And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. - Romans 8: 28-30 (ESV)
It seems ever since Rick Warren published the Purpose Driven Life for lay persons and the Purpose Driven Church for pastors, that Christianity has continued to spiral away from traditional, biblical principles and gravitated more and more toward schemes of human wisdom draped in Christianese. The purposed driven life opens up with the admonition that it is not all about you and then proceeds for the remainder of the book to assure the readers that it is indeed all about them. It is about their lives. Their dreams. Their purpose. Sure it is bathed in pious sounding Christian-speak but it is too transparent to not see the self-indulgence. The overall notion is that God has some secret purpose for your life and that you ought to spend your faith pursuing this mystical purpose. Maybe He has divinely ordered you to be a missionary to the third world. Perhaps He has decided at the foundations of the world that you are to be a street evangelist. Or maybe you were destined and laden with heavy purpose to serve as an usher in your local church. While some have a genuine call to street evangelism or third world missions, the vast majority of churchgoers will fall into the latter category. They will discover their purpose is to "put their hands to the plow" by serving in their church. The plot was brilliantly self-serving when teamed up with the Purpose Driven Church.
This second book is read by nearly every new pastor these days and is designed to grow the local church. Not the kingdom of God mind you, just the local church. Because in order to grow the local church, Warren teaches that you must be seeker sensitive, never offend, and gear your church towards the goats in the world instead of the sheep in the pen. One of the cornerstones of the Purpose Driven Church is buy in. You must "cast vision" as a leader and get the congregation to buy into it. Those who do not buy in are shown the door - which flips the Gospel on its ear. Those that stay however are put to work in the church. Those that are big and strong may discover their lifelong purpose is serve in the security ministry while those who are great with kids will be shuttled into the nursery ministry. Can you sing? God has purposed you to be in the choir! You get the point. The problem with all of this is that none of it remotely biblical.
Let me say up front that there is nothing wrong with helping out at your church. If you find a church that is preaching the uncompromised Gospel of Jesus Christ you should treasure it and help it wherever you can. But that is not your purpose. God did not decide when He was creating the world that only you could be the Royal Rangers Commander at Calvary Assembly of God in Sheboygan Michigan. That is absurd. Then what is purpose in the life of a believer? For that we turn to the key verses, starting with the ever popular Romans 8:28. It is so popular I named my ministry after it. The first lesson we learn here is that the purpose is God's not ours. We are called according to His purpose. If we are and we love Him, then things work together for good. Not necessarily work out the way we want beloved. The goodness is within the purpose of God. That is the first problem with the unbiblical purpose driven mindset today. It is always geared around some individual purpose in our life instead of the grander purposes of God for everyone's life as well as our own walk with Him. What is the difference between these two points? One is focused on Him and the other is focused on us.
But there is more context to Romans 8:28 and within that context we will find further clarification of this purpose. First though we must not be confused by verse 29 when it comes to the incorrect teachings of traditional Calvinism. Yes the word predestined is in this verse but it is preceded by foreknew. That is the proper order and context. God sees all time so He foreknew who will accept the free gift of salvation and who will not. Once He knows this He predestines them for His purpose. It is not to serve in the youth ministry or to even serve on the board of elders. It is to be conformed to the image of His Son. Because the predestined are the called, which takes us right back to verse 28. We are called according to His purpose and His purpose is for us to be conformed into the image of Jesus Christ. Do we get this today beloved? The purpose God has for us is personal to our walk with Him - not our service in church. Because the truth is we can serve in church for forty years and never be conformed because we never were called because we never accepted the free gift of salvation to begin with. That is how people will end up here on the last day:
Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!' - Matthew 7: 21-23 (ESV)
What is the charge Jesus makes against these people, who clearly had religion? I never knew you! You can be filled with mighty worldly purpose but if He does not know you it will not matter. We see preachers every Sunday regale their sheep with stories of pursuing an earthly purpose that will do nothing to conform them to the image of Jesus Christ. Only the Gospel can do that. But as pointed out already, within the Purpose Driven churches the Gospel is gone. Instead we get seven steps to better you or life principles from this summer's biggest movie hits. Understanding how the latest Iron Man movie can teach me to have a more fulfilling life is not going to conform me to the image of Christ. If anything, it conforms me to the image of this world.
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.- Romans 12: 2 (ESV)
The church is marching in the wrong direction. It seeks relevance and common ground with the world. It seeks to teach people their purpose in the world. The reality is we have a purpose from God for our salvation and that is to be ever conformed to the likeness of Jesus Christ. Wait a minute preacher! What about the lost? It is true that beyond our own walk, God has a purpose for everyone and that is to see them come to the salvation we enjoy. The Bible says that God does not want to see any perish. To that end we do have an external purpose as well:
What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe--as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor. For we are co-workers in God's service; you are God's field, God's building. - 1Corinthians 3: 5-9 (NIV)
Here is the point though beloved. Even our external purpose has little to do with ourselves. It always has to do with God and His Gospel. Sure we might represent Christ in different manners or circumstances but the message should never change. Look at what the Apostle Paul is trying to convey here to the believers at Corinth. We need to stop looking at man and exalting the created. After all - what is Apollos? What is Paul? What am I? What are you? Only servants through whom some may come to believe. Celebrate that purpose! Teach that purpose! It does not matter who plants and who waters because nothing grows without the Lord. The one who plants and the one who waters have a unified purpose. They do not have a special purpose unto themselves. We are all supposed to be coworkers in God's service. Coworkers with a unified purpose of bringing the Gospel to the world.
Lastly, we cannot do things backwards. You cannot work on the external purpose without first addressing the internal purpose. Far too many are in ministries today that have no business being there. Same goes for pastors and preachers. When people look to us they ought to see Christ. We ought to conforming to His image. This is another fundamental flaw in the purpose driven models. Because it is driven off of the needs of the church, people are thrust into ministry and even leadership positions when they are in fact not being conformed into the image of Christ. The end result is the utter carnality we see in most churches today. Do not fall for the purpose bandwagon. Do not fall for the deception that this walk is all about you. It is not. It is always all about Him. Our internal purpose is to be conformed to His likeness. Our external purpose is to be a coworker with the saints to bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ to a lost and dying world. You can keep your ministry assignments and Shape Applications. Give me the real purposes of God. In Jesus name, amen.
Rev. Anthony.
