DRIVEN BY PURPOSE

Meet Fred…. Fred gets up in the morning, wishing desperately he could stay in bed. Fred hauls himself off to work where he grinds through ten hours or more. Fred can’t wait to get home. Fred bounces out of work, filled with a sense of freedom. Fred goes home and sits in his chair. Fred feels a wave of tiredness sweep through his body. Fred turns on the TV to settle his mind. Five hours later Fred gets up from the TV and flops his carcass into bed….. Another powerful day completed in the life of Fred!

Fred wants to change the monotony of his existence. Fred order tapes and books on how to improve himself. Fed sets the tapes and books on the table beside his chair… Fred turns on the TV to settle his mind…..Five hours later Fred gets up from the TV and flops his carcass into bed….. Another powerful day completed in the life of Fred!

Some of us are relating far too much to Fred or some variation of him. The problem with Fred… and millions of other Americans is that we are not really living: we are existing… and down deep we tend to realize the futility of what we are doing. Solomon, who should have enjoyed his blessed life to the fullest… didn’t

Ecclesiastes 2:11 But as I looked at everything I had worked so hard to accomplish, it was all so meaningless. It was like chasing the wind. There was nothing really worthwhile anywhere. (NLT)

I remember when I was a young roofing contractor and I, and my employees, who were my friends, would have all kinds of fun trying to see who could break each other’s production records. We would leave a job and look back with a sense of satisfaction of a job well done. Years later, I would get a call, drive up to a house, and it was the same roof I had put on, years before, all worn out and needing replaced….Whoa!! “I looked at everything I had worked so hard to accomplish, it was all so meaningless. It was like chasing the wind. There was nothing really worthwhile… anywhere.”

The problem with Fred and us is when we sense the repetition of life and want something to give life more meaning we start out by looking in all the wrong places. We, Americans imagine that if we can just purchase something new, or find a new form of leisure; life will seem meaningful again. We tend to look for life purpose by looking inside ourselves.

You will never find your purpose for being born into this world by looking within yourself!

If I dumped a thousand parts to a complicated machine in a pile on the floor and ask you to define the purpose of those parts you would be at a loss. In order to figure out the purpose of the parts you would need either the inventor himself to explain it to you… or you would need an exhaustive owners manual to give you specific instructions on; 1) how it is to be put together, 2) how it works after it is assembled, 3) and what it is supposed to accomplish when working properly.

Oddly when it comes to figuring out why we, individually have been put on this earth, we often take the pile of pieces and spend a lifetime trying to fit them into some kind of order. We often ask other people, who are busy trying to fit their lives together too, what they think our pieces should look like when assembled. What so many people are less inclined to do is to go to the owners manual or ask the inventor directly.

Why did You make me?

If you pick up a self-help book or tape, it is probably going to give you the time-honored, human formula for being successful in life.

1) Dream big dreams, Set big goals

2) Aim for the stars

3) Figure out your strengths

4) Be disciplined, work hard

5) Believe in yourself, don’t ever give up

None of those things in that list are bad things. The problem is this….

You can set goals for your life… and if you put your mind to them, and all you energies into them you can reach those goals! But… You can be hugely successful at achieving your life goals and never achieve the “life purpose” for which God placed you on this earth!

When you start the first chapter of this book it is going to give you some profound mind-shaking statements. If you grasp them, internalize them and allow them to shape your life you will begin to function at peak efficiency, in the purpose for which you were designed.

The first sentence in this book is: It’s not about you! Your purpose in being on this earth, for a few decades, is far bigger than your own personal fulfillment.

You were created by God, for God’s purpose!

Everything else, no matter how successful it seems… is just running in place.

Colossians 1:16 For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels--everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him. (MSG)

So many people, who profess Christ as their Savior, try to call on God to bless what they have established as their purpose for living…. That’s backwards… Our lives are supposed to consist of us finding out what God planned us to do, when he created, us then devoting our entire existence to being the hand of God extended to this earth.

II. God is in charge of this earth!

Mankind has tried, desperately, to usurp God’s sovereign place, just as satan tried to do,.. And it’s just so much beating the air:

Reva gave me this weather calendar for Christmas. There is a whole page in here devoted to the fact that all scientific evidence points to some kind of cataclysmic weather disturbance that happened about 5200 years ago. I wonder what that could have possibly been? __________________________________

They tell of methane levels trapped in the Antarctic, oxygen level trapped in glaciers in Africa. The beginning of the Sahara desert in Africa caused by unusual amounts of sunlight coming through the atmosphere. What in the world could have caused that?________________________________________________

Not even the slightest acknowledgement that the Biblical account of the flood might be true… because acknowledging that truth might lead them to have to acknowledge that a Creator is in charge of the universe

Job 12:10 For the life of every living thing is in his hand, and the breath of all humanity. (NLT)

Psalm 89:11 The heavens are yours, and the earth is yours; everything in the world is yours--you created it all. (NLT)

Acts 17:24-26 "The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. (NIV)

Before you were ever conceived by your parents, you were conceived in the mind of God.

He planned your purpose, for being on this earth, before you ever gave the first thought to what you would do with our life.

Ephesians 1:11 Furthermore, because of Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for he chose us from the beginning, and all things happen just as he decided long ago. (NLT)

The Bible is somewhat vague about what comes when this life is over but…In the first second, after you die, when you awake in eternity there are two things I can say for certain:

You won’t care anything at all about what other people think of the life you lived here on earth!

If we don’t focus on what God wants from our time here on earth we will misapply our time, our talents, and our treasure. We will tend to focus these gifts, from God, solely on our own personal fulfillment and happiness,… which may make great sense while we are still here, but will make no sense at all one second after we die!

Often even while we are here, we are left scratching our heads wondering what it was all about. In the midst of life’s trials Job lost sight of his purpose:

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Job 7:16 I hate this life! Who needs any more of this? Let me alone! There's nothing to my life--it's nothing but smoke. (MSG)

How can any of us evaluate out daily activities, based on their eternal value, if we don’t know what we were put on this earth to accomplish? How can you ask the question,

“ Does this activity help me fulfill God’s purposes for my life?” if you don’t know what his purposes for you, individually are?

If you have no starting point for what you are designed for… you are left making decisions about each days activities based on circumstances, or the pressure of others, or your moods; what you feel or don’t feel like doing.

It gets even worse:

Proverbs 29:18 Where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained… (NASB)

When people do not have a clear view of where they are headed and why, there is nothing in place to control their actions. As America has moved further and further away from Biblical truth as their reason for living their actions have become less and less restrained.

Situational Ethics: “Right it what ever seems right in any giving situation“. How else could anyone who does not really believe that life has any purpose beyond themselves… think? Our decisions in this life are made, based on what we feel at that exact second, with no thought of tomorrow’s consequences.

Ephesians 5:17 Don't act thoughtlessly, but try to understand what the Lord wants you to do. (NLT)

Joseph had a purpose in life that God had shown him early on… When Potiphar’s wife tried to seduce him, his purpose, his vision.. gave him restraint.

That’s why God gave us a picture of heaven…. Our vision of what is to come allows us to act with restraint in this life… since this life is just preparation for the coming eternal life.

Purpose brings Passion

If I put a bowl, up here, filled with gunpowder, then light a match to it… you will see

a flash and a puff of smoke… nothing else will come of it.

If I put the same powder in a bullet casing, a single spark can send the bullet a mile or more.

Restraining the gunpowder gave it only one option… that option was to produce a potency that could never have been achieved without the restraint.

Once you know where your ultimate destination is… the daily decisions become much easier.

If you’re traveling from here to New York City and someone asks you to stop in San Francisco for lunch on the way, the decision is easy… “Sorry, that action can not be fit into the direction I am taking.

What God said to the Children of Israel can be taken as a promise to you, as well:

Your Creator put you here with a very, very specific purpose… tailored to your life. Fulfilling your purpose is what will give your life meaning. And don’t imagine that God’s plans for you are inferior to what you might plan for yourself…