Go Beyond

“The Purpose Driven Life” was written by California mega-church pastor Rick Warren. The book was published in 2002 and became a best-seller with more than 35 million copies sold worldwide. Warren addresses the questions — important questions — that every human being has wrestled with since the beginning of time.

Why am I alive? Does my life matter? What on earth am I here for?

Something deep inside us longs for answers to these questions, answers that are essential to discovering our purpose — which is essential to living a meaningful life.

“Seinfeld” premiered on July 5, 1989 and famously earned the reputation of being a “show about nothing.” The sitcom achieved a remarkable level of popularity in the 90’s primarily because of its plotless programming. One commentator observed that the show was popular because it resonated with the emptiness in the lives of plotless people.

God did not design us to be plotless people who live meaningless and meandering lives. He created us for much more than that. The Bible assures us that God has a plan for each of our lives (Jer. 29:11), which includes doing good works which He prepared in advance for us to do (Eph. 2:10).

In a sermon that Paul preached on his first missionary journey, he said, ”Now when David had served God’s purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep; he was buried with his ancestors and his body decayed.” (Acts 13:36). But, what David did in his generation impacted the course of redemptive history because he faithfully served the purpose of God.

The reality is that each of us have only our generation in which to serve the purpose of God. This is our time. God placed us on the planet to serve His purpose in this generation — not two-hundred years earlier or two-hundred years into the future. Now.

Each of us are stewards of a narrow slice of time in which to serve God’s purposes. After that, we die and return to dust. However, like David, what we do in our generation does not have to die with us if we will responsibly serve God’s purposes while we have opportunity.

In order to serve the purposes of God, we must know God and His purposes. Every Christ-follower should seek to know and understand the purposes of God and then live them out.

Here are three to consider:

First, we must love God and love others. This is known as the Great Commandment (Matt. 22:37-40). Like Jesus, if we will live lives “full of grace and truth” (John 1:14), then we will find favor with God and man (Prov. 3:3-4). Grace often opens the door for people to become receptive to the truth.


Second, we must share the good news about Jesus with the entire world. This is known as the Great Commission (Matt. 28:19-20). God never intended that we keep this good news to ourselves. Those of us who know Christ do, in fact, owe Christ to all who do not know Him (Rom. 1:14).

Third, we must champion the rights of the oppressed, express kindness to others, and walk in dependence upon God. This is known as the Great Requirement (Micah 6:8). Not a day goes by that we do not read or hear about terrible injustices in our world. Christ-followers must be on the front lines of the war against injustice, exploitation, and oppression.

When it comes to living out the purposes of God, our walk and our talk must match. The world will never see the gospel as good news if the messenger is bad news.

In order to serve the purposes of God in our generation, we must understand the times in which we live. 1 Chronicles 12:32 records that the men of Issachar “understood the times and knew what Israel should do.” These guys were in touch with what was happening in their generation and how God could use them to make a difference.



We too, must understand the times in which we live in order to know how to serve God’s purposes, extend His kingdom, and bring glory to His name.

We are living in the best of times and the worst of times that present us with both great opportunities and intimidating obstacles that can only be faced by those with the requisite courage and audacity to fulfill the purposes of God. What we do today to advance the interests of the kingdom of God matters.

One hundred years from now no one will likely know that we ever lived. Our influence, however, can reach far into the future. What we do today to serve the purpose of God has the potential to impact nations and generations long after we are gone.

May we courageously and faithfully serve the purpose of God every day — in our generation. The welfare of so many is at stake both in our generation and the generation to come. What will you do today to serve the purpose of God?