Embracing Purpose Through Life's Challenges and Divine Creation

Devotional

Day 1: Embrace Today as a Divine Opportunity

Embrace each day as a new beginning, filled with God's mercies. Recognize that every moment is an opportunity to find the sacred in the ordinary, and that requires both a problem and a purpose. [00:42]

"The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness." (Lamentations 3:22-23, ESV)

Reflection: What is one ordinary moment today where you can intentionally seek to recognize God's presence and purpose?

Day 2: Dominion Through Service and Love

God created humans in His image, giving us the responsibility to exercise dominion through service, love, and care. This purpose is not self-created but divinely given, requiring us to engage with the world meaningfully. [02:17]

"And God blessed them. And God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.'" (Genesis 1:28, ESV)

Reflection: How can you exercise dominion through service and love in one specific relationship or situation today?

Day 3: Challenges as Catalysts for Growth

Life requires challenges to thrive. Just as organisms need stress to survive, humans need problems to find purpose and vitality. Embrace your challenges as opportunities for growth and fulfillment. [03:39]

"Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness." (James 1:2-3, ESV)

Reflection: Identify a current challenge in your life. How can you view it as an opportunity for growth and ask God for guidance in this process?

Day 4: Purpose Brings Life and Joy

The story of Dr. Bill Thomas illustrates the transformative power of purpose. By introducing life into a nursing home, residents found new vitality and joy, demonstrating that purpose can bring life even in the most challenging circumstances. [08:32]

"For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." (Ephesians 2:10, ESV)

Reflection: What is one way you can introduce life and joy into a challenging situation or environment you are part of today?

Day 5: Reflecting on Personal Purpose

Reflect on your own life to identify your problem and purpose. Use your challenges as a means to fulfill your God-given purpose, knowing that you are made in His image and are a bearer of dominion. [11:42]

"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope." (Jeremiah 29:11, ESV)

Reflection: What is one problem you face today, and how can you align it with your God-given purpose to create a positive impact?

Sermon Summary

Embrace today as a gift from God, a new beginning filled with His mercies. To truly experience the sacred presence of God in all things, you need two essential items: a problem and a purpose. As we journey through Genesis, we see that on the sixth day, God created humankind in His image, marking a shift from His previous acts of creation. This act of creation was more personal and intentional, highlighting the unique role humans play in God's creation. We are given the responsibility to exercise dominion, not through domination, but through service, love, and care for the Earth and its inhabitants, especially our fellow human beings.

Every human being is endowed with a purpose by God, and this purpose often requires us to face and solve problems. Without challenges, life loses its vitality. Even the simplest organisms, like amoebas, need stress to survive. This principle is beautifully illustrated in the story of Dr. Bill Thomas, who transformed a nursing home by introducing life in the form of animals and plants. This initiative brought purpose and vitality to the residents, demonstrating that life flourishes when we have a reason to live.

God's creation is a testament to the beauty of purposeful chaos. The residents of the nursing home found new life and joy as they engaged with the animals and plants, leading to significant improvements in their health and well-being. This story reminds us that God delights in seeing our eyes light up with life, as He is the light of the world.

Reflect on your own life: what is one problem you face, and what is your purpose? Embrace your challenges as opportunities to fulfill your God-given purpose. Whether your problem is financial, relational, emotional, or something else, remember that you are made in God's image and are a bearer of dominion. Thank God for your purpose and seek His help with your problems. Together with God, you can create glorious chaos in your life.

Key Takeaways

1. Embrace each day as a new beginning, filled with God's mercies. Recognize that every moment is an opportunity to find the sacred in the ordinary, and that requires both a problem and a purpose. [00:42]
2. God created humans in His image, giving us the responsibility to exercise dominion through service, love, and care. This purpose is not self-created but divinely given, requiring us to engage with the world meaningfully. [02:17]
3. Life requires challenges to thrive. Just as organisms need stress to survive, humans need problems to find purpose and vitality. Embrace your challenges as opportunities for growth and fulfillment. [03:39]
4. The story of Dr. Bill Thomas illustrates the transformative power of purpose. By introducing life into a nursing home, residents found new vitality and joy, demonstrating that purpose can bring life even in the most challenging circumstances. [08:32]
5. Reflect on your own life to identify your problem and purpose. Use your challenges as a means to fulfill your God-given purpose, knowing that you are made in His image and are a bearer of dominion. [11:42]
** [11:42]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[00:42] - Embrace Today as a Gift
[00:58] - The Need for a Problem and Purpose
[01:14] - Creation of Humankind
[01:31] - Shift in God's Creation Language
[02:17] - Dominion and Responsibility
[03:00] - Purpose and Problem Solving
[03:39] - The Necessity of Challenges
[04:06] - Story of Dr. Bill Thomas
[05:02] - Introducing Life into the Nursing Home
[06:19] - The Sounds of Life
[07:17] - Glorious Chaos
[08:32] - Residents Finding New Life
[09:16] - The Impact of Purpose
[10:31] - Reflecting on Personal Purpose

Sermon Clips

God is always every moment a god of new beginnings so just let go of yesterday it's gone. God's mercies are new every morning therefore Embrace this day it is his gift take a deep breath, lift up your heart, we will discover how to find the sacred, the presence of God in all things. [00:28:52]

God goes from Let There Be what a wonderful thing to a more intense personal engagement this time he doesn't say Let There Be doesn't say let the ground bring forth he says let us make and he may say us because it's the Royal we of majesty Christians have always speculated maybe there's a little hint of the Trinity right in there. [01:44:34]

God is giving to human beings the glory, the marvelous burden of being responsible. We are agents and we are accountable we are to exercise Dominion that means we're not to abdicate we're not to withdraw we need to have a purpose we're also not to dominate we're to serve we're to love we're to care for the Earth. [02:51:66]

Every human being receives a purpose we cannot create that we can't create meaning for our own so we're giving it by God and then it always requires some kind of problem to be solved some kind of task to be accomplished we often feel like we'd like to get away from that that if all of our problems were solved we'd be happy. [03:21:78]

You need a problem you have a purpose so what I want to do today and most of the time that's left is read this is from a book being mortal by Atul gawande a story that I love I think you're going to love this about people who were given a problem and a purpose and it brought them life. [03:55:28]

He said that they had to battle the three great plagues what he calls the three great plagues boredom, loneliness and helplessness that will destroy any human being and to attack them he said we need life so he got this idea and he talked to the administrator of the hospital again I'm Albert. [04:31:98]

Gradually people started to accept that filling that nursing home with life was everybody's task you have a purpose and that purpose is life and they did so not because of any rational set of arguments or compromises but because the effect on resonance soon became impossible to ignore. [08:05:39]

The resonance began to wake up and come to life you need a problem and you need a purpose people who we had believed were not able to speak started speaking Thomas said people who had been completely withdrawn and non-ambulatory started coming to the nurses station and saying I'll take the dog for a walk. [08:24:12]

The lights turned back on in people's eyes God loves it when our eyes light up with life he is the light of the world in a book he wrote about the experience Thomas quoted from journals that the staff kept and they described how Irreplaceable the animals became to the daily lives of residents. [08:50:39]

Researchers studied the effects of this program over two years, comparing a variety of measures for Chase's residents with those of residents at another nursing home nearby their staff found the number of prescriptions required per resident fell to half of that of the control nursing home. [09:38:82]

I want you to think about what's one problem and what's one purpose you don't really have a purpose if you don't have a problem for me it's really shifted but become very very intense my problem is just the pain that life involves given the journey we all go through Journeys the journey that I'm on. [10:48:36]

Thank you God for my purpose, help me God with my problems, end of the teaching, beginning of your day with God so get out there you and God make it happen glorious chaos. [11:52:80]

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