CHURCH LIFE CLASS
LIVING FOR GOD’S PURPOSE
PREFACE: God desires His people to live with a great sense of purpose for their lives. It is a sad statistic,
but according to some polls 36% of born again Christians are still trying to find out the
purpose for their lives. This is in contrast to only 49% of non-believers still trying to find
out the purpose for their lives. Living for His purposes isn’t some sort of superior state that
only a few “Super Spiritual Christians” find, while the rest of us are left to stumble around.
God wants every Christian living for His purposes on this earth and has made them clear in
His word.
I. A LIFE LIVED WITHOUT GOD’S PURPOSE IS FUTILITY
And if you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each man’s work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay upon earth; knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. 1 Peter 1:17-19
The word “futile” means useless, or of no purpose.
The writer of Ecclesiastes used the phrase “Vanity of vanities” (Ecclesiastes 1:2), and goes on to
explain that life lived without God is vain (empty, to no purpose).
A. Living for Christ will cause us to move from a futile/purposeless life to a life filled with God’s
purposes.
When we live for His purpose we will invest in eternal things and live every day to it’s fullest.
James 4:13-14 13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow, we shall go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.” 14 Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. (NASB)
Matthew 6:33 “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you. (NASB)
If we don’t live with eternity in view we will fall back and live our life for “this life’s issues”
only.
2 Timothy 4:10 for Demas, having loved this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica; Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. (NASB)
II. THREE AREAS OF PURPOSE ALL CHRISTIANS ARE CALLED TO WALK
IN.
These are the primary purposes of every Christian life. These purposes are all part of each other. It is
like an egg. All three parts of it are important and somewhat interconnected. It is hard to value one
part without the other parts.
A. We are called to grow up/mature as followers of Christ. It is part of walking in a real
relationship with Jesus
The call of the Great Commission is a call to grow as we follow Christ.
Matthew 28:19-20 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Hebrews 6:1 Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity.
Ephesians 4:15 but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him, who is the head, even Christ.
Religious pollster George Barna found some interesting statistics in this area.
When Christian adults were asked to identify their most important goal for their life, not a single person said it was to be a committed follower of Jesus Christ, or to make Disciples of Christ.
Less than one out of every five born again adults had any specific and measurable goals related to their personal spiritual development.
Less than 1% of all believers perceived a connection between their efforts to worship God and their development as a disciple of Jesus.
When given thirteen basic teachings from the Bible, only 1% of adult believers firmly embraced all 13 as being biblical perspectives.
“Most Christians are simply not making progress in their personal spiritual development.”
Walking in God’s purpose for growth/maturity will cause you to put yourself under spiritual disciplines
which are necessary for growth.
Things like systematic Bible reading, Bible classes, disciplined prayer times, and meeting with spiritual mentors and/or peer fellowship will promote growth and progress in your life.
B. Becoming our part in building the body of Christ, the church on earth.
Matthew 16:24-26 Then Jesus said to His disciples, if anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake (His cause) shall find it. For what will a man be profited, if he gains the whole world, and forfeits his soul?
In following Christ, we are to lose our life for His cause. Jesus had already told them His cause a few
verses earlier in Verse 18.
Matthew 16:18 Upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not overpower it.
We are citizens of heaven (or a colony of heaven on earth) and are seeking to make His church
all He desires.
Philippians 3:20 For our citizenship/commonwealth is in heaven (we are a colony of heaven), from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Background of the phrase “citizens or colony of heaven”: Philippi had become a Roman Provincial city. Rome invested resources into Philippi and granted Roman citizenship to some of its people so that Philippi would become an expression of Roman culture in their region. When you went to Philippi you would get a good idea of what Roman life was like. The same is true for Local Churches. We have been given citizenship in heaven and now we are a colony or commonwealth of heaven on earth. When people encounter the church they should get an idea of what heaven’s culture looks like on earth through the church.
Galatians 4:26 But the Jerusalem above is free; she is our mother.
Hebrews 12:22-23 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to Myriads of angels, to the general assembly of the church of the first-born who are enrolled in heaven,..
Each person when they come into Christ becomes a fellow citizen of God’s city (the church), and fellow members of Christ’s body (the church). Each member is to actively take their place to see the church become all God intended her to be.
Ephesians 2:19-20 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens (citizens or a colony of heaven) with the saints, and are of God’s household.
1Corinthians 12:12-13, 18 For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body,.. But now God has placed the members, each one of them in the body, just as He desired.
Ephesians 4:1, 15-16 I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, entreat you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called,..but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him, who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by that which every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.
Each one of us is a part of this process. We all contribute to seeing God’s culture expressed in the earth through His City/Body, the Church.
From the moment our feet hit the ground in the morning we are to be seeking the purpose of seeing God’s church live and express heaven’s standards on the earth.
When you embrace this purpose you wake up and think thoughts like, “How can I help motivate, serve, and encourage my brothers and sisters to live the lifestyle of heaven on earth? What can I contribute to seeing my fellow citizens’ live God’s ways in the earth? Who can I help disciple in the ways of God?”
C. We are to be ambassadors for Christ. This is not disconnected from the other two purposes
2 Corinthians 5:20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were entreating through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
The word “ambassador” means, “to represent one royal court to another.” We are representing God and His ways to the world around us in order to see them reconciled to God.
This has to do with both aspects of evangelism: Demonstration and Declaration
Everyday when we get up and go to work, to the campus, or to the marketplace, we go as ambassadors of Christ who are trying to see mankind reconciled to Him. This mission is to motivate us with purpose.
From the moment our feet hit the ground in the morning this purpose should motivate us and dominate our thinking. We don’t just go to our job, class, or store; we go to our mission field as ambassadors of Christ.
If this isn’t at the forefront of our thinking we will tend to life in futility.