God’s Purpose changes the way you live
If your life has not changed since you met Jesus, I doubt you have met Him.
1 Corinthians 10:31 “Whatever you do, whether you eat or drink, do it all for God’s glory.”
The purpose of your life and my life is to give Him glory.
We spoke about 10 ways to give God glory last week!
We’re going to look at a few practical steps to fulfil our purpose.
Keep growing Spiritually (This was not a friendly request – “Do it if you want too!”)
If God is the centre of our lives, then growing spiritually and to keep growing will be a priority in our lives.
The reason I say keep growing is because it’s an ongoing process.
God wants us to become more like Jesus, and we never get to the place where we’ve arrived, or we’ve achieved spiritual maturity.
Paul said – Philippians 3:12 (NIV) – Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.
It’s a lifelong process. (Don’t stop growing)
1 Peter 2:5 (NIV) – You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
2 Peter 3:18 “Continue to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ.”
Hebrew 6:1 “So let us stop going over the basic teachings about Christ again and again. Let us go on instead and become mature in our understanding.” It’s a process
God wants us to not only grow in the things we think and say and do,
but also, in who we are, our character.
He doesn’t want us to put on a show or to pretend, He wants to fundamentally change who we are, to change our character.
Some people think character and maturity come with age, but I’ve found that for many age comes alone!
We’ve got to be intentional about growing and developing our character.
You can sit under good teaching week after week, and walk out every Sunday unchanged, you keep battling with the same bad habits.
Or you can sit here with a teachable spirit and say;
I need to grow in this area, I need to apply this in my life.
I’m not going to keep functioning in my dysfunction.
When a follower of Christ doesn’t grow up and become mature, it’s tragic. They are in the Way not on the Way.
Maturity doesn’t automatically come with age.
Just because you come to church every week doesn’t mean you’re going to grow and become mature; you’ve got to apply God’s word to your life otherwise you’ll remain a baby Christian.
We only grow when we apply God’s word to our lives.
Not when we know it or talk about it
How do you know if someone is mature?
When they’re constantly growing and changing.
When they can help others live the Christian life.
When you’re applying God’s principles in your life, in your marriage, in your business, and ministry life – now you can help others do the same.
Hebrews 5:12 “By now you should be teachers, instead you still need someone to teach you.”
God doesn’t give the gift of teaching to everyone, He only gives that gift to some people, but He does expect all of us to teach others at some point or another.
You may have to teach your children or a friend or a colleague.
God is counting on you to make a difference in people’s lives.
Some people never grow up to help others, instead they always need someone to help them, to look after them, to encourage them to motivate them.
But when you grow up, you’re able you become an effective instrument in God’s hands.
** Maturity is not the goal; maturity is for you to be an effective tool in God’s hands.
That brings us to the next point – how do we glorify God?
Growing Spiritually
Representing God well
Unless you and I keep growing spiritually we are not going to represent Him well.
Like walking into a company and the salesperson ignores you and keeps chatting on his phone to a friend….
What’s your first reaction? This is really a terrible company.
You don’t say, this is a terrible salesperson.
You say this is a terrible company. Why?
Because he represents the company – it’s as simple as that.
In the same way, you and I represent Almighty God.
People are looking at our lives and they need to see Jesus in us.
Many people may never come to church, they may never read the bible, but they are reading your life every single day.
God wants them to see Jesus in and through our lives.
**How you live your life (good or bad) will affect the people in your life.
Because how you and I live our lives will either be a stumbling block or a steppingstone closer to Jesus.
That means, before we go out and do whatever we want to do, our attitude should be:
Lord, everything I do today, I want it to glorify you.
Everything I say, I want it to glorify you.
Matthew 5:16 “Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”
Let’s look at the third point – how do we glorify God?
Growing Spiritually
Representing Him well
Putting God first
Remember we said, to glorify God simply means to make Him the centre of your life to put Him first.
If God is first in our lives, we need to give Him the first place at the beginning of each day, during the day and end with God.
It’s so easy to get up in the morning and rush straight into our day.
We’re all busy, we’ve got to do this and do that and call this person and email that person.
There are a lot of things competing for our time and our attention – but if God is first, we want to give Him the first few minutes of our day.
That simply means you take your bible and a cup of coffee or tea, and you go and spend quality time with God.
You talk to Him, you pray, and you allow Him to talk to you.
Matthew 6:6 (NIV) – But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
I’ve found when I start my day spending time with God,
It’s almost like there’s a greater clarity and focus for the rest of the day.
If I get those first few minutes right, the rest of the day goes right.
Proverbs 3:6 “In everything you do, put God first, (listen to the promise) and He will direct you and crown your efforts with success.”
What an incredible promise!
God promises us success if we’ll put Him first. Why then wouldn’t we?
Putting God first is a lifelong process, the more we do it. It becomes easier and easier.
It’s like exercise, when you start off exercising it’s really difficult, until you get into that routine or lifestyle.
I close off and ask you to reflect on what you have just heard:
#1 Are you growing Spiritually?
#2 Do you represent God well?
#3 Does God have first place in your life?
