Life Began & Life Ended...It's All About The DASH...

For the last 2 weeks, we have been looking at the question of, "What Do I Want My Life To Be About?" What gives our lives purpose...what are we living for....what is most important. This past Sunday night, we began to flesh out our own personal answers to these questions...What we saw is that when it comes to purpose, we can go one of two ways...

Life----------Living------------Hopefully Achieve Our Purpose

For alot of people, they have an idea of what their purpose is, and they live in such a way as to hopefully achieve it in the end.

Purpose----------Living----------Already Acheived

For others, they recognize their purpose at the beginning of the map of life, and their life is simply a response to that purpose with which they already have obtained.

My question to you is, which route are you taking? Are you hoping to achieve something, be something, or do something during your life that in the end will give you purpose for it all? Personally, this is a risky way to live...For instance, what if your purpose in life is to become wealthy. So you work really hard to get a good job so you can make alot of money....ok. But what happens if you lose that job? Does your purpose change? Another example...your purpose is popularity....what happens when your friends abandon you? You graduate high school...they go their way, you go yours...do you lose your purpose?

For me, I recognize that I have already been given my purpose...a relationship with God through the death and ressurection of Jesus and through faith in what HE HAS DONE for me. My life now is a response to that purpose...loving God, loving others, and sharing His love with the world. You see, when it comes to Christianity, its not up to us whether we reach our purpose or not...in Jesus, we have everything we already need..and our lives are a reflection of who we already are in Jesus....

This week, use these questions and passages of scripture to help you go deeper in this understanding of your purpose...

1. Take a sheet of paper and draw the following:
(Your birth date- example: 1992)--------(Dash equaling your life now)--------("Death")

Take that dash that represents your life and mark out some things you want to accomplish in your life in connection to your overall purpose.

2. Now write out what you feel your purpose is and use these questions to break it down:

- Is your purpose dependent on what you can do?

- Is your purpose dependent on what another PERSON can do?

- Can your purpose be messed up if life circumstances change?

3. Read Ecclesiastes 12:1; 13-14

- Why would it be important to remember your "Creator" in the days of your youth? How will this affect the rest of your life?

- Solomon, after trying everything in life comes to a conclusion about purpose...fear God and keep his commandments. What are your thoughts about this purpose?

4. Read John 10:1-11

- Jesus refers to us as sheep and himself as a good shepherd...what do you think He is talking about?

- Verse 10- The thief (Satan) comes to kill and destroy our lives. How do you think He does this?

- Verse 10- Jesus has come that we may have life (starting now) and life to the fullest. What does a life like this look like?

- Verse 11- How did Jesus get to the point where He can offer us this type of life?

5. Read 1 Peter 1:3-5

- Jesus says our purpose...our salvation can never spoil, can't be taken from us, and is unfading. The purpose Jesus gives us for our lives can never be broken...Does this give you hope? Compared to a purpose that is dependent on what we do to acheive it, this is a purpose dependent on what Jesus has already done by dying for us ...do you see how different this is than how many people chase after their life's purpose?

Plan to join us at Matt & Amanda'a Thursday night at 7 as we dig deeper into their truths and apply them to our lives!