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[0:00] The scripture lesson this morning is taken from Psalms 16 verses 1-11 and 1 Corinthians 10 verse 31.

[0:11] ! Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge. I say to the Lord, you are my Lord. I have no good apart from you.

[0:23] As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight. The sorrows of those who run after another God shall multiply. Their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out or take their names on my lips.

[0:43] The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup. You hold my lot. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places. Indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance. I bless the Lord who gives me counsel. In the night also my heart instructs me.

[1:03] I have set the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. Therefore, my heart is glad and my whole being rejoices. My flesh also dwells secure.

[1:17] For you will not abandon my soul to see all. Or let your Holy One see corruption. You make known to me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy.

[1:31] At your right hand there are pleasures forevermore. And the single verse from 1 Corinthians chapter 12.

[1:46] Chapter 10 and 31. So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Amen. Thank you very much, Michelle.

[2:00] Well, this morning we are starting a new sermon series, a very short one, in the month of April. And it's titled Vital Questions. And the burden behind this sermon series is to seek to address vital questions that many people have, but not to just address them in some vacuum, but to address them in light of God's word.

[2:29] To address them and say as the answer to those questions what God's word has to say. And this morning we begin the series with this first vital question, What's my purpose?

[2:46] And it's perhaps a frequently asked question. Maybe one of the most frequent of these vital questions. And it may very well be that you've asked yourself this question.

[3:04] Or maybe others have asked this question of you. And so this morning, with the Lord's help, I want to seek to answer this question in light of Scripture. So let's take a moment and pray and ask him to help us.

[3:20] Father, we thank you this morning for gathering us in this place. And Lord, though we have made decisions to come, your providence has brought us here.

[3:33] You're the one who works in our lives to bring about your good pleasure. And I do pray, Lord, that you would speak to our hearts from your word concerning this vital question that many have asked and even continue to ask.

[3:55] I pray that you'd help me to be faithful to your word and to faithfully bring it to your people. Lord, most of all, we pray that you will glorify your own name through the preaching of your word.

[4:16] We ask all these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. So if you ask yourself that question, what is my purpose? Or maybe you've had other people to ask you the question, what is your purpose?

[4:33] Or perhaps you've heard other people ask themselves or have been asked, what is their purpose? I'd be surprised if many of us this morning would not have reflected on the books that Dr. Miles Monroe would have written, the late Dr. Miles Monroe would have written around this topic and seminars and conferences that he would have had.

[5:03] I'd be surprised if that did not come to some of our minds because so much has been said by him and others on this topic and it has driven the way a lot of people think about this whole question about what is my purpose.

[5:24] But sadly, those books and those seminars that encourage people to seek after a particular purpose end up leading people away from their purpose, leading them away from their God-given purpose rather than to their God-given purpose.

[5:50] And this morning I will endeavor to show from God's Word why that is so. And I want to start by making a statement that would probably come as a shock to many of us.

[6:11] And the statement is this, God's purpose for all people is the same. God's purpose for all people as declared in Scripture is the same.

[6:27] He tells us in Scripture what His purpose is for all people. It is not something we need to go seeking after. It is something we simply need to embrace from the pages of Holy Scripture.

[6:40] Now, if you're wrestling with this in your mind, I just encourage you to keep your Bibles open, follow along, follow along, and consider whether it is true from God's Word that He has given all people the same purpose, and that you can decide for yourself whether what is being said this morning is true to Scripture or not.

[7:09] I structured the sermon around two very simple points, and they are, number one, God's purpose. God's purpose for us. Now, I have an error in my note.

[7:23] Let me see what you have up there. That's wrong. It's God's purpose for us, not God's purpose of us. God's purpose for us, and that's my error. And then the second is God's will for us.

[7:36] God's purpose for us, and God's will for us. Now, I hope that I have some time to allow at the end for questions and answers.

[7:51] I'm hoping. As I started the sermon, I thought there would be time. Then it ended up being a little longer than I thought, so I'm not sure we have time. But if we don't have time, right after the sermon, what I'll do is, as we gather to eat, maybe I'll take the first 15 or so minutes, and we can take questions, and I'll try to give some answers as we eat together.

[8:11] Just for the first 15 minutes, I'll make sure we don't have another sermon while you're eating. That would not be a good meal. I would not want to eat a meal listening to me preach.

[8:22] I know you don't want to as well. So first, God's purpose for us.

[8:35] Now, before considering God's purpose for us, let's settle one very important thing. God has many purposes. And I don't mean by that many purposes for us.

[8:49] What I mean is, God has many, many purposes. For example, in the vastness of God's creation, His creation that we can see and can't see, in the vastness of His creation, God has many, many purposes.

[9:08] And some of God's purposes are hidden. God doesn't make all of His purposes known to us. And so, for example, Moses in Deuteronomy 29, 29 said this, We could insert purpose where the word things is and not do any violence to the Scripture.

[9:40] God has secret purposes that He has not revealed to us, doesn't need to reveal to us. But He reveals the purposes to us. He reveals the things to us that we need so that we and our children may obey what He has called us to do.

[9:56] Job points to God's many purposes in a slightly different way. Here's how he says it in Job 42, verse 2. I know that you can do all things, and no purpose of yours can be thwarted.

[10:09] The idea is God has many purposes. Just like one, Job would not say it the way that he said it. But God has many purposes, and what Job is saying is that none of those purposes can be thwarted.

[10:21] Now, as we think of the purposes of God, it's important to remember that God accomplishes all of His purposes.

[10:39] There is no purpose that God has that He will not bring to pass. And what we see in Scripture is that God has, though He has many purposes, God has an ultimate purpose behind all of His purposes.

[10:59] Whether it is hidden or revealed, God has an ultimate purpose behind all of His purposes. And the ultimate or overarching purpose that God has behind all of His purposes is His own glory.

[11:14] So everything and everyone that God has created, He did it for His glory. And this is a very important foundational truth for us to grasp in order that we live our lives aright.

[11:35] Revelation 4.11 says it in a very helpful way. And these are the words of the 24 elders before the throne of God, worshiping God.

[11:52] And this is what it says. This is what they say. Worthy are you, O Lord. Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power.

[12:04] For you created all things, and by your will, they existed and were created. I like the way the King James Version says it.

[12:16] The King James Version says, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power. For thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure, they are and were created.

[12:34] The point is that God's glory is behind all that He has purposed to do, all that He has done in creation.

[12:45] He is to receive glory from everything. And the apex of God's creation is human beings, mankind, people like you and me.

[12:57] God has created us in His image, and He's done it in such a way that we are able to glorify Him above and beyond any other aspect of His creation.

[13:08] And so God has a general purpose for all people, and that is that they would bring glory to His name. Now I know this isn't flattering, as being taught that you have some wonderful grand purpose to change the world and to do wonderful things, and you need to go and seek it out.

[13:36] Theologians who have given themselves to study these things, many, many of them, over long periods of time, they concluded and encapsulated the point of Scripture in the Westminster Shorter Catechism, the very first question.

[13:55] The very first question, the Westminster Shorter Catechism, some of the children know it. The first question is, what is the chief end of man?

[14:09] Man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. That is the general, unchanging purpose that God has for all of us.

[14:26] Glorify Him and enjoy Him forever. And no doubt, some of you are wondering about unique purposes. Well, what about unique purposes that God has for people's lives?

[14:44] And to that I will say this. I think that it is correct that God brings to pass many of His purposes through the lives of human beings.

[14:59] He does that. God uses them as means through which He brings His purposes to pass.

[15:12] And so I don't think it's helpful for us to think about, well, this person, this is their purpose or this is my purpose, but I think it is helpful for us to think that God brings to fulfillment His purposes through the lives of individuals.

[15:31] And sometimes multiple purposes in a person's life. So, for example, we can look to Scripture first of all. And what we see in Scripture is that God fulfilled many of His purposes through many different people.

[15:46] We think of the redemptive purposes of God. And, for example, God purposed that Abraham would be the one through whom all the nations of the earth will be blessed with the gospel.

[16:03] God purposed that, to use Abraham in that particular way. But Abraham's life was much broader than that. Abraham had all kinds of things going on in his life.

[16:14] But God worked on that purpose in Abraham's life. God purposed that Moses would be the one who would deliver the children of Israel out of Egyptian slavery.

[16:28] He purposed that Ruth, the Moabitess, would be in the line of redemption. He purposed that both Saul and David would be kings in Israel. One was wicked, the other was righteous.

[16:41] God purposed that Cyrus, a wicked king, would be the one who would release the Jews from Babylonian captivity. And when we think outside of Scripture, we think of the course of human history, we're able to see that there are countless men and women, believers and unbelievers, through whom God has brought to pass his purposes.

[17:06] purposes. So I don't think it's helpful to say that the role that a person played or something the person did is the purpose for their life.

[17:23] It's a fairer way, it's a better way to say that God has brought to pass that purpose through their lives. But not that that was the purpose for that person's life, but use them in that particular way.

[17:43] As I was thinking about this, the best I'm able to come up with, and I could be wrong on this, and it would be wonderful to hear some thoughts, maybe during the questions and answers period.

[17:54] I think there are only two persons who it's correct to say that they came into this world for a unique and specific purpose.

[18:07] And those two persons are John the Baptist and the Lord Jesus Christ. I think they're the only two that I could think about that you can say this is why they came into the world.

[18:20] John was about six months older than Jesus. The Bible tells us that from his mother's womb he was filled with the Holy Spirit that he was going to be the forerunner of the Lord Jesus Christ.

[18:30] That was his purpose. John had one purpose to say behold the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world. And John, the Bible tells us in Luke 180 that John lived in the wilderness until the day that he was to appear and start to minister before the nation of Israel.

[18:54] Which would have been when he turned around 30 and Jesus was six months behind him. And not long after John pointed Jesus out he was arrested he was put in prison and he was beheaded and that was the end of John's life.

[19:11] And then we think of the Lord Jesus and then even with Jesus Jesus was not just an ordinary man. He was both God and man. God and man. He was not just God and man.

[19:23] But he said when he was going to the cross for this purpose I came into the world. And the entirety of his purpose was wrapped up in redeeming lost sinners back to God.

[19:41] And so I think at best as I could see those are the only two that we can really say that was their purpose. they had a specific and unique purpose. But for the rest of mankind God works out many different purposes through many different people at different times believers unbelievers and he does it according to his own sovereign will and his own sovereign pleasure.

[20:12] So God has revealed in scripture his general purpose for us and we have no biblical basis to be seeking after an individual unique purpose.

[20:26] And here's why we don't need to seek after we don't even need to seek after particular ways that God may use us. We don't need to because if God has purposed!

[20:37] to do something as Job said in Job 42 verse 2 I know that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. If God has a purpose for that he's going to fulfill in your life or through my life he's going to use us in some particular way we don't need to get all frenzy about it he's going to fulfill it.

[20:58] It's his purpose. None of his purposes can be thwarted. None of them. And so we don't need to be preoccupied with does God have this purpose for me or this other purpose or doesn't have a purpose for me I wonder about this we don't need to wonder about any of that.

[21:19] We simply need to live our lives knowing that if God has purposed to do something through our lives in our lives he will bring it to pass because none of his purposes are thwarted.

[21:31] we can't thwart it. Other people can't thwart it. The demons of hell cannot thwart it. God brings all of his purposes to pass.

[21:44] And so we don't need to preoccupy ourselves with any unique purpose that God may have for us or in some way that God may use us.

[21:58] Now let's look at Psalm 16. In Psalm 16 the psalmist David expresses very well the hard disposition of the person who is serving the Lord seeking to glorify him and leaving it up to God to determine what his or her life should be.

[22:19] That's the hard disposition of the psalmist in Psalm 16. In verse 1 the psalmist prays to God asking God to preserve him because he takes refuge in him.

[22:32] And notice the conviction of his soul in verse 2. He says to the Lord you are my Lord I have no good apart from you. I have no good apart from you Lord.

[22:47] Then in verse 3 he points to the saints of the land those who like him are serving the Lord those who like him are set apart to God's purposes. and he says they are the excellent ones and my soul delights in them.

[23:09] Now the psalmist says something in verse 4 that is not easily understood on its face. Look again at what he says. The sorrows of those who run after another God shall multiply their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out or take their names on my lips.

[23:32] The psalmist is saying that those who abandon the true and the living God and they go after false God they will have multiplied sorrows. And he vows not to follow them by performing their idol sacrifices and engaging and praying to their idol gods taking their names on his lips.

[23:58] Now here's an important question. Why did people in the psalmist's day, in David's day, run after these false gods? Why did they abandon the true and the living God to run after these false gods?

[24:15] Well in David's day, the pagan nations they attributed all manner of things to different gods. And so they attributed the rain to a particular god and so they worshipped that god so that god will send them rain they thought and they would bless the crops and they would have abundant harvests.

[24:38] And they believed there was a god of fertility and they would worship that god to make them fertile that they would have a lot of children and their animals would have a lot of offspring.

[24:54] They thought there was a god of war that there was a god who can be with you and you win all the wars and defeat your enemies and you will have peace and you will have protection and so they ran after that god as well.

[25:10] And sadly some in Israel started to do the same. Some in Israel began to believe what they believed and they began to worship these gods and the psalmist is saying those who run after these false gods they multiply sorrows to themselves.

[25:28] And here's the thing this is still true today. The pagans and David they were running after gods to do for them what they wanted done.

[25:41] They were serving these gods to get from these gods what they thought they could get from these gods. And even today there are many people who they would say they're worshipping the true of the living god but the way they are doing that they are not worshipping the god of the bible they're worshipping a god of their own imaginations and they're running after that god in the same way they ran after these pagan gods that he would do for them what they wanted done.

[26:12] that he would do their bidding instead of them worshipping and serving him not for what he does but for who he is. And I think it's fair to say that much of the purpose-seeking movement is about people running after what they want their purpose to be something great and grand and to have a great name and to draw attention to themselves rather than God's purpose for them which is that through them glory would come to God's name and not to them.

[26:53] Notice what the psalmist says in verses 5 and 6. He says in contrast to those who are running after false gods he says the Lord is my chosen portion and my cup you hold my lot the lines have fallen for me in pleasant places indeed I have a beautiful inheritance.

[27:22] In these two verses the psalmist is expressing one main thought in two different ways. Again in essence he's saying while those other ones run after false gods I will instead worship the true and the living God and I will trust him to determine what my life will be.

[27:45] Notice again when he says in verse 5 the Lord is his chosen portion his cup and the Lord holds his lot he is not saying I have chosen the Lord he's really saying God has given me himself chosen for me God is the chosen Lord the three of these are like gifts even the cup the cup is something that's given to you and you may remember as we reflected on in Easter when Jesus was in the garden of Gethsemane he prayed Father take this cup from me because in that cup was the Father's will and this cup is something that is given to the one who is receiving it and so what the psalmist is doing is he's talking about God being his chosen portion God chose himself for the psalmist and gave himself to the psalmist God chose this cup for the psalmist his purposes for him his will for him that's the cup that he gives him and

[28:49] I want you to see this because I don't want you to think I'm making this up because I really am not look at verse six verse five sorry the Lord is my chosen portion and my cup there's a semicolon you hold my lot after that semicolon it explains what what the psalmist said in the first part of it God holds our lot!

[29:13] You may have heard someone say well that's your lot in life or that's my lot in life and a lot is circumstances over which we have no control whatsoever there are circumstances over which God is sovereign and he determines and this is what the psalmist is expressing he's saying that God is his portion God gave himself to the psalmist God gave this cup to the psalmist that represents all that he's about the psalmist that is that all is about God determines it and he says you hold my lot in verse six the psalmist says the lines have fallen for me in pleasant places indeed I have a beautiful inheritance I like the way the NIV says it the NIV says the boundary lines not just the lines but the boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places surely

[30:17] I have an inheritance what he's saying is that God you have determined the boundary lines for my life he does it for all of us and you just need to think about it for a moment who determined which family you were born into who determined which part of the world you were born into who determined the many choices that were made in your life there was a sovereign God who determined those boundaries and the psalmist is recognizing that and the psalmist is submitting to that and the psalmist is content in that he says they're pleasant and thank God that he sets the boundary lines for our lives would you really want to live a life where the boundary lines of your life will be determined by the choices you make and that I make we don't want that we don't want that we want that even sometimes when we go our own way and do our own thing there's a sovereign

[31:21] God who still etches out those boundary lines for us in spite of our folly in spite of our disobedience he sets those boundary lines for our lives this is what we must be concerned about brothers and sisters not going after some unknown purpose looking behind every rock to find our purpose we come to embrace that there's a sovereign God who has determined the boundary lines for my life he determined the day that we were born and he has determined the day we will die and he will determine everything in the middle in between he sets the boundary lines for our lives so brothers and sisters we need to embrace and pursue God's general purpose for our lives which which is to glorify him and whatever specific purposes that God will work out in our lives his sovereign purposes that he will work out through our lives we leave that to him because all of his purposes will be fulfilled we go to sleep we get up we work we're faithful we do whatever is in front of us to do and we trust the

[32:43] Lord with those details those purposes with the boundary lines of our lives because he is the one who sets them so rather than be preoccupied with finding some unique purpose for our lives we should instead be preoccupied with knowing God's will for our lives which brings me to the second and final point now this might surprise you but in the same way that God has one general purpose for us all God has one general will for us all God's will for us all is whatever we do whatever we do we should do it for his glory and this is the second scripture that was read this morning 1st

[33:49] Corinthians 10 31 let's look at it again Paul writes so what so whether you eat or drink he could have gone on and listed a number of other things but he just does a universal capture in these words or whatever you do these four words captures everything every single thing brothers loving our wives submitting to our husband raising children working suffering whatever you do do all for the glory of God God calls us to do whatever we do with the same goal in mind and that goal is that we will glorify him now that's

[35:01] God's general will for us but what about his specific will in our lives how do we know God's specific will throughout the course of our lives when we're faced with a myriad of decisions that we need to make and many of us we've made thousands of decisions choosing between different options made decisions like what subjects were you going to take among electives when you went to 10th 11th and 12th grade what college to attend whether you should date or marry a particular person whether you should pursue a particular career or take a particular job or move to another island or move to another country all kinds of decisions that we will be faced with in life and the question is how do we know what

[36:04] God's specific will is for us in those decisions how are we to go about making them see this is where we need to spend the time and the energy trying to determine God what is your will as I live life moment by moment and I face all these different options that are in front of me for the way that we see God's will when we have these different options in front of us is first and foremost we pray and it is by God's design that things are not cut and dry for us and we see a label go this way don't go that way and things are just very simple no God has laid life out in the way that he has laid it sovereignly so that when these options come before us we come to him and we seek him we pray we ask him

[37:05] God would you guide me we pray we ask God to direct us and show us we seek godly counsel we reach out to godly men and women and ask them to give input and to give some suggestions we trust and we look for God's providence how God is working is he opening this door or that door that door is closed well then if that door is closed and this one is open why are you banging on that one God works in his providence sometimes causes you to meet a particular person at a particular time and then in the end we have to use the renewed minds that God has given to us and make the decision we pray we seek counsel we look for God's providence how he's leading and then

[38:24] God has given us a renewed mind God has given us a mind to think and we investigate we consider the options we weigh them and then we make the best decision that we can trusting the Lord but the aim behind it is I want to glorify God in this Paul says whatever you do do all to the glory of God and we do it believing that as scripture says that God is at work in our lives to will and to do his good pleasure so in many ways it's not it's not that important what we do as much as it is important as the motivation behind what we do that we want to glorify God that's the aim that God

[39:25] I want to glorify you so even before we begin to give attention to which of these options we're going to choose our motivation needs to be Lord whatever I choose I want to glorify you that is my aim now I didn't mention reading God's word and some of you may have thought about that and here's why I didn't mention it the reason I didn't mention reading God's word is reading God's word is a given for believers we should be reading God's word in an ongoing way and it's through reading God's word that we are better positioned as we come to these moment by moment decisions in life that we're better positioned to think through them and to approach them we shouldn't just pick up God's word when we are faced with some decision because the first thing is this God did not give us his word to guide us in specifics in our lives you would not find in God's word that you should take job A over job B you wouldn't find

[40:26] God's word that you should marry person A over person B you wouldn't find in God's word that you should resign from this job and take another job God's word is not designed for that it's a general word to us and the general word to us is whatever you do do it for the glory of God do it for the glory of God not for the glory of yourself of what you can see but you do it for the glory of God here's the reality the providence of God as I have already said is working all of our lives no two of us are the same not even two twins are the same we're all very different God has gifted us differently he's given us certain strengths and certain weaknesses he's given us different opportunities even some of the preferences we have they're different from other people all of that is by

[41:36] God's design all that's by divine design and despite all of those differences that we have God calls all of us to the same aim that we are to live our lives and do whatever we do for the glory of his name and so whatever thing we give ourselves whatever endeavor we engage in throughout our lives we are to do it with the glory of God in view some of us who have children you have to make decisions for those children and it should be very much the same it should be trying to discern trying to know God's will and ultimately Lord I want to make decisions about these children for your glory for the glory of your name seeking him in prayer seeking our godly counsel looking for

[42:36] God's providence and then using our renewed minds to make a decision with the aim of glorifying God and then trusting him that he will set the boundaries of our lives because he alone determines!

[42:53] Let me close with one thought what we do in life really doesn't matter what we do really doesn't matter what matters is that whatever we do in life we aim to glorify God that is what really matters and I say this because we live in a society that overvalues or places a great value in certain endeavors and little or no value in other endeavors and actually in some cases frowns on certain endeavors for example there are many people who look down upon or frown upon stay-at-home wives and mothers the brothers and sisters the endeavors of a stay-at-home mother or wife is noble and it is self sacrificial and if that is done to glorify

[44:14] God if the aim behind that is to glorify God God sees that and is glorified by that and pleased with that as he is with any other endeavor with the same motivation and it doesn't matter what premium society places on a particular endeavor that we may engage in if the person engaged in that endeavor is not seeking God's glory it is a nothing it is a nothing brothers and sisters God calls us whatever you do do it all to the glory of God and so let us be mindful of the lines that God has drawn for us you know it would be foolish for me to try to think I could be an NBA basketball even in my certainly can't do it now but even when I was younger why would I want to think I can go to the NBA and I'm going to make a lot of money and you know it's heartbreaking for me to go to graduations and hear people tell these kids all kinds of things oh you could do whatever you want to do you could be that's not true he sets boundaries to our lives he sets boundaries and they are wise and good from a good and wise

[45:37] God and let us take them into account whatever they are let us live our lives for the glory of God and guess what on the day that we stand before him if we have sought to do that we're going to hear well done he's not going to get into what we did it's just going to be well done well done to all of us whatever the endeavors we gave ourselves to and throughout life we give ourselves to many endeavors and in all of those endeavors we need to seek to glorify the Lord and it's funny if you have followed this sermon it should be clear that fulfilling God's general purpose for us doing God's will for our lives it really is only possible through a relationship with him without that we're shooting in the dark without that we are going blind it is only through a relationship with the

[46:42] Lord Jesus Christ that we are able to fulfill that general purpose for all of us to glorify God that's why he created us and then to be able to do whatever we do for his glory as we live life making decisions moment by moment and thank God that many of us this morning indeed most of us this morning have that relationship with Jesus Christ and my encouragement to you if somehow you've wrestled with this whole issue about your purpose and all that stuff I pray that you just come to trust the boundaries that God has set for your life that you would live life taking advantage of the opportunities making those decisions trusting God to be at work in all of your decisions and in the end he is going to cause the boundary lines for our lives to work out right where he wants them and we don't need to look over our shoulder did I make the right decision here did I do this

[47:45] God is going to work it out we can trust him to do that but if you don't know Jesus Christ as Lord and personal Savior I say to you this morning come to Jesus I say to you this morning turn from a life of emptiness and sin and trust Jesus Christ the one who has promised that he will give life and he will give it more abundantly!

[48:19] that you bring glory to his name and that as you live life moment by moment the decisions you make the path you choose to go on that the aim behind it will be to glorify God and so that's my prayer for all of us this morning if you don't know Christ come to know him this morning but to trust in him he will not turn you away let's pray help me father thank you for your word this morning and ask lord that you would be glorified in and through our lives father help us to accept that you are the sovereign lord you're the one who sets the boundaries for our lives we don't need to go seeking them and you're the one who fulfills your purposes whatever they might be and not one of them can be thwarted lord would you help us now we pray to do this in your name and for your glory pray in christ's name amen let's sing our closing song and then we'll have about 15 minutes so

[50:02] I'll take some questions but anyone has a question that they want to ask straight up using the mic anyone there we have one Gabe your mom thank you so my question is I know we were all created with a specific purpose sorry a general purpose and will which is the glorify god I'm just wondering and I also know how we can find our specific purpose which would be like praying to god you know asking him to show us that I'm just wondering I know some people may never find that purpose or you know do we all have to be created with a specific purpose because I know some people never find that specific purpose so I'm just wondering good let me let me just clarify that so what I sought to argue this morning is that god gives us a general purpose all of us and that is that we are to glorify him all of creation is supposed to do that we we do it best because we are made in his image what we don't find in scripture is that god has said that he has created us for a unique purpose but what we do see in scripture is that god has used particular people and fulfilled particular purposes that he has in their lives and so what our posture should be is that okay god may use me and he does

[51:34] I mean some of it just isn't registered to us because god has big purposes and small purposes I mean certainly I think one purpose you could obviously see is god purposed that you would be the mother to these children and the husband to kelvin was that what did I say I don't know if that's hunger or what or just all age I'm not sure but thanks thanks for listening that gave kelvin I mean he you saved him a crisis he probably didn't know whether he was this or that yeah yeah so yeah so god has big and small purposes and he sovereignly works out those purposes in the lives of people believers and unbelievers god said to fair he said i raise you up for this purpose i raise you up so i harden your heart and so i show my glory through you hardening your heart not letting these people go so god works out those purposes in in in our lives as he sovereignly chooses to do them but my point was that we don't need to be preoccupied with them because if it's a purpose of god job 42 2 no purpose of yours can be thwarted none so whatever purpose god has for us big or small using working in our lives he will fulfill them but what we shouldn't do is use those purposes that god works out in our lives to define us we are defined as being made in god's image and we live for his glory and so the preoccupation should be god what is your will for me what is your will in these different situations i'm faced with i mean you may find that you got a job offer and how many of you know that not just because it pays more money that means it's the will of god how many of you know that hopefully you all know that and so we we see god's will in those different ways through prayer godly counsel looking to see his providence where does he seem to be leading and guiding and then using our renewed minds and thinking through the options and studying them and so forth and you know what i really think that we don't place a high enough premium on the renewed minds that

[54:20] God has given to us there's this idea that somehow Christians need to just get rid of their this will lead you through thinking through your mind and so we need to is that helpful good sure like one big thing and God has many purposes in our lives many many purposes and I didn't think of that as an example in the sermon but certainly he's working on purposes in our lives even now the different things that we are doing children we have friends we have is the mic on can we get that is the battery dead or something

[55:23] I can't hear we can use this one let me try that one yeah hello hello is it on okay I have a question earlier you said that you believe that there were two persons who were created for a specific purpose John the Baptist and Jesus Christ what about Adam Adam and Eve do you believe that they were born for a specific purpose to replenish the earth with more humans because they were the first humans that were created right was that show that game show where you get to call a friend okay I'm gonna call my friend I'm gonna call my friend Sean B so Gabe take the microphone to Sean B I have no idea how to respond to that um

[56:26] I actually thought when you mentioned two persons I was actually thinking of Adam and the Lord Jesus that's the two I thought of originally I wasn't thinking of John the Baptist so I would I would concur with Adam with her on that one what about Eve she said Eve too well the two are one so what about Mary Mary seemed to have had other purposes in life other than bearing Jesus yeah and I think what we need to see is our lives are multi-purpose lives we do I mean Adam Adam was 75 doing all kinds of things worshiping idols all kinds of stuff before the Lord called him and our lives are complex all right anyone else over on the right here

[57:26] Gabe right over here Ed has anyone sent in anything no okay okay testing okay I'm on now you you didn't touch upon gifts and talents but I would like to ask is there a correlation you think between gifts and talents and one's purpose I would say no but I do think that what we can say is that God is God is very likely to use those gifts and talents that he's given to us in fulfilling purposes that he has that still stays within your boundary that's right that's right he sets boundaries for our lives I mean you know some people God didn't give you the voice to sing and so he cut the boundaries and you're not you're not

[58:26] I mean Lyndon will still try to violate those boundaries but but we know when he gets out of bounds we know at the back William pastor how do you respond to people who would tell you that God called them for a specific purpose occupation well I would say I wouldn't frame it that way and see I think a lot of it has to do with how we frame it I would say okay yes I believe that as you prayed and saw the Lord the Lord led you into that but it's hard for me to say God called you for that particular purpose because our lives are much bigger than that if that's all that you do and you do nothing else with that but then you can say yeah well it's kind of like a car you know it just drives it just drives that's all it does so

[59:35] I wouldn't frame it that way William what I would say is if that person believes that the profession they're in God has airmarked that profession for them that's one of his purposes and you can say it's being worked out in their lives but I would not say that that is their purpose you know one of the things I did think about I didn't say this in this sermon imagine a person who believes that God has called me my purpose is to be an athlete and they get some career changing injury and they're bedridden or they have some accident and they become a quadriplegic their purpose is over I say no that is a purpose that is a purpose that God has worked out in their lives but that is not their purpose in a global sense is that helpful William is that helpful yeah okay what's that yeah hey

[60:46] Gabe could you take the mic here a second and if you have a question you want to think real fast we're going to wrap up in two minutes I don't know if I wanted the mic but anyway I know plenty of people who said they were convinced that there were calls to X Y Z whatever it was all to find out later that they were not in what they said was their calling for varied reasons but one thing we would know is because God is sovereign because I'm sitting here talking to you I now know that this is part of what God sovereign will has brought about in my life that we would all be here in this moment that's when we know the will of God is being or his ordained will is being manifest in our lives the fact of the matter is when it comes down to the specifics on the moment we live in the moment and should be in the spirit of honoring and glorifying

[61:57] God in the moment in everything that we do as unto the Lord but at the same time we have made choices to be in that moment whatever that moment is and so there's the will of God running concurrently or the will of God running concurrently with what that is which we do so I only wanted to yeah that's good so I think it's better getting back to you William I think it's better for us to think about say this is God's will for me to do this thing rather than this is God's purpose for my life this is will I mean think about it this way there are some people who have one job or career for their entire life and then there others who have that person seeking his will seeking to do to that's what he's leading them into at that point and then for the other person who has given themselves that one endeavor that's God's will for them as well but to me it's too narrow to define your life to say this is my purpose our lives are broader than that we have multi purpose lives and we need to be open to whatever

[63:05] God has the NBA you will be in the NBA you will be there okay just one more thanks you brought up Dr.

[63:26] Miles Monroe and this person having a purpose and then also I think Rick Warren has the purpose driven life how can you help us you know especially here in the Bahamas where it's all about prosperity of being able to point out that that's not what our true purposes are or purpose in life is but to point back to Christ and also the gospel how would you because that's pretty much everyone talks about that all the time sure I think the very succinct answer is you got to stay close to scripture you got to stay close to God's word I had lunch with someone this week on Tuesday and he was sharing with me about a church he was a part of and how a very erroneous teaching was introduced into the church and the congregation was really gung-ho about it and he was just saying he said you know but I I couldn't see it in my Bible and I and I just said hey you know we need to pause on this thing because this is not true to scripture and so really that's the best safeguard to really stay true to stay close to God's word and we'll be able to test and prove whether these things are so the apostle

[64:42] Paul commended the Bereans because he said what they did was they listened to him but then they would go home and search the scriptures to see whether what he was saying is true and we need to do that brothers and sisters you do realize that one of the safeguards that God has for the church for a church for this local church one of the safeguards that God has for this local church that we would be a faithful local church are the members of this church God doesn't ordain that churches are only protected by elders he ordains that members in the church would be studying their bibles enough that if a church begins to go astray and move into false teaching that they would say no that's not correct and so we have to be close to our bibles stay close to the

[65:50] Lord okay sorry oh I'm sorry Jidor I'm sorry so I was wondering you said only Jesus and John had a specific purpose right well how come God didn't give us in terms of all a specific purpose differently that sounds like call a friend well okay so what he did Jidor think about it like this he gave all of us a purpose but it's a general purpose and then what he does is he works out specific purposes in our lives and see one of the things we should remember and of course you can see this is a much bigger sermon than

[66:53] I tried to preach this morning see what's behind Jidor's question is the idea of equality how many see that behind this question is the idea of equality God doesn't work like that he's sovereign and so he can choose to give one ten talents and another five talents and one one talent because it's all his and he does as he wants and so God is not required to treat all of us equally and because he gave John a specific purpose and gave Jesus a very specific and narrow purpose and as we heard Adam and Eve being the first two human beings and he gave them that unique purpose to be the first human beings he is not obligated to give all of us some unique purpose he is well and his right to say your general purpose is to glorify me and then I will sovereignly work out particular purposes in your life as I choose to do so whether that is purposing that you get married and have children and he doesn't purpose that for everyone and so

[68:08] God works on his specific purposes in our lives in accordance with his sovereignty and it's all with his glory and view is that helpful Jador you sure okay all right but let me close us and pray for our food thanks for the questions none came in by your William's question okay so let me pray for our food closes out Shambi you have one more a question you should be asking you should make it a comment not a question just a comment I know that the sermon dealt with you know the issue around what's my purpose and as we're listening to this one of the things I thought about was in the shorter catechism in the second half of that actual response you know the chief end of man is to glorify

[69:08] God and to enjoy him forever and one of the things is that when we think about glorifying God I think we should remember that when we do that one is that ultimately we will enjoy God those two things I think should be kept close together and connected and I think the second thing is that and you touched on this we're still called to glorify God when we go through trials and God says no or when he takes our health away or he breaks our heart for whatever reason right because he is Lord that we're still called to glorify God or when we see someone at work who is promoted above us even though we may deserve that promotion based on the qualifications but in the sovereign plan of God he has chosen or better he has determined that that person would be promoted but in that situation we're still called to glorify God and he gets glory

[70:20] I think when believers can live a life before him where they are suffering where they are going through great trials and the world looks and says you don't have what I have and yet you seem to still be able to do something I wish I could do and so I think we just need to hopefully keep those things in mind of glorifying God is not just when the sun is shining but it's when the clouds are dark when rain is pouring and we are stripped of everything and we can say Jesus is my all he is my hope and therefore I glorify God so I'll be calling Amen thanks for sharing that Shambi let's pray Lord thank you for your word today thank you for the ways that you have spoken to our hearts and Lord where our questions may still linger would you lead your children into your truth

[71:21]  Lord I pray that all of us would leave this time of sitting under your word more desirous of seeking to glorify you as part of our created purpose and then seeking to glorify you in the moment by moment living that you providentially bring our way the decisions we have to make the options the choices before us Lord may our aim be that whatever those decisions are that we will bring glory to your name Father we ask now that you would bless our time of eating together would you bless the food bless our fellowship bless the hands of those who prepared food Lord may we receive it all with glad hearts and use the food to strengthen us to serve you we pray this in Jesus name amen