God's Purpose in My Generation

God’s Purpose in My Generation

By Joe Walenciak, March 2023

Sermon delivered at Iglesia Bautista Cristo es el Camino, Guatemala City

Good morning!  It is good to be with you today.  After several years of pandemic and separation, I bring you greetings from John Brown University and from many brothers and sisters in Arkansas!  I am blessed to have a wonderful group of people who will spend this next week with you.  We are looking forward to ministering and serving together with you.

Today, I want to share something that God has been placing on my heart for some time.  I want to talk a little bit about our purpose.  Even though this may sound a little bit dark at the beginning, I want this to be a message of encouragement for the church.

The world has problems.  Christians know this.  2 Timothy 3:1 tells us this:  “There will be terrible times in the last days.  People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, and lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.”

God’s word teaches us that we are living in difficult times.  In his sermon on the Mount of Olives, Jesus told the crowd that there would be wars and rumors of wars, that nations and kingdoms would rise up against each other, and that there would be famines and earthquakes.  Jesus went on to say that because of him, we (his followers) will be hated by all nations and that we will be persecuted and put to death.

The headlines are difficult to read.  Russia continues to attack Ukraine.  There were mass shootings in cities around the world.  Politicians fight for power, and the people suffer.  There is poverty and hunger.  Women and children are abused and trafficked.  The climate is changing, and unusual weather patterns are causing damage from wind and floods.  And every day, we see news that sin is not only accepted in our world; it is also celebrated.

Paul’s words to Timothy are true.  “There will be terrible times in the last days.”  But life has always been difficult for Christians.  In the early years of Christianity, believers were imprisoned, tortured, and executed by the Roman Empire.  During the middle ages, Christians were burned at the stake for their beliefs.  In more recent times, we see countries where churches are destroyed and believers were imprisoned, tortured, and executed.  To this day, the Church is persecuted, and Christians around the world risk their lives when they share the good news of Jesus Christ.  We see injustice in our own communities and neighborhoods.

In his letter to the Church at Rome, Paul spoke of trouble, hardship, persecution, famine, nakedness, and danger, and then he reminded us that “we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”  In John’s letter to believers he said, “greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world.”  “Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you or forsake you.”  More than conquerors.  Our God is greater.  We are never left or forsaken.  These are the promises that we hold on to that encourage us.  And yet, evil seems to win.  How many of us have lost someone we loved through violence or disease?  How many in our communities have been victims of assault or abuse?  How many of us have experienced injustice?  Sometimes, when I am honest with myself, I find it hard to understand how I can be more of a conqueror when I cannot stop the evil around me, much less the War in Ukraine, political corruption, and the battle against cancer.  The battle can be overwhelming, and sometimes when we begin to think that we cannot do very much, we stop trying to do anything.  Why try?  The battle is too big.  I’m just one person.  What can I do?

For centuries, the children of Israel waited for the Messiah, believing that he would be the leader of a political state and change the world.  He would fix what was broken, punish the evil, and bless those who were good.  They saw some kind of earthly kingdom…with Jesus as the center of power…that would create and enforce a good world order.  But Jesus never said that he was here to create a government or establish an earthly system of justice.  He never said that he came to stop wars or famines or earthquakes.  And instead of promising to end persecution, he actually told us to expect persecution and all kinds of trouble.  Things were going to get even more difficult!  In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus specifically tells us his purpose.  In his conversation with Zacchaeus, Jesus said, “The Son of Man came to seek and save the lost.”  Jesus was not sent to establish a new earthly government.  He was sent to reclaim broken hearts.

There is a big lesson here for us and also a wonderful example.  The Bible is full of stories of people who were sent.  Moses was sent by God to lead the Israelites out of slavery and into the promised land.  Jonah was sent to preach to the people of Nineveh.  Jesus’ disciples were sent by him to spread the gospel and make disciples all around the world.  Paul was sent by God to be an apostle and preach the Gospel. 

But the best example is Jesus.  Jesus was sent by his father to seek and save the lost, and much of that time was spent in one-on-one encounters with all kinds of sinners…broken people, including prostitutes and adulterers, tax collectors, lepers, the sick and disabled, and more.  Jesus was known for his ministry to individual people in the streets.  In fact, one of his most notable teachings recorded in the Gospel of Mark, was that he had come not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.  Jesus was known for his love and compassion towards all people, regardless of their social status or how sinful they were believed to be. He saw beyond people's outward appearances and recognized their inherent value as children of God, created his God’s image.  He spent time with individuals and ministered to their minds and bodies.

In this way, Jesus gave us a very important example to follow.  Matthew tells us the story of the Pharisee who approached Jesus and tried to trick him with a question.  “What is the greatest commandment?”  Jesus responded by saying to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”  Then Jesus went on to say, “and the second is like it: “love your neighbor as yourself.  All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

"Love God and neighbor" is a central teaching in Christianity.  For Christians, the command to love God and neighbor is essential to our faith and practice.  Loving God involves putting God first in our life, following His commandments, and worshiping Him with sincerity and devotion.  Loving one's neighbor means treating others with kindness, compassion, and respect.  This includes not only those who are similar to oneself but also those who are different in terms of culture, race, or religion.  The Bible teaches that all people are created in God's image and are therefore deserving of love and respect.

Matthew 28 tells us that we are to go and make disciples, to baptize them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and to teach them to obey Jesus’ teachings.  Just as Jesus was sent to seek and save the lost, you and I are sent. 

For most of us, God is not calling us to change the world through our own power or wealth or personality.  I cannot stop wars, pandemics, street violence, and a lot of other things.  But as James tells us, “religion that God the Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after the orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”  I can follow the example of Jesus and wash the feet of the person that God puts in front of me today.  God is calling us to love Him and to love each other, and we can be more than conquerors in the way that we love God and neighbor.  He is calling us to wash the feet of the people that He puts in front of us today. 

To seek and save the lost.  To love God and neighbor.  To look after the orphans and widows.  That doesn’t leave a lot of time to stop the wars and the earthquakes.  Jesus didn’t change the world through revolution.  He changed the world through a revolutionary idea…loving our neighbor.  Jesus went out to the streets to seek and save broken people, and in the next 300 years, the world Christianized.  By the third century, Christianity had become a significant force in the Roman Empire, and the conversion of Emperor Constantine signaled that Christianity had become the favored religion of the known world.  The growth of the Christian church was a testament to the faith, dedication, and perseverance of the early Christians, as well as to the power of the message of the gospel…to love God and love our neighbor.

What is my job today?  What is your job today?  It is the same.  Go to the streets, seek and save the lost, and minister to the needs of the person that God puts in front of me today.

David was a great king, a humble man who loved, trusted, and served God faithfully.  He made some big mistakes, but he was still called “a man after God’s own heart.”  He did what God placed before him, and then he died.  Acts 13:36 says, “Now when David had served God’s purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep.”  My challenge today is to ask that question, “what is God’s purpose in my generation?”  Our purpose happens with the next person we see.  And the person after that.  When we walk out of that door, we are fulfilling our purpose with every person that God places in our path.  Let’s not allow ourselves to get so overwhelmed by the bigness of the world’s problems that we cannot see God’s purpose right in front of us.  And, like David, may we serve God’s purpose in our generation.

God bless you!