The Purpose Driven Life 6

40 Days of Purpose

Created For What????

By Pastor Samuel Chess 

If you were to stop 50 people out here on the street and ask them the question why are you on this earth, many of those 50 would not have any good idea. It’s a question that has been tossed around for thousands of years without any real condenses of opinion. If you studied philosophy in school you probably, like I did, spent several irretrievable hours of your life studying what some supposed brain of the time had decided after pondering this question and often their answer left everyone with even more questions.

A) Any attempt to understand your reason for existence apart from God is a waste of good brain cells.

If you put God at the center, and us as his created beings and then start from the premise that why-ever we are here, its part of his great design and purpose; then you have a starting point from which you can draw a reasonable conclusion.

If you start with man at the center and try to figure out why this whole thing is going on; ...any answer you can come up with only leaves you in greater confusion.

If you believe God is your sovereign creator, then all these life purposes we have been studying will give you a basis to build your present life around and an deep understanding that this life is preparing you for an eternal life you are going to spend with God.

If you don’t believe in God you are stuck trying to manufacture happiness in this life by pursing whatever self centered options come down the pike.... and you are set up to fail in that endeavor. We have a world of people out there with

a great void deep in their soul, longing for some answer to fill it; and they just don’t know what it is....

How you would love to be able to make sense out of the chaos that has filled your mind.

The Bible is very clear about why you are on this earth. We have spent the last 40 days studying, daily, those clear biblical reasons. Many ,many of you have been reading this book...The Purpose Driven Life... and have told me how these truths are transforming your life.

One of the clearly defined purposes... the one perhaps that most defines your life right where the daily rubber of your life meets the daily road of your life is this third purpose.

B) Messing up God’s creation

Because of the fall of Adam and Eve in the garden soon after creation every person who is born on this earth is born with the nature of sin buried inside. I’ve never in my life asked anyone, “ Have you sinned” and had them say no. Every one I’ve ever asked quickly says, “Yea, I’ve sinned”.

Even people who have no use for God talk about “bad girls” and call a certain town in the west, “sin city”. Why would they say that?? If there is no God, then nothing is bad. If there is really no one up there setting the standard, then Hitler had as much right to do what he did as you do to do what you do.

But you know, as do most people in this world that certain types of behavior are wrong, that certain actions constitute sin. You feel inner remorse when you do certain things because:

a) There is a moral conscience buried inside each one of us that defines our behavior. It was built in to you by your Divine Creator.

b) Romans 3: 23 ..All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. TNIV

c) Romans 6: 23 For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. TNIV

2) God’s solution:

Here’s a piece of good news that may come as a shock to some reading this. We’re happy at the thought of God being willing to forgive our sins...

When some of us think about some of the things we have done, some that are so vile that we would never tell anyone for fear that they would forever condemn us. When we finally begin to understand the forgiveness of God..... the same God who is completely aware of every act we ever did; even the secret ones, who knows every thought, even the ones we would never ever put into words; that same God is perfectly willing to completely forgive us, and forget that we ever did anything wrong.

That’s amazing! That’s awesome. If that was all God did for us it would be so much more than we deserve.

As amazing as that is, that is only the beginning of what God is willing to do for you:

A) God is willing to take the very roots of sin in you, the inner soul cancer that caused you to sin in the first place, and slowly change you on the inside until the very thing that drove you to sin to start with is gone; and it is replaced by new motivator that draws you toward doing righteous things.

What if I told you it was possible for that temptation that has controlled your life for years to lose it’s control on you. Would that get your attention?

What if I told you that God has provided a pathway out of the habit that has haunted you for years. Would that interest you?

What if I promised you that the rages that overcome you sometimes could become a thing of the past, that your responses could be tempered and made calm and gentle. Is that something you would want.

What if I told you that the lust that overwhelms you and causes you to droll over a page that in reality is just thousands of ink dots on a piece of white paper could be replaced by a true love for humanity that goes beyond the shape of a body and cares the soul. Would you like that raging beast to be tamed.

What if I told you that the buried anger that boils in you just beneath the surface stoked by years of abuse could be changed into a Christ like love, even for the very people that made your life a living hell. Would you be willing to feel genuine love for your enemies?

Maybe I haven’t mentioned your particular particular weakness; I invite you to fill in the blanks as you need to..._________________. What if I were to promise you that you could be free of the most troubling of sins in your life.

I beg to differ, I think I do, I know I do.

Do any of the things I just mentioned sound like something Jesus would have been struggling with. Noooo. Jesus lived a righteous life, He was God incarnate. In spite of a couple of sacrilegious movies in the last few years, it’s hard to imagine Jesus drooling in front of a pornographic website. Jesus was accused of drinking with alcoholics, but it’s a little hard to imagine Jesus stoned out of his gourd, isn’t it.

That’s because he didn’t do those things. He was faced with the same temptations that everyone else was, but his righteous character helped him to say no in the face of temptation.

Now here is the big theological truth that you’ve been waiting for. Here is the reason that I can make a promise to you that God wants to release you from the chains of sin in your life.

B) Not only is the Bible full of God’s promises to forgive the sins of anyone who asks but it is also full of God’s promises to transform the character of the forgiven person into the character of Jesus.

1) Romans 8:29 God knew what he was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love him along the same lines as the life of his Son... We see the original and intended shape of our lives there in him. Msg

2) Romans 8:29 From the very beginning God decided that those who came to him..... should become like his Son.

3) Eph 4:22 Take on an entirely new way of life- a God fashioned life, a life renewed from the inside and working itself into your conduct as God accurately reproduces his character in you. Msg

It appears that God is offering to reproduce his character in us. He seems to be promising us... commanding us.... assuring us that we don’t have to spend our whole lives locked into our sinful behavior.

Many of you have been part of a religious system that has encouraged you to repent of your sins, often, even daily... but no one ever told you that God had provided for you not to have to go on day after day, year after year committing the same sins.

I’m telling you now the Bible is very clear on this point:

4) Ehesians 4:24 You were... created to be like God, truly righteous and holy.GWT

5) 2 Cor. 3:18 As the Spirit of the Lord works within us, we become more and more like him and reflect his glory even more. NLT

6) Phil 2:13 God is working in you, giving you the desire to obey him and the power to do what pleases him. NLT

7) Romans 12:1-2 Therefore I urge you brothers in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God- this is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is- His good, pleasing and perfect will. NIV

1) Put off sinful ways...

a) Eph. 4:22 Everything....connected with that old way of life has to go. It’s rotten through and through. Get rid of it.

2) Put on the character of Jesus!

a) Eph. 4:24 Put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. NIV

1) Romans 12:2 Don’t become so well adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out... Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to it’s level of immaturity, God brings the best out in you. develops well-formed maturity in you. Msg

D) We must decide what we are committed to because we become what we are committed to!

1) Every behavior is motivated by a belief and every action is prompted by an attitude.

2) The way you think determines the way you feel and the way you feel determines the way you act.

a) Romans 12:2b Let God transform you in to a new person by changing the way you think. NLT

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