More of Eight Ways to Fulfill God's Purpose for Your Life

Fulfilling purpose, God’s purpose for your everyday life, is something we should have on our minds. Understanding purpose is like looking at appliances. Everybody has manufactured appliances such as a toaster, refrigerator, stove, microwave, or electric can opener in their homes. These are commonly found in people’s homes, and each has different workmanship. They are designed differently. They have different parts that make them operate. Each one has its unique reasons for being. Now, if that appliance operates outside of its reason for being, we have a problem. If you want to cook things in the refrigerator and freeze things in the stove, you will have a difficult situation in the home because that’s not what the workmanship is for. The workmanship is used for whatever the creator designed it to do. The toaster does not tell the creator what it will do today. The stove does not say to the creator what it will do today. It is the creator that dictates to the appliance the reason why the appliance exists. The appliance does whatever it’s been designed to do. In the same way, we are God’s creation, and He dictates to us why we exist and can tell us what we are designed to do. He gives us our purpose. If we operate outside our reason for being, that’s when we experience problems. Walking in the purpose God designed for us is how we fulfill our unique reason for being.¹

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#S2-027: What It Means to Walk After the Spirit and Not the Flesh [Podcast]

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Each week’s podcast contains a call to action. The Word of God will not produce in your life unless you put it into operation.
This week’s call is:

Plug into these eight purposes of God for your life so that you can be fully mature and equipped with all His plan for your life.

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Testimony is vital to a believer’s life. We overcome by it (Rev. 12:11). Each week’s podcast also contains a question designed to encourage testimony.
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Question: What can you add to this thread? How have these eight purposes from God impacted your life?

Episode Resources:

We are currently teaching in the book of Ephesians. You can click on the links below to listen to some of these podcasts.

About Emery

Emery committed his life to the Lord Jesus Christ over 45 years ago and has served as both a full-time pastor and an itinerant minister. He and his wife Sharon of 40 years, emphasize personal growth and development through the Word of God. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is the focus and the hallmark of their mission. Read more about them here.

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Podcast Notes

Fulfill God’s Purpose: A List of Eight Revisited

Ephesians 4:11–16 (ESV) — 11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

So, in a previous podcast, we gave you eight reasons why God put ministry gifts in the church.
- To equip the saints.
- To attain the unity of the faith.
- The purpose of which His people can arrive at the knowledge of the Son of God.
- To attain mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
- So that we may no longer be unstable children easily deceived.
- To the end that we may speak the truth in love.
- So that we may grow up
- For the body of Christ having the express purpose of building itself up in love.
In that previous podcast, we looked at four of the eight.
Today, we look at the remaining four.

Fulfilling God’s Purpose: Stable Children No Longer Deceived

Ephesians 4:11–12 (ESV) — 11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.

Children are highly impressionable; that’s an earthly fact.
Because of a child’s trusting nature, they are easily influenced.
The Greek word ‘children’ is the one we want to look at and, with that thought, here’s the Definition of the Day.
The Greek word ‘children’ means a very young child, infant, child²
In ancient Greek literature, this word can refer to various ages, from infants to puberty.
In the context of this passage, you have to lean toward a child that’s a little bit older than an infant – maybe a few years older because infants are generally not mentally agitated and tossed to and fro by doctrine.
So, we’re talking here about a child with some mental capacity to understand doctrine or at least have a conversation or some opinion about doctrine.
Now they’re unsteady in their views.

Hebrews 5:12–13 (ESV) — 12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, 13 for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child.

This passage in Hebrews five shows the picture of babies and milk.

1 Peter 2:1–2 (ESV) — 1 So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. 2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—

Here in this passage in First Peter, we have the same image.
Newborn babes desire milk, and by that consumption, they grow.
So, milk is for babies; milk is for infants, so because these believers are on the milk of God’s Word, they’re not established in God.
They have not grown and developed enough to be able to take a stand and have an opinion based on the facts of God’s Word.
So, when anybody comes along with an anti-gospel idea, they’re pulled to that side.
When another person comes with a different idea not substantiated by God’s Word, they are pulled to that side; as the scripture says, they’re easily tossed to and fro, just like ways of the sea.
The phrase ‘tossed to and fro’ is a nautical term, so we’re talking about someone who rocked back and forth up and down and is unsteady in all their ways.
To fulfill the purpose of God in your life, you have to be in a growing condition — growing in God.
Developing to such an extent that you are steady in your ways — you don’t get pulled to one side or another.
You take a stand on the truth of God’s Word.
Now, that’s vital phrasing here.
Take a stand on the truth of God’s Word, not just take a stand.
And with that thought, here’s the Illustration of the Day.
So, this line that we are on recalls to mind a young couple who had recently got saved but had gotten over some wrong teaching in the Old Testament.
You understand the fact that the New Covenant, the New Testament, replaces the Old.
As one writer puts it, the old is the new explained.
The New Testament reveals to us what portions of the Old Covenant are still in force.

Hebrews 8:6 (KJV 1900) — 6 But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.

Jesus died to bring us into a New Covenant, a better covenant with better promises.
The law is no longer in force.
It is replaced with the law of love.

Romans 13:8–10 (KJV 1900) — 8 Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. 9 For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 10 Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

So, he who loves with the love of God, who loves the Lord with all those heart soul mind and strength, and who loves his neighbor as himself first Corinthians 13 style, to this individual, there is no need for the law.
The law of love replaces the law of stone given by Moses at Sinai.
This couple read a passage in the Old Testament about Onan.
You will find his account in Genesis 38.
Judah, one of the twelve sons of Jacob, had several sons by a Canaanite woman named Shuah.
One of them was named Er, and the second son was named Onan.
Let’s pick it up in verse six of Genesis thirty-eight.

Genesis 38:6–10 (KJV 1900) — 6 And Judah took a wife for Er his firstborn, whose name was Tamar. 7 And Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the Lord; and the Lord slew him. 8 And Judah said unto Onan, Go in unto thy brother’s wife, and marry her, and raise up seed to thy brother. 9 And Onan knew that the seed should not be his; and it came to pass, when he went in unto his brother’s wife, that he spilled it on the ground, lest that he should give seed to his brother. 10 And the thing which he did displeased the Lord: wherefore he slew him also.

So, this young couple took this story as meaning that contraception was not the will of God.
They carried this belief to the point of having eight children.
As a young couple, they couldn’t afford those eight children.
My pastor at that time, my spiritual mom, tried to explain the scriptures to them and make them a little bit clearer, but they wouldn’t listen.
Eventually, they left the church.
You say you can make a shipwreck of their life because they took a stand alright, but it was the wrong stand.
So, this couple took a stand, but they took the wrong stand because they didn’t understand what Jesus did in His death, burial, and resurrection.
We have to grow up out of this stuff and fully understand what God did in Jesus.
Doing that fulfills God’s purpose for our life.
Now, one final thought about the purveyors of doctrine that causes people to flop around, to be tossed to and fro.
Notice the language.

by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.

These are mean people we’re talking about here.
They are not good, godly, gospel-believing, God-fearing people.
No, false teachers are what’s in view here.
The word ‘cunning’ here means trickery or dice-playing.
It is any misrepresentation intended to take advantage of a person in some way.
So this doctrine that’s put out is intended to hurt people.
Its purpose is to take advantage of people.
Again, we are talking about these children, small children in God.
Now, if we had a person do this to a small child in the natural realm, we would call that person an abuser.
So, this is spiritual child abuse that these false purveyors are practicing.
“Cunning craftiness” is the next word that helps to complete a picture of who these mean people are.
The word means treacherous deceitfulness.
It means deceitfulness, usually characterized by an incredibly evil character.
What about the last descriptor here?
It puts the nail in the coffin, so to speak.
Craftiness in deceitful schemes.
What’s a deceitful scheme?
Deceitful here is a misleading falsehood.
But, the word scheme here adds so much to the negative character of these people who tell lies about God to trip people up.
Schemes are a way of doing something (deceptive), especially systematically, which implies an orderly logical arrangement (usually in steps).
Did you get that?
This falseness that is being put out is a systematic deception.
It’s orderly, logical deceit.
Doesn’t this show that this is mean and ugly?
I don’t get it; why do they want to hurt people?
Why not help people?
The answer to this is that we need to recognize these people exist.
We need to understand and know that God does not intend to wipe them off the face of the earth today so that that false teaching won’t reach your ears.
No, God said let the wheat and the tares grow together until harvest time.
That’s the mercy of God to these false nasties.
What if one of these people realizes the error of their ways and repents and turns from it to God?
What if they, by transformation, become a purveyor of truth instead of error?
That’s why God has patience with some of these folks.
But in the meantime, to protect yourself, your best defense is not a prayer of judgment upon these people – you know, let fire and brimstone fall upon and consume them.
That’s not the right way; that’s not the right spirit.
Your best defense against this stuff is to get into God’s Word and grow and develop to a point where you’re not tossed around by all his junk.
That’s fulfilling God’s purpose for your life.
Let’s go to the next point.

Fulfilling God’s Purpose: Speaking the Truth in Love

Ephesians 4:11–12 (ESV) — 11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 15, Rather, speaking the truth in love

Speaking the truth – is a present participle formed from the word truth.
It could be translated as ‘truthing’ in love.
‘In love’ is the most vital part of this whole thing.
Have you ever been on the wrong end of a discussion where you got slammed with the truth – where truth got thrown and assaulted by truth?
Now you need truth for sure, we’ve already seen that.
But you need love also.
Can we say it this way?
Truth without love is brutality, and love without truth is hypocrisy.
You need both together to fulfill God’s purpose.
We must grow to a place where we know the truth and yet know it well enough to have a tender heart to help people with it.
Speak the truth in love.
This phrase doesn’t just cover the verbal part of communication.
Speaking the truth in love is not sharing information about God in a nice way.
That’s not what this means.
The Translator’s New Testament has “base our lives on truth (and love).” ³
So, speaking the truth in love is living according to the truth.
It’s not just the speaking; it’s the doing.
Let your life speak the truth.
It’s hard to speak the truth if you don’t live the truth.
Doing truth is part of speaking the truth.

Ephesians 4:25 (KJV 1900) — 25 Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.

Speak truth, put away lying.
In this framework, we could say don’t live a lie.

Fulfilling God’s Purpose: Growing Up Into Him

Ephesians 4:11–12 (ESV) — 11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 15 … we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,

Grow up into Him in every way, which is the head is body language.
Growing up into him starts with Him.
The head provides for the body, not the other way.
Jesus, the head of the church, provides the necessary means by which you can grow up into Him via the Holy Spirit.
You can’t get there without Him.

John 15:5 (ESV) — 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

Some years ago, a study was done by an agricultural school in Iowa. It reported that production of a hundred bushels of corn from one acre of land required 4,000,000 lbs. of water, 6,800 lbs. of oxygen, 5,200 lbs. p 356 of carbon, 160 lbs. of nitrogen, 125 lbs. of potassium, 75 lbs. of yellow sulphur, and other elements too numerous to list. In addition to these ingredients are required rain and sunshine at the right times. Although many hours of the farmer’s labor are also needed, it was estimated that only 5 percent of the produce of a farm can be attributed to the efforts of man. So it is in spiritual realms: God causes the growth⁴

1 Corinthians 3:6–7 (ESV) — 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.

Now the other challenge is the words every way.
We are to grow up into Him in every way.
Every way leaves a great deal of work for all of us.
Jesus gave the church gifts so believers in Jesus could develop and grow into Christ-likeness.
And with that thought, here is the Quote of the Day.

“Sometimes when we read the words of those who have been more than conquerors, we feel almost despondent. We feel that I shall never be like that. But, they won through step by step, by little bits of wills, little denials of self, little inward victories, by faithfulness in very little things. They became what they are. No one sees these little hidden steps. They only see the accomplishment, but even so, those small steps were taken. There is no sudden triumph no spiritual maturity. That is the work of the moment.” ⁵

Everyone must grow and develop in God the same way, that is, step by step and inch by inch.
There are no shortcuts to spiritual maturity that will take you anywhere worth going.
No one is born spiritually mature, as this passage in Ephesians four reminds us.
We all must develop and should do so in every area.
Maturing in Christ is the goal and the upward call.
And how do you get there? Just like the illustration, one small step at a time.
Obeying one Bible verse at a time.
One small denial of the flesh at a time.
One small victory at a time.
One small bit of faithfulness at a time.
Step by step over time.

Fulfilling God’s Purpose: The Body Building Up Itself in Love

Ephesians 4:11–16 (ESV) — 11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers… 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

This is number eight — this is the endgame.
The body of Christ must have the express purpose of building itself up in love.
All these things that we have discussed in this podcast and the last all funnel down into this one statement: the body building itself in love.
All of this:
- Equipping the saints.
- Attaining the unity of the faith.
- Arriving at the knowledge of the Son of God.
- Attaining mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
- Not being unstable children easily deceived.
- Speaking the truth in love.
- Growing up into Him
All of this is a ball that cannot be stopped once it gets rolling.
I need to grow and develop and fulfill God’s purpose for my life, and you need to grow and develop in the same vein.
Your growing helps me.
My growth helps you.
Did you hear it?
Every part is working correctly.
We cannot do this without one another.
You’re reading the Bible in your home helps the body.
You’re supplying something to this living organism called the body of Christ.
You’re praying and seeking God and asking Him questions; your abiding in the vine helps others besides you.
Power, energy, development, and increase flow down from the head and supplies the joints of the body.
Because we live the truth and speak the truth, that life flows out of us to others as living water that causes this body to grow.
That’s the message — think body.
Think ‘we’ not ‘me.’
That’s eight ways we can fulfill God’s purpose for our everyday life.
You guys have a great God-week in Jesus’ Name, Amen.

#033: Three Things Jesus Did that You Can Do [Podcast]

____________
References:

Tony Evans, Tony Evans’ Book of Illustrations: Stories, Quotes, and Anecdotes from More than 30 Years of Preaching and Public Speaking (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2009), 241. ↩
William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 671. ↩
Robert G. Bratcher and Eugene Albert Nida, A Handbook on Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians, UBS Handbook Series (New York: United Bible Societies, 1993), 105. ↩
1315 Michael P. Green, 1500 Illustrations for Biblical Preaching (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2000), 355–356. ↩
Quoted in Holy Sweat, Tim Hansel, 1987, Word Books Publisher, p. 130 Resource C. Swindoll, The Grace Awakening, Word, 1990, p. 232 Galaxie Software, 10,000 Sermon Illustrations (Biblical Studies Press, 2002). ↩

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More of Eight Ways to Fulfill God’s Purpose for Your Life

Podcast: Light on Life Season 9 Episode 25

by Emery Horvath

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Join the Conversation

Episode Resources:

We are currently teaching in the book of Ephesians. You can click on the links below to listen to some of these podcasts.

About Emery

Subscribe to the Podcast

Share the Love

Podcast Notes

Fulfill God’s Purpose: A List of Eight Revisited

Fulfilling God’s Purpose: Stable Children No Longer Deceived

Fulfilling God’s Purpose: Speaking the Truth in Love

Fulfilling God’s Purpose: Growing Up Into Him

Fulfilling God’s Purpose: The Body Building Up Itself in Love

Listen to the Audio

Click to Listen | Right Click to Download | Subscribe in iTunes

Read the Notes

Accept the Challenge

Join the Conversation

Episode Resources:

We are currently teaching in the book of Ephesians. You can click on the links below to listen to some of these podcasts.

About Emery

Subscribe to the Podcast

Share the Love

Podcast Notes

Fulfill God’s Purpose: A List of Eight Revisited

Fulfilling God’s Purpose: Stable Children No Longer Deceived

Fulfilling God’s Purpose: Speaking the Truth in Love

Fulfilling God’s Purpose: Growing Up Into Him

Fulfilling God’s Purpose: The Body Building Up Itself in Love

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