Date: 09/19/2022

Greetings to you in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and to Him be the Glory and to the Holy Ghost that abides within me. God has laid on my spirit to write a weekly message to the saints and friends of The Church of the Living God, The Pillar, and Ground of the Truth, Which He Purchased with His Own Blood, Inc.– Jewell Dominion. This week’s key word is Purpose. (Part Two)

Last week I started off asking the question, “What is the purpose for your life”?  This week’s message begins with Paul speaking to the Philippians 2:7 telling them, “That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus”. Paul tells the Philippians and us that he realized that all those personal gains had no purpose. Why? Because in the end they weren’t going to amount to anything without Christ. Saints and friends, it doesn’t matter if you become the President of the United States, if you live a purpose driven life without Christ in the center of it, you haven’t gained a thing. However, Paul made a personal decision to give up every single accomplishment including his family, friends, work, fame, all for the sake of Christ. Paul realized that it wasn’t trying to grasp the dream, it was the attitude which was wrong. James 4:2-3 (KJV) tells us, “Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume [it] upon your lusts”. (In other words, you ask God to fulfill your selfish desires and you receive not because you ask with the wrong type of attitude.) So how does a Child of God find his or her purpose in life? How are we to find that drive for a purpose driven life? Paul gives us some principles to live by: Decide to Know Christ, Forget the Past, Live for Today, and Press Toward the Mark.

Notice what Paul says in Philippians 3:8, “Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ”. Make note of; that I might win Christ, used in the subjunctive mood which means this is not real action until the condition is met, he couldn’t live a purpose driven life until he made a real-life decision to know Christ). This is the same tense that Jesus used in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life”. Expounding on the Key Parts of John 3:16: “For God…” Jesus has been explaining to Nicodemus, “The Son of Man must be lifted up” so that those who look on him can be saved (John3:15). Now he explains God’s motive. “…He so loved the world…”

Though he has wrath for sin and hates it, in (Proverbs 6:16-19), he loves the world and the people he has created. Righteousness demands that the world be judged, but love moves God to offer a way to be saved from the coming wrath. Further, God saw a way to bring men and women to himself in peace and in friendship. “…that he gave his one and only Son,” God the Son was not created. He always existed with the Father and the Spirit (John 1:1). Jesus the man was begotten by God and Mary, fully God and fully man, tobe the perfect sacrifice. It is astounding that the eternal Son of God, the Lamb that was slain since the foundation of the world, (Revelation 13:8) had to be born a baby and grow up like everyone else. “That whoever believes in him…” John 6:28-29 says, “Then they asked him, ‘What must we do to do the works God requires?’ Jesus answered, ‘The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent. Before we call out to God for salvation, we must believe that He is able to reward us when we call upon Him. Even though believer’s will not bear the wrath of God for their sin. Jesus has imputed his righteousness to us by taking our sin on himself. Everlasting life is difficult to grasp, but there is hardly a clearerpromise in scripture. And remember, “With God All Things are Possible”. (Matthew 19:26). In closing, I pose the question, “What is your Purpose”?  Part 3, the conclusion of the series on purpose next week.

In His Service,

Bishop Dr. Calvin Worthem

General Chief Overseer/Senior Bishop