Your Greatest Purpose

Your greatest purpose is to allow God to love you.  

John 3:16  (NIV)

16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son (Jesus), that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

God didn't make you to be someone else. 

God does not bless fakes or phonies.

  

Be who God made you to be.

God didn't make you for the approval of others. 

Most of us start out as originals, but end up as copies.

Nothing is more discouraging than trying to please everyone.

  

Even God cannot do that.

  

Only a fool would try to do something that even God cannot do.

God can't please everyone.

Fear of rejection makes us try to conceal who we really are.

The more that I think about me.  The more discouraged I become.

When you think that it's all about you, you get prideful, fearful, or discouraged.

  

God did not make you to be the center of the universe. 

Your life message is about God. 

God is always more interested in why you do what you do more than what you are actually doing.

If you forget the why, you'll get discouraged and quit.

  

Why do you do what you do?

You get discouraged when you can't do what is humanly possible. 

You can't fix everybody's problems.

You can't be in more than one place at a time.

  

You can't spend the money that you don't have.  

When you do, that's called debt.

Is is easier to fill your schedule than to fulfill your schedule?

Isn't it easier to make a promise than to keep it?

God sometimes puts His greatest gifts in the weakest people.

  

That way God's glory shines through. 

If God only used perfect people, nothing would get done because there aren't any.

God uses weak people, so His strength can flow through us. 

If you attach purpose to your pain, you can endure it. 

You greatest ministry will come out of your deepest hurt if you'll be honest with God and other's about it. 

There is internal motivation, external motivation, and eternal motivation.  

Hebrews 12:2 (NIV)

2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.

 For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.  

Don't focus on your problems, but look past them into eternity. 
   

Rick Warren

Our Ultimate Purpose

(Proverbs 29:18 KJV) Where there is no vision, the people perish.

(Proverbs 29:18 NIV) Where there is no revelation, people cast off restraint.

If you focus on your purpose, you will surrender your life to God's will.

  

(Proverbs 29:18 MSG) 

If people can't see what God is doing, they stumble all over themselves; 

but when they attend to what he reveals, they are most blessed.

We need to see the big picture like God sees it, so we will be blessed.  

The Way of Life 

(Psalm 16:11 NLT) You will show me the way of life, granting me the joy of your presence 

and the pleasures of living with you forever.

(John 10:10) The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy;

I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. 

Know God.

1 Timothy 6:21 (TLB)

Some of these people have missed the most important thing in life—they don’t know God. 

Find Freedom.

John 8:36 (ESV)

So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

If you don't wipe the smudge off your life from yesterday, you can't see.  

Discover Purpose. 

Galatians 6:4-5 (MSG)

^4-5 Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that. 

Don’t be impressed with yourself. Don’t compare yourself with others. Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life.

If you don't know God's purpose for your life, you're probably not free. 

Make a Difference. 

John 15 (NIV)

⁸ This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

¹¹ I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.

My Ultimate Purpose 

(John 17:18 MSG) In the same way that you (God) gave me a mission in the world, I (Jesus) give them a mission in the world.

There is a gravity pull towards selfishness if you don't know your purpose. 

(Acts 20:24 NCV) I don’t care about my own life. The most important thing is that I complete my mission, the work that the Lord Jesus gave me—to tell people the Good News about God’s grace.

Reaching the world really shrinks the size of your problems. It reduces your anxieties. 

(Ephesians 2:10) For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. 

(Acts 1:8) “You will be my (Jesus's) witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”  

Jerusalem are people close to me.  

Judea and Samaria are close to me but different from me. 

The Ends of the Earth are those far in from me in distance.  

We as people have to have a purpose to chase. 

1. Make a difference in my world. 

(Mark 5:19 NCV) Go home to your family and friends. 

Tell them how much the Lord has done for you and how he has had mercy on you. 

(Proverbs 3:27-28 MSG) Never walk away from someone who deserves help; 

your hand is God’s hand for that person.

 Never tell your neighbors to wait until tomorrow if you can help them now.

2. Make a difference beyond my world. 

(1 Corinthians 9:22 TLB) Whatever a person is like, 

I try to find common ground with him so that he will let me tell him about Christ and let Christ save him. 

(Galatians 6:2 MSG) Stoop down and reach out to those who are oppressed. 

Share their burdens, and so complete Christ's law. 

3. Make a difference in the whole world. 

(Mark 16:15 NCV) Jesus said to His followers, 

“Go everywhere in the world, and tell the Good News to everyone.”

(Mark 10:29 LB) Jesus replied,

“Let me assure you that no one has ever given up anything... for love of Me and to tell others the Good News, who won’t be given back, a hundred times over...” 

I will never be satisfied making a dollar when my purpose is to make a difference.

Chris Hodges, Church of the Highlands

All scripture is from the New International Version unless otherwise noted. 
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