LIVING A PURPOSE DRIVEN LIFE (PART 1)

WORDS OF ENCOURAGEMENT

The bible says that for God so loved the world and He gave us His only son. When you love, you give. God gave His son Jesus to die for us. Our giving is a reflection of our love back to God. Every time we give we give towards God’s kingdom for the gospel to be preached.

The more we love people the more God will add onto us in numbers. Salvation unites us and Christ unites us. As parents we should pray for our children who are not yet married to get the vision and for them to relate well.

For parents that have children in school also pray for them because they are about to go back to school. God is working miracles in the hearts of children. When children go back to school so many things make them backslide just like some of us that when we are not in fellowship, we do not relate as Christians and we are the opposite of believers.

When you come to Jesus you will be renewed and not miss heaven. We are in a changing environment and everything is quick and we need to take time to talk to our children and pray for them.

SERMON

It is very clear that success in life is not about what you have achieved or what you have accumulated and yet we wake up every morning to go and make an extra coin or shilling. True success according to scripture is not measured in terms of what you have achieved, what you have attained, the properties you have bought or the reputation you have among people and the respect that you seem to command. True success is in discovering the reason for which God brought you here on earth.All of us struggle regardless of the age with answering the question, why am I here on earth?

The scripture speaks a lot about the reason for which God placed us here on earth. When you look at the life of our Lord Jesus Christ in putting across to the reason for which He was here, He made very clear statements in the word.

John 4:34 says, “Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.”

In other words, Jesus was telling them that what satisfied Him was not external or what gave His body pleasure but it was do the will of God who sent Him and not only that but to finish it. Jesus’ only motivation in life was to fulfil the purpose for which He came on the earth for.

What is your life’s motivation? For many of us our life’s motivation is to amass more wealth. Some of us, the driving force of our lives is to acquire more titles and titles are not bad, but titles don’t define you. For some of us maybe our life’s motivation is to acquire more papers and it is not bad to acquire knowledge but knowledge itself is empty if it is not to connect you to the purpose for which God sent you here. Why are you here?

Haggai was running away from Sarah after they had a falling out. When Haggai was pregnant she started despising Sarah because she was barren and that caused the rift between them. Haggai was later sent away and while she was wondering in the desert like many of us keep wondering in the desert of life, the Lord spoke to Haggai and asked her questions, “where are you coming from and why are you here?” Her response was circumstantial and many times our response to life is circumstantial and it is not hinged on the purpose for which God has placed us where He has placed us.

Before we begin to ask God to bless our lives with new jobs, to bless us with new cars or to bless us with land or to bless our lives with new opportunities that we will zero into asking God to help us to discover the reason why we are here.

The issue about purpose is underscored even in the Lord’s prayer. The way the Lord’s prayer was put down emphasizes the issue of purpose. The Lord prayer begins with our Father who is the source from whom we come and it says, who is in heaven which speaks about where we came from. Hallowed be thy name speaks about the relationship with the source from whom we came. Thy kingdom come speaks about the priority of the one who sent us here. That is why Jesus’ message entirely focused on the kingdom because that is the heart beat of the Master who sent Him on earth. What is your heart beat? What is the heart beat for the reason you are here?

Thy kingdom come is about what is important to the Master. The reason for which the Master sent the Lord to be here was to build the kingdom of God. The second part of the Lord’s pray says, thy will be done here on earth as it is in heaven and that part of the Lord’s prayer speaks about us accomplishing the purpose of God for which we are here.

There is a blueprint in heaven for everything God wants us to do here on earth. When God told Moses to build the Tabernacle in Exodus 25, God told him to build it according to the pattern which God would show him on the mountain. The writer of the book of Hebrews alludes to this building project of Moses and says that there was already a heavenly temple and God wanted what was in heaven to be replicated here on earth.

The bible says that Moses built the tabernacle according to specifications because God is very detailed. God told Moses which materials to use and where. In some places God told Moses to use gold here, in some place to use beaten gold, in some places to use solid gold, in some places to use bronze, here use blue, here use white, here use scarlet, here use hides and hides of sea cows not hides of goats etc. God was very specific about what God wanted Moses to do and Moses spent 40 days and 40 nights downloading the details of God’s will Him and God’s purposes for him. Moses built the tabernacle exactly how God him to build it and even the measurements were given to him. READ- Exodus 25-40

God even told Moses the people who would design the materials for the tabernacle. God anointed Oholiab and Bezaleel and gave them skill to design the materials for the tabernacle and that is why we need each other because God has anointed people differently and has given them skills for the work that He has brought us corporately here on earth for.

God gave Moses specifics and gave him specific people and the bible says that when Moses finished the project, the glory of the Lord came down upon the tabernacle and no one could enter it. That glory of God became the compass that led them as they journeyed through the wilderness towards the promised land. Whenever the clouds stopped in a particular place, the children of Israel would stop there. Whenever the clouds lifted, the children of Israel would also move because Moses was doing what God called him to do according to the prescriptions God gave him. Moses had direction and the people that he led had clear directions that they knew when to move and they also knew when to stop.

Many of us have no directions. We do a thousand things and are jacks of all trades and masters of none. We are doing many things because of the fact that we have not taken time to download the heavenly blue print for our lives to know what we are here on earth to do.

There was a time when Jesus was told by His mother when there was no wine on the wedding in John 2. The mother came and told him that the wine was finished and Jesus said, “Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come.” In Africa it would be disrespectful to call your mother woman but Jesus was just being very clear about the importance of time and purpose in His life. Jesus just gave the people instructions and he did not personally involve Himself with His hand to solve the wine problem. Sometimes we personally create problems and we want God to solve them for us. The issue of knowing why we are here is important. God is merciful and sometimes He helps us but sometimes He also wants us to learn and take on responsibility for the mess we have gotten ourselves in.

In John 10:10 the second part, Jesus said “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” The word life means Zoe which means the quality of life that God gives and that is eternal life.

Eternal life is not life after death as we think, but it is the quality of life that God gives to a believer when they open their hearts and allow Jesus to come in. The kind of life that enables you to smile in the midst of a storm. The kind of life that helps you hold your head high when everything around you is falling apart. The kind of life that Jesus demonstrated when He was in the midst of the sea with His disciples and| there was a storm and He was sound asleep and this is the kind of life which God gives. The kind of life that gives you confidence to move on in this fallen world in which we are.

This world is a fallen world and end time prophecies show that things will move from bad to work but Jesus told His disciples in this life you will face many challenges but be of good cheer because I have overcome the world. Jesus had a quality of life that was not subject to the circumstances in the fallen world and Jesus says that is the reason why He came.

Jesus came to give those who believe in Him a quality of life that would enable them to live without being subject to the circumstances around them. That is why Jesus would walk on top of the water which same water was drowning His disciples. Jesus was very clear as to why He was here and the question is, are you clear as to why you are here? You can live your whole life and end it and just discover that you have never done anything that God wanted you to do. It is like leaning a ladder on the wall and climbing it and when you reach the top, you realise that the ladder was leaning on the wrong wall.

It is possible for you to serve the Lord in ministry for over 15 years and yet that is not the line of ministry or office that God has called you to. We could be doing things, running around, serving on various committees but in God’s economy, we have not started doing the will of God, the purpose for which we are here. Jesus was very clear about the reason why He was here.

Luke 2:49 says, “And He said to them, “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” Jesus was in the temple having a discussion with the teachers of the law asking them questions. The bible says that the teachers were amazed at the level of wisdom that was coming out of a twelve-year-old boy, Jesus.

Think about the twelve year olds in your home. When Covid lockdown came, many parents complained that children were home and began complaining to the government. We have reached a level of delegating the responsibility of raising our children to teachers whom we think have been trained to take care of our children on our behalf not knowing that these teachers are products of the broken family system.

Someone can know the purpose of God for their lives even at a tender age. In Jeremiah 1:4, the bible says that the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah that even before he was form in his mother’s womb, God knew him. Jeremiah was equipped to serve the Lord at a tender age. Some of us are beyond the tender age and we don’t know the will of God for our lives. There is an emptiness. We are stars but we live with emptiness until we connect for the reason as to why we are here. We need to pray for the will of God to be in our lives here on earth. Thy will be done on earth begins with us. May God help us discover the reasons as to why we are here.

We struggle with our children because we don’t know why we are here. We keep forcing them to study things that we think that they should study. Some parents say that, “in this house, we must have a doctor and engineer” etc and so we force the children to do things that God hasn’t planned for them to do. God gifts people differently for them to fulfil the reason as to why He put them here on earth. An elephant can’t climb a tree. If we have not discovered the purpose here on earth, how then can we live satisfied lives?

Jesus knew who he was and why He was here. His purpose was connected to who He was. In these scriptures, John 6:24, John 14:6, John 8:12, John 10:7 and John 10:11, Jesus defined Himself in ways that were connected to His purpose. Jesus came to die so that all of us will one day resurrect and be with the Father forever. The reason for your existence is connected to who you are.

There are many people in scripture whose names God changed to align them to their purposes. Abraham means the father of nations and this was connected to the purpose for which he was born. Jacob’s name was changed to Israel because He was struggling to be blessed. We think that blessings are defined in materials and Jacob had materials but there was an emptiness in his life.

Many of us live our lives wrestling with the Lord. There are things that happen in our lives to help us connect to our purpose. Jacob’s name was changed to Israel. Jacob means a conniver/ conman and his life was a cocktail of scandals and God said no, “I called you to Myself” to fulfil what I established you here on earth for. Maybe this is what we need this year, to align ourselves to why God put us here on earth.

Luke 4:18 Jesus re-echoed what was in Isaiah 61. Jesus opened Isaiah 61 in the scroll and He said that the words today have been fulfilled in their hearing and people were offended and Jesus didn’t care. Jesus put up the details as to why He had come.

At the end of Paul’s life, he said he had run the race and finished his assignment. At the cross, Jesus said it was finished. When you live a purpose driven life, there is no satisfaction that compares to doing the purpose of God. At the end of His life, Jesus said it is finished. Many people on their deathbeds have regret and die very bitter and angry, why?

Well done my faithful servant, may that be our life’s motivation. As Stephen was being stoned to death, he was having a revelation of well done from the Lord. As we go out there, may the portion of the Lord’s prayer may your will be done, be the core in our prayers this year.

PREACHER: DR. DAN MAGUMBA