1. The starting point of purpose is God's Grace.
2. Our New Standing frees us to pursue God's Purpose.
3. Our purpose is to know God...
4. ...and make him known.
The message was based on a concept from the Bible that we didn't have time to explore together, so I thought I would share it with you here:
One of the things that I've come to realize through my own experiences and reading the Bible is that everyone has a God-shaped hole in their life. Or to put it another way, people will worship something. Even atheism, in its own way, becomes an evangelistically oriented religion. People simply cannot help but to worship. Perhaps they worship cars, or a job, or a relationship, or a god, or an inclusive viewpoint on the world, or their own moral performance, or a religious lifestyle, but everyone worships.
This goes for Christians as well as for persons of other faiths or secular persons. In the Christian this is the reason we need to continue to be sanctified and continue to be made holy. If our worship of God were perfect, in what way would we need to grow? Christian, what do you tend to worship when you don't worship God? Your own comfort? Other's approval? Expanding Influence? Ultimately these things are gods of our own making. In the beginning we use them to get what we want, but in the end we become slaves to them.
If you'd like to read more from the Bible on this matter, I would recommend: Isaiah 44:6-23. Which is a passage both humorous and sad. The thing to remember as you read it, is that it is not fundamentally about something other people do. It is what we have all done.
