Pickup your Purpose

Illustration

There was a father who had 2 twin sons. The boys were about to turn 12 years old. The father told his boys that when they turned 12 he was going to give them both 100$ a piece. When the boy’s birthday came along, the boys were eating breakfast at the kitchen table before school, when their dad walks in with a big old grin on his face and says “Well boys the day has finally came, here is your 100$ that I promised to both of you, happy birthday!” and he left the money on the kitchen counter for the boys to grab.

Both boys were immediately excited, and they both began to thank their dad. The first son immediately picked up his 100$, but the second son decided to leave it sitting on the counter.

For days the 2nd son left the money sitting on the counter, he never picked it up. Eventually after a month of not picking it up, the 100$ disappeared, the boy didn’t know where it was, it was never to be found.

Do you know that just like these boys, God has given you a gift? A purpose? And just like the examples of these boys you could either “pickup” what God has given you, or leave it there and do nothing with it.

3 Questions:

Did the dad do what he said he would do? Did the dad fulfill his promise?

Yes, the dad promised the boys 100$ and he gave them what he promised, when he promised it.

Why didn’t the second son ever receive the money?

The second son never recieved the money because he never took possession of it.

What was stopping the boy from picking up the cash?

Nothing was preventing him, it was his own self that kept him from getting the money.

Lesson

Theme for this lesson:

Taking Possession ***Make everyone say it

We are going to be talking about this idea of Picking Up Your Purpose ***Make everyone say it

Joshua 21:43–45 ESV

Thus the Lord gave to Israel all the land that he swore to give to their fathers. And they took possession of it, and they settled there. And the Lord gave them rest on every side just as he had sworn to their fathers. Not one of all their enemies had withstood them, for the Lord had given all their enemies into their hands. Not one word of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass.

Context:

Just like in the story with the father and his two sons, The Lord God, gave a promise to his children Israel. He told them that if they would follow Him, and obey His voice that He would bring them to a land flowing with milk and honey. And here they were finally seeing the promise come to pass.

Notice that Joshua 21:45 “Not one word of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass.”

It says that not one of the good promises that God had given to them had failed, it all came to pass!

I want to encourage you all tonight that despite what your circumstances are, despite what you may be seeing, God has a good purpose for you and God will not fall short on His promises that He has for you.

Despite what others may tell you, God will fulfill his promise to you! What he says what she says at the end of the day does not interfere with God’s promises coming to pass for you! In fact satan himself can’t even keep the promises of God from coming to pass.

If satan could have, he would have kept Jesus from dying for our sins, but he couldn’t. So don’t let circumstances or where you are in life keep you from believing in God.

It may not be the timing that you want but those promises will come to pass!

The only thing that will prevent the promises of God from coming to pass is the person in the mirror.

But this land, this promise was just a result of their purpose

*Everybody say result, Everybody say of, Everybody say purpose.

Genesis 12:1-3 “Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.””

You see the promise of the land was given to Israel because God had purposed for them to be the nation that He would use to bring forth the savior Jesus Christ. God knew that in order for them to become a nation, and in order for that nation to bring Jesus into the world to save the world they were going to need land to do that!

Abraham had to pickup the purpose that God had given Him in order to inherit the promise. Abraham had to align what he wanted under what God wanted in order to inherit the promise land.

What does this mean for you? If your gonna inherit the promise of God your going to have to align yourself under the purpose that God has given you.

All this means is that you say “okay Lord, I will follow you and do what you have for me to do” It is not doing what you want, but what God wants.

What if Abraham would have been like, Nah G I don’t really want to become a mighty nation that will one day bring forth the Messiah. If Abraham didn’t want to do what God wanted, God would have found someone else, and Abraham would have missed out on the PROMISE.

But what did Abraham do?

Genesis 12 4 “So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.”

Immediately after Abraham heard the command from God, the Bible says that “He went....” what did he do? He picked up his purpose by obeying what God had told him to do.

Many years later Israel finally dwelled inside the land flowing with milk and honey that the Lord God was calling them to.

They inherited the promise.

The Hook Line

What I want each and everyone of you to understand and grasp tonight, is that like Abraham and Joshua, You all have a purpose and a promise given to you by God.

Whether you know it or not, God has assigned everyone of you in this room a purpose. And your purpose just like Joshua and Abraham is awesome. Likewise God also has good promises that He has for you as well.

The greatest part of Abraham’s purpose was to found a nation that would one day bring forth the savior of the world. By Abraham picking up his purpose and obeying God, Jesus was born and was able to die for all of our sins, so that we could be saved.

And as a believer, your purpose is flowed directly under the umbrella of Jesus. Jesus has work for you to do.

That doesn’t alway mean God wants you to become a pastor or theologian, but God just wants you to first follow Him, just have a genuine relationship with Him

This is what the book of Ephesians says about everyone of you in this room:

Eph 2:10 “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

Do you hear that? God created good works before hand for you, that is even before you were born, before you were even in your mother’s womb, God prepared a life for you to live for Him.

So your life is significant, it is important, and you are capable of doing great things because Christ says He has prepared it for you.

Action Steps

So now the question is?

What do I do, knowing that I have a God-given purpose?

You seek after it. You Pickup Your Purpose.

Finding and doing what God has called you to do is your responsibility. God will not tell His plans to anyone who doesn’t care or want to know.

For all of us whether we know our purpose or not, if we are going to live out our purpose the first thing we must do is turn away from sin.

We are the biggest hinderance to our walk with God, and to living out our purpose, and most of the time it is our sin that gets in the way.

What I haven’t told you is that before God lead the Israelites into the promised land He made them wonder in the desert for 40 years. God’s promise to them did not consist of them dwelling in the desert for 40 years.

But this was not His fault, it was the Israelites fault.

Numbers 14:33; 32:13 says that it was because of their sin and not having faith in God that led to them wondering in the desert for 40 years.

God taught them a lesson, He said that if you are going to see my promises come to pass, you are going to have to follow me, and have faith in me, and He is teaching us that same lesson today.

Jesus loves you more than anything and He says that if you will come to Him tonight, confess your sins to Him and turn away from it, He will forgive you instantly! That is all you have to do tonight to be forgiven.

Conclusion

What I want all of you to understand from this lesson is this:

That God has a purpose for you, but unless you follow Christ with a sincere and diligent heart, you can’t pick it up. Like Abraham you have to align your heart with what God wants.

Don’t be like the kid from the story who never picked up his dad’s 100$ bill.

Pickup Christ’s gift to you tonight.

Tonight if you haven’t already done it, you can come to Christ, and commit your life to Him, to live out the purpose that He has for you! All it takes is a simple act of faith!

If you need to come lay down your life to Christ today, you come.