PURPOSE 2
It seems strange to me that so many people are trying to live without thinking about the purpose of their lives. Of course that casts them onto the mercy of their glands. Last week I pointed out several things like comfort and pleasure that are illegitimate purposes for life. This week I will surprise you with two more possible purposes that are often less than God's plan for us.
Success is not necessarily God's purpose for your life. I should say short term success or success as we see it may not be God's will for you. Of course, a major problem with success is trying to win the wrong race. But in fact immediate or short-sighted success in the right area may not be the right goal either.
Let me give you a complicated illustration. Those of you who are directly involved in ministry, whether professionally or as a committed lay person can easily be confused about this. We rightly seek to reach as many people as possible. That is success. But let me call your attention to Jesus in John chapter 6. Our Lord ran off thousands of people who believed in Him, by telling them they would have to eat His flesh and drink His blood. Can you imagine anyone in the church growth movement condoning that kind of preaching? I can hear some of those whose doctrine is soundest saying something like this to Jesus. "Okay, if you have to say that, express it in more acceptable terms." And frankly I'm not sure they would not be right some of the time.
But here we have our Lord, preparing to send His followers to reach the ends of the earth giving us an example of running people away by what He said and how He said it. All I can say is that Jesus showed us that pleasing God was more important than growing the church. So it is more important for us to be in tune with God than it is for us to work at what we assume God wants us to do.
Now of all these things I am helping you to think about, this final conviction of mine will surprise you most. Striving for righteousness is not the ultimate purpose of your life. If I had thousands of readers I would possibly be running most of you away like Jesus did in John 6. But I ask those of you who will listen, at least to show how wrong I am, to consider some things.
You can strive for righteousness in ungodly ways. The Pharisees did it with great zeal. You can try to be righteousness in human strength. If you do that you will sometimes become discouraged and give up altogether. At other times you will succeed enough in your own eyes that you will fall into the trap of the devil who fell from heaven because of his arrogance.
You may also strive to be righteous so God will owe you. You may say, "Since I have done all this, God will have to accept me." Or you might resent God, saying, "What's the use? I went to church; I was sincere; I did my best, but this bad thing still happened to me."
You are putting your faith in your righteousness. And your righteousness will send you to hell. You need to repent of your righteousness, and seek the righteousness that Jesus bought for you on the cross.
So of course I am not quite saying the ultimate purpose of life is not being right with God. Certainly His will is true. But you can seek righteousness with the pride and self-centeredness of a Pharisee.
All true righteousness comes from Jesus who justifies the ungodly. From Him we receive a righteousness we could never achieve. In fellowship with Him we come to desire and delight in righteousness, but we are not righteous to be saved or so God will give us a good life. We hunger to do what is right because we know it pleases God who saved us even though our best efforts were foolish and filthy.
Jesus cried out for the highest purpose for us in John 12:28. "Father, glorify Your Name!" Are you crying out for God to work supernaturally in your life to bring glory to His name?
