God's Purpose For My Life (Living With An Eternal Perspective)

God’s Purpose for my Life (Gaining an Eternal Perspective)

Col. 1:15-16 (NIV)

The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for

him.

01/11/04

Introduction:

Because of God, my life has profound purpose and significance!

Because of God, my life has infinite value and worth!

Because of God, my life has unlimited power and potential!

And that makes me very special and precious…

Repeat these often and allow these truths to transform you. That your life has profound

significance and purpose. That your life has infinite value and worth. That you have

unlimited power and potential with God. That you are very special and precious to Him. Isn’t

that awesome!

There a book by Rick Warren entitled, “The Purpose Driven Life” that asks the question

“What am earth am I here for?” He answers the question in the book. I recommend that

you take 40 days out in the New Year to work through it with somebody if possible. I’ve

done it with my wife and then later a small group and it has changed my perspective on

life. A lot of what I will be sharing with you in this message has been adapted from

that book and my personal interaction with the material (See P. 17-40).

George Barna has released a statistics of how many Americans actually live according to

a Biblical worldview. He says that it’s only 4%. That’s pretty pitiful. I think he was

talking about American Christians. In a room of this size of about 70 persons, that would

be about 3 of you. I don’t have the statistic for the Chinese or Asian context but I don’t

think its much different. What kind of perspective do you have? Do you think like the

rest of the world? Or Do you think like a Biblical Christian? Here is a basic test for you

if you want to know what kind of worldview you have based on how you answer two

questions:

1. What do you think is the purpose of my career? (you have a minute to answer)

Or What do you think a good job is?

A lot of parents would think that a good job or career is one that is well paid and have

prospects of promotion and advancement. I am sure my parents thought that way. It is a

job with comfortable conditions, one that will mean material advantage. In other words,

what we really mean is that our best ambitions for our children are purely material.

However, as Christians, our one overriding ambition for our children should be that they

know the Lord and be found in the center of His will for their lives. What they do or

what they earn, where they live or go, whether they prosper in this world or not are

entirely beside the point.

2. What do you think is the purpose of life?

My parents thought that the purpose of life was about being happy, healthy, better yet

wealthy. They do this to the exclusion of God. And for many Chinese families in my

generation, that also included filial piety putting parents and family at the center of

relationships.

The purpose of life for the Christian is also about relationships. But it is about our

relationship with Jesus Christ. It puts Jesus Christ at the center of all our relationships

including that of our families. And how we relate to others in our family and in the world

is based on our relationship with Him. And it is God’s purpose that I come to know

him intimately and in such a way that I can enjoy His presence in an intimate relationship with Him and glorify Him. Are you

pursuing that daily? This is so easy to miss.

Joseph Stowell of Moody Bible Institute compares the biblical worldview with a

humanistic worldview as follows.

The humanistic worldview (Man Centered worldview)

It’s a very temporal and materialistic worldview:

1. Man is at the center of the world. It’s about me, myself and I. Everything starts with

me and revolves around me. The man centered worldview says that this is the only life

we have and you only go around once. Live it up and end up feeling hollow and broken

and on a deadend street in your heart. The biblical worldview says that this is not the

only world that we have and the better world is yet to come. This is the short, nasty,

brutish one and I live in this world for the benefit of the world to come. There is an

eternal perspective.

2. The humanistic worldview says that my career is the vehicle that will advance my goal