Young people are the strength and future of what we are meant to build our church on.

When we look at the Acts of the Apostles, we often think that is was all about signs and wonders, the power and demonstration but they were devoted in things that we don’t necessarily see in the church today.

In our church, we used to see people come for prayer over a problem and we would pray for them. But they would come week after week, the same people over and over. We asked the Lord why this was and He showed us that they had not been formed in Jesus Christ. Their character and nature had not been born into the things of Christ. They were born again. You can be born again and invite Jesus into your life. You can receive God’s grace, your spirit can become alive to God but you can never progress into the things of the Kingdom, the life and character of Jesus Christ.

This is life for some of us – like we are looking through a glass at the promises but never really entering into them.

Mobilization

God told us that our church had not been mobilized into the purposes of God. They were not living for God’s purposes.

Remember in the Gospels when Jesus fed the five thousand (Matthew 14:13-21), the crowd came for the bread and for the miracles. Many churches including ours were a little bit like that. But after the feeding of the five thousand, Jesus said He is the true bread and those who want to be His disciples needed to eat His flesh and drink His blood. Jesus’ ‘church’ went from five thousand to about 12 in one sermon. All those people said this teaching is too hard for us.

What does it mean to partake of Jesus’ body and blood? It means to become one in every single thing about Jesus. I have often heard people say they want to be like Jesus and that is very romantic but not many know what it means to be like Jesus. Jesus laid down His life for people that hated Him. He gave up His glory for people who would treat Him indifferently, step on Him, spit on Him and crucify Him. To be like Jesus was to devote your life to 12 people so that they could touch the world. Jesus’ yielding, obedience, prayer life and submission to the Father was next level.

We wonder why we don’t have such a deep relationship with the Lord and the simple answer is we are not following after the purposes of God. Our lives are formed and shaped around our purposes. Be honest with yourself and ask if you are really living with a passion for the purposes of God. If your whole life, your family, finances, time, evenings and private time devoted and centred around learning to do and fulfilling the purposes of God?

There is a wrong mindset, especially in the West that if something is too hard it is from the devil. For a church to grow to the next level in God, everybody has to sacrifice. You have to sacrifice your life on the altar if you want to walk where Jesus walked. If you say you don’t experience the presence of God that much, maybe you are not walking where Jesus is walking.

John 3:3,5-8, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the Kingdom of God unless they are born again”… Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you no one can enter the Kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Holy Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh; spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at Me saying you must be born again. The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone who is born of the spirit.”

Jesus says you have to be born into His Kingdom, authority, power and rulership. If we are not willing to be born into obedience and yielding our lives completely, we cannot see certain things. Many of us have been born again in our spirits but we have not been born into ministry or discipleship. We are still on the outside looking in.

Verse 8 tells us that if the Holy Spirit is in your life, you do not own your life. Wherever God wants to go, you have to go. Churches and Christians have to mobilize our lives according to God’s purposes to go to the next level. What are God’s purposes?

Why do you come to church? Many do it because they did it since they were a child. Some come to church because it is what they do. I go to church with my family for the purposes of God; so that we can learn the purposes of God, be taught the purposes of God and do them together. When you stand before God and He asks what you did with the life He gave you, how will you answer? I lived for the purposes of God.

Purpose 1: The Purpose of Worship

You should focus and devote your life to be born into the purpose of worship. Many people are not born into worship. For many, when it is time for worship, they just stand there looking.

Revelation 4:11, “For you created all things and they exist because you created what you pleased.”

We have been created for the pleasure of God. We often believe that God exists for us but you have been created for the pleasure of God. Of course God wants to bless us but it is a two way partnership. God wants us to be born into all of His realms or dimensions of blessings but also into all of His requirements that we partner with Him. Together we are the inheritance of Jesus.

You cannot build a great family, church or leadership if the spiritual level of your life is not high. You can be prayed for 100 thousand times and I have been. Unless you are born into worship, devotion and are passionate to be in the presence of God, it won’t.

You have the relationship you want with Jesus. If you want it to be good, it will be good. You have to be intentional and mobilize your life into God’s purpose. God’s number one purpose is that you would be one with Him so He can say I know you.

Some say they don’t have time to develop their prayer life – they are working three jobs, some have eight children. I feel for you with all my heart but you have to know the Lord didn’t tell you to have three jobs or eight children. He gave them to you because you prayed for them but He didn’t tell you to make them your life. Your responsibility is to mobilize your life around the purposes of God, not His blessings.

We have many excuses why we cannot serve the purposes of God and have a strong prayer life. I used to say I am a late-nighter and that is why I can’t wake up early in the morning to pray. Are you a late-nighter? The Lord spoke to me about it and said He never created me a late-nighter. If you want to meet Jesus when no one else is around, you have to do something to get closer to Him. Make a sacrifice of your time.

Purpose 2: Be Born Into God’s Family

Many believers are not part of God’s family. They go to church but they are not known. For a lot of cultures, the number one idol is their family. We often hide behind our family as an excuse. Be focused on being part of God’s family. Remember Jesus said anyone who loves father, mother, brother or sister more than Him is not worthy of being His disciple. There is a price; you need to worship, pray and spend time with the Lord.

You can miss the purpose of God because you are focused on things that are not eternal.

Purpose 3: Born To Be A Disciple

Are you a disciple of Christ? Do you know what a disciple really is?

Matthew 16:24, “Then Jesus said to His disciples whoever wants to be My disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow Me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it but whoever loses their life for me will find it.”

There is a principle that whatever you lay down before God is going to bless your life but you have to deny yourself. Some of us are not born into obedience; you are still struggling and arguing with the Lord about things in your life – your secret/private life.

Don’t quit on your children; don’t quit on your family. Pursue them but if you are not a disciple of Christ, they will not follow you. You cannot ask your children to be that which you are not willing to be yourself.

Purpose 4: Born To Serve God

You have been born to serve God. Have you been birthed into the ministry of Jesus? God has called you to be a priest and a king – to rule under God’s authority and impact your city.

Revelation 5:9, “They sang a new song saying you are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals because you were slain and with your blood you purchased for God people from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God and they will reign on the earth.”

Jesus has purchased you. Jesus laid His life down for you and it is sealed. You are now owned; you belong to God. This means you cannot bargain with God about your life. Even your future belongs to God. Now, if you have an argument about that, you will get stuck in your relationship with the Lord and will not be able to move on to the next level until that stronghold in your mind, will and heart is broken.

God has called you and made you a kingdom and priests. A king is a ruler. He is the salt and light. A king impacts and changes things around him. Kings set the culture. We are the representation of the Son of God on earth.

Priests serve at the altar of God and in the house of the Lord so that others can be blessed. God has saved us to be priestly families. Think about your family. Is your family a priestly family? What does it look like to raise up priestly sons and daughters? Your children are being fought over by the enemy and you need to win. Don’t only raise them in the faith but teach them to become fathers and mothers in the faith.

Spiritual fathers and mothers to lead are the number one thing that is missing in the church today. Do you have fruit? Do you have disciples? That is what a father and mother in the Lord is. They raise people to multiply and become all that Jesus is.

Purpose 5: Born To Bear Fruit

You are a branch of the vine; a branch exists to bear fruit. You were born to lay your life down in love. No one has greater love than that they lay down their lives so they can bear fruit that will last.

Proverbs 11:30, “The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life and he who wins souls is extremely smart”.

Your fruit is a tree of life; it is eternal. If you are involved in being fruitful, caring and loving – modelling your life after the purpose of God, then you have the same mind as Christ. In Matthew 28, Jesus said all authority in Heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Therefore, go and make disciples and teach them to obey everything I have taught you. What I have formed in you, form in others so that they may form them in others. Jesus is looking for disciples who multiply disciples. I believe the scripture teaches that you are not a real disciple unless you are multiplying yourself.

Sermon By Pastor Terry Page; Blog By Edward Gardiner

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