Living With Purpose, Not Many Are Doing It.
Pastor Glenn Newton June 29th, 2003
Jer. 29:11 11 For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to
prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. NIV
Prov. 13:7 “A pretentious , showy life is an empty life; a plain and simple life is a full
life.” The Message
What’s the purpose of that chair that your sitting in?
What’s the purpose of your car or truck that brought you to church today?
What’s the purpose of your job that you go to every weekday?
We know what the purpose of our Vacuum cleaners, our coffee makers, our VCR’s, We
know what the purpose of Pizza Hut, Wal-Mart’s, and Jiffy Lube. We have all those
things figured out don’t we?
I wonder...... Do you know what your Purpose is? Teenager, adults, do you know why
you have been created and are now living on Planet Earth? Is it a mystery?
I would suggest to you that for many people today, and for many Born Again Christians....
this idea of truly understanding what their purpose in life is...... Is still a mystery.
Have you ever found a gadget in your closet or in a drawer in your home, and you have no
idea what it is for? Isn’t that frustrating? That kind of thing drives me crazy, because I
know I probably lost it, and now I have found it, but now I can’t remember what it goes
too. THAT’S FRUSTRATION.
Can I tell you a secret? That’s how alot of people feel today. That’s how alot of
Christians live their lives. Utter Frustration. Knowing that there is something better, that
there really is a purpose, but the truth is they haven’t found it, or they can’t figure out how
to carry that purpose out in their lives.
One Professor said to us in college that the root of Frustration is Unmet Expectations. I
believe that was in a marriage counseling class. People are living with this huge mountain
of frustration in their lives because they have certain expectations of what their lives are
supposed to be like, what their marriage is supposed to be like, what their family life is
supposed to be like, what their church should be like.... YET, what they realize is that
reality is so much different than their expectations...... That breeds frustrations.
Friends, Do you know what the purpose of your life is? If you don’t really know what the
purpose of your life is, yet you know God has a purpose for you..... then your probably
like many people today.... a little frustrated. This frustration has no time limit on it... you
can be retired and still struggle with this..... But I want to tell you, WE CAN KNOW
GOD’S PURPOSE FOR OUR LIVES..... AND WE CAN KNOW GOD’S PURPOSE
FOR OUR CHRUCH..... WE DON’T HAVE TO LIVE IN FRUSTRATION... AREN’T
YOU GLAD?
There’s another aspect to this that is just as important, and it’s what God has been leaning
heavy on me about. Many people know what God’s purpose is for their lives.... BUT,
they have allowed that purpose to become blurred, and almost out of sight.
How does that happen? My purpose is to Preach the Word of God, to lead this
church by loving you just as Christ loved the church, and to be focused on allowing Christ
to shine through me.
Do we wake up one morning and just decide to be unchristlike.... of coarse not.
What gets many of us off the mark is allowing many good things to take the place of the
best that God has for us. I might be doing 10 good things for the glory of God, but if
those 10 good things are pushing aside the 1 Purpose that God has for me..... then I’m in
error, and I have allowed my focus to be blurred.... Satan loves to offer good things to do
so we will get off God’s agenda.
When you know your purpose, then you can know what you have to focus on, and
you will also know what you will have to say “no” too, even if it’s good.
God has made it very clear to me that I must be Purpose driven for Him, Focused on His
call on my life, and all those other things.... He will provide for those other good things.
How about you? Where do you fit this morning? Do you know what’s God’s Purpose is
for you? Have you allowed the business, the distractions of life to take you away from His
best for your life?
I have Good News for You..... I love preaching the Good News, because It’s life
Changing when the Holy Spirit begins to open up our eyes to His Truth.... Today can be a
day when your life is changed..... when the Frustration in your life can be dealt a death
blow, by the Word of God.... Are you ready for that.... I sure am.
Jer. 29:11 11 For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to
prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. NIV
Friends, God knows the plans that He has for you.... His plans for your life are clear to
Him, and He’s not up in Heaven wanting to hide from you this plan, He wants to give it to
you as your able to receive it. So how do we receive His plan you ask?
1. You must be born again. We must come to a place in our lives where we recognize
Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of our lives, and put our faith in Him for our salvation.
Until this happens our Spiritual eyes are blind, we are literally Spiritually dead before we
are saved...... that’s why we must be saved right?
Is Jesus Christ your personal Savior today.....He wants to be.... The truth is that
you were created to be in fellowship with God... and if your not your going to live a life of
frustration.... but the story doesn’t have to end that way.
It’s as easy as ABC. A= Admit your sins to God, Admit your need to be forgiven
and ask God to forgive you of your sins.
B= Believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Believe that by placing your faith
in Christ you will be saved.... Do you believe this morning?
C= Commit yourself to walking daily in step with God as you commit your life to
Him. Remember, as you make this decision to be saved, God does something wonderful
for you, He gives you the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit will help you and will lead you
in this new relationship that you have..... So commit yourself to listen to the Spirit as you
pray, as your read God’s Word, and as you Worship together with the Body of Christ, His
Church.
It’s as easy as ABC, but that decision can move your life from utter Frustration, to total
freedom. Do you know this freedom? Today you can.... Today you can be free from any
sin that entangles you. What a glorious feeling it is to know all my sins have been
forgiven. Amen?
The Second part to knowing God’s plan is..... Living in total Obedience to God..
After we become a Christian, if we want to know and understand God’s purpose
for our lives we must live in obedience to what we learn in God’s Word, we must live in
obedience to what God teaches us through our prayer life, we must live in obedience to
what we learn through what God teaches us through other Christian mentors. This
process is called Discipleship. This learning process goes on for a lifetime... As a Christian
you never stop being discipled, and we should never stop living in total obedience to what
God says to us.
Can I tell you a secret? God is not trying to hide his Plan for your life from you. I
don’t believe God is into Hide and Seek. God does want us to Seek Him with all our
hearts, and the Word says He will gladly give to us His Will for our lives.
MT 7:7 "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will
be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him
who knocks, the door will be opened.
33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given
to you as well. Matt. 6:33 Friends, you want answers for your Life? Seek God with all
your heart, and you will find, Seek 1st His Kingdom and His righteousness, and God will
help you to understand His purpose for your life.
Ultimately, I can sum up what God’s purpose for all of us is very simply as His followers.
We have been called, commissioned and commanded to Be Christlike. How do we
accomplish this? We must first be saved.... We must live in total obedience to God’s
Word, and walk step by step with the Holy Spirit, and we must Seek earnestly to Know
God more everyday. As we commit ourselves to this kind of Christian life, the very Spirit
of Christ will become evident in our lives, in our words, in our actions, and reactions, the
life of Christ will flow from us and people will know that we are different, people will
know that we love them, they will know that there has been a life transformation in us,
because of Christ living in us.... Amen? Isn’t that how you want to live? I do.
If you will commit to this kind of living God has made clear that there are many benefits to
living a life for Him, you will know your purpose, and you will live life on purpose, let me
share some of those benefits that you can expect.
1. Knowing your purpose gives meaning to your life.
We were made to have meaning. When life has meaning, you can bear almost anything;
without it, nothing is bearable.
A young man in his 20’s wrote, “I feel like a failure because I’m struggling to
become something, and I don’t even know what it is. All I know how to do is to get by.
Someday, if I discover my purpose, I’ll feel I’m beginning to live.” How many people feel
like that, more than you could imagine..
Without God, life has no purpose, and without purpose, life has no meaning.
Without meaning, life has no significance or hope. The greatest tragedy in life is not
death, but life without purpose.
Hope is essential to your life as air and water... would you agree? You need Hope
to cope.... Friends our Hope comes from having a purpose. We can know that God has a
plan for our lives, and we can have this hope because we know we were created for a
purpose.
Jer. 29:11 11 For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to
prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. NIV
2. Knowing your purpose simplifies your life.
When you know your purpose, it defines what you do and what you don’t do. Your
purpose becomes the standard you use to evaluate which activities are essential and which
aren’t. You simply ask, “Does this activity help me fulfill one of God’s purposes for my
life?”
People who don’t know their purpose, or they have been distracted from their
purpose, they try to do too much --- and that causes stress, fatigue, and conflict.
It’s impossible to do everything people want you to do. You have just enough
time to do God’s will. If you can’t get it all done, it means your trying to do more than
God intended for you to do, (or it could also mean your watching to much TV) one of the
two.
Purpose driven living leads to a simpler lifestyle and a sane schedule. The Bible
says, “A Pretentious, showy life is an empty life; a plain and simple life is a full life.” The
Bible also says, “You, Lord, give perfect peace to those who keep their purpose firm and
put their trust in you.”
3. Knowing your purpose focuses your life.
We can become effective by being selective. The truth is that it’s human nature to get
distracted by minor issues. We play trivial pursuit with our lives. Without a clear purpose
we will find ourselves changing directions, jobs, relationships, and other things -- hoping
each change will settle the confusion or fill the emptiness in your heart. But the real
problem is a lack of focus and purpose.
We can see the power of focus in the use of Light. Diffused light has little power
or impact, but you can concentrate it’s energy by focusing it. With a magnifying glass, the
rays of the sun can be focused to set grass or paper on fire. When light is focused even
more as a laser beam, it can cut through steel.
There is nothing quite as potent as a focused life, one lived on purpose. Amen?
The apostle Paul lived a focused life, and He almost single handedly spread the gospel
throughout the Roman empire. His secret was a focused life.
If you want your life to have impact, focus it. Stop trying to do it all. Do less.
Prune away even the good activities and do only which matters the most. Never confuse
activity with productivity. You can be busy without a purpose, but what’s the point?
There are many benefits to the Life Lived On Purpose... and the truth is that there are
many people who haven’t discovered their purpose and they are very frustrated. There’s
just as many people who have been distracted from what God has for them, by good
things..... but yet they are not doing what God has purposed for them to do. All this leads
to frustration in our lives.
One day you and I will stand before God, and he will do an audit of our lives, a final exam.
The Bible says, “Remember, each of you will stand personally before the judgment seat of
God.... Yes, each of us will have to give a personal account to God.”
Thankfully, God wants us to pass the test, so He has given us the questions in
advance. From God’s word we can discern what these questions will be.
First, “What did you do with my Son, Jesus Christ?”
Remember our first and primary purpose in life is to be saved and know
Jesus Christ in a personal way. God won’t ask about your religious background or
your doctrinal views. The only thing that will matter is, did you accept what Jesus did for
you on the Cross, and did you learn to love and trust him?
Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life.. No one comes to the
Father except through me.”
Second, “What did you do with what I gave you?”
What did you do with your life -- all the gifts, talents, opportunities, energy,
relationships, and resources God gave you? Did you spend them on yourself, or did you
use them for the purposes God made you for?”
Two important questions, ones we will all answer at some point. You can answer today,
you can know today that Forgiven and saved from your sins and living in fellowship with
the Father.... I want to offer that opportunity to you this morning......
We can also make a descison this morning to focus our lives on the purpose that God has
for us.... Focus on living out the Christian life in such a way that God is honored, and
Christ is seen in us.... Does that describe your walk with the Lord? If not, make today a
day of decision.......
