The Why, The What, The How

Introduction

Well, this must be Homecoming Week. As I look out over the audience, and in every section, we have those coming home to see family. And we’re glad that Brent must not have got the memo. He’ll be here in a couple of weeks, Lord willing. But it’s good to see all of you today. We welcome everyone. I told you last Sunday morning that I may have to do a sequel to the sermon that I presented as a result of reading this book called Start with Why. And it’s a book written by Simon Seneck, which has more to do with corporate success than it does what we are as a church of the Lord’s people. But the things that he says about how to be a success certainly relate to what we are, and I shared that with you.

And I thought it might be helpful to review. I went over some of that a little too hurriedly for me. And yet I made a mistake last Sunday morning. I late when I introduced this book, and this is the reason why I brought it up again, not because the Bible’s what matters. This is a book written by men, but I laid this book right here, and it was under this light, and there was apparently a red glow that was on my face for the whole sermon. Not an angelic glow. More of a devilish kind of glow. So there, and don’t shake your head, yes. But there was I’m not going to put that book there. So not going to be a glow this Sunday morning.

But Senec talks in his book about the success of certain companies because they know their why. And the clarity of their why is known to those who run those companies. And as a result, they experience success. And he talks about the golden circle. This is what makes it all happen. As it begins with the clarity of why. And from that, the discipline of how, surrounding yourself with people who buy into your why that can help you accomplish the consistency of what? That’s the product that the consumer gets. And the companies that survive long term is because they follow this model and follow it successfully. And I pointed out to you to make this a spiritual model for us that really I would flip-flop points two and points three, that it is the clarity of our why that produces the what, and we’re always discussing and talking about the how of accomplishing the what.

1. Jesus' Clarity of Why

And so I would sort of go at it this direction in terms of what we are called to be according to God’s word. And I wanted to focus on the clarity of why, and we use Jesus as an example. There are three things that Jesus said that demonstrate his clarity of vision regarding his why, and one passage about him in Luke 19 and verse 10, on the heels of the Zacchaeus story who came down, that little man who was told to come down out of that tree, and I’ll go to your house today. Zacchaeus was worth Jesus’ time. And that’s the point of the story, because the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost. And when you look at the ministry of Jesus, and what we read about him in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the things that he did, the things that he taught, the people that he helped, everything was about his why.

He had come to seek and to save that which was lost. And, as he said in John chapter 8 and verse 29, I always do the things that are pleasing to the Father. That was his why. And also in John 17 and verse 4, when he comes toward the end of his life, he says, I have finished the work which thou hast given me to do. And I have glorified you on the earth. And he looked forward to the glory that he had with the Father before the world was. And we’ll come back to that thought at the end of our lesson this morning. But this involved Jesus’ training. Jesus had to train himself, and his disciples must do the same. And then the passage spoken about him, he suffered, leaving us an example that we should follow in his steps.

He who did no sin, neither was there any guile found in his mouth. Jesus left us an example to imitate. That was a part of his purpose. That was a part of his why. And so, summarizing all of that, if we are Jesus’ disciples, then this has to be our why as well. That we too must attempt to seek and to save that which is lost, to do the things that are pleasing him, to fulfill our ministry and our work, and to leave others an example that they can follow as we imitate Jesus. But our why involves many more things that go with Jesus’ why, but some of it even involves Him. And I think we lose sight of our why, and that affects our what.

2. The Clarity of Our Why

Or the discipline of our how, that we’ll be talking about in a moment. And I mentioned to you nine things that are involved in the clarity of our why that we have to stay focused on and bring to our attention so that our product will be what brings glory to God and pleases him and is obedient to him. And we must forever remember our creator, that we are completely dependent upon him. Every house is built by someone, but the builder and maker of all things is God. Sometimes people lose sight of that. They begin to have questions and doubts. Or they just remove God from their minds. Look, we must continually be thinking about Him. Our Creator lives. That’s why we sing some of the songs that we do.

And beyond all of that our Creator sent Jesus, who was God in human flesh, Emmanuel. And he alone is our Savior. He alone is qualified, and He alone is capable of saving us. And we need Him desperately. And the New Testament, His Word will judge us, John chapter 12 and verse 48. The word that Jesus has spoken, the same shall judge us in the last day. That is inescapable. And you can ignore this. You can say, well, that’s not my why. That’s not why I’m going to do what I’m going to do in life. Well, you can choose that. As we talked this morning in Bible class, the highway of holiness is for those who choose to walk that way. You can say, I don’t want that.

Well, that’s fine. But it’s not going to change the fact that the word is going to judge you in the last day. And all of that argues the exceeding value of the soul above all that we are in terms of human flesh, this perishable carton that all of us. Have you looked around? It’s perishable. It decays. I know some of us have it, but a lot of us decay over time. The exceeding value of the soul. And then the promise of that which never fades. A body that will be eternally fresh and new, a glorious spiritual body, immortality and bliss. And the presence of God is fullness of joy, and in his right hand are pleasures forevermore. And so contrast that to how quickly we live life here and how soon it vanishes.

And I spoke to you about the fact that we should obey God not just because he’s God and not just because Jesus is our Savior and the New Testament is our judge. But the very nature of obedience and service elevates our lives. We’re not slaves to sin anymore, Paul says in Romans chapter 6, but we’re slaves of Christ, and that is elevating the outcome of that is life. An eternal life. And we talked about my daily need for Him. And the reason why we pursue His things day after day as we realize with each step we take that we need Him. And that our offerings in worship, not just corporately, but individually in our lives, that these things will enliven. I mean, some the listen to our heart song.

I love that song. Hopefully, our hearts are saying what they need to say to God. But it enlivens, it energizes, it exalts. Praise is becoming to the upright. I meet my purpose as a human being when I give praise to my God and creator. Well, I told you last week, that’s really what we talked about last week. That’s it. I did it in about eight minutes. That’s good. That this was the interactive part of the sermon. I said, maybe there’s some other aspects of this that I need to talk about, our why. And I did actually have one brother who will not remain nameless, Jay. Who said, How about one more to add to the list of why? And I have just enough room on the chart.

How about the negative motivating factor? And Jesus said more about hell than any other New Testament spokesman warning us about going to that place and taking whatever actions necessary. If your hand offends you, cut it off. Or your foot or your eye, pluck it out. Is that part of your why? It needs to be. And so these things must constantly be recalled and called to our minds so that we will produce the what that the Lord expects. And I mentioned four things that I want to explore in a little bit of detail, and then some of the how that I mentioned. We talked about involvement in the local church. And we talked about the behavior that we express in our community or in our neighborhoods. We talked about relationships in the home.

And even beyond that, who and what we are in our private moments. And all of that needs to flow out of our why. And what Seneca always points to is that when people lose sight of the why, it’s the what that suffers. It’s the what that becomes to not be perhaps what it was once upon a time. And I think that’s what happens to us spiritually when we lose sight of the why, and that’s why you can still see the why behind the what, because I wanted you to get the perception that you still need to be thinking about this to get the what right. And when all you’re emphasizing, if you forget the why, like the Pharisees did, and we talked about them last week, then something goes awry in the what.

They became inconsistent and hypocritical because they started seeking glory from men rather than from God. He says, You search the scriptures because in them you think you have eternal life, but it is they that testify of me. And so here comes the one who has given them all the rules that they so highly praise and value. He’s given them all the rules. The rule giver comes and they say, Who are you? And reject it. Isn’t that unbelievable? These rules to which they were dedicated. They were chaptains of these rules. This is what living is all about. We’re the kings of living. And they rejected the one who gave them the rules. You search the scriptures because in them you think you have eternal life, but it is they that testify of me.

3. Involvement in the Local Church

So, if our why is right, what about the what? And I want to speak to you briefly about each of these, and then a little bit about the how, and I’ll be done. Involvement in the local church. Why do all this?

The reason why we do this and dedicate ourselves to this is because of the why. Not because there’s anything that really special and redeeming about me. That you all should do this. But I’m committed to this and committed to you, and you’re to be committed to me because of our why. That’s why we do this. And I want you to think about 1 Corinthians chapter 12 in this regard. Do you know anything about that chapter in the New Testament, 1 Corinthians chapter 12? You know, there’s division in the church at Corinth. They’re fighting about tongue speaking and the miraculous spiritual gifts. I’m better than you because I’m a tongue speaker. And Paul has to deal with all of that. And he comes to chapter 12 and he said, Now, look, this kind of division, that’s not what the gifts were designed to do.

These gifts issue from the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit and Jesus and the Father are all one. There’s a unity in three persons in the Godhead. That’s where he begins with this in chapter 12. And he says, These gifts, like there are three persons and one God. He says, There are all these varieties of gifts, but they’re all for the same purpose. They work together as a unit to produce a unity. And he said, let me tell you something about the body. You are by one Spirit, all baptized into one body. Jew and Greek, male and female. We’re all the products. And so I can tell you this morning, every one of us who have been baptized into Christ, we are all the products of one spirit.

And the goal of the product is that we be unified as God is unified. And then he goes into that illustration about the body, which you know. The hand can’t say to the foot, I have no need of you. The foot can’t say to the hand, I have no need of you. For you’re all the body. And individually members of it. We live in a time when people don’t want to think about the body. They want to think about some response to God. That’s a response they’re happy with, and it works for them. But they don’t want to think about real commitment to his people. And I tell you, when that happens, something about the why has been messed up. Because involvement in the local church flows out of all that Jesus is about.

Peter chooses unto unfeigned love of the brethren. We’re to be committed to each other, and it doesn’t matter. Look, we don’t have Jew and Greek like they did in the first century. You want to talk about problems. Jew and Greek worship in the same building? Are you kidding me? Paul devotes another whole chapter to that in Ephesians chapter 2. You’re all one man in Christ. God did away with the enmity, the hostility, the separation. And he brought you into one man. You’re a habitation of God in the Spirit. Just be thankful we don’t have those kinds of ethnic things that separate us, at least not in this group. But you have people of every race and every social class. We’re sort of a lot alike here in this particular group.

But, you know, sometimes we can get all sideways because brother or sister and so and so are just annoying. You know, there’s some annoying people in the body of Christ. I’m sorry, Christina. We’re annoying. You gotta deal with us. We can’t help it. But we’re in this body together. And we’ve got to be able to get along with that. You know, so and so is in my group. I really don’t like them very much. Well. Well, you need to be in the group with them. Because they’re part of the body. Oh, I don’t like that. I don’t like my group too much. Well, you better start liking your group because that flows out of our life. We’re a body. We don’t get to pick and choose.

These are the people I sort of like, Lord. Aren’t you just glad the Lord lets you in? And so we need to get the focus off of ourselves. And the focus on others. Because Jesus’ focus was upon others. Now, Scott, lead the song. Hymns for worship, number 92. Others. Number ninety two help me then from day to day and such ourselves for the way that even when I feel to pray my prayers before me to our others to sincere must be God is named and we may have to write for this for and so sometimes I choose to assemble when I may not feel great. Oh, I’m not saying show up with a communicable disease, but if you don’t feel 100%, sometimes you just show up because of others.

4. Our Behavior in the Community

Because what we do here together has an impact on the lives of others. And what about our behavior in the community? We should, as we sang Wednesday night and talked about wake the dawn with praises, we should see our mission to be light in the world. Our want is to show people things that they don’t see in many others. People who don’t render evil for evil, but overcome evil with good.

And if someone slaps you in the face, you turn the other cheek also. Or if they force you to go a mile, you go with him too. Because our business is to show them Jesus Christ, our King. And so when He says in 1 Peter chapter 3 and verse 8, I’ll tell you, these are difficult verses. They’re so easily read. I mean, they flow right off the tongue, I mean, to sum up, let all be harmonious and sympathetic, brotherly, kind hearted, humble in spirit, not returning evil for evil or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead. You talk about things that just aren’t natural. You don’t just read these verses and walk out success. We’re going to the discipline of Hal on this in just a moment.

For you were called for the very purpose that you might inherit a blessing instead. Refrain your tongue from evil, lips from speaking guile, do good, turn away from evil, seek peace and pursue it. And the eyes of the Lord will attend to your prayers, is what Peter says in 1 Peter chapter 3. Listen, we are a lot better at defending the necessity of baptism for remission of sins. We’re a lot better at explaining what is the nature of the New Testament church by biblical instruction. We’re a lot better about talking about instrumental music and why it’s not authorized by Scripture and a lot of things that pertain to those kinds of what.

And brotherly.

5. In Our Homes and Our Private Moments

And it doesn’t happen easily or overnight. And will not happen without effort. But why do we give such effort to it? Because we’ve been called to be light to the world. To imitate the character of our king. And in our homes. This will most likely be the area or arena of our greatest failure. Because that’s the place where sometimes we don’t think the work is necessary. In fact, we don’t want to work at all. We want to let our hair down. We want to relax. And we forget that even in our home, the way we interact with husband and wife and children is about being light. Sometimes I think we see light as only out there. But no. And it’s so important that the husband is told if you don’t deal with your wife in an understanding way, your prayers will be hindered.

It’s just as significant as what we’re doing out there. How we interact with people in our homes. The husband is concerned about things of the world, how that he may please his wife, and the wife is concerned about the things of the world, how that she may please her husband. And there’s a whole context surrounding that as to why Paul says that in 1 Corinthians chapter 7. But to boil that down to you and me, and what that means to us is I’ve got to focus on this object of my love and affection, the one that I made vows to, and I need to enhance their life. I need to make their life better. My goal is sherry’s well being, her emotional happiness.

And that’s hard for us guys. No wonder he said, husbands dwell with your wives, so the wife dwells with the husband in the understanding way. Sure, she needs to dwell with us. I mean, yeah, guys are clods. Women have to learn to deal with that. But the problem of understanding, dealing with them in an understanding way, that’s most often a male problem. We don’t get it. My obligation is her spiritual and emotional well being so that she can thrive. That’s what you’ve got to want for your mate. I want them to thrive in every possible way. And finally, the what? Of integrity in our private moments. That’s why we’re commanded to think on things that are excellent. Things that are virtuous and things worthy of praise.

6. The Discipline of How

And if they’re not that, they need to be genisoned from our lives because we are about excellence. Our Lord was about excellence. And he has called us to excellence. And then we could talk about in relation to all that. Well, how are we going to get this done? How are we going to accomplish that? That’s why I said, I really think in our model it begins with the consistent product, the consistency of what? And then we need to explore all the ways that we can get this done. Sherry pointed out to me. A lot of my great ideas come from her. One of the things she pointed out to me is the passage about the children of this age are wiser in their own kind than in their own generation than the children of light.

That’s the story of the unrighteous steward where he uses that bad man to teach some lessons. This guy would do anything to preserve his future. So often people in the world are so wise and smart. They build this financial fortune for themselves. They build for their future, their retirement. Well, they retire at 30. I mean, they’ve got this thing all figured out and mapped out, they’ve got the future. But they’re not children of light, and that’s the ultimate thing they should have been planning for. Like the fellow who built his barns and tore down his barns and built bigger barns, but his soul was not rich toward God. Okay, don’t be children of this world, be children of light who realize the importance of the soul above all those other things.

And you know, the observation that Sherry made him was that they do all this scheming to be a success. What kind of scheming are we doing to be spiritual successes? I mean, it takes some work and planning, and how am I going to be a spiritual success? I know she talks about, and Mike’s been talking about to us about using technology to help us spiritually. You know, we’ve got all these gadgets, our iPhones, our smartphones, and they do notes and all kinds of things, and we got our iPads. Are we using those things and that kind of technology to accomplish the Lord’s will? Talk about Facebook a lot. Almost everybody’s on Facebook. You ever thought about that as potentially a tool to evangelize? To get people thinking good thoughts?

Conclusion

Or is it just about you and the things going on in your life? Maybe we could use that to say some things about our faith and our commitment to Him. So, what are you scheming? What are you planning? And as I wrap all of this up, we need to wake up every day with a clear sense of our why. That leads us to the what and the work and the discipline of how to accomplish what will bring glory to God. One more passage. In Hebrews 12. That passage that says, We have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us. And as a result of those examples of faith, people who had a clear sense of why, I might say, He said, lay aside every encumbrance and the sin that so easily entangles us.

And run with endurance the race that is set before us. Fixing our eyes on Jesus. He is our why. Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Again, this goes back to his why. Who for the joy set before him? And that’s the joy that needs to be set before us, who for the joy set before him, he endured the cross. What can you endure if you have the proper focus and the joy set before you that was set before him? He endured the cross and despised the shame and sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. And we are promised that we will reign with him. What’s the motivating factors in your life? Why are you doing what you’re doing?

Why do you get up and go to work tomorrow? I’m assuming some of you still have jobs. And when you get up and go to work, why are you doing that? And when you plan your weekend or what you’re going to do over the hull, why are you doing that? And if you’re not a Christian, why haven’t you done that? Because if you haven’t, your why is all messed up. That’s where success needs to start. And if you’re in this audience tonight and you’re not a Christian, you need the hope that Jesus had for the joy set before him. You need to have that as a real hope for you. And you need to put your faith and allegiance in him who is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

And if you’ve not done that, we sing a song to encourage you to have a clear vision of why you’re here and what you’re doing and to serve the King. Won’t you come while we stand and sing?