What Drives My Life?

Purpose. Purpose is the proper driver. So you have to know the purpose of life. A lot of people let possessions, popularity, power and position to become their purpose in life. And they miss out on so much. You see, all of these wrong drivers, they are really just temporary things. They are things that are not going to last. But purpose lasts. Purpose is my vehicle and your vehicle to make a difference for eternity. Look at what the Scripture says in II Corinthians 4:18. It says, “There is far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow.” That’s what happens with those wrong drivers. Here today and gone tomorrow. “But the things that we can’t see now last forever.” I don’t know about you, but I want to invest my life in something that is going to last. I am now old enough to realize that my life is pretty brief. I mean, even if I have another 40 maybe 50 years at this thing, and I hope I might even have 60 years, at this thing or beyond. I mean, people are living longer these days, but that is really a brief time. So I want to use the brief time that I have to live my life for what’s going to last. I want to make a difference, not only now, but for eternity. So purpose is the vehicle for you and I to make a difference.

Now when you look at what the Bible says about purpose, the Bible is very clear that there are five eternal purposes. There are five purposes that are going to last forever. So I want us to examine those today. So turn over in your notes and you see it says, “Five Proper Purposes of a Driven Life”. That’s a little bit of a tongue twister. Five proper purposes of a driven life. But I want to give these to you.

Purpose No. 1: Connect with God personally

Here’s the first proper purpose of a driven life. The first purpose is going to last for eternity. It is, to connect with God personally. This should be the number one driver. The first driver. And rightfully, we put this at the top of the list, because it’s about knowing God. The first proper purpose of a driven life is to connect with God personally. And say—God, the primary purpose of my life is to know You. And this requires some awakenings. You have to awaken to the fact that God created you. That God loves you. That God knows you better than you know yourself, and then you wake up to the fact that your primary purpose is to know God in return. This requires wisdom. It’s the wise person who gets to know God. You know, I want to take you to I Chronicles, it’s a look over in the Old Testament. I Chronicles 28. If you get a chance, you might just want to read this whole chapter when you get home. Some of us have been reading it through the Bible challenge that we have been into and we read it a few months ago. This is a really interesting chapter because it introduces you, for the first time, to Solomon. You have probably heard of Solomon before. You probably know a little bit about Solomon. But do you know who Solomon’s dad was? Did you know that King David was the father of Solomon? And King David, many of us know his story. King David had great ups and downs in his life. He was a shepherd boy who was picked to be a king of all of Israel. So he went from the low man on the totem pole to suddenly, the highest person in the land. He was a poet as well as a warrior. He was a major artist, as well as a major man’s man, and that kind of deal. As if those two were in opposition. But never mind, forget that. You can be an artist and be like a man’s man. I didn’t mean it that way. Just forget it. Stop digging. That’s the first rule when you’re in a hole. Look. He was like this great accomplished guy. Extremely rational in ruling kingdoms, and he was in touch with his emotions when it comes to playing the harp. Now, I’m done. That was King David. We all know David. But he had some really highs and he had some real lows. Remember, one time he committed adultery with a person named Bathsheba. And this was a real low. And then he created this whole deal to get Uriah, her husband to the front of the lines so that he would be killed. I mean, this guy had his ups and downs in his life. In other words, he has really lived. But do you realize that at the end of his life, God said this about him. God said, “David, you are a man after My heart. You are a man who really, with all of your ups and down, you still want to know Me.” And it says that David served His purposes in his generation. David served God’s purposes. Think about that as an epitaph. You fulfilled God’s purposes in your generation. And so here we have in this passage, in I Chronicles 28, David is talking to his son, Solomon. He is passing down all that he learned. Look at what he said, “Solomon, my son, get to know the God of your ancestors.” Would you underline that phrase? Get to know the God of your ancestors. David says, the most important thing that I can tell you is to get to know God. Get to know God personally. Make this is the driving desire of your life. Worship Him and serve Him, it says. Continuing on in the Scripture, “with your whole heart and with a willing mind. If you seek Him, you will find Him, but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever.” David said to Solomon, the most important thing you can do is to be in pursuit of God. To get to know God personally. Now, do you remember what happened with Solomon? As Solomon grew up he became King Solomon, and as you know, he was considered the wisest person who ever lived. He is still considered that today. He wrote all of the Book of Ecclesiastes and most of the Proverbs in the Old Testament. And his pursuit was to know God. And in pursuing God, he became the wisest person who ever lived. He became a person of great possessions. He was also the richest man who ever lived. If you look at all that he attained in his life, he makes Bill Gates like a beggar. I mean, he was rich beyond all measure. He had a position of power that heretofore was unknown in the ancient world. You see, he got some of the things that we were talking about. He got some possessions. He got some popularity. He got some power. He got some position. But the driver in his life was the purpose of knowing God. You see, this leads to a great principle that you and I have to understand which is this: true happiness in life is found in knowing God. True happiness in life is found in knowing God. It’s only when you make the drive to connect to God, the number one purpose in your life that you are going to find happiness. You aren’t going to find it in any of those wrong drivers. Those wrong drivers are ultimately empty. But sometimes in pursuing God, you get some of the other stuff, sometimes you don’t. But I know this. If you don’t pursue, you are never going to be happy. You see, every person here, no matter where you are from. No matter where you were born. No matter the level of your education. No matter if you are very popular or not popular at all. Whether you have a lot of possession or little possessions. No matter whether you have a big position or you are just starting out in your career, no matter what, if you have any of those trappings, you still have a purpose. God says, He created you so that you could know Him. And it’s only until you know God, that life is going to make sense. And this has been God’s unchanging plan all along. God’s plan has been to adopt you into His family so that not only does He know you, but that you know Him. Look at Ephesians 1:5. “God’s unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ.” Would you circle that phrase—through Jesus Christ. And this gave Him great pleasure. I love this verse. It tells us exactly how we can connect with God. The way that you and I connect with God is through Jesus Christ. Did you catch that? God smiles when we do this. God is happy when we do this. It gives Him great pleasure when we connect with Him. You see, God’s not out to get you. God wants you to know Him. God wants you to be in touch with Him. God wants to show you what life is all about. It pleases God when you connect with Him. And you connect with God through Jesus Christ. This is calling becoming a follower of Jesus. But now let me say something about connecting with God personally. When you examine what it means to connect with God, it means that you connect with God at a point and then you connect with God as a pursuit. Connecting with God personally is both a point and a pursuit. Let me explain. There is a point in your life, when you decide to connect with God for the first time. In other words, we live our lives naturally apart from God. We live our lives separated from God. But there comes a point where we make a decision to say—God, from this point forward I am going to follow You. And you do that by becoming a follower of Jesus Christ. Because it’s through Jesus Christ that you connect with God. Think about that. Many of you have already done that. There was a moment, sometimes you call it when you were saved. You call it the point of salvation. You say, it’s when I became a Christian. It’s the point where you became a follower of Jesus. Before that you were not following Jesus, but after that point, you were. And then that point is not the end of the story. Instead, you become a follower of Jesus, and now you are in pursuit of following Jesus. You see, it’s a point and a pursuit. You know, every week in our church there are dozens of people who make the decision to begin to follow Jesus. They start that point. They come to a point in their life where they say—from this point forward, I am going to follow Jesus. People do that all the time. And then many people every week, and many of you today, will make the decision to continue to pursue God. And you take steps now to spiritual growth. The first is a step of salvation. The pursuit is a step of spiritual growth. And so you continue to grow and to know God. And so I want you to understand this that once you connect with God at that point, doesn’t mean that you stop connecting with God in the pursuit. And so, as you are in pursuit of God, you are driven to know God more to connect with God through His Word. To connect with God through His church. To connect with God through prayer. As a matter of fact, we just did a whole series on prayer and the vertical series back in February and March when we talked about how we could communicate with God because we are in pursuit. And our church is designed to help you take that step of a point of salvation and a pursuit of connecting with God throughout your life. And you know, I can honestly say that the driving purpose of my life is connecting with God. I mean, I want to know God. At age 17, there was a point where I said yes to connecting with God through Jesus Christ, and then since then, the rest of my life as now I am in pursuit of God. Of knowing Him more. You know, as I am in this pursuit, it’s natural that I would want other people to connect with God as well. I mean, if I found what makes life matter, if I found the number one purpose in life, I should share that good news with other people. And so that’s called evangelism. It’s when we tell other people—here’s how you can connect with God. Come to church with me. Let me share some Scriptures with you. Let me tell you my story. That’s helping others connect with God. That’s part of this purpose as well. And you guys do this so well. Week after week, maybe you are here today because a friend invited you. One of the reasons why they invited you is so that you can understand this purpose, because they have found something that they wanted you to find as well, the good news along the way.