God's Way For Finding Purpose
What is the thing you want most out of life? Mine is to make a difference. The most frightening thing for me, is to get to the end of my life and not have made a difference. I have grappled with this since I was 13 years old, and the most confusing time on this journey has been the last 2 years. I thought I was going to be a pastor since I was 13 years old. At 13 I preached my first sermon and grew a Christian Club at my school from 15 to over 100.
From that point on I knew that I wanted to build communities of Jesus followers for the rest of my life, and with that community go out and fulfill the Great Commission. I followed this path of becoming a pastor going to ministry school at Highlands College getting my bachelors degree in The Science of Christian ministries. Once I ended my first 2 years pursuing this degree while continuing my education online I went to be a kids pastor helping a church in Fort Walton Beach Florida relaunch after the COVID shutdowns and then a youth pastor at a church in Pryor, Oklahoma.
But the last 2 years I stepped away from being a pastor and been running businesses, first as an operations manager at a media, and production company, meaning we created graphics, websites, videos and published books, and I was over making sure everything was going smoothly and was up to standard.
Then I started my company, writing content for the web, social media post, blogs, the works. Through this whole time, I was frustrated, not because a lack of outward success, but because of a lack of inner fulfillment. Why? Because I was not living with the mindset which Jesus instructs us to live.
I let the frustrations of feeling like I deserved to make more money drive my decisions. I am not saying that you have to work for a church or that you are not allowed to make a lot of money. You can run a business, be a dentist, chemist or whatever job you have and do it all for the Glory of God and live life and pursue God’s definition of greatness
This is where I went wrong. I was trying to be great according to the world’s standards, not God’s. My reason for stepping out of ministry was not to serve God or because God called me to, it was because I was frustrated that I was not making the amount of money I thought I deserved. I let greed get in the way of God’s purpose for me.
What is the Kingdom of God and Why Does It Matter?
What I realized is, I forgot the first message Jesus ever preached… THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS NEAR. I forgot the fulfillment and peace that Jesus offers is available to me right now. I learned, that living life fully committed to Jesus does not hinder us from finding fulfillment, but is the only path to be fully human. Jesus shows us that fulfillment does not come by making yourself great, or accumulating a lot of money or things but by serving those around you.
LUKE 1:46-55
46 And Mary said,
“My soul magnifies the Lord,
47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
48 for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.
For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
49 for he who is mighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
50 And his mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.
51 He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts;
52 he has brought down the mighty from their thrones
and exalted those of humble estate;
53 he has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
54 He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
55 as he spoke to our fathers,
to Abraham and to his offspring forever.”
This is known as the Song of Mary or the more official name biblical scholars call it is “The Magnificat”. In Luke’s gospel narrative this lands after Micheal comes to tell Mary she is pregnant with Jesus and shortly after Micheal’s visit, Mary goes “with haste” to visit her relative Elizabeth, whom is the mother of John the Baptist. When Mary arrives Elizabeth’s baby leaps within her womb and Elizebeth, being filled with the Holy Spirit, gives a short declaration of blessing over Mary and Mary filled with awe gives this longer song of praise which also acts as the summary of the gospel message which Luke is about to tell.
Luke’s gospel narrative tells us that Jesus has come to turn the human reality and it’s power structure upside down. Those who currently rule will be overthrown and humbled, while those who are poor and have been neglected by the human hierarchy will be exalted.
The Purpose Paradox How Jesus Tells Us To Discover Our Purpose
This is where I went wrong, continuing my story, I was trying to show the world how great I was, when I needed to show the world how great He is. Rather than being Mary, being humble and aware that I am a simple servant of the most high, I became one of the proud whom Jesus came to humble.
What we can learn from my story and from Mary’s song is that when we focus on, “I got to be great, I have to do great things”, that is acting as if God’s kingdom is not here. I got so caught up in my own life, my own desires and selfish wants, I lived as if my life was my own. I pursued my dreams how the world tells you to. I did things only when they benefitted me and I did whatever I could to make that next dollar, even when it hurt others.
I forget I am a part of the Kingdom of God where the way of living is different. This is why it takes faith to believe in Jesus. My faith was like the disciples when they could not cast out a demon from a young boy in Matthew 17:20-21. When they asked Jesus after Jesus cast it out why they could not Jesus responded, Matthew 17:20-21“Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.”
I didn’t trust God to provide for my family or be my fulfillment, so I tried to go do it on my own. Following Jesus makes you do things that seem counterintuitive to pursuing greatness, things like doing things for others before thinking about yourself. Things like helping others even when it could cost you. I was not willing to continue living like this because I believed in the world’s way to becoming great rather than God’s.
Jesus defines greatness as being the servant of everyone around you. What I learned is that being a slave to those around you is what releases you from the slavery of the mundaneness, and meaningless life. This is what I call the purpose paradox.
The disciples struggled with this paradox, so this is not a new struggle to us today. The disciples had the mindset that Jesus was going to overthrow Rome to establish Israel as the world’s power house which would rule the world like Rome did at the time. Therefore, the disciples were debating who was going to be the greatest and be Jesus’ right hand man when He became king. Matthew, Mark, Luke all have what is most likely the same exact discussion recorded from their own perspectives.
Mark 10:35-45
35 And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” 36 And he said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?” 37 And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” 38 Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” 39 And they said to him, “We are able.” And Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized, 40 but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.” 41 And when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John. 42 And Jesus called them to him and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. 43 But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. 45 For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
The Kingdom of Heaven vs. the Kingdom of Earth
What real benefit does living as a servant of others have? Many if you are aware that there is more benefits to following Jesus than getting into heaven. If getting into heaven is all following Jesus has to offer then that is not good news at all. I guess being able to live forever in a perfect world is cool, but is has no real value for our time on earth. But Jesus’ version of the gospel, when Jesus preached it, was all about living on earth. He told us how to live a life full of purpose and love. Jesus isn’t just inviting us into a perfect world when we die, he is inviting us into a totally new reality right now.
Luke 17:20-21 Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, 21 nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.
There was never supposed to be a divide between Heaven and Earth, God’s reality and ours, God created the universe and He made humanity His partners in ruling His creation.
Genesis 1:26: Then God said, Let Us make mankind in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the livestock and over all the earth, and over every crawling thing that crawls on the earth.
Many people think that Heaven and Earth were originally created as two separate spaces, because Genesis 1:1 in every popular English translation it reads, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” I understand why translators choose this way to translate it, but this has caused much confusion for followers of Jesus. Because the Hebrew word for heavens is also sky. For the ancient Israelites they did not know there was anything outside of the earth. Therefore, since we have a larger understanding of the physical universe modern translators use the heaven and earth translation to communicate the truth that God created the entire universe.
Genesis 1:1
בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית בָּרָ֣א אֱלֹהִ֑ים אֵ֥ת הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם וְאֵ֥ת הָאָֽרֶץ׃
“In the beginning created God, the skies and the land.” As you will see on your handout the ancient Israelite view of the universe looked very different. On the graph you will see that the world was just a ball of water which housed the land and then above this water dome was heaven, God’s dwelling place outside of space and time. What I like about this graph that it shows a gap in the watered dome connecting heaven and earth. God always stood outside of space and time, but there was never supposed to be a complete separation between His space and ours. They were created to intermingle.
When Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, it created two separate realities: Heaven, where God ruled, and Earth, where humans ruled. A better way to look at this rather than Heaven being totally separated from the earth because it is not. God still is the ultimate ruler and king of the universe. Heaven is the Kingdom of the Skies and Earth is the Kingdom of the Land. There was no air travel, so humans saw the skies above the clouds is where God was. Therefore, the ancient Israelites saw God still ruling the universe as a whole just from the skies.
Life in the Kingdom of the Land
In the story of the Bible God did not leave the earth to its own devises but continued to rule. If he did not none of us would be here. God is still ruler of the entire universe, he just allows humans to still rule along side Him even when humans oppose God.
God put the Tree in the Garden giving humans free will. He created humanity knowing they would probably decided to eat the fruit and he did it anyways, because that is how much He loves us. He wanted humans to have the choice of love, not be forced to love Him.
The serpent's temptation in Genesis 3:5 was a promise of godlike knowledge and autonomy: 'For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.' This deception offered Eve the allure of self-determination, equal knowledge with God, and the power to define morality.
This same lie persists today, urging us to seize what we desire, trust only ourselves, define morality on our own terms and opinions and reject all authority—especially God's. It promises freedom through self-reliance and personal truth. However, this mindset leads not to liberation but to chaos and bondage.
Satan's motive when convincing Eve to eat the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and evil wasn’t to free humanity; it was to manipulate us by granting the illusion of autonomy in order to imprison us in our own greed and pride. His strategy remains unchanged: by convincing us to define good and evil ourselves, he seeks to enslave all of humanity.
What do I mean by enslave, how does everyone having their own subjective truth enslave us? When humans define morality for themselves, it leads to deep divisions and hatred. You can see this in our world today. Personal beliefs are intertwined with identity, transforming disagreements from mere differences of opinion into perceived attacks on one's entire being. In this climate, failing to fully accept someone's "truth" can result in being labeled as hateful or intolerant. When you just simply disagree. The focus shifts from collaborative efforts to improve the world to a relentless pursuit of being “right,” which makes you try to force everyone around you to conform to your truth.
This leaves little room for meaningful discussion or compromise, further entrenching societal divisions. Leaving humanity in constant chaos and conflict pushing us into deeper and deeper discontent and hate.Which is why the main way that humans have settled disagreements throughout history is war, killing other humans because they are different than you and live a different life and have different beliefs. Because one truth must win out, those who can overpower others want their truth to be the one which everyone else conforms to. When people refuse to conform they must die.
Life in the Kingdom of the Skies
ISAIAH 25:6-10
Now the Lord of armies will prepare a lavish banquet for all peoples on this mountain;
A banquet of aged wine, choice pieces with marrow,
And refined, aged wine.
And on this mountain He will destroy the covering which is over all peoples,
The veil which is stretched over all nations.
He will swallow up death for all time,
And the Lord God will wipe tears away from all faces,
And He will remove the disgrace of His people from all the earth;
For the Lord has spoken.
And it will be said on that day,
“Behold, this is our God for whom we have waited that He might save us.
This is the Lord for whom we have waited;
Let’s rejoice and be glad in His salvation.”
For the hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain,
This is the a prophecy by Isaiah talking about how the Lord will prepare a meal on a mountain bringing all people together to celebrate that He has saved them from the hate, and chaos of this world. When Jesus fed the 5,000 in John 6 I want you to pay attention to where he was.
John 3:6 But Jesus went up on the mountain, and there He sat with His disciples.
Jesus is on a mountain outside of Jerusalem during the Passover festival doing what, providing a meal for Gentiles. FOR ALL PEOPLE. Rather than the division and hate that defines life a part of the Kingdom of the Land, the human kingdom, Jesus invites us into a kingdom that unites people, and saves them from the chaos and destruction, and death of the Kingdom of The Land. Rather than a kingdom where everyone is out to overpower you to get what is yours. This king unites us and brings peace, prosperity, fulfillment, hope, love. This is why we must live today as we are a part of the Kingdom of the Skies because this is our only hope.
The only way we can be freed from this cycle of death and conflict is through receiving God’s new life.
Romans 8:11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
When you become a follower of Jesus the Holy Spirit lives inside of you transforming you little by little, if you allow Him, to become the best version of yourself. How do we allow the Holy Spirit to transform us into the best version of ourselves? We commit to living life the way Jesus tells us to. We live a life that is about serving others rather than trying to live a life that is all about us.
When we allow the Holy Sprit to transform us to become more like Jesus, we are not only to given life full of peace, joy, and love, but you are empowered to bring the cure for our broken world to the hurting, the hopeless, the sick, the poor, the lonely, it is all found in Jesus.
The Kingdom of God is not a distant reality, but a present invitation to experience a new life that is defined by love, hope, and joy and a call to live differently right now. It's a call to find fulfillment not in personal achievement, but to live for the greater of all humanity. The Kingdom of God challenges us to see beyond our immediate circumstances and recognize that we're part of a greater mission than just surviving. We have been assigned a mission to be a part of defeating, hate, poverty, sickness, and even death.
Living in God's Kingdom means embracing a paradox: that in losing our lives for Jesus, we truly find them. It's about allowing God's reality to invade our everyday lives, transforming not just our future hope, but our lives here on earth. As followers of Jesus, we're called to be living embodiments of this Kingdom, bringing glimpses of God's love, justice, and peace into every corner of our world.
If you are sitting here thinking that life hasn’t gone your way and I do not know what I have done wrong. You are thinking that the world is against you and you’ll never get ahead. Without Jesus you’re right. Because the evil which makes people hate one another, get sick, be anxious, go to war, is unbearable and unbeatable no matter how good of a person you are. If you want freed from that evil force which has polluted the world, all you have to do is make Jesus the King of your life by declaring your allegiance to him today.
By declaring your allegiance you are saying Jesus, “I believe you are king of the world who came to earth as a human baby, lived a life of love, compassion, and conviction, and died to free me from my sin, my evil which has consumed me. I will live the life you desire for me. I will live a life of service to others and not live just for me.” Luckily, this declaration making Jesus king, is all you need to have God let you into this new reality right now.
Maybe you follow Jesus but you say, I do not think I am getting all God has to offer in this new reality. Maybe you are living for yourself like I was. You know the possibilities of the Kingdom of God, but you have not trusted God to fully live this paradoxical life. You can repent of your lack of faith, and ask God to let His new life consume and empower you to live His way, rather than they worlds. This is a decision we must make every day We must die to ourselves so that Jesus can fill us with His life which is not polluted with the evil which consumes the world so we can be free from hate, anxiety, pride, selfishness.
Luke 9:23-24 Then he (Jesus) said to them all: 'Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.
Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
Sources Used In Research
Levine, Amy-Jill. 2017. “The Gospel according to Luke.” In The Jewish Annotated New Testament: New Revised Standard Version Bible Translation, edited by Amy-Jill Levine and Marc Zvi Brettler, Second Edition, 151. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press.
Fitzmyer, Joseph A., S.J. 2008. Romans: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary. Vol. 33. Anchor Yale Bible. New Haven; London: Yale University Press.
Nanos, Mark D. 2017. “The Letter of Paul to the Romans.” In The Jewish Annotated New Testament: New Revised Standard Version Bible Translation, edited by Amy-Jill Levine and Marc Zvi Brettler, Second Edition, 285. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press.
David M. Moffit, “Atonement at the Right Hand: The Sacrificial Significance of Jesus’
Exaltation in Acts,” New Testament Studies Cambridge University Press, (2016) 552.
Michael L. Morales, Who Shall Ascend the Mountain of the Lord?: A Biblical Theology
of the Book of Leviticus, (Downers Grove, Illinois: Apollos InterVarsity Press, 2015) Kindle Electronic Edition. 23
Duling, Dennis C. 1992. “Kingdom of God, Kingdom of Heaven: OT, Early Judaism, and Hellenistic Usage.” In The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary, edited by David Noel Freedman, 4:53–54. New York: Doubleday.
Fitzmyer, Joseph A. 2008. First Corinthians: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary. Vol. 32. Anchor Yale Bible. New Haven; London: Yale University Press.
Schaff, Philip, ed. St. Augustin’s City of God and Christian Doctrine. Vol. 2. A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, First Series. Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1887.
Wright, N. T. The Resurrection of the Son of God. Christian Origins and the Question of God. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 2003.
Indirect Influences
I did not necessarily use the Bible Project during my research, but I thought it was worth noting that this video is a great example of where I got my framework for this message.
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