Overcome Purposelessness | Paul Tan-Chi

thanks for tuning in to the ccf channel we pray that the message you're about to watch will be used by god to know him more deeply we also pray you will consider being connected to a local church community to help you grow in faith finally to help make sure you get the most out of this message we will provide you with a few discussion questions at the end please do not miss them god bless [Music] hello church we continue our series on overcoming toxic realities we looked at overcoming anxiety overcoming depression and last week conquering anger and if you've missed any of those messages i strongly encourage you to log on to the ccf website or go to the youtube channel and you can watch them for yourself because they have been a blessing to me personally and to thousands of others recently my youngest son comes up to me and he says dad i'm so bored and i asked him why he said i have nothing to do that's a loaded statement and it's exaggerated because in my mind i'm thinking i can give you a thousand things to do but he's expressing a very real concern that many are facing today with this lockdown not being able to do the same things that we were able to do before how about you how do you feel how did you feel this week did you wrestle with issues of being overly exhausted or maybe you also struggle with boredom or on the other hand maybe you're doing a lot but you feel empty there's emptiness maybe you feel like what is my purpose or you feel that there's actually a strong sense of purposelessness that you're wrestling with whatever it is we've been learning that we have to realize what's going on and as we realize these emotions that we're feeling these toxic realities that we may be going through we have to ask ourselves now the question why why are we feeling this way so we can get to the root but i found that many times we never get to the root either it's because we don't realize it or we realize it but we try to distract ourselves with mindless entertainment in fact there was somebody very much like that in the bible he was the richest man that ever lived and they also say he was the wisest man that ever lived his name is king solomon and he had everything in fact he could do whatever he wanted so he got involved in construction he got involved with agriculture he got involved with the arts he tried everything in fact this is what the bible says let's now look at ecclesiastes chapter 2 verses 10. this is what he says all that my eyes desired i did not refuse them i did not withhold my heart from any pleasure for my heart was pleased because of all my labor and this was my reward for all my labor what's he saying he said i didn't hold back anything i tried all the pleasure that i could and he had 700 wives and 300 concubines so you can imagine any kind of pleasure he had he tried it and this is his conclusion i have considered all my activities which my hands had done and the labor which i had exerted and behold all was vanity and striving after wind and there was no prophet under the sun and look at what he says he said so i hated life for the work which had been done under the sun was grievous to me because everything is futility and striving after the wind is this how you feel if i'm to be honest sometimes it feels like what's going on how come everything is still it even feels like it was worse than before a lot of challenging and bad things have happened during this during this pandemic in fact just this last week we have three people in our discipleship family who lost loved ones somebody lost his uncle another loss their grandmother and other loss their father not all cobid related but the reality is death is very sad and i i grieve with all of you that have lost loved ones there is something that is sadder than death rick warren said the greatest tragedy in life is not death but life without a purpose and that's what we're talking about today we are looking at overcoming purposelessness how do we overcome purposelessness and i thank god for his word because he shows us exactly how in fact in the book of ephesians and this will be our main text for today chapter one the apostle paul he is praying for the church in ephesus so these are christians people who have a relationship with jesus he is praying for them so as we look at how do we overcome this toxic reality of purposelessness i want us to rem i want to remind you as i remind myself that we cannot overcome these toxic realities if we are not in prayer look what paul says i pray right he begins with prayer so i want to commit the time to lord in prayer and then let's look at what we can learn from god's word heavenly father we humble ourselves before you admitting that apart from your grace and your work in our life we will be enslaved to these toxic realities so please speak to us today holy spirit remove any distraction that will cause us to have a difficult time understanding your word and please use me as your instrument today thank you for this privilege and i submit myself to you holy spirit may you speak to all of us through your mighty power in jesus name we pray amen what does the apostle paul pray for he says i pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened i want to point out two words first the word enlightened we need to be enlightened what does that mean there is a darkness that we are in and we cannot see it's interesting that the apostle paul uses the eyes of your heart you have you seen a heart that has eyes in it what is he talking about you see with the eyes we can see reality but because we live in a darkened reality we actually don't see biblical truth you see we may realize what we're going through we may ask the questions that lead us to the root but unless you and i experience the power of god to open the eyes of our heart we will not be able to recalibrate because we will not know the truth so what is what is he praying for that the eyes of your heart the heart is everything about who you are it's not just your thoughts but it's your emotions it's it's who you are your soul his prayer is that our heart will be enlightened again this word enlighten this refers to a darkness and it's not just a darkness that is there because of ignorance there's a darkness there because of a hardness or refusal to to want to believe in god or to follow god and so that's you today that's this is my prayer that god's word would open the eyes of your heart and my heart that we would be enlightened to know what and these are the three things after you are in prayer while you are in prayer this is how you overcome purposelessness the first one he says he prays that we will know that you will know what is the hope of his calling and this is the idea that you need to know your identity to overcome purposelessness second you need to know what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints and this you need to know your purpose and lastly he prays that we will know what is the surpassing greatness of his power towards us who believe the third thing that the apostle paul prays that we we see with our hearts and understand is that we would know his power towards you god's power towards you so let's look at the first one the first one is that we will know what is the hope of his calling the importance of knowing your identity why is it important that you know your identity well you know as early as we were children we were told of the story of the ugly duckling you know that story right it's about this little swan actually right that is born into a family of ducks because he was different from his brothers they were they were poking fun at him wherever he would go and you know that story right until one day he has grown up now but he still feels like he's ugly because that's all he's known he's known as the ugly duckling and he sees these birds flying the sky and they're so beautiful and they're majestic and they're swans but see he never knows he's a swan until one day he looks into the mirror or the reflection in the water and he realized that's who i am i'm a swan and that changed his life you see when you and i don't know who we really are we are now swayed to and fro the bible talks about being double-minded we think that this is our purpose but then things change and so much has changed during this pandemic right a lot of us have lost a lot of things i think of the athletes that have trained and have prepared for uh either basketball or volleyball or soccer or whatever season it is and all of a sudden it's been two years almost and you you can't play your sport you know when people ask you who you are and your student you most of the time you say oh i go to this school and you know this is what i do i i play this sport and when that that part of who you are is is not there anymore how do you feel do you feel like something's lacking do you feel a little bit different or you're a business person and you've been running multiple restaurants and these restaurants have closed you've lost your business how do you feel this is your security challenge also or maybe you you you are so identified with the relationship you're in and all of a sudden that relationship is no longer there you guys broke up how do you feel is there an insecurity now that you that comes your way i tell your friends unless we are secure in our identity of who we are it's very hard to determine what our purpose is our purpose may keep changing and we are more than our work you are more than your work you are more than your family who are you paul says he prays that we will know what is the hope of his calling god's calling and what is he talking about you see the bible talks about how even though we were made in god's image all of us at a certain point in life are dead the bible says in ephesians 2 we were dead in our trespass and sin we are enslaved to the patterns of this world right we are uh forced to give in to the lust of our flesh because that's who we were but when paul says that you will know what is the hope of your callings these people have experienced the grace of god the mercy of god which has taken us or even you if your relationship with him has taken you if you can remember what life was like before christ he has now taken you and you are now have a clear identity in your new life in christ that's what jesus does when he enters your life he makes all things new and this is what he says this is this is your identity this is my identity he says you are a chosen race if you are in christ you are chosen you're not like somebody that you know when i was in high school again i talked about sports a lot because i played sports but during pe class we had different sports uh during different times of the year and sometimes i was always picked first because there would be two teams and they had captains and sometimes you know they they pick the best players first until you're left at the end now there are some sports that i was towards the end like soccer and it's not a nice feeling to not to not be picked but i i'm just so grateful that jesus tells us you are a chosen race i chose you right a royal priesthood you're not just chosen you are part of royalty he's chosen you into his family a holy nation a people for god's own possession and he's not talking about the israelites he's talking about all of those who have entered into relationship with jesus christ he says so that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light you see when your identity is clear your purpose becomes clear he says i've chosen you i've called you and this is what i've called you to do to proclaim the excellencies of god of his grace ephesians chapter 2 and we don't have time to look at that but he talks about how we are like a showcase not just in this age but in the age of in the age to come of god's mercy and grace see we were dead children of wrath it says but god in his mercy and in his love raised us up with him and he says here for once here you were not a people but now you are the people of god but you had not received mercy but now you have received mercy amazing amazing who we are in christ and when you know who you are in christ you become secure you can now recalibrate what's going on around you and find the purpose that god has made you for you see knowing your identity in christ you can now fulfill your eternal destiny in christ but you need to know who you are in christ and let's go to the second one he now prays that we will know what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints what's he talking about if his calling is the beginning of our relationship with him when he talks about the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints he's talking about our end you see coming to christ is it's just the beginning but sometimes we treat it as the end it's like i understand the gospel i'm saved and i'm just happy being saved but that's not how god made us god made you for a purpose you have an eternal inheritance to look for and it's it's his inheritance because what you become how you become what god made you to become brings glory to god and his inheritance is your inheritance it's amazing that he talks about in the verses before he says that the holy spirit was given to us as the pledge of our inheritance so you have an inheritance when you're a child of christ what you do in this life really matters you have an inheritance look forward to god says he is a rewarder but you what you become in christ and through christ is also god's inheritance and it's it's such an interesting passage that you read on your own read ephesians chapter 1 and chapter 2 and you'll see that he talks about in the age to come somehow you and i are a showcase of god's grace of god's power of god's mercy to not just this world but the angelic beings and so you have an inheritance you have a purpose how you live your life now matters and what is your purpose ephesians chapter 2 and we're going to read this together it says we are his workmanship meaning we are created uniquely this word workmanship means masterpiece you are god's masterpiece imagine that not only are you loved not only are you chosen but in christ you are a masterpiece and what were you made for everything is made for something right you were made in christ jesus four good works four good works and god prepared beforehand that we should walk in them every day god has prepared good works for you to do the question is are you going to fulfill your purpose when you know who you are and you understand that you were made for a purpose you can become all that god made you to be and we're all different you see cs lewis when he was growing up and he's one of the greatest christian authors of all time i love his books but when he was growing up he was not very athletic and you know how it is the athletic kids were the popular kids he was not but you know what he wasn't insecure he knew what his strengths were and he focused on his strengths he read as much as he could and he wrote as much as he could and he became everything that god called him to be and you see the impact of his life you see young people and i'm speaking to not just young people but to all people we have a tendency to want the shortcuts in life we don't want to do the difficult things but see to be god's workmanship if we're called to do good works have to participate with god in becoming that all that god made us to be there is work involved and it takes time to develop the gifts it doesn't happen overnight but i praise god that not only are we his workmanship but he has chosen us it says here for a very special reason john chapter 15 verse 16 it says he says you did not choose me but i chose you and this is jesus speaking to his disciples i chose you that you would go and bear fruit and that your fruit would remain part of our purpose in this life is to bear fruit and not just fruit that's going to be here it's going to be fruit that remains it's his fruit it's god's fruit but he calls it your fruit amazing what is this fruit what's he talking about he's talking about fruit of the spirit so it's character fruit and you know that love joy peace patience kindness and so on and so on but there's also the fruit of the good things that you do for other people you know my my son and i love my son he's i asked permission for him for me to share the story with you he's seven years old but we we started doing this um somewhat game because he knows that he's working on certain attitudes and he's grown so much i'm so proud of my son he's an amazing young man but when he has flare-ups or he misbehaves we minus points so he has 10 points during the week and every time he does something that he knows is not right um we we minus the points so if the points reach zero then the consequence is he doesn't get to to watch a movie during the weekend and that's a big deal for him at this age now when he was younger we we did we disciplined him through spanking but now this seems to work better in fact he says dad can you just can you just spank me i'd rather be spank than have this consequence anyway he had this consequence and he just had a flare-up we're playing basketball with the kids and it's a crazy game that he invented the game is everybody has a ball and the first one to get to five wins but you can knock each other's balls you can you can hit their balls you can throw their balls there are no rules and of course he's the youngest guy and he's playing against his two older brothers and myself and he actually i think he almost won the first game but this last game he played he he didn't score anything and he was just so upset that he he was he was having a tantrum and he lost five points in one day five points that's devastating right and so he was so upset that he just completely withdrew he pulled away he sat in the corner of the room and he said dad i'm not playing anymore and again he started saying this is so boring i'm like why is it boring andrew and i said it's boring because you're just thinking about yourself what if you thought what can i do for my brother what if i rebounded for him there's always something you can do you know friends if we focus on ourself and we withdraw because we're afraid to make mistakes that's what he was doing he didn't want to he didn't want to get any more deductions he was afraid that he was going to make more mistakes that's not how god calls to live life he never called us to withdraw from society you know we may be in a pandemic it doesn't mean we should withdraw from everything the more that we are feeling isolated the more we should reach out the more we should think about others and i praise god for ccf there's a ministry called ccf2 and if you guys are interested you feel like you know maybe you're looking for something to do this is a great thing to pour your life into to to get involved and to to serve others right there's discipleship groups that invite you to be a part of so you can pour into the lives of other people if you are thinking about yourself if i think about myself i will struggle with purposelessness but if i know that i was created to bear fruit it's going to be a very different life for you beware now of the wrong purpose because some of us may say i live a very purposeful life in fact i'm so excited in fact if you were to ask me what i wanted to do after the pandemic i would look at you straight in the eye and say you know what i am doing exactly what i want to do today and that's great that's great that you have that perspective but i want to challenge also what is your purpose because solomon lived a life of purpose if you say i'm not living a life of purpose well that is your purpose not to live a life of purpose to just enjoy and live up whatever you can soak in this season where you know it seems okay to binge watch because there's nothing else to do what is your purpose are you really going to be satisfied at the end of your life if you're doing exactly what you're doing now are you building something that's going to last is your fruit going to remain you know saul before he became paul was so passionate about his life but he was killing christians he had lived for the wrong purpose it took an encounter with jesus christ on the road to damascus that radically altered his life and i bet if the apostle paul was here today he would say that's the best thing that ever happened to him that he met christ he wrote the book of ephesians he's the one who talks about how we're children of wrath but god being rich in his mercy and grace and love saved us seated us with him in heavenly places beware of the wrong purpose i want to share a video video with you now of chadwick boseman a lot of you know him as wakanda forever he is the black panther very successful actor he died last year during the pandemic what many people don't know is that he had been battling cancer for four years while he shot many of these films he didn't tell anyone what more people don't know is chadwick was a man rooted in christ he knew his identity when he went back to his alma mater this is howard university in 2018. this is a super inspiring inspiring speech that he gave and look at what he says i just have a clip here and i and i borrowed it from above inspiration so let's listen to what he says sometimes you need to get knocked down before you can really figure out what your what your fight is and how you need to fight it sometimes you need to feel the pain and sting of defeat to activate the real passion and purpose that god predestined inside of you god says in jeremiah i know the plans i have for you plans to prosper you and not to harm you plans to give you hope and a future hear me well on this day this day when you have reached the hilltop and you are deciding on next jobs next steps careers further education you would rather find purpose than a job or career purpose crosses disciplines purpose is an essential element of you it is the reason you are on the planet at this particular time in history your very existence is wrapped up in the things you are here to fulfill whatever you choose for a career path remember the struggles along the way are only meant to shape you for your purpose when god has something for you it doesn't matter who stands against it if it's meant for you god will move someone is holding you back away from a door and put someone there who will open it for you i don't know what your future is but if you're willing to take the harder way the more complicated one the one with more failures at first their successes the one that has ultimately proven to have more meaning more victory more glory then you will not regret it press on with pride and press on with purpose and appreciate what god has brought you through [Music] i praise god for his life here's a man who lived with purpose he was a great actor sometimes we think that you know to live a life of purpose means i have to become a pastor or i have to become a full-time worker at the church you know god has called you wherever you are to be the reflection of jesus christ to the people around you we are his ambassadors in his speech he said that in jeremiah 29 11 right that god has an amazing plan for us and you have to hold on to that even in the midst of what's going on god is doing something he is preparing you it takes a lot of work to become all that god made you to be but it is the most rewarding life now some of you maybe have had a clear purpose but you found that you know the purpose is kind of blurred over this over the season in life and you have to ask yourself how come you know there are great institutions like harvard that began as very much institutions that honored the lord were set up to help people to know the lord but purpose has drifted over the years is it possible that our purpose has maybe drifted what distracts us from our purpose you we have to be careful of the influences that we allow into our lives who are you following on instagram who are you listening to on spotify what are you watching on netflix sometimes i've been convicted with hypocrisy you know i i will tell my kids you're too young to watch this what makes me think that i can allow a little poison into my mind and be okay it's not going to be okay whatever i put into my mind remember our mind is where we recalibrate truth to overcome these toxic realities and if we are getting polluted in our minds how will we have victory the entertainment that we allow into our lives or the hobbies and hobbies are great guys i'm so happy that you know many people have picked up a bike and started riding and it's fantastic or whatever hobby it is you know you're a plantito or plantita when does a hobby become a distraction well ask yourself is this hobby taking away from time that i could be spending with my family like you know it's time for family dinner but you're so engrossed in your in your hobby that you now neglect your family or it's time for you to reach out or to um uh have quiet time with the lord but the hobby has become more important so hobbies are great things and entertainment is actually a good thing right computer games can be a great time of bonding too with your kids but when that entertainment starts becoming an idol or your hobby or a person then you know that i'm being distracted maybe it could also be just stubbornness remember jonah in the bible he knew what god had called him to do but he just refused to do it and he tried to run away from god and the lesson from that is you cannot run away from god so if you are in christ and you find that you have drifted from god's purpose for you today is the day that you turn back you repent and you surrender again your life to the lord and allow him to live out his purpose through you i like what susanna wesley said she wrote this to john wesley when he was 22 years old and john wesley was an amazing man that god used to bring christianity all throughout the world this is what she said she said take this rule whatever weakens your reason impairs the tenderness of your conscience obscures your sense of god or takes off your relish of spiritual things in short whatever increases the strength and authority of your fleshly body and i added that over your mind that thing is sin to you however innocent it may be in itself don't allow the distractions in life to derail us from our purpose because eventually we'll end up in a place where we'll be like how in the world did i end up here what is your purpose i like what the westminster shore catechism says the chief end of man is to glorify god and to enjoy him forever isn't that amazing our purpose in life is to glorify god and to enjoy him forever and you see that throughout the bible i like the tweak that john piper did he says the chief end of man is to glorify god by enjoying him forever and he says the more enjoyment you have in god the more glory you bring to god it's beautiful john piper for those of you who know who he is shares a story of a moment in his life that defined him his father was a traveling evangelist and one day comes home and i'm gonna paraphrase the story but with tears in his eyes the father tells his family that today a 70 year old man came to know christ gave his life to christ he came into the church walked up and sat in the front and afterwards prayed to receive christ and as i sat with him after the service he kept crying and crying and i asked him why are you crying and the man said i've wasted it i've wasted it i've wasted it and john piper said he remembered that and purpose in his life that he would not waste his life the man came to know christ at 70 years old praise god for those of us who are hearing this we have an entire life to live for christ what is your purpose may you live your life to glorify god how do you glorify god john chapter 15 we go back it says my father is glorified by this that you bear much fruit and prove to be my disciples god is glorified when you bear much fruit and what happens when you bear fruit see many people don't surrender their life to jesus don't make the lord lord of their life don't live their life for his purposes because they feel that they will be deprived of joy but that is a lie from satan look at what jesus says he says these things i have spoken to you so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be made full jesus is saying i want you to experience my joy i want you to experience fullness of joy you know in this pandemic there are many things that will make you cry but one thing that will bring joy to your life i want you to test it out follow what god says you bear fruit you live a life for others you bear fruit and you will experience the joy of the lord lastly we now look at not just knowing our identity in christ knowing your purpose in christ but now we need to know his power towards you and me and what is his power he says you will know what is the surpassing greatness of his power towards us who believe this is a special prayer and a special reality remember to enlighten our eyes the eyes of our heart means for us to see a reality and this is already there it's not something that you have to grasp onto it's there we just don't see it what is this power it's indescribable this word surpassing greatness is something you cannot describe there is so much power if god has given us the beginning which is him calling us the hope that we have in this new life in this new relationship with him and we know the end it is the glorious inheritance we have with him and boy i know you're excited i'm excited for what god has for us but how about now between now that i'm in christ to what is to come how do i live this life jesus tells us this is how through the power this is the power what is surpassing greatness of his power towards us who believe this power is directed to you it's for you it enables you to live that purposeful life that you were meant to live and how is it described these are in accordance with the working of the strength of his might which and look of all the things that jesus could have described his power to be like he could have said it's like the sun or how the the this world holds together there's so much power there or in our day and age we know about the atomic bomb he he could have used anything to describe the power but look at what he uses the apostle paul says which he god brought about in christ when god raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand and in the heavenly places far above all rule and authority and power and dominion in every name that is named not only in this age but also in the one to come what is the apostle paul saying this is the power that's available to us the thing that so many people fear death jesus has power god has power over death he raised christ from the dead and so much power that there is no being no angelic being no spiritual being no demon no devil that even comes close to the power of god and it's not just in this age in this world that we're living in but even in the age to come so our eternity is secure because god is all-powerful in this age and even in the age to come this is the power that we have in christ how do you experience this power it's there he prays that we will see it right we will our heart will understand it how do you experience it i love what jesus says in john 15. very familiar verse i am the vine he says you are the branches he who abides in me and i in him he bears much fruit for apart from me he can do nothing look at the imagery this is the vine this is jesus all the nutrients that the branches need all the nutrients that the plant plant needs to not just survive but to thrive it all comes from the vine the vine gets it from the ground but because jesus is divine doesn't matter what the ground is there is no wilderness there is no dry season when it comes to jesus because he is the vine he is the source of of everything we need to bear fruit we are the branches we are to abide in jesus he says he who abides in me and i in him he bears much fruit if we are not in jesus let's say we are severed we have no power on our own to bear fruit no power in our own and we have to understand that because i believe many christians are exhausted today because when we first started out with our relationship with christ we were very much dependent on god and i got this from bruce wilkinson he said he in his life also in a season in his life he was so dependent on god and this represents that this other side represents his competence it was down here he was relying on his dependence on god but as he learned and grew as a christian his competence also grew and there came a point in his life where he started relying more on his competence and for some reason he felt dry he felt he had no more joy he felt that he wasn't as effective and it took a mentor to point that out to him and said this is what you're lacking you have not been abiding you have been relying on your competence and so the secret to fulfilling god's purpose in life you have to imagine i have to imagine that i am like a faucet that's connected with a pipe to an unlimited source of water and as long as i let the water run through me i am able to bless people what does it mean to abide it means that you are listening and sensitive to god's word look at this he tells us he says just the father has loved me i have also loved you abide in my love 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 so jesus is saying this is how you abide it's not just carving out time with me spending time with me it's loving as i have loved you he says just as i have loved you you love others just as i have been obedient to my father you'd be obedient to me when you love god and you obey god you now allow the vine to flow the power the nutrients anything that you need as a branch to bear fruit you allow that to flow through you our part is to obey and to love god you know my wife she was doing some abs and hurt her back so she woke up in the middle of the night well three o'clock in the morning in so much pain and the first thing she did i praised god for my wife she thanked the lord for the pain that she was feeling it was excruciating and immediately after that god spoke to her to make a basket a basket of fruit because we had some neighbors that had gotten covered and she felt that god wanted to do that and i praise god for my wife because the next morning when she finally got out of bed and it was it was a rough night that's what she did and you know that basket opened up an opportunity for me to have a conversation with our neighbor and it was a great conversation and it's a step forward in building that relationship so bearing fruit doesn't mean that you know you have to be intimidated by doing some great grand thing it's whatever god calls you to do at that moment you do it psalm 16 one of my most favorite psalms he says in your presence this fullness of joy in your right hand our pleasures forever as we wrap up our time together to overcome purposelessness we need to be in prayer we can't do it apart from god intervening in our lives we need to be in prayer pray for yourself pray for your family pray for your your disciples we need to know your identity if you want to pee you're a person in christ know your purpose in christ know his power in christ towards you and i want to end with a story the stories about a lady called natasha bray and she's from new zealand so to all the kiwi brethren special special high today and this happened in 2008 she was a well-loved student she always desired to make the world a better place and she and a a bunch of her friends they went on a camping trip but what happened is there was a flash flood and her parents there was a very sick feeling that her mother felt uh of grief and sure enough when the news came natasha had been washed away in one of the flash floods and the family had always known how much natasha loved the lord and how wonderful she was as a daughter as a sister they had so many amazing things to say about this amazing young girl and now she was gone but what shocked them was during her funeral service at the school thousands came and her friends would come up to natasha's parents and said you know natasha gave me this note when i was feeling down natasha said this to me natasha did this for me and her parents were just overwhelmed that they had no idea of how this daughter of theirs had grabbed every opportunity to make a difference in the life of someone else in fact when they got to her closet and they opened it up what shocked the most was all the prayers that she had for her friends and for her family members you see there's so much that you and i can do when it comes to living out our purpose for the lord and it starts wherever you are will you allow the vine the power of god to flow in and through you you can only do that if you are in christ see everything i've talked about it's all about being in christ and if you're not in christ don't be discouraged because this is exactly why you're listening today because this is exactly why jesus came because he loves you he is pursuing you and he wants you to give your life to him and how do you do that ephesians chapter 2 verse 8 it says this for by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of god jesus came and died on the cross to pay for your sin and for my sin he took our place that's why it's it's a gift it's been paid for that is the riches of god's grace and mercy that the whole world and the world to come will witness the question is have you received his gift have you believed in him have you expressed your faith in him you see it's not a result of works so that no one may boast so as you can see we don't do in order to become right we don't do these good works we don't do these good works to become a child of god we become a child of god through grace through faith not depending on ourself but depending on his finished work on the cross by believing in him and he is the one that now enables us to even have the desire to do the good works which god prepared beforehand that we should walk in them so it's not the other way around it's faith in jesus and his complete finished work on the cross that's what restores our broken relationship with god because the penalty of sin has been paid and our faith has been anchored on what jesus christ and who jesus christ is and the rest follows and will you allow him to be in your life when you do that you will recognize that you are his workmanship he made you very specifically in christ four good works and your life will bring glory and honor and pleasure to the lord and you will experience the fullness of joy like you've never experienced before let's bar rights and pray lord jesus thank you so much for the special time that you allowed us to share together thank you lord that you are god that gives us our identity thank you lord that you give us purpose thank you lord that you give us the power to live out this purpose and lord wherever we are at maybe maybe we've known you and you know we've drifted and we've lost sight of what our purpose is father we don't want to be like jonah we don't want to be running away from you we want to submit ourselves to you so we humble ourselves before you lord and we turn back to you lord maybe we don't even have you in our life and i thank you for your promise in ephesians chapter 2 verse 8 and 9 that if we have faith in you we will be saved so i want to pray for you if you're that person heavenly father i admit that i have sinned against you i admit that i can't save myself but i thank you that you have died on the cross to pay for my sin and it's it's a gift jesus and i receive it i understand it now and i receive it i receive you i invite you to come into my life to be my lord my master my savior thank you lord for forgiving me of all my sins and for your promise of eternal life and lord for all of us i pray lord you help us to overcome purposelessness does it matter how old you are or how young you are father you have called us to live a life of purpose and help us to begin by abiding in you that we may experience your power flowing through us help us to be your channel of love to this broken world for your glory for your honor in jesus name we pray amen thank you for spending this time uh with us and if you have questions about this message or questions about ccf please click on the link below if and you know we're going to have fast track questions that's where they ask questions and we we answer them so stick around for that and then we're also going to have discussion questions for for you and your family so i we all pray that this uh this time of worship has been a blessing to you that you guys have a blessed sunday good day family i am mark soron from csev san pedro and we are here with our dear paul tanchi for sunday fast track now brother paul first question in mainstream media and with influencers we are told you determine your truth or you do you how does this measure up against how god tells us to live thanks mark that's a great question and i want to say hi also to the rest of the ccf san pedro family the challenge with our world today is there is a blurring of truth in fact you don't even know what's true even when it comes to the news right you don't know what's what's true news what's fake news but i praise god that he has given us his word because his word is truth and because it's truth you can now draw your sense of identity from who it is that god says you are because if i look within myself i may come up with all kinds of ideas about who i am and what i love is that god says that he desires that his joy may be in us and that our joy may be made full so if you look at the heart of god god gives us truth and shows us how to live life because he really wants what's best for you he knows that you will be fully fulfilled and fully satisfied when you are living in accordance to his design for you i go back to the manufacturer right god manufactured us he made us in his image he tells us how to live life and when we follow him according to his truth the bible we experience fullness and joy of life not in not only in this life but more so in the life to come thank you paul for the very enlightening answer and now for our second question the world is full of labels if you look at people's social media bio they will choose to identify themselves based on their label whether it's a mother biker or part of the army what do you think should be the label on every christian's social media account so i think because god made us in his image and we are his workmanship and we're all created uniquely and different our labels will probably all be a little bit different but also very much the same in the sense that it's it's not the label per se that identifies us you know the label is great but i think god says you will know my people if they have love for one another and i think that should be the characteristic of how we are known in this world to be people that love god love others and live lives that are pleasing to god so whatever label god gives you make sure you're reflecting and pointing people to him that's a fantastic answer brother paul thank you for that and now for our last question we've learned about our purpose and maybe you can give us some good practices advice how we can ensure we don't forget our purpose because we live in a world right now where we can be easily influenced by media or have unrealistic expectations another great question mark and i i think your question actually partially answers um the question you talked about influences and we have to be and i mentioned this in the message but we have to be very careful what we are allowing into our minds because they will shape the the purpose that we we have and the bible tells us that apart from jesus apart from being connected to the vine we can do nothing so something that has really helped me is carving out time to spend with the lord and not just because it's something that i have to put on my checklist but it's quality time and also i'm learning to spend more quantity time during this pandemic because there's less less time to travel actually have more time but i find that when you give quantity time to god and are there for the relationship because you are really seeking after him the level of intimacy that god enables us to have with them is is different and it helps keep me focused on on what god has called me to do and i know he'll do the same for you so watch out for what influence you allow in and make sure you are connected to the vine and intimately abiding with him we appreciate you brother paul for answering all of our questions thank you and for those who are watching live if you have any question feel free to comment it in our stream and our panelists might answer it on wednesday when we talk about the message more in our webinar at 7 30 p.m so that's it for sunday fast track take care everyone and god bless you all here are the discussion questions question number one where are you getting your identity from right now and you can follow that up with who are you in christ question number two what distracts you from fulfilling god's purpose in your life and question number three jesus said apart from me you can do nothing how does this truth impact the way you live out his purpose for you [Music] have a blessed discussion time with your family members your friends or your disciples have a blessed sunday thanks for watching we would like to invite you to be a christ-committed follower by being part of the movement as we honor god and obey his great commission to find out if there's a csef satellite near you log on to www.ccf.org.ph satellites we also want to encourage you to join a small discipleship group where you can deepen your knowledge and love for jesus and others to sign up log on to www.ccf.org.ph slash discipleship group all of csf's video resources are available free of charge and are constantly being improved by our team would you consider supporting ccf through prayer in giving so more people can be blessed you can give securely through our website at www.ccf.org.ph.give for more videos like this please subscribe to our channel thanks and god bless

Channel: Christ’s Commission Fellowship

Views: 48,576

Rating: 4.972414 out of 5

Keywords: CCF, Christ's, Commission, Fellowship, Sunday, Service, Sermon, Speaker, Message

Id: KB-8BY7Fnws

Length: 61min 0sec (3660 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 25 2021