26th Oct 08 - Purpose driven life Part 4

Speaker: Pastor Tani Omideyi

Topic: Purpose Driven Life part 2

Text: Psalm 139: 13-14

 Psalm 139 ¹³For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb ¹⁴I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

We originate from God. He made us. He gave careful, meticulous thought in creating us. We were designed by God for a purpose.

 Purpose 3; Created to be like Christ

God not only wants us to be born again but He desires for us to develop in character until we become mature Christians (Philippians 1:6) Character development is God’s ultimate goal for our lives. Forgetting it leads to frustration and complaining. Our character is the sum of our habits. A habit is an involuntary tendency to perform certain actions. At the new birth or the time we give our lives to Christ, the seed of salvation is sown and the fruit of this seed is our character. The process for bringing about the change from the new birth to mature Christianity is called sanctification. It is setting someone aside for God’s use and purpose. It is a long, slow process which takes years and focused determination, effort and collaboration with the Holy Spirit. It is our responsibility. God uses three things to remould us or bring about this change;

·     His Word (truth); renews our mind and sanctifies us (John 17:17)

·     People (Support); we need to fellowship we the right set of people.

·     Circumstances (environment)

Purpose 4; Shaped for serving God

We were created and saved to serve God. Our call to salvation included with it, the call to service. Every believer is a minister (Matthew 20:28) We will be assessed at the end of our lives on the service we have rendered to God. Our service or works will be judged by God and rewarded.

(I Corinthians 3: 13-15) We have to be shaped for service.

·     Spiritual gift; stir up the gifts within you

·     Heart ; serve with all your heart

·     Abilities; utilise your skills including your wealth

·     Personality; let your manner of living reflect Christ

·     Experiences; we can comfort those in any kind of trouble with the same comfort with which we are comforted by God (II Corinthians 1:4)