hi I'm Professor Timothy Moore and this is the course Christian spirituality we're on unit8 a new purpose uh in the past few lectures we've been focusing on uh Jesus making us new Jesus made the statement I make all things new and so these new things that we've been focusing on are our new identity in Christ our new outlook our new relationship and today our new purpose um if you remember remember our new identity is shaped by what he says about us instead of our um what what we've done or what's been done to us in
the world Jesus says astounding things about us like we're the salt of the earth we're the light of the world uh often people talk about him that way but Jesus in Matthew 5 talked about us that way and U teach teaches that we're the Beloved of God and so that new identity is a new way to see yourself and living out of that kind of foundation and then the new outlook was how God uh changes our view of the world around us he has an incredible purpose for this world it's moving towards something and then
how we view people um people whether they are redeemed or unredeemed whether they're in the kingdom of God or the domain of Darkness it doesn't matter human beings are created in the image of God and so they have worth and value simply because they uh we reflect the image of our creator and and then our new relationship we we have a relationship now with God that can be uh something that grows every single day we can grow deeper in that relationship we can grow more attuned to the presence of God in our lives and we
do that we saw very quickly in our last lecture that we do that through a devotional life with God where we're exposed to the truth and Promises of God uh from his word we're yielding to the adjustments and assignments of His Holy Spirit and we're sharing support and encouragement with other believers we touched on that today I want to go a little bit deeper we're talking about the new purpose that we have as children of God as the redeemed uh of the Lord and so we have this new purpose and everyone searches for purpose um
in secular sociology um has nothing to do with the Bible nothing to do with with what Christ says about these things but if if if you're just reading say a sociology textbook uh at a university that is secular what they talk about in terms of purpose is meaning satisfaction identity and hope and so for instance um one sociologist wrote about a study that was done in convalescent centers or retirement homes where um they went into these homes and they they planted essentially Gardens so there were there were these beautiful flower gardens on each floor um
and uh vegetables and so forth and the residents there were given uh purpose uh in taking care of the plants and and so certain little projects like that were done to in to really inject purpose into these facilities where where people lose their sense of meaning and satisfaction and identity and hope and I don't have the the specific metrics in front of me but I will tell you that in certain types of medications like psychotropic medications medications for depression etc those things went down about half and so the the prescriptions for those things went down
because people had something to do they had something to look forward to they had a responsibility and it involved uh Beauty you know the flowers or the produce the vegetables and so um several different metrics uh that that increased a sense of purpose happened just by planting some basic Gardens and giving fol F in those convalescent centers those retirement homes some responsibility there to take care of those um those small gardens and so um people need this sense of meaning satisfaction identity and hope purpose is so important I mean if you think about um let's
say you have an apartment and your apartment has um a space heater in in our culture a space heater is a small heater that you plug into the wall to heat you know a specific room or specific area and let's say you decided that your bath water is not hot enough and that you'll use that space heater to heat up your bath water what's going to happen well you're going to die that's what's going to happen because that space heater has a very specific purpose and the purpose is to heat a a small room or
a small area in a room and so it's not designed to be put into a bathtub to heat the water uh purpose is very important and in general people know that they need purpose they need meaning satisfaction identity and hope and the absence of it actually results in depression discouragement despondency and even in those situations that we talked about earlier a rapid a more rapid death and so um let's talk about purpose I believe that in each of these four areas that have been identified by soci uh sociologists that um really Define what purpose is
I believe Jesus has um a better description a better fulfillment for us in each of these areas meaning satisfaction identity and hope and so I want us to look uh look at this question if you knew that God had a very specific purpose for your life like you knew this no without a shadow of a doubt and that purpose had very specific and unique assignments for you to do would you want to know what that plan is where and and would you know where and how to discover that plan and so that's what I want
us to focus on um and and the question is is very relevant there are people who don't want to know I mean I've spoken to Believers that are afraid to know God's plan for their lives they need more faith and more trust and more knowledge of the goodness of God so that they are ready for his purpose and plan for their lives that they're ready for the specific assignments that God has for them but let's uh for the sake of this lecture assume you really want to know that plan you really want to know that
purpose you really want to know those specific assignments do you know how to discern what God's purpose and those specific assignments are for you so we're going to focus on that um Titus 2 ver14 says this he meaning Christ gave his life to free us from every kind of sin to cleanse us and to make us his very own people totally committed to doing good deeds so there are good deeds there are good works there are specific assign assignments that God has for us and in other lectures I've I've um talked about Ephesians 2:10 which
says that we are the the poema the Poetry of God the craftsmanship of God and we're created by God for the good works works equal assignments for those good assignments that he marked out for us to do so so Titus 2:14 Ephesians 2 10 other scriptures as well speak that to the fact that God has a very specific purpose unique purpose for each of our lives there are some general principles that apply to all of us and then there is a very specific process given to us in God's word about how to know the unique
and specific assignments that God has for each of us as individuals and so first I'd like for us to um to look at those general principles but consider this first are you living your plan and asking God to bless it in other words you're you're making decisions about your life this is these are the things that I want and then your prayers are for God to bless your stuff or are you seeking God's plan knowing that he always blesses his own assignments for your life there's a big difference there many people come to the Lord
and then they have an expectation that I believe is a false expectation that God is somehow obligated to bless their stuff to bless their plans to um that that that God is somehow just waiting to know what you want and then like a genie in the bottle God's God's waiting for you to rub the lamp and say this is what I want and then he does it for you and um my proposition to you is that and I believe it's a Biblical principle God doesn't operate that way God gives God wants to give you his
assignments he's God and you're not he's God I'm not and so I have a responsibility as the creature created by God to be obedient to his specific will plan purpose for my life that's consistently uh revealed in scripture and so seeking God's plan knowing that he always blesses his assignments for my life is where I need to live it's where we need to live as Bel Believers not simply asking God to bless our stuff kn knowing that God always blesses his own stuff his own assignments that he wants to give to us as his children
how do I know God's will for my life so I want to give you some general principles some scriptures that that address this that are true at all times everywhere for every believer these are the general principles of God's word about knowing his will and doing his purpose for our lives Romans 8:29 it says God has predestined people to be conformed to the image of his son and so if someone says what's God's will for your life it's always safe to say God's will for my life is that I be more like Jesus God's will
for my life is that through the experiences of my life I be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ the world needs Jesus Christ the world needs a savior the world needs an example and so Christ through us to the world is always the will of God the will of the father and then 2 Corinthians 3:18 teaches people are being transformed into the likeness of Christ there we have it again through the indwelling spirit and so uh this adds the the fact that that the Holy Spirit living inside us is doing work he is waiting
for us we're going to see this in God's word he's waiting for us to yield to that work the work that he wants to do is transforming us into the likeness of Christ that's the work of the holy spirit that he will do when we yield ourselves to his work Philippians 2:5 says people should think and act like Christ Jesus that's the principle it literally says have this mind in you that was also in Christ Jesus it means think the way Christ thought and so it's always the will of God for you to have your
mind as Romans CH 12 1 and2 teaches your mind not conformed to the world but transformed and we're transformed into the patterns of thinking that Jesus Christ demonstrated that's what it means to have a transformed mind not thinking like someone that is driven by the things of this world talked about in in first John where he says the all that exists in this world is the lust of the eyes the lust of the flesh the pride of life we're not driven by those things we become driven by those things that motivated Jesus Christ that's what
Philippians 2:5 is saying and then Luke 9:3 is to become a disciple people should deny themselves take up their cross daily and follow Christ and so back to this idea of God here's what I want to do now I need you to bless it that's not denying yourself denying yourself is saying God my life belongs to you the Bible says we're bought with a great price and that price was the the blood of God's son Jesus Christ we're purchased we're in in essence owned because we're bought with a great price we're Servants of the Lord
Jesus Christ and so if we're going to be in the will of God we can't be determining what we want to do and then asking God to bless it we have to be denying ourselves taking up our cross daily the cross was the ultimate assignment from the father to the Son and the son carried out that assignment with complete obedience we see that in Philippians chapter 2 it says he became obedient to the point of death even the death on the cross and so if we're going to be in the will of God fulfilling our
purpose doing our assignments led by the Holy Spirit In general we have to know that our purpose is to be conformed to the image of God's son more of Jesus shining out of our lives that the Holy Spirit wants to do that work in our lives we need our minds renewed to think and act more like Jesus and we need to deny ourselves submit to those assignments and follow the lord Jesus Christ and when I am expressing that as a pastor at U Christ the King Church I use the phrase keeping our yes on the
table before God and so can we live with that kind of Faith having our yes on the table before God he has our yes even before he gives the assignment that's living by faith so I want to talk about specific practices that help us know the specific assignments that God has for us within his purpose for our lives and we can't know God's specific purpose for us without spending time with God in his word now I said that um in a very specific way I didn't say without spending time in the word I said time
with God in his word because we're not transformed simply by reading the Bible we're trans we're transformed excuse me through a relationship with God we're transformed by consistently entering into the presence of God acknowledging God's presence in Proverbs 3 uh 4 and 5 it says uh lean not to your own understanding in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path and so we're acknowledging the presence of God we know when we get into the word of God we're not just reading an ancient history book we're we're spending time with God in the
Living Word of God that's going to transform our hearts and our minds and so time with God in his word some verses about that Psalm 119 throughout is talking about spending time with God in the word and this is just one of the verses many verses in Psalm 119 it says your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path and so the key word here is consistency and so time with God in his word needs to become a daily occurrence in the life of a follower of Jesus Christ if we're
going to know the purpose of God and the specific assignments that God has for our lives we can know it no other way that than spending time with God in his word with consistency um my wife has a saying uh our our house is two stories that has u a staircase and at the top of the staircase there are these little uh sayings that she's put up there and one of them is success is not something you do occasionally it's something you do consistently and that's AB absolutely true in knowing the purpose of God and
his specific assignments for your life consistent time in the word of God John 8:31-32 Jesus said to the to uh those Jews who believed in him these were Believers if you abide in my word now that little word if is very important it is it means that um this is conditional if is is a conditional particle so what what that implies is um this is the condition for this to happen so if you don't do this it's not going to happen and Jesus said if you abide in my word the word abide means to stay
in something consistency if you abide in my word word you are my disciples indeed and you shall know the truth and the truth will make you free so do you want freedom in your life um sociologists also say that part of purpose is freedom a a sense of freedom of um of being in control right self-control not being controlled by outside sources the Paradox of this um it seems like a contradiction many things in God's kingdom may seem they may be an apparent contradiction but they're not it's not contradictory you give your life to God
you put your yes on the table to the Lord and his promise is you'll experience Freedom you'll experience Freedom From The Binding and blinding ofth effect of your selfishness and sin you will walk in true freedom and so Jesus says abide be consistent in my word you will know the truth and the truth will make you free in 2 Peter 13 and 4 it says by his divine power God has given us everything we need for living a Godly life when the Bible talks about living a Godly life it's talking about living out your specific
purpose your specific assignments in the world it says we have received all of this by coming to know him the one who called us to himself by means of His Marvelous glory and excellence and because of his glory and Excellence he has given us great and precious promises these are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world's corruption caused by human desires when I was in seminary at Southwestern seminary in Fort Worth Texas um I had to read a book called all the promises of God by Dr Herbert locker
and in that book there were 7,487 verses that contain specific promises from the Bible and so some of those promises could have been repeated a few times and so I've heard estimates of about 3,000 Pro specific promises but 7,487 verses in the Bible that contain specific promises and second Peter 1:4 teaches us that it it's the promises of God that enable that word enable means to empower strengthen um and so when we learn the promises of God from his word we are empowered we are strengthened to share God's nature and escape the world's corruption and
so it's through the truth of Christ and the promises of God's word that we know and live out the purpose and assignments of God every assignment given to you by the holy spirit of God will be in perfect alignment with the word of God so we have to spend time in God's word because that's the only way to know with certainty that what we feel like the holy spirit is leading us to do is actually in God's per uh purpose and his specific assignments for our lives so the key words when you're thinking about time
with God in his word are truth and promises you will know the truth and the truth will make you free and the promises Empower you to escape the world's corruption and to share God's divine nature that means to reflect the nature of God and the nature of God is the fruit of the Holy Spirit Galatians 5:22 and 23 we can say uh that these things are found in God's nature the fruit of the Holy Spirit love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness self-control and in Romans 15:13 it says the Holy Spirit also produces hope
so those 10 beautiful aspects of God's divine nature are um they fill our lives and they spill out on other people um when we are embracing the promises of God by faith so truth and promises are very important if we're going to know God's purpose and his assignments for our lives um Galatians 5:116 says so I say let the holy spirit guide your lives then you won't be doing what your sinful nature crave some translations use the word yield yield yourself to the Holy Spirit and then you will not be driven by animal desires one
translation translates it that way and so um We're Not Just Animals we are the amod day we're created in the image of God and when we yield to the holy spirit of God within us we don't have to simply be driven by what our fleshly nature desires we can know the assignments of God for our lives and so yielding to the Holy Spirit Romans 8 verse 5 and 6 is talking about the same thing and this um this battle that goes on because we we're in in the flesh but in our human flesh the Holy
Spirit dwells and it says those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the spirit so letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death but letting the spirit control your mind leads to life and peace so life and peace sounds a whole lot like satisfaction right meaning and satisfaction those those things that sociologists uh use to describe purpose uh life and peace is a beautiful thing life and peace comes from allowing the Holy Spirit to to control
our lives and not allowing our sinful nature to control Our Lives the third thing um that's important to understand your purpose and the assignments that God has for you is uh according to the Bible meeting with others we may call this Fellowship the Bible uses the word coinonia uh in the biblical Greek which means to share common life together um we need this time with God in his word we need this uh specific time of yielding ourselves to the Holy Spirit asking for the adjustments and assignments he has for our lives and then we need
support and encouragement uh from other believers as well and uh this is coming from Hebrews chap 10: 24 it says let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works and let us not neglect our meeting together as some people do but encourage one another especially now that the day of his return is Drawing Near this is an incredible verse that speaks about the purpose of the church in in general why do we gather as a church or why do we gather with a small group of Believers say in
our home or at a coffee shop Every Time We Gather this is the purpose we should think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works We Gather to encourage one another in the assignments the adjustments and assignments given to us by the Holy Spirit it's not easy to live for God and for God's glory in a fallen and sin cursed world and so we need one another there are at least 32 one another Commandments in the New Testament we're supposed to love one another we're supposed to build one another up
um there there's even a commandment to greet one another like don't just walk by and ignore somebody like acknowledge their presence because when you greet a person um it encourages them and so you have all of these one anothers in the New Testament because we are created for relationship we're in the image of God and remember uh we we talked about this in another lecture God is the perfect Eternal relationship remember uh Trinity is a word that we came up with several hundred years later to describe God but the original word used to describe the
Lord in New Testament times was peric cesis much harder word to say but Perry means around like perimeter and cesis is the word for for uh choreography or dance and so God is this beautiful Eternal relationship he could be described as the beautiful Eternal dance there's this Eternal beautiful dance between the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit and we're created in His image and so we're created with the need for relationship we are relational beings created in the image of God and that's why he gave us 32 one another Commandments in the New Testament
to live out as Disciples of Jesus Christ and so we gather together it says do not neglect meeting together God want wants us to meet together because when we meet together we're encouraging one another in our purpose in our assignments from the Lord that are always in alignment with the scripture and so the key words here is support and encouragement and so as you're listening to this repeat after me truth and Promises adjustments and assignments support and encouragement these are the things that the Lord wants you to experience and through those things he's going to
unveil his purpose for your life his calling on your life the daily adjustments and assignments that he has for your life this is your unique purpose and all of it is to fulfill those general principles we looked at that you might be conformed more to the image of Christ because when you wake up in the morning when I let's just put it in my lap when Professor Timothy Moore wakes up in the morning people need more Jesus through his life and there are certain adjustments that need to happen if people are going to see Christ
through my life there may be some pride that I need to die to there may be some things that I need need to consciously avoid in order for God to be glorified in my life that day and for Christ to be seen the light and the love of Jesus to be seen through my life and so I've got to be in God's word I've got to yield to God's spirit and then throughout the day I'm going to need some support and encouragement I'm going to be running into people that need support and encouragement and as
I do that then I'm able to fulfill those ass assignments or encourage other people to do their assignments and by the way assignments will have names and faces assignments are people that need to be encouraged they're people that need support there are people who may need to know the Gospel of Jesus there are people that have needs that uh must be met and hurts that must be healed and it's not our relationship to heal every hurt it's not our excuse me my our responsibility to heal every hurt or to meet every need but it is
our responsibility to yield ourselves to the Holy Spirit and to get his assignments for our lives and that's all that we are responsible for if we're faithful to those assignments and the Holy Spirit won't give you 17 assignments in the day Jesus said take my yoke upon you for my yoke is easy and my burden is light a yoke is an assignment a yoke is some type of work to do it's something that you put on livestock to plow a field to do something but Jesus said when I give you something to do the burden
will be light and easy so how how is the burden light and easy it may not be an easy thing to do but the burden is easy because you have his presence you have his power you have his resources he is with you and remember he always blesses his own stuff and every assignment that he gives us is his stuff so what I would like us to consider at this time is a u just a specific situation in scripture where Jesus was with his disciples and they were filled with fear they were fearing that uh
conditions around them they were fearing that they might die they were uh they had a fear that Christ was going to go past them and not help them so there's all of these fears in the disciples and then Jesus taught them the importance of the purpose and the assignments that he was giving them and that by faith they could overcome their fear and and accomplish God's purpose for their lives this teaching is from uh a pastor that we have on staff here at Christ the King Hope Church Pastor cliff tatma and he is sharing this
story from God's word to help us understand more about our responsibility uh and and what we are to believe how we are to believe and trust and things we are to do to know our purpose and our assignments both gospel writers say that Jesus it says immediately after so as soon as you're done cleaning up Jesus comes to you as a bunch of disciples and says okay here's what I want you to do I want you to get in a boat and go to the other side now the word is actually used it says Jesus
made the disciples get in a boat or insisted or compelled them or con strain them too so in other words he was real clear this is what I want you to do get in a boat and go to the other side now some of the disciples were fishermen right we're were previous fishermen they might have looked at the sky and gone or maybe some of them just went you know Jesus we'd kind of like you to come along with us we'll just wait and Jesus said no no no I'm insisting you get in the boat
and you go to the other side so they got in the boat and they went to the other side there's our first principle for God's plans for you you want God's plans for you you need to be obedient to him God's plans for you require obedience to him if you aren't obedient to God then he will not he will not disclose his plans for you you'll be going sideways with his plans you might even have a phone going off and thinking how can I turn this thing off with everything going around me and you don't
know because God well okay uh now These Guys these guys listened and they were obedient to God so the first thing is if you want God's plan for you it requires a you're obedient to him God what do you want me to do and now I'm going to do whatever it is you want me to do now if I'm obedient to God himself it just seems natural to me that I'd expect him to bless me that I'd expect to kind of prosper in this that I'd expect life to be kind of great and and that
I'd kind of expect could I just say it this way smooth sailing oh nope nope somebody's read this story before nope I don't think so how could it be that these guys who were obedient to Jesus and did what he said to do would wind up going into a storm but that's what happened they wound up going right into a storm now before I tell you the principle there I want to I want to encourage you that Jesus exper exped this himself he did say well how how does that work Cliff here's how in Luke
4:1 it says Jesus full of the Holy Spirit returned from the Jordan and was led by the spirit Into the Wilderness so Jesus was obedient himself he was led by the Holy Spirit to go into the Wilderness you know what he went into the Wilderness and what happened he got tempted for 40 days and 40 nights in the wilderness well he's fasting he is tempted Jesus understood what happens and here's the principle for you and I God's plans will include unexpected storms unexpected trouble oh well come on Cliff that's nothing new everybody's life has some
trouble and some storms right whether you're a Believer or not a Believer you're going to run into troubles and storms and if you don't you're really naive you haven't lived long enough CU you flat will you're going to run into those things but here's what we need to understand as Believers God's plan for us does not exclude us from that do you hear that and that's really important to know because otherwise if you think it means I'm free from that and then the first time you bump up against something you're going to wonder why in
the world am I here God you're not supposed to let this happen to me and God's going to say oh yes I am as a matter of fact I told you it would happen Jesus in John 16:33 says I have told you these things so that in me you might have peace oh I'm going to give you peace in the middle of the storm in this world you will have trouble that means sorrow that means pain that means tribulations but take heart I have overcome the world I love the fact that God does not blow
smoke with the scripture he's right up front with us he says this is what you can expect and sometimes it's going to feel really rough sometimes you're going to wonder if you're alone the disciples are out in that boat and it tells us that they hit that storm and it wasn't any 15minute storm it wasn't just a Squall come in and out it pounded them and it pounded them and they are they are ruined to save their life they're bailing to save their life and literally to save their life even the fishermen in the boat
are wondering if they're going to survive it they're they're not certain they're going to that's how bad the storm was and now they're tired they're they're distressed they're fatigued they're hopeless it's 3:00 in the morning and they're still not to the other side they're in the middle of this incredible storm that they've been fighting it says since evening and then 3:00 in the morning they're so tired they almost feel delusional they look out and they see somebody walking on the water well so often we look at the disciples and think that maybe just weren't too
bright in the way they saw things because we have the benefit of seeing them afterwards right I don't know about you but my 2020 hindsight's pretty good is pretty good so we look at them we go what was wrong with you guys how come you were and it says that they thought they saw a ghost well naturally they thought they saw a ghost it sure as heck wouldn't have been a person walking on the water people don't generally walk on water especially a long way from Shore and especially when it's windy and there are waves
and there's all kind there's a storm going on and yet they look out and they see that and it says they were filled with Terror oh my gosh what it really means is they screamed they screamed the fishermen among them were like little girls they're screaming they see this ghost and everything else is coming around them listen what happens when you're filled with fear when you are filled with fear friends there's no room for anything else there's no room for something else God wants there to be something else some of you have been are in
the middle of a storm some of you right now are in the middle of the storm you have been rowing like crazy you have been bailing like crazy and you've been saying where is Jesus when is he going to show up and he says I'll show up in the middle of the storm for you be watching for me because I'm going to go through it with my kids it's me so they they scream out they're so filled with fear and and the first thing they were afraid of was all the conditions around them then they
were afraid that they might lose their life even and how is that going to work out Where's God in this and then they see this ghost which is like a spiritual thing and so it's like a spiritual attack you know and that freaks them out even more and then as they look this ghost looks like it's Jesus and then both authors say that it looked like he was going to walk past them can you imagine that's it's a ghost and then is Jesus I think it it might be Jes it could be Jesus wait a
minute he's walking past us wait wait don't go past us we're about to sink here we want you in we want you in this with us so they were so filled with fear and I've been to the place where you're so filled with fear that there's no room for something else and Jesus has the words for them right then and there that he has for you and me here's his words do not fear do not fear he tells them above the wind and the the waves do not fear what he means is this if you're
so filled with fear there's no room for anything else I want you to have some other things set that aside do not do that and then he tells them what to do he says take courage take courage courage is not the absence of fear friends it's going ahead in spite of the fear take courage he says I want you now to do something positive don't let fear hold you don't let fear grip you don't let fear control you no instead want you to have to to have me involved to step into it to take courage
how can I do that Lord oh that's the last thing he said he told him how he said it's me it's me it's Jesus you were right you thought it might be me it is me I'm arriving in the middle of your storm to go through it with you it's me you don't have to fear you can have courage because it is me oh wow
