Introduction
If you were to look up the word "drive" in a dictionary, you would find that it says "to guide, to control, or to direct." When you drive a car, you guide, control, direct it down the street. When you drive a nail, you drive, control, direct it into the wood.
Every life is driven by something. Every human being is driven by something.
I believe that God wants us to be purpose-driven people, driven by a divine plan for our lives. That’s where meaning and significance come. Today, I start an extended series of sermons looking at having a purpose-driven life. This series will look at the purposes God has for our lives as well as for our church, and will take us into the Autumn - with some breaks along the way.
Levels of Living
We live life at one of three basic levels. The first level, the lowest level is what I call the survival level. Most people live in the survival mode. They get by in life. They’re not really living, they’re just existing. They put in their time, punch the time clock and live for the weekends. They never really have any major goals, major drive in life. They just get by. If you find yourself frequently fantasizing about winning the lottery you’re in this mode. When I worked full time as a teacher a group of us would, each Friday fantasize about winning the lottery and would have a conversation wondering if we would, if we had won, actually come in on Monday to give in our notice or simply not turn up! We were just living at survival level in that job.
Most of us, probably everyone here, are in the second level, a little higher level I call the success level. Most of the world would love to have our problems. We worry about paying our mortgage. Other people worry about having food for their children for the next meal. Most people would love to have our problems in the world. At the success level we’ve got a comfortable lifestyle. Many of us have achieved a certain level of success, our needs are met. We have a home. We have possessions. We have pleasures in your life – Baskin Robbins, cinnamon rolls, other pleasures of life.
But I have a lot of people tell me, “I don’t understand it. If I’m so successful, why do I feel so unfulfilled? Why is there still a hole in my heart? Why do I still feel empty?”
The answer is because success never ultimately satisfies. It takes more than success. There’s been a number of books that have come out recently talking about the dark side of success. These are all saying the same thing. It takes more than success to satisfy you. All of the self-help books and all the success motivation books in the world will not bring you ultimate satisfaction because you have to go to the ultimate level of life which is Significance.
Significance is when you know why you’re here on earth. You have a purpose for your life. You know that your life matters. You know that there is meaning behind what’s going on in your life. People who enjoy significance know what on earth they’re here for!
The tragedy is that many, many people – in fact most people – have no idea what their purpose in life is. I have the opportunity, in the position I’m in, to be around a lot of very, very successful people. Beneath the façade many if not most successful people still feel insignificant. They don’t really feel significant on the inside.
This sermon series is going to look at a number of lives of purpose-driven people in the Bible. We’re going to look at the practical steps, starting next week, a step a sermon on how do you develop a life plan. My goal is, at the end of this series, that you will have actually written out a life plan for your life. Many people will spend hours and even days on a business plan but have never taken one minute to write out a life plan. What’s more important - your business or your life? God has a lot to say to you about your purpose in life.
This afternoon, we want to just introduce the concept, list the benefits of living a purpose-driven life. And then I want you to hear a story from right here in our church of why it’s so important to understand what your purpose in life is.
The Benefits of a purpose-driven Life:
1. IT WILL REDUCE MY FRUSTRATION
If you don’t know your overall direction in life, daily decisions become very difficult, because you have no basis, no basis at all, for making decisions. You make them haphazardly. As that great theologian Alice in Wonderland once said, “If you don’t know where you’re headed, any road will get you there.” We have calendars, we have diaries but what we really need is a compass in life. We know how to fill our calendars. We know how to fill our schedules. We know how to set goals. This is not a series about goal setting. Because goals can be accomplished and then you go, “So what?” This is about knowing what’s the general direction of my life? What’s the North Star? What’s the objective? Why am I here? Where am I going? What is the purpose of my life? Do I matter?
In the Book of James it says “The double minded can never keep a steady course.” He’s saying here that trying to live without a clear purpose is like driving in a heavy fog. In today’s world we are bombarded with choices and we don’t know what to do. It used to be there was one kind of coke. Now there are twelve kinds of coke: cherry coke, diet coke, caffeine free and now a rather disgusting diet coke with lemon! It used to be when it came to coke there were two choices – take it or leave it. Now we’re bombarded.
Over 200 new magazines hit the market every year. Over 200 new grocery products hit the stores every week. If you don’t have any general, overall view of life how do you make day-to-day decisions? It’s frustrating. If you don’t have a purpose in life you’re going to be awfully frustrated.
2. HAVING A PURPOSE IN LIFE WILL INCREASE MY MOTIVATION
It decreases frustration and increases motivation.
If I don’t have a purpose, why get out of bed? Why get up in the morning? Why make any effort. The fact is, most people just kind of drift through life. They’re kind of battered around. They’re controlled by circumstances. You talk to somebody and say, "How's it going?” and they say, “Not so bad considering the circumstances.” You want to say, “What are you doing under them?!?” You should be on top of them. Circumstances are like a feather mattress. You get underneath them and you suffocate. You get on top and you rest easy.
Let me tell you the secret of lasting change. Let me tell you the secret of energy, of motivation, of enthusiasm in life. How do you get motivated in life? Simple. Discover your personal purpose in life. When you do that, it motivates you to get out of bed. You have a different attitude when you get up. When you wake up in the morning you can either say, “Good morning, Lord!” or “Good Lord, it’s morning!” Part of the difference is, do you have a purpose? Do you have a purpose in life?
The secret of energy and enthusiasm and motivation is to discover your life purpose. Why? Because having the purpose gives you hope. And everybody needs hope to keep going.
The Bible says that you cannot even imagine what God wants to do in your life. Ephesians 3:20 says that “God is able to do far more than we think or ask or imagine, infinitely beyond our highest prayers, hopes and dreams.” That’s what God wants to do in your life. Discover your plan, your purpose. Your frustration will decrease, your motivation will increase.
3. BECOMING A PURPOSE-DRIVEN PERSON WILL ALLOW CONCENTRATION
A purpose allows you to focus your life. It gives you a track to run on. I often find that I don't have enough time to do everything I want to do. This is because I fall for the lie of the world which says “You can have it all!”
You can’t have it all. It’s not true. You cannot have it all. Selection is the name of the game and you have to choose what you’re going to build your life around. Don’t try to have it all. You can’t do everything in life. The Good News is God doesn’t expect you to do everything in life. And on top of that, there’s only a few things worth doing in the first place. When you get a purpose, it allows you to focus, to concentrate your life. Because when you develop a purpose statement for your life, it defines not only what you do but what you don’t do. It eliminates a bunch of the trivia. I have discovered that most people don’t intend to waste their life. They don’t intentionally mess up. They don’t intentionally sabotage their own life. They don’t intentionally blow it. But they do it because they get distracted. They get distracted from what’s really important. We’re going to talk about that next week, helping you to clarify what are your own values that are really important to you.
If you want to make a difference in your life and you want to find fulfillment, you must be a focused person.
4. IT WILL ATTRACT COOPERATION
When you have a clearly defined purpose for your life, the amazing thing is, when you know where you’re going, other people want to come along. You’ll find that other people want to jump on your bandwagon, other people want to help. The world is looking for people of purpose. You’re an example.
When Troy started MCC in 1968 he was very clear about what MCC was to be and, over the years, others have come along and joined him in offering a church home which does not discriminate.
Nothing is quite as powerful as a life lived on purpose. If you want to look at the people who have made the greatest impact in this world, they weren’t the smartest or the wealthiest or the best educated. The people who’ve made the greatest impact are those people who have purpose and passion. They have a purpose that they feel passionate about. Another word for that is conviction. Conviction rules the world. The people who have had the deepest convictions for right or for wrong are those who have made the greatest difference in this world. They have believed what they’ve believed. They had a purpose that they were passionate about. The world follows people with a purpose.
5. IT WILL PREPARE ME FOR GOD’S EVALUATION
The Gospels tell us that God made us for a purpose because God doesn’t make anything without a purpose. God has invested in you certain talents and abilities and gifts. God put desires and interests and abilities with you to be used. One day God is going to ask for a return on that. God expects a return on those investments. God didn’t just give you your talents, your abilities, your mind just to waste on yourself. God didn’t give you the freedom you have, the opportunities you have, the abilities, the giftedness, the special things that you can do just to live a selfish little life. God wants you to use them for the purpose God designed them for.
One day God’s going to do an audit on your life. That’s the big final. And one day you will come before God and God’s going to ask you two extremely important questions. I’m telling you in advance what the questions on the final are. One, “What did you do with My Son, Jesus Christ?” God’s not going to ask what denomination you were. He’s not going to say, Were you Baptist? Were you a Catholic? Were you MCC? "I sent Him to earth so you could have a relationship with Him.” I hope you know the answer to that one: “I accepted Jesus Christ into my life and heart. I developed a relationship with Him as my Lord and my Boss, my CEO. He guided me through life."
The second question God’s going to ask is, “What did you do with all the talents that I gave you? Your life, your opportunity, your time, your energy? Did you just spend it on yourself or did you use it for the purpose on earth I created you for? What did you do with what I gave you?”
I can image it’s going to be extremely embarrassing for some people to say, “Sorry. I never took the time to discover why I was here on earth.” That’s the wrong answer. Very wrong.
Getting Started
So I hope you’ll stick with this series in the weeks ahead because we want you to be prepared for that final exam. It’s going to come, inevitably.
I’m going to give you a couple of steps on how to get started. Are you tired of hitting dead ends yourself? You matter to God. God has a plan for your life. God has a purpose for you. How do you get started? There’s a couple of preliminary steps. I’ll mention those today. Next week we’re going to get into step after step of moving toward discovering and fulfilling God’s plan for your life. But there are three things you can get started on:
First Identify what’s been driving your life so far. Has it been guilt? Has it been fear? Worry? Resentment? Your past? Other people? Making money? What’s been driving my life so far? Be aware of what’s driving you and be aware of where it’s leading you. Don’t waste your life. Most of us play Trivial Pursuit every day with their lives.
The truth is most people don’t plan on messing up. Most people don’t plan on a relationship breakup. Or alcoholism. Or just missing what they could have become. Or any number of other things, crises that come into our lives. We don’t plan those things. They come by default. Because we weren’t paying attention. You will go through life and you will live your life either by design or by default. You can either live it intentionally based on what God wants you to do or you can just do it by default and kind of muddle through. Know what’s been driving you.
Secondly: Believe God has a purpose for your life. God doesn’t create things without a purpose. You were made to be you and God designed your life plan even before you were born. St Paul says in the letter to the Ephesians “God is our Maker and in our union with Christ, God has created us for a life of good works which has already been prepared for us to do.” Before God even planned the world, God planned you. When God planned you, God planned your purpose even before you were born. When you fulfill your life purpose it brings honour to God and it brings satisfaction to yourself.
Thirdly Receive. I need to receive God’s Son into my life. God had a purpose in creating you. God had a purpose in bringing you here this afternoon so God could say to you, “I love you. I have a purpose for your life. You matter to Me. I don’t want you to waste your life.” If you want to know how much you matter to God, look at Jesus Christ. He died for you.
“Dear God, I want to know Your purpose for my life. I want to know why You made me and what You put me on this earth to do. Forgive me for looking elsewhere. Help me to identify what’s been driving my life so far. Help me to believe that You have a purpose for my life. Help me to receive Your Son into my life. Jesus Christ, as much as I know how, I ask You to put Your spirit and Your love in me and be my guide from here on out. In Your name I pray, Amen.”
This sermon was first preached in the Metropolitan Community Church of Manchester. Click here for further information.