Purpose
Gtcotr/091504
Key Scripture: 2 Timothy 1:9 who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began,
Early Saturday morning, January 27, 1996, I was awakened from a dream.
I dreamed that I was in the foyer doorway entering the sanctuary of a church. The church held about 200 people in wooden pews sitting on a wooden floor. It was packed full of men, most of whom I knew. Many preachers, elders, deacons and lay leaders. Everyone was mingling and talking, happy to see one another.
Someone was singing a song on the small platform. It was a hymn-like song about going to heaven. I heard the last verse and when the singer sand the words about us getting to meet Jesus face to face, something happened. Men everywhere began lifting their hands and shouting praises to God and to the Lamb.
Several men began running around the church with their hands raised. Conservative men, filled with such true excitement about meeting Jesus that the reality of such a day overwhelmed them and they could not constrain themselves.
Then a minister I knew stepped to the platform and said, “Since you left the world behind, have you gotten any closer to Jesus?”
With that comment I had awakened … the question going over and over in my mind. As was my habit in these moments, I quickly and consciously turned to prayer concerning this dream and the question it posed. I prayed for understanding and for a personal closeness.
I examined my life in prayer and searched the scriptures in my mind which would lead me to a closer relationship with Jesus. I asked God to guide me by the Holy Spirit if I was to share this with others. I opened my heart and mind and asked God to fill me and lead me by His inspiration.
After perhaps 20 minutes of following thought after thought on how I could best present this to people if God wished me to, I decided to go back to sleep while I let God take my mind and inspire me in my rest.
As I was drifting away, I asked God what does it take to lead a people and for them to be happy and fulfilled week after week, year after year? How can I keep the fresh excitement of Christ in their lives so that they value the church and are not bored or do not grow complacent with coming to church and working in the church?
I must have gone to sleep because I saw a cloud come toward me. God spoke out of the cloud and said in a very clear and determined voice, “My people need a purpose.”
I understood in that moment that I must lead Christians to find and to understand their purpose and then help them to fulfill it.
So tonight, over 8 years since that dream, with all of the thought, prayer, counsel and study I have given to it since, allow me to share on the Stages of Purpose
I. First - It will take Preparation
Acts 26:16 ‘But rise and stand on your feet; for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to make you a minister and a witness both of the things which you have seen and of the things which I will yet reveal to you.
A. Preparation for our purpose begins before we are ever aware.
1. Saul of Tarsus was a man prepared by God
2. Christopher Columbus was born for his purpose
3. Jeremiah 1:5 speaks about God’s purpose for Jeremiah
B. When considering the purpose of God for our lives we can usually look behind us and see what He has prepared us for.
C. If you can’t seem to find the purpose of God for your life, keep on going, When God is ready the purpose will find you!
II. Passion also plays a part in purpose
A. The Stages of Purpose
1. First we Find The Purpose
2. Then we Follow The Purpose
2 Timothy 3
10 ¶ But you have carefully followed my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, love, perseverance,
11 persecutions, afflictions, which happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra—what persecutions I endured. And out of them all the Lord delivered me.
12 Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.
13 But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.
14 But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them,
B. In talking to young Timothy, one can sense Paul’s Passion
C. It will take passion for the purpose to keep you engaged and in pursuit of the purpose. Passion to follow!
III. Last - Persistence
A. Preparation to Find Purpose
B. Passion to Follow Purpose
C. Persistence to Fulfill Purpose
2 Timothy 4:7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
God’s people need a purpose.
Without a vision people perish.
2 Timothy 1:9 who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began,
Proverbs 20:18 says that every purpose is established by counsel.
