purpose vs product

Hi all,
We will be starting the purpose driven life next Wednesday. For those youth who missed youth group today we started our time with a section of a sermon I heard on the radio from the local Kitchener Christian radio station. The pastor was saying that if we lined everyone in the world in order from most righteous, someone who is selfless, kind and compassionate, to the most hideous and cruel (lets look at our own century for now) we may put Mother Theresa on the most righteous end and perhaps Charles Manson on the other end. Everyone else falls in between-including us. Then we may ask ourselves "where is the cut-off point for who goes to heaven?" How many good deeds or how selfless does one need to be to get into heaven. We may figure that as long as our good deeds outweigh our bad acts that may be a pass. After all at most schools 50% is a pass.

The pastor goes on to say, however that we need to think about this like thinking about jumping. Some people can jump really far, some not far at all. There are record holders for the longest jump (28meters I think). However, no one can jump far enough if they are trying to jump across the Grand Canyon. None of us can make it, we all fall short. That is like trying to get into heaven.

It requires perfection and none of us are perfect so rely on Jesus who is perfect and it is through him!

I just wanted to retell that story as we start off on this adventure of "The purpose Driven Life" So that we don't get caught up in the actions we need to do. Yes, God has a purpose for our lives and it is important to figure that out but fulfilling that purpose is not what earns us our way.

BTW- the cookies are great!