Experiencing Joy through Finding our Purpose

Goal

• To understand our incredible purpose and learn how to get ready for it, experiencing joy along the way.

Experiencing Joy through Finding our Purpose

1. Foundation: Humanity’s purpose
2. New Creation: Our destiny & value are revealed
3. Joy now, as we step up into this

Genesis 1

26. Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, after our likeness,
    so they may rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air,
    over the cattle, and over all the earth,
    and over all the creatures that move on the earth.”
27. God created humankind in his own image,
    in the image of God he created them,
    male and female he created them.

1 Peter 2

5. you yourselves, as living stones, are built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood and to offer spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
   …
9. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that you may proclaim the virtues of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

1 Corinthians 6

1. When any of you has a legal dispute with another, does he dare go to court before the unrighteous rather than before the saints?
2. Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you not competent to settle trivial suits?
3. Do you not know that we will judge angels? Why not ordinary matters!

2 Timothy 2

11. This saying is trustworthy:
    If we died with him, we will also live with him.
12. If we endure, we will also reign with him…

Matthew 5

3. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to them.
4. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
5. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
6. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.
7. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
8. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
9. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God.
10. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to them.
11. Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and say all kinds of evil things about you falsely on account of me.

1 Corinthians 13

4. Love is patient, love is kind, it is not envious. Love does not brag, it is not puffed up.
5. It is not rude, it is not self-serving, it is not easily angered or resentful.
6. It is not glad about injustice, but rejoices in the truth.
7. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8. Love never ends. But if there are prophecies, they will be set aside; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be set aside.
9. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part,
10. but when what is perfect comes, the partial will be set aside.
11. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. But when I became an adult, I set aside childish ways.
12. For now we see in a mirror indirectly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, just as I have been fully known.
13. And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.

1 Thessalonians 1

3. We remember before God our father your work of faith, your labor of love, and your patient hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Thessalonians 5

8. We who are of the day should stay awake, and put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.

Colossians 1

4. We have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have for all the saints,
5. through the hope which is stored up for you in the heavenly places.

Three things

• Faith = trust - confidence & belief
  • I totally believe that I can put all my confidence in Jesus
• Hope = putting it into practice
  • I have invested everything in Jesus by putting all my effort into following his commands
• Love = Jesus’ main command
• Together: abide = obedience that is totally dependent on his strength

John 15

1. “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser.
2. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
3. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.
4. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.
5. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
   …
8. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.
9. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.
10. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.
11. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.
12. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
13. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.
14. You are my friends if you do what I command you.

Galatians 5:22–23

But the fruit of the Spirit is:
love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness, self-control

Colossians 3

1. Therefore, if you have been raised with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
2. Keep thinking about things above, not things on the earth,
3. for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
4. When Christ (who is your life) appears, then you too will be revealed in glory with him.
5. So put to death whatever in your nature belongs to the earth: sexual immorality, impurity, shameful passion, evil desire, and greed which is idolatry.

Colossians 3 cont’d

9. Do not lie to one another since you have put off the old man with its practices
10. and have been clothed with the new man that is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of the one who created it.
    …
12. Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with a heart of mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience,
13. bearing with one another and forgiving one another, if someone happens to have a complaint against anyone else. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also forgive others.
14. And to all these virtues add love, which is the perfect bond.
15. Let the peace of Christ be in control in your heart (for you were in fact called as one body to this peace), and be thankful.
16. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and exhorting one another with all wisdom, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, all with grace in your hearts to God.

John 17

20. “I am not praying only on their behalf, but also on behalf of those who believe in me through their testimony,
21. that they will all be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I am in you. I pray that they will be in us, so that the world will believe that you sent me.
22. The glory you gave to me I have given to them, that they may be one just as we are one —
23. I in them and you in me — that they may be completely one, so that the world will know that you sent me, and you have loved them just as you have loved me.

1 Corinthians 15

51. Listen, I will tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed —
52. in a moment, in the blinking of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.
53. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.
54. Now when this perishable puts on the imperishable, and this mortal puts on immortality, then the saying that is written will happen,
    “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
55. “Where, O death, is your victory?
    Where, O death, is your sting?”
58. So then, dear brothers and sisters, be firm. Do not be moved! Always be outstanding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

Understand your true purpose and destiny

• Start getting ready for it now!
• See all the bad things that happen to you as a chance to develop into the person you were designed to be.
• Live in trust, hope and especially love – it is your destiny to reflect the character of God to the universe!
• Develop your total dependence on Jesus for strength to live like this.