Purpose For Your Life

What are you here for? Is there not a cause?

Opening illustration: My wife and I pioneered and were instrumental in reviving the underground church in the Middle East. We served there for 14 years. No news media will ever tell you that the Spirit of God is moving in a powerful way in the Middle East. Many non-Christians are coming to Christ every day. They are hungry for God’s Word. Many Muslims walking on the road to pilgrimage in Mecca and Medina are encountering Christ and are being radically changed. Many Hindus in India devising to kill Christians encounter Jesus and are profoundly transformed. Tonight we are here to witness the same move of God as is being testified around the world. Are you ready to open your hearts and minds to Jesus Christ today?

Introduction:

• I want to turn your attention to today’s text found in 1 Samuel 17 … articulate the background.

• I do not esteem myself above you or below you. I am one from among you. Whenever God gets ready to do exploits He will raise one from among you. And I do not ever want to be separated from you. You are my brothers and sisters.

• Eliab the older brother of David asks him why did you come down here for? I know you just came down here to look. You will never reach your goal if you have just come to watch.

• And we have got too many folks who have spent too many years just looking at life. Watching other people get into the fight, watching other folks engage their lives. They are wandering around as vagabonds and joy riding in life.

• It is no wonder that this evening God would galvanize us and congregate us to authenticate and solidify that all of us have come here to step into a mission in life. Not just folks who came to watch.

• I refuse to watch my life go by sitting on the sidelines complaining about who did not love me, who wasn’t there for me, who doesn’t like me and who doesn’t believe me. I do not have time to deal with my critics or straighten out my enemies. God has given me a job to do and I am a man following a vision to accomplish. What about you?

Prayer:

• Whenever God wanted to do something here on earth, He always found someone to do it through.

• When He got ready to establish the world He formed Adam to do it. When God got ready to destroy the earth and save the righteous, He found Noah. When He got ready to establish His covenant, He found Abram. When He got ready to take the children of Israel from Egypt who were in bondage for over 400 years to the promised land, He found Moses.

• God took Moses and made him a deliverer. Moses was not necessarily a good man. He was not a perfect man. In fact, he was an outlaw, criminal and reject. God had a plan and purpose for his life. Moses was on the backside of the desert running from the law.

• Moses was exiles from Egypt because he did not understand his MISSION. Anytime you don’t understand your mission in life, you can end up trapped anywhere.

• God appeared to him through a burning bush and told him that I AM that I AM and I have a purpose for your life and there are some things I want do in and through your life. As Moses started to understand God’s MISSION in his life, it radically changed his life.

• Joshua who was mentored by Moses did not know his mission and when Moses died God said to him, just as I was with Moses, I will be with you. And God started to use Joshua in a significant way.

? Our focus for today is on David. He was rejected, ostracized and aliened. He is the 8th son of Jesse. He is not preferred by his father nor acknowledged by his brothers. Our text demonstrates that his brothers did not even like him. He was not even popular. You do not need to have everyone to affirm you to step into your calling. In fact, people can resent you and even then you can step into your mission.

? David was anointed to be king. He had gone back to take care of the sheep until God created an opportunity for him to come to the forefront. Here is where he learnt his MISSION and he learnt his mission by his obstacles.

? You will never understand who you are until you see who is fighting you. Who is fighting you, defines who you are. Nobody will come at you with a machine gun or a machete if they think you are a wimp. If you are a person who has been fought with heavy artillery, it is only because the enemy knows you are strong a person with much potential.