is done,
made, used, etc. 7. To intend; design.
I can just imagine that, when this Pharisee
knew that Jesus was coming to his house, that he wanted to make sure
everything
was just right. He
told his servants to
get out the best china, and to put out the best tablecloths, oh, and
cousin Earl?
don't let him in, because he’s crazy.
And my Aunt Esther? yeah, keep her out, too. I’ve had other people come
over, but this
guy? they say He’s the Messiah; He might just be the One. So, this Pharisee, he’s
all decked out, and
he’s a religious man. You
know that
Bible says that the Pharisees fasted twice in the week, and they paid
tithes of
all they possessed (Luke 18:1-12).
They
didn’t live like *a sinner*.
This woman was a sinner woman.
I used to think that just meant that she was
poor, but the way that’s used in the Bible, it’s more like she was a
prostitute. She was
behind Jesus, and
she washed his feet with her tears, and she wiped them with her hair,
and she
kissed his feet. So,
this sinner woman
takes this alabaster box, she cracked the thing open.
This alabaster box was so expensive, it doesn’t
even say, very expensive, it says, extremely expensive.
It would have cost about a year’s wages. When she cracked it open,
it filled this
place with an aroma. That’s
the example of the sinner
woman. They didn’t
have shoes like we
have now, they wore sandals. They
didn’t
have fancy paved roads like we have now, they had dirt roads. Their feet had dust and
dirt and all kinds of
other stuff on them. It
says that she
washed His feet with her tears. Now
tears don’t just represent on emotion, they represent several emotions: Her repentance, her hope
and joy, her
expectations and desire. It
says she
wiped His feet with her hair. Now,
in
those days, the women usually wore their hair in a bun, and they always
kept it
covered. So she
took the covering off,
and let down her hair. Now
the Bible
says that if a woman have long hair, it is a glory unto her (1
Corinthians
11:15). Now, a man
can have long hair,
but it’s not a glory to a man. And
it
says that she kissed His feet. So,
the
tears represent her emotions, the hair is her glory, and the kisses,
her
love. The fullness
of; the best of her
emotions, glory, and love.
Now Simon thought that Jesus came
there for him, but Jesus came there for them; both Simon and the sinner
woman.
When Jesus asked Simon about who
loved more, you notice Simon put that little condition on it, “I
suppose…” People
don’t like to be wrong.
Her sacrifice was what stood out to
the Lord. Simon and
the woman had
completely different purposes. Point
#1: It is important
to define and to
know your purpose.
Pastor Paine would say, “If you’re a
hammer, everything you see looks like a nail.”
There’s a lot of insight in that.
In the Navy there were alternate nicknames for
different rates. Electricians
were wire-biters; Electronic Technicians
were twidgets; Nukes were pushbuttons; guys in the engine rooms were
snipes,
and, generally, those names were given by people outside those
professions. If
you’re an athlete,
everything is an opportunity to get better, or to excel. If you’re a cook,
everything is an idea for a
recipe. If you’re a
wrestler, everything
is a lock or a take-down. When
I played
a lot of chess, I used to see chessboards everywhere: on the tile
floor, on
walls and ceilings. You
get the
idea. So, the
question is, what do you
consider yourself? An
evangelist? then everything
looks like an opportunity to share the good news.
A prayer warrior? then you are frequently
praying situations through for yourself and others.
A teacher? or, better yet, a Christian? If so, then we seek out
every opportunity to
be Christ-like. Oh,
Brother Parrish,
come on now: the Lord is perfect and nobody is that good. Amen—but we still strive
to be like the One
we love.
A quick sidebar:
I want to mention the stories of two ladies
and a child and their prayer lives.
One
sister went home with her husband after a moving church service, and as
soon as
she walked through the door, she dropped her belongings, raised up her
hands
and prayed, and repented, and blessed God.
You know who told me about that? her husband. He said he was so
convicted that he nearly
turned around and walked out of the house.
Another sister in the church, who,
one time after service there were people just tarrying in the altar,
and a
brother told me they just don’t do that in his house.
He went to sign out his children from
children’s church; he heard someone boisterously praising God and he
wondered
who that was making all that noise.
When
he got closer, he realized that was his wife with another sister
praising and
blessing God by the doorway. Didn’t
even
make it to the altar, just praising God out in the hallway. And you know what he told
me? Not, “I’ll join
her,” not, “I’ll praise and
bless God, too,” not even, “Let me let the children see their mother
come
before God that they could learn,” just, “Let me watch the kids until
she
finishes.” Come to
think of it, the other
brother never told me that he joined his wife, either.
I guess after this, no many brothers will
tell me when their wife does something that convicts them anymore.
Or the time when the mother and
father were riding in the front seat and the children in the back, and
one of
the children used a bad word. The
mom
told me that she would have given her a little tap to correct her, but
she
couldn’t reach, so she told her that was a bad word and that Jesus
doesn’t like
it when we use those words. “He
doesn’t?”
“No, He doesn’t,” and that little child turned around in that back seat
and
began asking God to forgive her, and telling Him how sorry she was. After a little bit, the
mom said, “That’s
enough,” but the child said, “No, mom, I want Jesus to forgive me of my
sins,”
and only cried out louder, over and over, “Please forgive me, Lord, I
only want
to make you happy.” That
mom told me it
convicted her so bad that it was all she could think about and it
changed the
way that she prayed. There
are many examples that could be
used here. We’ve
all seen them and lived
them. Generally,
the comments are, “They’ve
changed.” Sermon notes by Pete Shepherd |
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