WHAT ON EARTH AM I HERE FOR? PART 1

     

1.  QUESTION OF EXISTENCE: WHY AM I ALIVE?

JEREMIAH: "Why was I born? Was it only to have trouble and sorrow, to end my life in disgrace?"Jeremiah 20:18 (TEV)

Love comes from God... for God IS love. God showed how much he loved us by sending His only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through Him."1 John 4:7-9 (NLT)

"Long before God laid down earth's foundations, he had us in mind, and settled on us as the focus of His love, to be made whole and holy by His love."Ephesians 1:4 (Msg)

GOD SAYS: "I have loved you with an everlasting love!"Jeremiah 31:3 (NIV)

2.  QUESTION OF SIGNIFICANCE: DOES MY LIFE MATTER?

DAVID: "I remember how short my life is. Why did you create us? For nothing?"Psalm 89:47 (NCV)

JOB: "Why should I work so hard for nothing?"Job 9:29 (GW)

SOLOMON: "Laughing and having fun is crazy. What good does it do?"Ecclesiastes 2:2 (CEV)

HE CARES ABOUT EVERY DETAIL OF MY LIFE

GOD SAYS: "Not even a sparrow, can fall to the ground without your Heavenly Father knowing it. The very hairs on your head are all numbered! So don't be afraid; you are far more valuable to Him than a whole flock of sparrows."Matthew 10:29-31 (NLT)

HE PLANNED MY DAYS BEFORE MY BIRTH
"You... scheduled each day of my life before I began to breathe. Every day was recorded in Your book!"Psalm 139:16 (LB)


HE MADE ME TO LAST FOREVER

"God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but people can't see the whole scope of God's work from beginning to end."Ecclesiastes 3:11 (NLT)

"The world and everything in it is passing away; but those who do the will of God will live forever."1 John 2:17 (TEV)

3.  INTENTION: IS THERE A PURPOSE FOR MY LIFE?

ISAIAH: "My work all seems so useless! I have spent my strength for nothing and for no purpose at all."Isa. 49:4a (NLT)

GOD SAYS; HE  MADE ME FOR HIS PURPOSES
"The Lord has made everything for His own purposes."Prov. 16:4a (NTL)

What were you apprehended for? Apprehend-Katalambano. To apprehend means to lay hold of- then to lay hold of as to possess as one’s own, to appropriate with a beneficial effect by Christ. Leaving all to follow Christ.

Philippians 3:12-14 (NKJV)

¹² Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. ¹³ Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, ¹⁴ I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

How do I discover my purpose in life?

"Everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible …everything got started in Him and finds its purpose in Him."Col 1:16 (Msg)

"Knowing God results in every other kind of understanding."Pr. 9:10b (LB)

"It's in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for... part of the overall purpose He is working out in everything and everyone."Eph. 1:11-12 (Msg)

"It makes no difference who you are or where you're from—if you want God and are ready to do as He says, the door is open."Acts 10:35 (Msg)


Pastor James P. Norman Jr.