FIVE-A-LIVE ! PURPOSE

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

You were made for more than just the good life. You were made for more than success. You were made for more than survival. You were made for significance. And the only way you will know your significance is by discovering God's purpose for your life. A lot of people confuse purpose with other things. Purpose is not success. You can be incredibly successful and not know your purpose. You can make a whole lot of money and not know your purpose. You can be incredibly famous and talented and very productive in your life and still miss the purpose for which you were made. Now, when it comes to knowing your purpose in life, you really only have four choices. Only four choices. The first way is to try to figure out your purpose in life by speculation. What I mean by that is you just guess at it. You could go to some university and enroll in a philosophy course and ask all of the great questions of life. Who am I? What is my purpose? Does my life have meaning? Is there any significance to my life? Where am I headed in life? Why am I here? The bottom line is, you're just guessing. And your guess is as good as mine. It's just speculation. You're never going to find your true purpose in life by just guessing about it. It's much more important than that. Another way is uh imagination. Not speculation, but imagination, which just basically says, make up your own purpose. You don't know what your purpose, just pick one, anyone. There are probably a hundred thousand self-help books that teach that. And as they said, they confuse success with purpose. They say, you know, you know, set your goals and have your dream and clarify your values and know your vision. That's all good stuff, but it's not about your purpose. It's about success in life. And you never need to confuse those two. Just make up a purpose. That's uh imagination. And then there's another way that people often try to find a purpose, and I would call it um introspection. And what I mean by that is it's look within. And you hear this all the time in uh Eastern philosophies, you hear it in movies in particular, hear it on talk shows, and they basically say if you want to know your purpose, look within. And if you look within long enough, then you'll know your purpose. Now there's one problem with that, it doesn't work. If it did, we'd all know our purpose. Because you've looked inside you and I've looked inside of me. I looked inside of me, I just saw mess. I didn't get any clarity at all. Now follow me on the logic of this. You can't tell yourself what your purpose is because you didn't create you. Because you didn't make you, you don't know your purpose. The only way you're ever gonna know your purpose in life is talk to the creator and read the owner's manual. If you don't do that, you're never gonna know the purpose for which you were created. You could make up a purpose, but it's not the one you were created for. Now, the truth is, you are not an accident. There are accidental parents, but there are no accidental children, they're illegitimate parents, but there are no illegitimate children. Your parents may not planned you, but God did. And if God had not wanted you to exist, you would not be alive right now. You say, Well, why did God give me the parents he gave me? God was not so much interested in their parenting skills as he was interested in their DNA. Because God knew that they had just the right DNA to create you, and whether your parents were good or bad or indifferent, or maybe you even never even knew them, he knew that they would create you. And God was much more interested in creating you than he was in their parenting skills. God's plan and purpose is bigger than your parents' plan and purpose. He wanted you alive, you are not an accident, and he has a plan and purpose for your life. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, Jesus included everyone in his death so that everyone could also be included in his life. A resurrection life, a far better life than people ever lived on their own. God says, I have a purpose for your life, and it is a better life than you would ever live on your own. Now that's not a term we talk about a lot, better life. The term we talk about a lot is the good life. If you look good and you feel good and you have the goods, you got the good life. There's only one problem with a good life, it's not good enough. You can look good, feel good, have the goods, but you need the better life. And I've talked to people who had all of those things and still failed. Frustrated or empty or the nagging feeling, there's got to be more. Well, of course there's more. You weren't made just to get up in the morning, go to work, come home, watch TV, go to bed, go to party on a weekend, retire and die. That's not living, that's existing. Jesus said, I came that you might have life and life to its fullest, the better life. Now, where do we get that purpose? Well, look at the next verse. The Bible says, Everything, absolutely everything, got started in Christ. He's the creator of the universe, and finds its purpose in him. The only way you're going to find your purpose is in Christ. And the way Christ came back to life says, I do have a purpose for your life. The Bible says this in Ephesians chapter 1. It is in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Part of the overall purpose, he is working. God is working out in everything and every one. Until you get to know Christ, you're not going to know your purpose. Because he's the one who made you. He's the one that when he rose again split history into AD and BC. Without purpose, life is petty and pointless. And God says we find it through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Where do you need a resurrection in your life? I'm talking about right now. Let me phrase it another way. What's dying in your life or is dead, and you know it. And you need God's power to bring it back to life. Some of you need a resurrection in your marriage because it's dying. Some of you need a resurrection in your career. And you think, man, I thought I'd be a whole lot further along the line than I am right now. At this stage of the game, at this point in my life, I expect to be further down the road, but I'm not. And that's disappointing. And you need a resurrection in your career. Some of you need some resurrection in your energy. You say, you know, I'm just tired all the time. I drag through the day. I'm fatigued all the time. I don't have any energy. It's because you're living it on your power instead of God's power. God never intended for you to go through life just on your power. You don't have enough. Human power runs out. Human love runs out, which is why there's divorce. You need supernatural love and you need supernatural power in your life to make it to the finish line. Some of you need a resurrection of your dream. You've had a dream in your past about something you've always wanted to be or always wanted to do, a talent you wanted to develop, a goal you wanted to go after, and the dreams died. Some of you need a resurrection in your health. You're not going the right direction. Some of you need a resurrection in your motivation. I'm just kind of putting in the time and waiting for the payday. Checking the clock. And there's been a rift, there's been a break, a tear, conflict. You need a resurrection in your friendship. So I'm just saying that in so many different areas, some of you have had your heart broken recently. And you need to have your heart repaired, and you need you need a resurrection in that area of your life. You see, some of you are on the edge of giving up right now. And if we could put an x-ray to your mind, it would show you you're pretty desperate. Don't. Don't give up. You maybe you feel like giving up on your dream or giving up on your marriage or giving up on your health. Maybe you even feel like giving up on your life. Don't. Don't give up. Look up. Don't give up. Look up.