Essential – Week 6

by Jake the Intern | Oct 20, 2020 |

Essential – Week 6

Icebreaker: 

• What did you want to be when you grew up?

 

Main idea: Your greatest purpose in life is discovering and helping other people discover Jesus.

 

Going deeper:

• In Ephesians 3:1-9 Paul says that his purpose was to proclaim the Good News to the Gentiles, a call given to him through the divine power of God (a mystery revealed to Paul). Pastor Doug says, “Your mission must begin with what Jesus has done in you.” Paul quite literally encountered God, and God gave him a purpose.
  • Have you encountered Jesus in your life?
  • What did that encounter prompt you to do?
• Verses 10-13 say that the wisdom of God would be made known through the church. Pastor Doug says, “You can’t discover your purpose in life apart from the community of faith (the church).”
  • How does the church encourage you to pursue your purpose in Jesus?
  • Do you see why this can’t be done alone?
• Paul describes his response in 14-15. He kneels before the Father. Kneeling is a choice, a choice of submission: God’s will over your own.
  • Are you devoted to God’s will and the mission of his church?
• The passage finishes with a powerful prayer for God’s love to take root in the church’s hearts. That love empowers the church to live and pursue that mission with unimaginable possibilities (16-21).
• We all seem to have this fascination with our own lives. We plan, and we dream about the future. We reminisce about the past and stress over the present. Our life tends to be about what we want, and we never quite get there. Our design or purpose as children of God isn’t about what we want but rather who/what we are.

 

Think about the passage that Pastor Doug began Sunday with:

Ephesians 2:10  “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do  good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

 

The New Living Translation reads: “For we are God’s masterpiece…” I love that. You, as a child of God, are God’s masterpiece. God’s masterpiece. Think of the majesty of the highest peaks. Think of the depths of the ocean. Think of the expanse of space. You… are God’s masterpiece. And you were created for something, something eternal. 

 

You aren’t an accident, a bag of bones or a restless soul. You were created for a specific purpose by the God of the universe. He prepared your life in advance, gifted you and pursues you to this day. If you get nothing else from tonight’s discussion, remember this: You are God’s masterpiece renewed to your potential in Christ Jesus when you place your faith in him. That is a meaning and purpose that is worth living for.

 

Application:

• Is pursuing the will of God your life’s mission?
  • How can you maintain that? Or what changes do you need to make so that his will is your primary focus?
  • How can you help the church live out this mission?
• Pray for God’s love to overwhelm you and move in ways you could never think or imagine.