The Right Purpose

The Right Purpose – Dr. Tony Evans

In His Presence: None of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions (Luke 14:33). 

Are you living for the right purpose? If you experience an emptiness that never goes away, or an aimless meandering that dominates your life, these are indicators that you are not on task in pursuing God's purpose for your life. What is getting in the way of pursuing God's purpose for you? Satan fakes us out with the wrong purpose, distracting from the real purpose by influencing us to chase meaningless pursuits.

The apostle Paul said: "Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:12). God saved Paul for a reason, and Paul's goal is to live out that reason. This is true of all believers—we are saved for a reason. Satan doesn't want you to know that, so he uses distractions to keep us focused on our own pursuits. 

What are the main distractions that keep us from realizing and experiencing God's purpose for our lives? One distraction is materialism, or being consumed by our possessions. Jesus made very clear that if we are to follow Him, we must give up our possessions. We can have a house, a car, or whatever, but we shouldn't make things of the physical world more important than things of the spiritual world. We shouldn't let the gifts of God become more important than the God who gave the gifts.

One Minute Please

King Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, had more money than he could ever spend, but in the book of Ecclesiastes, he said the pursuit of money is empty.