Finding Your Purpose in God - Sept 28th Open Door Christian Fellowship

Finding Your Purpose in God

Is there a plan God has for me?


For I know the thoughts and plans that I have for you, says the Lord, thoughts and plans for welfare and peace and not for evil, to give you hope in your final outcome.
Jeremiah 29:11


Does God have a specific purpose for our lives?


This question must first be answered before we can even start to consider finding our purpose.


Unless we believe that God has a specific purpose for us why would we try to find one?


The first question I ever asked about God that was sincere and ultimately led to my finding Him was, ³Do you think there is a God and if there is what does He have to do with us?


The existence of God and His relationship with us is the ultimate question of purpose.


If there is no God there is no purpose.


The Western faith in materialism has resulted in such chaos that only the relics of a once held Christian belief system has kept it from completely destroying itself.


At the core of atheism is the denial of any sense of purpose to human life.


As a very popular proabortion speaker once told me in a public forum, ³Even if we come to fully accept that the fetus is fully human, so what? We kill chickens don't we?´


Without a faith in God there is no basis for human worth or purpose. We are no more significant than the spiders we crush to rid our homes of them.


That is why the most ruthless heart is one that really believes there is no God.


I believe anyone who looks at the world as it really is will come to the conclusion that there had to have been a designer who created the world and ultimately us.


But even that knowledge does not answer the question of purpose.


Knowing that something or someone designed all of this does not tell us that there was a purpose in creating it.


The creator could have been an alien from a dying race like 2001 a Space Odyssey promotes.


In that case the purpose of humanity is non specific. There is a grand scheme but the individuals have little or no purpose themselves.


The creator could have been just filling in time. Or he/she/it might no longer exist.


The understanding that human beings were created by God with a purpose is only found in believing that God is real and has a personal relationship with us.


The more personal an interest He has in us the more profound is the sense of purpose.


We have come to understand that God is so completely interested in us that He knows even the number of hairs that we have.


"Are not five sparrows sold for two cents? Yet not one of them is forgotten before God. 7"Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows Luke 12:6-7


King David fully expresses in a song the intimacy he knew God had with him in Psalm 139.



. . . O LORD, you have searched me, and known me. 2 You know my downsitting and my uprising, you understand my thought afar off.
Psalm 139:1-2


As our Creator, God knows us perfectly. He created our Spirit, Soul and Body. He knows everything about us«..


EVERYTHING


3 You compass my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. 4 For there is not a word on my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, you know it altogether. 5 You have beset me behind and before, and laid your hand upon me. Psalm 139


He is not just a far off creator that started the world and left it. He remains intimately connected to His creations. He is perfectly involved in everything we do, think, feel, believe.


EVERYTHING


5 You have beset me behind and before, and laid your hand upon me. 6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it. 7 Whither shall I go from your spirit? or whither shall I flee from your presence? Psalm 139


The picture David sings to us about is so clearly the experience of his life. God is so closely tied to His creation that it goes beyond human capacity to comprehend it yet it is able to be discerned by the revelation of God. He is always with us.


8 If I ascend up into heaven, you are there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, you are there. 9 If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; 10 Even there shall your hand lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. Psalm 139


11 If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. 12 Yea, the darkness does not hide not from you; but the night shines as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to you. Psalm 139


David will not let us think for a moment that God is even slightly distant. He is totally connected to His creation. Though David did not know about atoms if he did he would have sung that God is connected to us even on a subatomic level.


Several centuries later Paul as well reaffirms that Jesus is the very force that keeps everything in life from coming apart.


For by Him all things were created, both in the visible and invisible, whether thrones of dominions or rulers or authorities - all things have been created by Him and for Him.
Colossians 1:16


The "him" that Paul speaks of is God's only son Jesus who He sent to give his life for us to bring us back to a full relationship with God.


And He is before all things and in Him all things hold together.
Colossians 1:17


Jesus is involved in even the sub atomic particles in our being.


We cannot possibly get a message from the Bible of a Creator that is uninvolved. The Bible tells us that our Creator continues to create in our lives.


Now David moves us from the larger experience of God's intimate connection to us to the specifics of our creation.


13 For you formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother's womb. Psalm 139


14 I will give thanks to you; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: Wonderful are Your works; and my soul knows it very well. Psalm 139


15 My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth.
Psalm 139


16 your eyes have seen my unformed substance; and in your book were all written The days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them.
Psalm 139


Jesus created us from the first cell. He created us very specifically. Each aspect of our creation has purpose. They all relate to our destiny in God.


When we understand that Jesus is our creator us we also understand that He created us, as He did everything else He created,


Purposefully


BEING CREATED PURPOSEFULLY MEANS:


WE HAVE A PURPOSE


BUT
JESUS CREATING US WITH A PURPOSE DOES NOT MEAN WE AUTOMATICALLY FULFILL THAT PURPOSE.


IT IS CONDITIONAL ON US
WHETHER WE ALLOW OURSELVES TO BE USED FOR THAT PURPOSE HE DESIGNED US FOR.


TO REJECT JESUS AS OUR CREATOR IS TO REJECT OUR PURPOSE.


For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--all things have been created through Him and for Him.
Colossians 1:16


This is even more specifically stated in the great anthem of praise that resounded on the day John the beloved who wrote the book of Revelation received his prophetic vision.


The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying,
Revelation 4:10 (KJS)


Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure
they are and were created.
Revelation 4:11 (KJS)


The NASB translates the words "for thy pleasure",


"because of Your will"


The NIV translates the words "for thy pleasure",


"by Your will"


ALL THREE TRANSLATIONS PICK UP ON ASPECTS OF THE TRUTH CONTAINED IN THE GREEK WORD CONCERNING WHY ALL THINGS WERE AND ARE CREATED.


thelema, thel'-ay-mah; from the prolonged form of Greek thelo; a determination (active) choice (special purpose, decree; abstract volition) or (passive) inclination :- desire, pleasure, will.


So then we are created:


1. By the CHOICE of God (because of His will) 2. By the DECREE of God (by His will) 3. For His PLEASURE


ALL THREE ARE REALLY A PART OF ANYTHING THAT WE CREATE AS WELL.


THE FIRST TWO (BECAUSE OF HIS WILL AND BY HIS WILL) HAVE TO DO WITH HOW WE ARE CREATED


THE LAST IS THE WHAT WE ARE CREATED FOR:


AND FOR THY PLEASURE THEY ARE CREATED


Finding Your Purpose in God Part 1 Web