God’s Promises for the Holiday Season
You Have a Purpose…
I want to begin today’s message with a passage from Psalm 8, to give us some perspective:
Psalm 8:3-9 (NLT)
When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers—the moon and the stars you set in place—4 what are mere mortals that you should think about them, human beings that you should care for them? 5 Yet you made them only a little lower than God and crowned them with glory and honor. 6 You gave them charge of everything you made, putting all things under their authority—7 the flocks and the herds and all the wild animals, 8 the birds in the sky, the fish in the sea, and everything that swims the ocean currents. 9 O Lord, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth!
We’ve been studying God’s Promises, and today we conclude with the promise, “You have a Purpose.” In the Psalm we just read we see two things: The depth of God’s love for us, and that because God loves us so much he has given us a purpose while we are here on earth.
As the Holiday Season winds down, with it can come the post-holiday blues. We can start to feel down, and without purpose. Our attention is no longer on the Joy or Stress of the season, and now back on the rut that we find ourselves in.
But that is not God’s intention. Today he wants to remind us, We have Purpose!
-Prayer
You have a purpose…
1. And are Fearfully and Wonderfully Made
Antithesis: “I have nothing to contribute. I am obsolete.”
Psalm 139:13-16 (NIV)
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. 15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, 16 your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
I like to see this verse as if it were an artist describing a masterpiece and how it came to be from within his creative soul. That’s how God views us. He loves you and has loved you before you were even in existence. That’s why he has given you grace through salvation.
A. Salvation is not the end!
Salvation is not simply afterlife insurance, nor is it the Christian “fire escape”. If the only reason to getting saved was to get into heaven, then you would be dead right now, because the job would have been completed right?
“Salvation includes you, but it’s not all about you. It is what God wants to do through you.”
– Wayne Cordiero
God has not only loved us enough to save us, but he’s given us the tools be used for His glory! How has he done that?
B. Spiritual Gifts
We all have been given spiritual gifts!
Romans 12:6-8 (NLT)
In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you. 7 If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well. 8 If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly.
This passage lists some of the “motivational gifts” that will fuel our actions and tendencies.
Prophecy: The ability to discern quickly between right and wrong. This gift compels the believer to see things without shades of gray. It is not fortune telling because it’s source, is God and has no other gain, but God’s glory!
Serving: Feels compelled to meet physical needs through serving
Teaching: Enjoys sharing truths with others, and loves to discover what helps others learn effectively
Exhortation: Encouragement that stirs others faith stronger. Can help resolve conflict, and is able to garner support to mobilize people in a common goal
Giving: feels motivated to meet a need or advance a ministry by helping to relieve financial burden. It is a delight!
Leading: has the ability to administrate and organize others towards a common goal
Mercy: Quicky discern the emotional hurts of others, and feel motivated to alleviate the inner struggles of others.
C. Talents
We all have unique abilities to “excel” in certain ways. Everyone has talent! There are TV shows designed to give a stage to “talent”. Some might necessarily be talent, but truth be told, we all have a talent in something.
Even if it seems like an insignificant talent, God has purposed you with that talent. Now the choice is yours, who will you serve with it?
Deuteronomy 28:47-48 (NLT)
If you do not serve the Lord your God with joy and enthusiasm for the abundant benefits you have received, 48 you will serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you.
D. Passion
Do you realize that God has not only given you talents and gifts, but also those same passions and dreams you possess?
Philippians 2:13 (NIV)
For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.
It is God that stirs us up inside of us these motivations. God pairs the gifts that he has given with the passion to use them!
Knowing your spiritual gifts will answer the “what” question. Knowing your passion will answer the where:
Where can I use my gifts?
Where do I feel most motivated to serve?
Where do I sense a calling or attraction?
You have a purpose…
2. Follow and Do Not Doubt
Antithesis: “I don’t like where I’m at.”
God does not do things at random. God has a plan for you, and has placed you where you are on purpose.
God also does not make mistakes. If you look in your bible, there is no instance where God says, “Oops!”
Acts 17:26-28 (NLT)
From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. 27 God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.
So think about how amazing this scripture is. Out of all the times in history God placed you in this day and age. Out of all the places in the world, God set you where you are. You could have been placed anywhere else, but you weren’t.
We’ve just detailed the fact that you are not an accident, and that you have specialties unique to you. So do you think that God would grant all this and put you in the wrong place?
Being in Pahrump – God has you here for a reason! Bloom where you are planted!
If you dream of “Bigger and Better”, ask yourself this question: “Have I been a good steward of what God has given me now?”
It’s simple video game philosophy: God will not take us to the next level if we can’t pass this one!
You have a purpose…
3. See that realized!
“I have no direction.”
God says: Seek my Wisdom and Guidance
A. Find Your Fit
Proverbs 3:5,6 (NLT)
Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.
Are you looking for direction? Ask for it! I guarantee if you seek God’s heart for the things of life (direction, purpose, course of action) He will reveal it to you. But we must keep our eyes open:
A group of seminary students were praying and asking God to reveal to them how they could help the victims of a devastating tornado in Louisville. They were still at the “prayin’” state when they should have been at the “doin’” stage. – Marilyn Murphree
B. Take action!
This is where the rubber meets the road. Where the calling becomes more than lip-service!
During a lecture on mental health someone once asked Dr. Carl Menninger: “What would you advise a person to do if that person felt a nervous breakdown coming on?” Most people thought he would say,
“Go see a psychiatrist immediately,” but he didn’t.
Much to everyone’s astonishment, Dr. Menninger replied, “Lock up your house, go across the railroad tracks, find somebody in need, and help that person.” To overcome discouragement, “Don’t focus on yourself, get involved in the lives of other people.”
James 4:14-15
Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15 Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”
God Loved you so much that he Blessed you with Grace. He has placed Hope in our hearts to endure. And on top of all that, God has given us a Purpose to serve Him for His Glory.
-Prayer
