What’s Your Main Goal?

Our GOAL!
Col 2:2 – My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, CHRIST,
*Encouraged equals-to come along side!
God has designed us to do life together.

*To Paul, there are great riches and treasures to be found in fully understanding the great mystery of God. **Jesus Christ.
* Getting to KNOW who Jesus is, what Jesus did, how Jesus behaved and why Jesus did what HE did on earth will unlock many great mysteries of God and help us find the Wisdom that we lack.
That’s how powerful a deeper study on the life of our Lord Jesus can bring!

The whole Bible is meant to magnify and glorify the Christ, not just the Gospels. This means that digging deeper into the Word of God will yield great riches and treasures for us.

Paul’s goal is “That we Know Christ”.
To know Christ is to know God.
So many times we get caught up in the forms of Christianity (how we do church or our walks) rather than just knowing Christ.
Jesus said at judgment day he will say to those not entering heaven. “I never knew you”.
Our goal should be to know Christ and to do what ever it takes to make it happen.

“I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” – John 12:24

*When you think about it, the goal of the Christian life is death, not success.

A popular teaching says that if we follow God, we will prosper materially. God may, in fact, bless His people materially, but few can make this claim among third-world countries.

** Wealth must never be the goal of a person’s life, only a by-product.

***God does not require success, but radical, immediate Obedience.
*Jesus’ obedience gained Him the cross. It did not gain Him popularity among the heathen, the religious or financial success, or a life of pleasure.
*Hebrews 5: 8 Even though Jesus was God’s Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered.

Jesus’ obedience resulted in His death on the cross. This is the same goal Christ has for each of us–
***death of our old nature so that He might live through us! Amen

That may not sell well among outcome-based Christian believers, but it will result in an eternal reward that far exceeds any earthly reward.

“Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with Me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done” (Rev. 22:12).

The Christian life is a paradox–the first will be last, death in return for life, and we are encouraged to offer praise to God to overcome a spirit of heaviness.
* It requires faith in a God who operates from a different set of values that are sometimes difficult to measure from human standards.
***Let death work in you a life that only God can raise up!!!

The faith that pleases God is born in a place of deadness. I’m speaking here
of the deadness of all human possibilities. It is a place where man-made plans flourish at first and then die. It is a place where human hopes bring temporary relief but soon crash, adding to a sense of helplessness.

*Have you been at this place of deadness?
*Has it seemed you have no options left?

Through this Deadness, this is God at work. His Spirit is working to get you to stop considering the impossibilities
*To stop looking to human ways and means.
*To stop trying to think your way out of your situation.
The Holy Ghost is urging you, “Quit hunting for help from some man. And quit focusing on how hopeless
you think your situation is. Those are hindrances to our faith.”

Our hearts will not save us. We need to be saved from our hearts.

That’s why Jesus did not say, “Let not your hearts be troubled, just believe your hearts.” He said, “Let not your hearts be troubled, believe in God; believe also in me” (John 14:1).

Our hearts were not designed to be gods, they were designed to believe in God. And we are never happier than when we do.
The fallen human heart rejects God, believing it can “be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:5).
*Jesus came to pay for that horrific, treacherous sin in full and to give us new hearts Ezekiel 36:26 I will give you a new heart and a new mind. I will take away your stubborn heart of stone and give you an obedient heart.

That means, in this age, Christians have the strange experience of living with two hearts. And both speak to us.
* One we must reject and the other we must trust.
*We must be discerning. We know the corrupt heart is speaking when it says, “Believe what I promise you and you will be happy.”
*We know the new heart is speaking when it says, “Believe what Jesus promises and he will make you happy forever.

Jesus Christ stands as a beacon of hope for those that will give up everything and follow hard after Him. In fact He promises us “everything” if we give up everything.

Therefore, only do what your heart tells you IF it is telling you to believe in Jesus.

God I pray your Spirit saturates my vision, my heart, my mind, my hearing, my emotions, my senses. God I don’t want to waste time worrying, fretting, crying, weeping over things that are silly and temporary. I want to cry for souls! For lives! For injustice! Lord, Use me as a vessel that will unlock things that only the tears of a man of God can unlock.
The breakthroughs! The miracles! The lives changed. The healing. My God. Help me not to be soooooo stubborn. So stone cold and indifferent at times. Sand down the calluses. I want to be spiritually sensitive no matter what the cost.
Move me to cry out for my city, God. For the lost, the hurting, the needy, the hardened, those that walk blindly like I did. Mercy, Father! Mercy! Have mercy. Pour grace. Love. Kindness.
Lord help me to understand MORE the great riches and treasures to be found in fully understanding the great mystery of God. YOU Jesus! That’s my Goal!
I love you, Abba. My God. In Jesus name I pray, Amen.