James Meehan - How to Fulfill Your Purpose
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Well, my name is James Meehan and we are currently in our series, The Calling, where we are learning how to actually discover our God-given purpose. Today we're answering two big questions. How do I find my purpose and how do I fulfill my purpose? Starting with the first one, how do I find my purpose? This is what the apostle Paul tells us. He says, "Therefore, I urge you brothers and sisters in view of God's mercy". He's saying because of what God has done for you through the sacrifice of Jesus, you are to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice. You are to devote your entire life to serving God, a sacrifice that is holy and pleasing to God. "This is your true and proper worship".
In verse two, he goes on to tell us not to conform to the pattern of this world. That means every thought, action, word, and habit, it's shaping us into someone. And if you think like everyone thinks, if you do what everyone does, if you talk how everyone talks, then you will end up becoming someone just like everyone else. So be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Let God change your life by changing the way that you think. Because when you begin to think, speak, and act like Jesus does, then you'll be transformed into someone who looks like Jesus, who lives like Jesus, and who loves like Jesus. And then you'll be able to test and approve what God's will is, His good, pleasing, and perfect will. Paul is telling us that if we devote our entire lives to God and we let God change our lives by changing the way we think, then we will know what His will is for our lives, and it's good, it's pleasing, and it is perfect.
So if you want God to renew your mind, the best thing you can do is study His word. If you do, it will not take you too long to find your purpose as a human being because it shows up over and over again across the pages of the Old and New Testaments. But nowhere is it spoken more clearly than from the mouth of Jesus. In Matthew 22, Jesus has asked the question, "Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses"? And Jesus replies, "'You must love the Lord your God with all of your heart, all of your soul, and all of your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important. Love your neighbor as yourself".
So if you are a human being, then your purpose is to love God with your whole self and love your neighbor as yourself. Finding your purpose comes from letting God renew your mind through the study of His word, and that purpose is to love him with all you are and to love your neighbor as yourself. So now that you have found your purpose, that brings us to question number two. How do you fulfill your purpose? Because loving God and loving people is a big purpose, and there are as many ways to do it as there are people on the planet. So to help you bring focus to what it might look like for you, I think one of the best things you can do is choose a life verse. A life verse is a Bible verse that clarifies for us how we fulfill our God-given purpose, this purpose of loving Him and loving others.
For an example, my life verse is John 3:30, which says, "He," Jesus, "Must increase, but I must decrease". What does that mean for me? Well, it means in everything I do, I wanna make Jesus the focus. That means when I'm teaching people the Bible, I make sure I always make Jesus the star of the show, not me. So while I may tell some personal stories and make jokes, I'm always really intentional to make sure that stuff highlights how awesome Jesus is, not how clever I am. Like, even the clothes I wear is a reflection of this verse. I dress really simply usually stuff I get from the church because I never want my clothing to draw attention toward me and away from the gospel, the good news of Jesus.
My friend Caitlin, her life verse is 1 Corinthians 11:1 where the apostle Paul says, "Follow my example as I follow the example of Christ", because she's really passionate about being a person of integrity who will never ask anyone to do something for Jesus that she isn't already doing or willing to do herself. Our pastor, Craig Groeschel, his life verse is Acts 20:24, which says, "However, I consider my life worth nothing to me. My only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me. The task of testifying to the good news of God's grace".
In an era where it seems like pastors and church leaders are falling left and right, our pastor is committed to finishing strong and remaining faithful while he tells people about the good news of Jesus that changed his life. So what about you? What is your life verse? For some of you, as soon as I ask the question, a verse popped into your mind. If so, that is awesome. Like, open your Bible, read that verse, and pray for God to show you if that is your life verse or not. For others, you have no idea what it might be or even where to start. That's okay. Like, don't stress about it.
In the description of this video, you can find a link that will take you to a list of the 30 most popular Bible verses in the Bible app that you can look through to see if there's any of 'em that stick out to you. Finding your life verse is a process that takes time, and even though life is in the name, like, if you pick something and change it later, there's nothing wrong with that at all, because as your life changes, the chances are pretty good that your verse will too. The goal of this exercise is simply to help you clarify how you are uniquely wired by God to fulfill the purpose He has given to all of us, the purpose of loving Him with our whole self and loving our neighbor as our ourself.