Sunday Morning
Pastor Jim Lowe III
Sunday Morning, 9:30am Stream
1/17/21
{All scriptures are NIV unless stated}
This is week 3 talking about purpose!
Review:
Each One Of Us Was Created With A Purpose
There are people who are looking for a reason for their existence.
There are people who are trying to find fulfillment in life.
Some of us are doing very well right now, but still might have a feeling there’s more we should be doing.
Others of us may feel stagnant as if we don’t know what we truly should be doing or where we should be going.
But God created each of us with a purpose.
Every single person was not born without a purpose.
Jer 29:11 - He knows the plans he has for us.
We have a reason to be here!
Repeat:
{I Have A Purpose}
Our Purpose Is Designed To Give God Glory
1 Peter 2:9 - You are a chosen people -> that you may declare the praises of him…
You have a purpose - to give God glory.
Repeat:
{I Have A Purpose}
{That Purpose Will Give God Glory}
Last week:
We talked about how God wants us to know our purpose.
Some of us have an idea of God’s purpose for us.
Some of us are still trying to figure it out.
Psalm 32:8
8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you.
If God will instruct and teach and counsel us in what we should do…where we should go, then.
God Wants Us To Know Our Purpose In Life
As we’re talking about starting 2021 on purpose…
We have to remember that God WANTS us to do this!
He WANTS us to know why we’re here!
We also talked about how God can reveal it to us.
We mentioned how God told Jeremiah directly.
Jeremiah 1:4-7
4 The word of the Lord came to me, saying, 5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” 6 “Ah, Sovereign Lord,” I said, “I do not know how to speak; I am only a child.” 7 But the Lord said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am only a child.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you.
Jeremiah was told as a child he was to be a prophet to the nations.
If his purpose is to give God glory?
You have to ask, “Does God get glory from this?”
Make Sure God Is Able To Get Glory From Your “Purpose”
We have to check whatever we’re thinking up against that.
{Close Your Eyes:}
{Imagine yourself walking in that purpose you feel God has for you}
Who is it uplifting?
Who is getting the glory?
Who is it benefiting the most?
If It Doesn’t Glorify God, It Isn’t Your Purpose
If it doesn’t glorify God…it isn’t what he made you for.
Anything that God has us do will point back to him.
God Gives Us Purpose For His Glory, Not Ours
You might make a name for yourself.
People may begin to like you.
You may become a well known:
Minister
Evangelist
Teacher
Life Coach
Motivator
Prophet
Politician
President
Songwriter
Movie Producer
Business Owner
But your purpose will be to constantly point to God and not yourself.
{What’s another way God can show you your purpose?}
But God can also show it to you by circumstances.
You can put it together based on what God is showing you he’s doing with you.
Joseph and Daniel weren’t directly told their purpose.
Yet it was to be a voice on behalf of God to Kings.
Joseph walked up the ranks to warn a king of an incoming famine.
Daniel walked up the ranks to be a voice for God to multiple kings.
But even with them…ask the question.
How Did Their Purpose Glorify God?
They both spent their lives talking about the greatness of God.
This is how we test our purpose from God.
{So what happens while we’re trying to hear from God on our purpose?}
While We’re Waiting To Hear From God, Do Something!
Serve somewhere!
Get in someplace and serve to help God’s people!
Begin to do something!
If you don’t know your full purpose,
Get busy serving in your ministry.
God Likes To Reveal Things To Busy People
Find out how you can serve somewhere in your ministry.
Things are different because of COVID, but your church is still serving people.
They need your help!
Don’t Stop Serving!
It’s giving God glory now…and it’s preparing you for your greater purpose.
We can sit and wait for God to make his purpose plain for us.
Or we can start serving somewhere.
We can start working now.
Or we can wait…
Why Would God Reveal His Purpose If We Already Show Him We Won’t Serve?
Your ministry needs help!
Even here…during a pandemic…there are plenty of places to serve!
We have food giveaways occasionally.
Every Sunday we need people to help greet those coming to service.
needs in video
needs in audio
needs to help us online
needs to help us get the message out
needs to help maintain the building
If You Are Looking For A Place To Serve, Start In Your Home Ministry!
Sometimes God will reveal things as you start doing something!
Genesis 12:1 - The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.
God Can Reveal When We Start Moving!
But let’s move to one of the biggest things keeping us from walking in our purpose.
Quick Recap: {all of this on one slide if possible}
- You Have A Purpose Designed To Glorify God
- God Wants You To Know What It Is
- If You Don’t Know It, Make Sure You Are Serving Somewhere
Here’s something else about purpose:
Our Purpose Can Be Something We Don’t Want To Do
Don’t judge your purpose on the things you like doing.
We use that to determine our careers...not purpose.
God may want you doing something outside your comfort zone.
It happened to Jeremiah:
Jeremiah 1:4-7
4 The word of the Lord came to me, saying, 5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” 6 “Ah, Sovereign Lord,” I said, “I do not know how to speak; I am only a child.” 7 But the Lord said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am only a child.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you.
God spoke to Jeremiah
You are to be a prophet.
Jeremiah responds giving an excuse.
Jeremiah gave reasons why he shouldn’t/couldn’t do what God wanted.
Gideon did something similar.
Judges 6:11-15
11 The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. 12 When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.” 13 “But sir,” Gideon replied, “if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our fathers told us about when they said, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and put us into the hand of Midian.” 14 The Lord turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?” 15 “But Lord,” Gideon asked, “how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.”
The Lord appeared to Gideon and called him a mighty warrior and said the Lord was with him.
Gideon questioned the Lord saying if “God is with us,” then why are we harassed by Midian?
The Lord says he is sending Gideon.
Gideon responds saying how can he save Israel?
His clan is the weakest…he’s the least.
Gideon is giving excuses to the purpose God has for him.
We Tend To Give Excuses When God Calls Us Also
Exodus 3:7-10
7 The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 9 And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. 10 So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”
The Lord is telling Moses his purpose.
To bring God’s people out and take them to the promised land.
How would God get glory through this?
God would show himself as the answered prayer to the Israelites.
God would let them know he was all powerful and a loving God.
This was Moses’ purpose!!
How does Moses react?
Exodus 3:11
11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”
Moses gives an excuse…”who am I?”
Exodus 3:12
12 And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.”
God responds with a promise.
He’ll be with us…
Moses gives another excuse
Exodus 3:13
13 Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”
Moses says “suppose I go.”
That isn’t something someone ready to go would say.
Verse 14:
14 God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ” 15 God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation.
You can finish the conversation, but Moses and God go back and forth a LOT.
All ending with this:
Exodus 4:13
13 But Moses said, “O Lord, please send someone else to do it.”
Moses didn’t want to do this!
{Our purpose may not be the thing we want to do…}
But God designed us for it.
The biggest thing we have to help us walk in purpose is this:
God Will Be With Us!
He said to Gideon:
Judges 6:15-16
15 “But Lord,” Gideon asked, “how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.” 16 The Lord answered, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites together.”
He said to Moses:
Exodus 3:12
12 And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.”
God tells you he will be with you.
My favorite scriptures to talk about this.
Isaiah 43:2
2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire,
you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.
God Is With You!
You can walk in your purpose confidently because God is with you!
Joshua 1:9
9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”
You are not alone!
God is with you!
God Says He Will Be With You, And You Are Going To Make A Difference!
Here’s how God works:
God Will Do The Work, We Just Need To Go!
What did God tell Moses?
Or what did Moses “hear?”
Exodus 3:10
10 So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”
Moses heard he was being sent to do what seemed like an impossible job.
Moses heard this and begin to think of all the work it would require.
But what did God say?
Verse 8
8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.
God said HE came down to do it!
He tells Moses…go, but HE will do the work!
Exodus 4:11-12
11 The Lord said to him, “Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the Lord? 12 Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.”
God will give us the words.
God will do the work!
Luke 12:11-12
11 “When you are brought before synagogues, rulers and authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, 12 for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say.”
God Will Do The Work, We Just Need To Go!
Jeremiah 1:7-9
7 But the Lord said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am only a child.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. 8 Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the Lord. 9 Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, “Now, I have put my words in your mouth.
What did he say to Jeremiah??
God Will Give You The Purpose
God Will Give You The Words
God Will Give You The Ideas
God Will Give You The Protection
You Just Need To Give Him The Glory
2021 needs to be the year we walk in purpose.
God has called us to do this…
We need to stop waiting and get on it.
