God’s Purpose for You
By Pastor Donny Granberry
1 Peter 2:9 NIV
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
Contrary to some people way of thinking, the crowned Prince of Glory did not leave the portals of heaven and reach down and save us from sin and death so that we might be happy, healthy, and wealthy.
That may be what the gospel of this age is too many, but it is a false gospel. A Gospel without a cross.
A Gospel without a cross is no gospel at all.
God has always had a purpose for man and that purpose has never changed.
Friend, we are a people with a destiny!
We have always been destined for the throne, created to rule with the one who created all things.
You might say then, “What is God’s purpose for me?”
1. We are made to be the body. (The hands and feet of Jesus in this present world)
Colossians 1:18 NIV
And he is the head of the body, the church.
All who have believed and received Christ as Lord and Savior are the Church.
Christ is the head of the church, making us the body of Christ on earth.
Just as our physical bodies carry out the desires of the head, the purpose of the church is to carry out the will of Christ.
We are God’s primary agents of redemption to the lost humanity of this world today.
There is a song that I love that says;
Touch through me, Holy Spirit touch through me.
Love through me, Holy Spirit love through me.
Flow through me, Holy Spirit flow through me.
Our hands are His hands.
Our feet are His feet.
Our tongues are His tongues.
That means that the way that God demonstrates His unfailing love today is through us, the church.
Lost men and women in this dark and dying world will not be found or redeemed unless we search for them.
1 John 4:17 KJV
… because as he is, so are we in this world.
The English New Testament translates it this way, “since in this world we are living as He is.”
This makes it clear that as we live our lives, we are to be representatives of Christ in this world.
We should be carriers of the presence, the word, and the works of Christ in this world.
We are the body of Christ in this world and…
2. We are ambassadors of Christ in this world.
Jesus called the disciples together and told them, “All power in Heaven and in earth is given unto me,” “Now go in my name - as the Father has sent me, so send I you.
As the Father has appointed me, so appoint I you.
As the Father has anointed me, so anoint I you.
When I was a teen-ager we had a different term for Youth groups, “Christ Ambassador’s.”
Our theme song was “We are Christ ambassador’s….
Ambassador – (Webster’s) a diplomatic agent of the highest rank accredited to a foreign government or sovereign as the resident representative of his or her own government or sovereign or appointed for a special and often temporary diplomatic assignment.
We are agents of the highest rank of a foreign government for a special and temporary assignment.
• We are agents with the highest rank (we have been adopted, and joint heirs with Christ)
• We are of a government, not of this world (and of the increase of His government there will be no end, he has been given a name above all other names)
• We are on a special temporary assignment (if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am you may be there also)
1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 NIV
For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.
As Ambassadors sent to this world, we are under God’s authority or monarchy.
You do not debate the wishes of the King, you simply obey without question.
The Lord taught us through his words and by His example what we should be doing.
We are Christ’s body in this world, we are Christ’s ambassadors in this world, and…
3. We are operatives with His power and authority.
Christ wants us to operate in the same authority and power that surrounded His earthly ministry.
Matthew 7:28-29 KJV
And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine:
For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.
Christ’s teaching confounded the best theologians and scholars of that day, as well as kings, rulers, and anyone else he spoke with.
That authority was carried on through His disciples.
Peter and John when dragged before the Sanhedrin:
Acts 4:10 KJV
Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole.
The answer they gave stunned the Sanhedrin, then they said, “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.”
We need to get the full picture here, Peter and John were a couple of blue collar fishermen, called in to speak before these white collar suits, highly educated, suave, and sophisticated leaders and something unusual happens that they weren’t used to.
By the answer given to them they knew these less-educated fishermen had been with Jesus.
I can here them even now, “There was only one who had ever spoken to us with this kind of wisdom, power, and authority, but we crucified him and have not seen nor heard from him since.”
I think one of them had to declare, “He’s alive, and multiplied through the lives of his believers.”
How did they recognize this? They spoke and acted like him, as one with wisdom, power, and authority.
They could do nothing because the one who was healed at the gate beautiful was standing there with them.
The same authority that they thought they had crucified was now alive in the disciples.
Galatians 2:20 KJV
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
