Scripture Text: Ephesians 4:11-15
Memory Verse: Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; but happy is he who keeps the law. Proverbs 29:18
Lesson Aim: To show the need for members of the Body of Christ to have meaning and purpose in their lives and the impact of goals and focus on their lives.
Key Points - Your purpose is God’s mission or destiny for you. - Knowing God’s will for your life is critical to having purpose and meaning in your life. - Goals are the short-term activities that help us achieve our purposes. - Understanding our purpose and having goals help us to live focused lives.
One of the sad commentaries of our present day is the fact that so few people recognize their purpose and meaning in life. Many people are sustaining life but not really living. Even in the church, very few are living up to their full potential in Christ. Life without purpose is not meaningful! Without considering purpose, we waste time, energy and other resources. Have you ever asked yourself the questions, “Who am I?” “Why do I exist?” The answers to those questions are in understanding the will of God.
Purpose is the intention, the aim, the reason for being or doing something. It is the why. From God’s perspective, He has a purpose for all of us. Perhaps we would call it our mission or destiny. Each of us needs to know and understand our destiny from God’s point of view. God has a special purpose for each of our lives. What does God want you to do in the long-term? That is your purpose. Having purpose in our lives answers life’s bigger questions. In his book, “The Man in the Mirror,” Patrick Morley states that we have an eternal purpose and an earthly purpose. indeed, God’s eternal purpose for us is that we should have eternal life and live with Him forever. We are and were created for His pleasure. He wants to enjoy us and for us to enjoy Him.
Patrick Morley goes on to describe three levels of earthly purpose. Level 1 – the universal purpose, i.e., what God wants us to be and what God wants us to do on this earth; Level 2 – personal purpose; and Level 3 – other life purposes.1 Understanding our individual earthly purpose will require our taking a close examination of ourselves and our individual lives.
If purposes are why we exist and do what we do, then our goals are what we do. Goals will be a natural response to a well examined life. Our goals are the short-term activities that help us achieve our purposes. Whereas our focus may change over the long-term, goals come and go. Goals are achieved, reset and sometimes dropped. Goals may be objective and easily measurable or subjective and qualitative (not as easy to measure). The benefit of understanding our purposes and having goals is that we can then be focused in how we live our lives.
The corporate church also has a mandate to be purpose- driven. The purpose-driven congregation will better fulfill the Great Commission because it will be focused and not merely activity driven or easily distracted.
Jesus is our perfect example. He knew His purpose without a shadow of a doubt. Jesus wasted no time, no words, no energy. He knew His source and His destination and remained focused until the end. He maintained His relationship with the Father and fulfilled the perfect will of God.
Questions and Discussion
- What do these Scriptures tell us about man’s eternal purpose? 1 John 3:1-2; Revelation 3:20-21; 21:7; 20:6; 22:14.
- What can be said about man’s purpose in the earth realm? Ecclesiastes 12:13; Isaiah 43:7, 21; Matthew 6:33; Joshua 24:15.
- What was Jesus’ purpose? Consider the following scriptures. Luke 4:18-19; John 10:9-10; 1 John 3:8.
- What can we do to better understand our purpose? Proverbs 3:5-6; Jeremiah 29:11-13; Psalm 32:8. How can we integrate this with the concept of three levels of earthly purpose?
- Identify five purposes of the Body of Christ in the following Scriptures? Matthew 22:37-40; Matthew 28:19-20; Acts 1:8; Ephesians 4:11-13.
- Identify Paul’s purpose, goals and focus based on Philippians 3:7-15.
1 Patrick Morley, The Man in the Mirror, (Grand Rapids, Michigan, Zondervan, 1997), 86-91.