#96 You Purpose in Life (28/09/03)

By Rev. Herman Cain

Thanks Bob. I would first like to thank Dr. Robert Schuller for this opportunity. I am both honored and excited to be here. I told Bob that I was so excited that it inspired me to prepare a 2-hour message for you this morning. Bob said, "That's great as long as you can do it in 20 minutes."

How many of you have asked yourself the proverbial question, why me, Lord? Why me? When something unexpected happens, when something bad happens and sometimes when something good happens to you. We are all inclined to ask that question, why me, Lord? The short answer is that it is part of your purpose in life. Good or bad, it's part of your purpose. Your purpose in life, my purpose in life, has 2 dimensions. The first dimension is finding it. The second dimension is living it. Finding your purpose in life is a continuous process that God reveals to each of us when we are ready and when God is ready. Living our purpose in life is a decision. The words to the closing song of the 2000 Olympics reminds us of just that fact: "Life can be a challenge. Life can seem impossible. It's never easy when there's so much on the line. But you can make a difference. There's a mission just for you. Just look inside and you will find just what you can do." That's the key: what you can do because God does not ask us to do any more than we are capable of doing. Our purpose in life is what we can do no matter how big or how small, using the talents, the God-given talents, that each of us possesses. Some of us were put on this earth to build a great Crystal Cathedral Ministry. And some of us were put on this earth to bring a smile to the face of one lonely child.

I'm glad that Jesus stayed on purpose. The disciples were constantly amazed at Jesus and His ability for miracles. They had never seen such things before in their life. But as Jesus went about teaching and preaching and healing throughout the land and one day He decided that He needed to conduct a little Bible study class with the disciples. And as it is documented in Mark the 8th chapter also the 31st through the 33rd verse, Jesus took this Bible study opportunity to inform the disciples that "the time will come soon when I must be rejected, I must suffer, I must die an agonizing death, but in 3 days, the good news, I will rise again." The disciples found this troubling. They found this a troubling message from their newfound Master, so much so that Peter who was the chief spokesperson for the disciples pulled Jesus aside and as the scripture says, "began to rebuke Him." Now my spiritual imagination and my contemporary vernacular suggests to me that Peter said something like this to Jesus. "We have a good thing going. Skip the suffering and the dying and let's just keep on doing what we're doing." But Jesus stayed on purpose. And in this passage He teaches us that fame and fortune and success in life is not what life is all about, it is what we do with the fame, the fortune and the success that matters. It is what we do with no fame, no fortune and no success. And even if you're living paycheck to paycheck, is what we do with what little we have that matters.

There's a familiar hymn that says, "only what you do for Christ will last." Everything else is just stuff and you can't take your stuff with you. Nobody's figured out how to do that yet. That stuff will be here when you and I are long gone. But it's the stuff that can tempt you into thinking that life is just supposed to be a bowl of cherries with no problems and no challenges. The stuff in life can tempt us to lose our soul. And as Jesus challenges us with that question, what shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and lose his own soul? The Apostle Paul in the first Corinthians, 13th chapter and the 13th verse, makes it plain in terms of what are those things that be of God. "And now abideth faith, hope and charity." You see if you are on purpose in life it will be revealed through faith. If you are living your purpose in life you will have hope in your heart and inspire hope in others.

Dr. Cameron Alexander, pastor of Antioch Baptist Church North in Atlanta, says that you find your purpose in life when talent intersects human need. When your talent is used to satisfy or help a human need you're on your purpose. "And now abideth faith, hope and charity." Charity is satisfying and meeting the human need. Charity is helping. So whatever you do, if it is helping somebody, you're on purpose.

My father walked off of a dirt farm at the age of 18 with just the clothes on his back. He was a man on a mission. He was a man on a mission because he literally walked off of that farm with just the clothes on his back to find a better life for himself and to find a better life for his family. And I can remember growing up in Atlanta, Georgia, that my dad was so determined to achieve his American dream in life and he was so determined to give my brother and I a little bit better start in life that at one point he worked 3 jobs: one to put food on the table; one to put a roof over our head; and that 3rd job to save for his dream. He was a man on a mission. And in addition to wanting to give my brother and I a little bit better start in life, dad also wanted to buy a home, a whole house for the family. You see, growing up in Atlanta I remember living in what my brother and I used to call "a half a house." It was a 6-room house with 3 rooms on one side and 3 rooms on the other side with a wall going down the middle. My brother and I used to say, "Dad, why do we live in a half a house?" Dad said, "It's a duplex." "But Dad, we only live in half of it." Said, "It's a duplex." Because what we didn't know was that dad was on a mission to fulfill his purpose in life which was to give us a little bit better start than he had.

I'll never forget the day when dad came home and told my mother, my brother and I, "get in the car." So we got in the car. You don't argue with dad. We got in the car and dad drove west of where we were living on a street called Bangette Highway and about 20 minutes later dad pulled up in front of a little brick house, not attached to any other house, a whole house. Dad announced to my brother, my mother and I, "This is our new home." We said, "What?" "This is our new home." We were shocked. First of all, dad was home on a Saturday taking us for this ride. Man working 3 jobs doesn't have time to be off on Saturday. My brother and I jumped out of the car. I was in 8th grade; my brother was about 6th grade, we ran inside. We were just in shock. How did dad buy this house? My mother was so excited that she was in tears. She didn't know that dad had saved enough money to buy this house. She didn't know that dad had gone out and bought the house. Don't try that today, men. Not a good idea. You'll be living in that sucker by yourself. You see dad could get away with that because he exceeded even his own expectations in the pursuit of his dreams and the fulfillment of his purpose.

Dad found his purpose when he decided to walk off that dirt farm. He lived his purpose using the talents and the only equity that he had to give which was sweat equity. And in living his purpose in life dad experienced the same things that we experience in the pursuit of our purpose - and that is when you decide to live your purpose, whatever it is, it will be 3 things. It will be uphill; it will be uncertain; but yet, uplifting, because when your talent intersects a human need you are on your purpose that God has in store for you. And it'll be uplifting also because of the joy of knowing that Jesus Christ fulfilled His purpose for us.

Four years ago I discovered my new purpose in life. I'd had a very successful business career for 35 years and been blessed with a wonderful family, wife of 35 years, 2 wonderful kids that are now grown and gone. But it was 4 years ago that I discovered my new purpose in life. I was head of the National Restaurant Association at the time and we were having a board meeting in Hawaii. My wife didn't want to go to the board meeting at the particular time because she didn't want to be that far away from our daughter, Melanie, who was having our first grandchild. She wanted to be there for the blessed event. Melanie was living in Atlanta. So I had to go and conduct the board meeting because of my responsibilities and sure enough, while the board meeting was going on I received a call from my wife Gloria who said, "Melanie has gone into labor." And I said, "Well, you made a wise decision by staying behind," because she wanted to be there when Melanie had our first grandchild.

I ended my board meeting, this was on a Wednesday, and headed back to Atlanta. It took me 3 days to get there because of another commitment that I had, not knowing exactly what the timing was going to be. And 3 days later the baby still hadn't been born. I kept calling back saying, "Is everything alright?" "Yes, everything's fine." Vincent, my son, I kept asking him if I couldn't talk to my wife, "Is everything going along well?" He said, "Yes." Three days later I'm on my way from Hawaii back to Atlanta and the baby still hadn't been born.

Finally I got back to Atlanta, landed, jumped in a rental car, drove to the hospital, got to the hospital about 9:30 p.m. on that Friday. Went into the hospital and found my son and said, "Vincent, do we have a baby yet?" "No, dad, we don't have a baby yet." And after I sat there in the waiting room, I wasn't sweating then, that's just now. Fifteen minutes later my wife came out of the delivery room and said, "You have a granddaughter." I said, "That's wonderful." I said, "What's with the 'you have a granddaughter' routine? Aren't you happy?" She said, "Yes." She said...I said, "Well aren't you over joy...is everything alright with Melanie and the baby?" "Yes, everything is fine." I said, "Well, why the attitude?" She said, "I've been with this child for 3 days trying to deliver this baby and you show up and then the baby is born." She was waiting on Granddad. Three days and I said to my wife, "What's wrong with that?" She said, "Nothing." She said, "I just know that I've got to hear that story for the rest of my life."

I went into that delivery room, said hello to my baby daughter. I said, "My baby daughter has a baby daughter." I said, "You alright?" She said, "Yeah, I'm fine, Dad." And then she said, "Would you like to hold your new granddaughter?" I said, "Yes." I took this little, 15-minute old baby in my arms, looked into that little face and the first thought that went through my mind was not 'what do I do to give her a better start in life,' the first thought, so help me God, that went through my mind when I looked at that little face was 'what do I do to use my talents to make this a better world?' God had revealed my next purpose in life at an unexpected moment.

Finding your purpose in life begins with faith, hope and charity. Living your purpose in life will at times be uphill and as the old gospel song says, climbing up the rough side of the mountain sometimes. And it'll be uncertain because tomorrow is a mystery. But we have the uplifting news of knowing who holds the key to unlock the mystery of tomorrow, day by day. And living your purpose, living your purpose at the intersection of your talents and human need. And if you're wondering where to begin, as the song says just look inside and you will find just what you can do.

Dr. Benjamin E. Mays, the late president of Moorehouse College, used to challenge the young men of Moorehouse when he would say, "Let it be borne in mind that the tragedy of life does not lie in not reaching your goals. The tragedy lies in having no goals to reach for. It's not a calamity to die with dreams or purpose unfulfilled. But it is a calamity to have no dreams and no purpose." Let us pray.

Almighty God, we give thanks for Thy Son, Jesus Christ, and for You allowing Him to fulfill His purpose for us. And we pray, O Lord, that You would stir in each of us our purpose and that we may find it and live it, not for our will but Thy will be done. Amen.