Have You Found Your
Purpose
What is the meaning of Life? Why do we exist? Is it just to procreate so another
generation can carry on a meaningless existence? What is your purpose in life?
God never created anything
without a purpose. Every plant and ever
creature on earth has a purpose. God
has a purpose for every person that has been born. If your heart is
beating, God has a purpose for
you. Knowing why you exist and
what your purpose in life is important to know.
If you want to know your purpose,
you have to start with God because you did not create yourself nor determine
the reason for your existence. Society tells
us to look within ourselves for our purpose, but we or any man has the answers to the deep issues of life. The god of this world is a poor
counselor AND HE WISHES YOU NO GOOD. Physiatrists’
couches are full of people who seek the meaning of life. Jails are full of
people who are confused about their purpose in life. Divorce courts are booked
up with those who claim they need space so they can find themselves.
Since we did not create
ourselves, we cannot determine the true purpose of our lives or what we are
supposed to do without the help of God, because only He can tell us why He made us.
In this lesson, I hope to
challenge you to ask yourself, “Have I consulted the owners
manual to learn my purpose?”
Ephesians 1:11 In Him also we have obtained an
inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all
things according to the counsel of His will,
12 that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the
praise of His glory.
Colossians 1:16 For by Him
all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and
invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things
were created through Him and for Him.
These verses teach us that God
has created everything. He has a purpose for us all. God has predestined us to
be saved through His Son. However, we must choose whether we will embrace
salvation or not. We must choose whether we will fulfill our purpose in life
because God has given a free will.
One thing we must never forget is
that without God, we would not exist.
Revelation 4:11 "You are worthy, O Lord, To receive glory and honor and power; For You created all
things, And by Your will they exist and were created."
We should also know that God
loves His creation even though we disappoint Him at times. All parents can
understand this. We love our children no matter what they do. When they break
something precious or even if they turn out to be a wicked murderous person, we
will still love them. We will be very disappointed with them when they do the
wrong thing. and we may serve them up heaping of tough
love, but we will not stop loving them.
God is the same way. He loves every
person. I am even bold enough to say that God loves horrible men like Hitler
and Sodom Husain. Men like these chose their path, and turned their back on
God. Though their actions have caused them to not make it to heaven, God still
loves their soul.
All of us are special in the sight
of God because He chose to create us in His image.
Ephesians 1:3 Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual
blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him
before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame
before Him in love, 5 having
predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the
good pleasure of His will, 6
to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He has made us accepted in
the Beloved.
Think about it. Before God laid the foundations of the earth, He had you in
mind. What a comforting thought. He had a plan for you and me
before He created the world. It is difficult for us to understand this,
but God knows all about us. He knew us before we were even born and what we
could potential do if we chose the right path. For example, notice what God
tells Jeremiah:
Jeremiah 1:5 "Before I formed you in the
womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified
you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations."
Knowing that God loves us and is our Creator brings us to
our first purpose in life, which is to establish an eternal relationship with
God. God created man to be His companions. We have been given an eternal soul, but our physical body only
lasts a few short years. During those
few short years, we make decisions
that determine our eternal destiny. So,
life on earth is our testing ground for eternity.
Life on earth is very brief in comparison to eternity. It is our one opportunity to prepare
for eternity, and it begins with us wanting
to know our Creator and to love Him because He first loved us. God wants us to
be part of His family, but we must choose to do so. God has made it possible
for us to be reconciled to Him through His Son Jesus.
2 Corinthians 5:18 Now all things are of God,
who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the
ministry of reconciliation, 19
that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing
their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of
reconciliation. 20 Now then,
we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we
implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. 21 For He made Him who knew no sin
to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in
Him.
Even though God knew that we were sinful, He
allowed His Son to die on the cross for us. I wish more people would really let
that thought sink in of what God did for us when we did not deserve it. I
personally believe that if more people believed and understood what God did for
us that there would be many more Christians in the world right now.
What a blessing it is to be allowed to be
part of the family of God. His family is a spiritual family that will last for
eternity where we will get to live with the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit.
In order for us to begin
fulfilling our purpose of knowing God and loving Him, we must allow ourselves
to become part of His spiritual family. The way we do this is by obeying the
gospel and being born again. Peter says:
1 Peter 1:22 Since you have purified your souls
in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love
one another fervently with a pure heart,
23 having been born again, not of corruptible seed but
incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever,
God wants us to read and study His Word to learn
about Him and His plan for us. When we go to God’s Word and obey it, we see
that it will cause us to be born again as a child of God. Jesus explained it
this way to Nicodemus:
John 3:3 Jesus answered and said to him,
"Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the
In order to become a part of the family of God, we
must choose to believe that Jesus is the Son of God, repent, confess Jesus as
our Lord, and be baptized in water. Paul tells us that baptism is our death,
and when we are brought back up out of the water, we become children of God. We
put away our old self because we have been born again. Notice a few Scriptures
that show this in reference to our baptism:
Romans 6:3 Or do you
not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized
into His death? 4 Therefore
we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just
as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so
we also should walk in newness of life. 5 ¶
For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we
also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old man
was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with,
that we should no longer be slaves of sin.
7 For he who has died has been freed from sin. 8 Now if we died with Christ, we
believe that we shall also live with Him,
When we choose to be baptized in the name of Jesus
with our faith in the working of God, our old self dies in the watery grave,
and we are born again. We become a new creature in Christ and are clothed with
the righteousness of Christ. God no longer sees our past sins because they have
been washed away. Obeying the gospel is the beginning point for us in fulfilling
the purpose of our life.
Our second purpose in life as a Christian is to
grow in the grace and the knowledge of our lord so that we can become more like
our Savior. Jesus said:
John 13:15 "For I have given you an
example, that you should do as I have done to you. 16 "Most assuredly, I say to
you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater
than he who sent him.
There is no greater honor in this life than to be
like Him who saved us. The only way you and I can achieve this is by studying
God’s Word and living by it. No one can become like Christ overnight, which is
why we should understand the importance of growing each and every day to become
more like Him.
Jesus tells us:
Matthew 5:14 "You are the light of the
world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 "Nor do they light a lamp
and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who
are in the house. 16
"Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and
glorify your Father in heaven.
One of our purposes in life is to be a shining
light for Christ. Our attitudes and our actions can make the difference in what
kind of light we are to the world. There are many areas that we must grow and
allow our light to shine brighter than it has before. While there are too many
areas to name in one sermon, one of my favorite chapters that sums up what we
are to do once we become Christians is found in Colossians 3. There are a lot
of details in the short chapter, but all I want to do is read this chapter to
you, and I want you pay close attention to what it says we are to do as
Christians because this little chapter tells us a lot about our purpose in life
as we strive to be like Christ and to live by the Word of God.
Colossians 3:1 If then you were
raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting
at the right hand of God. 2
Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. 3 For you died, and your life is
hidden with Christ in God. 4
When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him
in glory. 5 ¶ Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth:
fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is
idolatry. 6 Because of these
things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, 7 in
which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them. 8 But now you yourselves are to
put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your
mouth. 9 Do not lie to one
another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, 10 and have put on the new man
who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created
him, 11 where there is
neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian,
slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all. 12 ¶ Therefore, as the elect
of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness,
longsuffering; 13
bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint
against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. 14 But above all these things put
on love, which is the bond of perfection.
15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which
also you were called in one body; and be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in
you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and
hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. 17 And whatever you do in
word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God
the Father through Him. 18 ¶
Wives, submit to your own husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. 19 Husbands, love your wives and
do not be bitter toward them. 20
Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing to the
Lord. 21 Fathers, do not
provoke your children, lest they become discouraged. 22 Bondservants, obey in all
things your masters according to the flesh, not with eyeservice, as
men-pleasers, but in sincerity of heart, fearing God. 23 And whatever you do, do it
heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, 24 knowing that from the
Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord
Christ. 25 But he who does
wrong will be repaid for what he has done, and there is no partiality.
I hope you will take a look at this chapter and
break it down on your own so you can see all the different areas we need to
grow in as Christians. I could easily preach 10 sermons or more from this one
chapter because it contains so many great qualities we are to make part of our
lives. It covers everything in general from what we are to strive for in our
personal lives, how we treat others, and how we are to be in our marriages.
There is so much for us do and learn from our master teacher, God almighty. Our
lives can be filled with purpose and meaning if we simply open our eyes to what
He teaches us about ourselves and about living life.
Another great purpose in the life of a Christian
is found in:
Ephesians 2:10 For we are
His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared
beforehand that we should walk in them.
One of the works that we are to walk in is serving
others. Jesus set the example:
Matthew 20:27 "And whoever desires to be
first among you, let him be your slave --
28 "just as the Son of Man did not come to be served,
but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many."
Since we are not above our
master, we must see that we should also serve others as well. While this can
include many things, I want to mention one specific way in which we can serve
all of mankind. We can to teach them about Christ and the importance of
following after Him. As Jesus said:
Matthew 28:19 "Go therefore and make
disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of
the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20
"teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I
am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen.
Those of us who have chosen to
embrace our purpose in life by living for God have been blessed beyond what we
deserve. We have been given something that we should not want to hide or keep
for ourselves. Even though we know that Jesus said there will only be a few
that accept the wonderful news of the gospel, we must do our part in giving
those in the world the opportunity to hear what we have already accepted and
made part of our lives.
We know that God loves the world
and wants everyone to repent and turn to Him.
1 Timothy 2:3 For this is good and
acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all men to be
saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is
not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is
longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should
come to repentance.
Since we know that this is God’s desire, it should
be our desire and our purpose in life. If we had the knowledge to cure all
cancer, we would not remain quite about it because we know that many hardship
and untimely deaths could be prevented. Something like that would be great, but
eventually, cancer or not, we are all going to die and there is nothing we can
do about that, but our eternal fate is our own hands. It is simply a matter of
making the choice of embracing the purpose that God has made for you. Doing so
will enrich your life and make it to where you can affect others and help guide
them to the truth about their purpose in life and why they exist.
We have looked into the owner’s
manual, and I hope you have discovered a clearer picture of why God created
you. The question becomes: Are you fulfilling your purpose in life? Are you doing what God created you
to do or are you just enjoying the life He gave you? Are you living a life of
service or just believing doctrine and attending services?
Your life and mine will only have
meaning and fulfillment when we are doing what
God created us to do. So, I hope
all of us will always embrace our purpose in life that God has spelled out
clearly for us in His Word. :