Exploring the teachings of the Bible in a TOGETHER group.

Reconciliation; an act or process in which two people or groups of people come friendly again after they have quarreled or disagreed, or have not been in contact with each other.

On Saturday night we studied the teaching about the reconciliation of God from the Bible. In Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians. In chapter 5:14-6:2 Paul is describing God’s and our part in the process of reconciliation.

From this passage we discovered several insights about reconciliation. 

First, it was God who took the initiative in bringing the reconciliation to all the people. He prepared the way for people to be reconciled to Himself. On one hand, it takes pressure away from us: we do not need to find solutions from ourselves. On the other hand, it brings us to the supply that is enough for any circumstances. God initiated the reconciliation and he supplies what is needed for making it reality for our lives.

Second, we have an active part in the reconciliation; we need to receive it individually! How would reconciliation with only one party look like? Would it be possible at all? Like the birthday gift is useless if you do not open the box, so is the reconciliation of God for no benefit, if not received and experienced personally.

Third, we discovered that we have the responsibility to share the reconciliation with other people. Not only are we recipients of this good news of God’s reconciliation, but in addition, it serves as the basis for our actions. As we have received and experienced the reconciliation of God, we have the responsibility to share this with others around us. 

Discussion on this aspect was lively, and we concluded the need in both action and with words. This is one of the ongoing lessons we want to learn, as we explore the meaning of the Bible together.

Let us embrace the reconciliation of God and try to share it with those around us.

Come and join us next week for another study, fellowship, and being TOGETHER in Antwerp!  Click here for details!

You were made for mission!

Now, we have come to our fifth and final purpose - the only purpose you can only do here on earth: You were made for a mission. Last week we talked about how you need a ministry in the church. Today we're going to look at the common mission that we all share together with every believer.

Our fifth purpose is to share the Good News. As we know all the purposes of God, He expects me to share that with other people. The word evangelism is often misunderstood. It means good news.

Where am I supposed to share the good news? Acts 1:8,"You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

When Jesus told this to his followers, they were in Jerusalem. He is saying, first, I want you to start at home. I want you to start with the people closest to you, right there in your own city, your own community. Then, I want you to go to Judea and Samaria, that's like the county next door, and Samaritans happen to be different culturally and different racially. Next, “I want you to go to the ends of the earth. I want you to go reach everybody else.”

What is a witness? A witness is somebody who just tells what they have seen, and what happened to them. God says, “I just want you to tell other people what's happened to you, what's happened in your life.” And He says, “I want you to go all over; the people close to you, the people who are near, but different, and then to everybody else..”

Why does He say this? Because God is building a family of people who love and trust Him, that are going to spend eternity with Him. The whole point of history is God is building a family that's going to live with Him forever and love Him. And so God says I want family members from every nation. One day all believers are going to be gathered together in heaven.And it has been God's plan all along.

In Ephesians 3:11 the Bible says "This was God's plan for all of history which He carried out through Christ Jesus, our Lord." This is the mission that Jesus Christ started when He came to earth, He says, “I want you to finish it.” God puts the future of the world in our hands. Being on mission is the greatest privilege we're ever given.

How do you get on God's agenda and how do you let God use you and bless you so that you can be completing your mission?

First, to complete my God-given mission, I must share with those in my world. That's the starting point. There's a guy who Jesus healed. And after Jesus healed him, he wanted to travel with Jesus and Jesus said, "No, I don't want you to do that." Luke 8, He said this, "Go back home and tell people how much God has done for you.’ So that man went all over town telling how much Jesus had done for him.”

You know where your mission starts? Right at home, starts in your own neighborhood, in your own community. He wants you to go to your friends, your family, your coworkers, your neighbors, anybody who crosses your path.

Why don't we do this? One reason is because we believe the myth that people aren't interested in spiritual issues. Opportunities to share the Good News really are all around you. They are staring you in the face every single day. You just have to be ready for them

The only reason your heart is still beating after you come to Christ is because God wants you to share it with people who haven't heard. If somebody hadn't shared it with you, you'd be lost. So God wants you to pass it on

What does God cares about more than anything else? People, your friends and neighbors and co-workers and loved ones and relatives who don't know Jesus. We have the best news in the world. Let’s to share it, let’s save one more for Jesus.

“You were made for a mission” is the fifth purpose of your life. First, I must share with those in my world. It is not enough to just care about the people who are around you.

Second, I must dare to reach beyond my world. Love demands I move beyond my comfort zone to people with different background, different education, different language, different economics. I must dare to reach beyond my world. I Corinthians 9: "Whatever each person is like, I try to find common ground with him so that he will let me tell him about Christ and let Christ save him.

Christians are called to build bridges, not walls. We're to reach out to others. Galatians 6:2, "Stoop down and reach out to those who were oppressed. Share their burdens, and so complete Christ's law."

Jesus always paid attention to the people that society wanted to ignore; the powerless, the poor, the left behind, the imprisoned, the orphaned, the widowed, the aged, the mentally ill, the social outcasts, sick, the lepers. If Jesus were alive today, what kind of people do you think He would be hanging out with here in Antwerp?

One day we're going to stand before God and He's going to do an audit of our lives, and He's going to judge if we really learned to love or if it was just all talk. Did we ever really do anything that showed love or did we just say we loved? The Bible says one day Jesus is going to separate people into two groups. He's going to say to one group: “I was hungry, and you fed Me. I was thirsty and you gave Me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited Me into your home. I was naked, and you gave Me clothing. I was sick and you cared for Me. I was in prison and you visited Me.” And they will ask, “When did we do that for you, Lord?” And He says, “When you have done it to one of the least of my brothers or sisters, you've done it to Me.” (Matthew 25)

This is what Christianity is all about. It is about healing broken, messed up lives. The whole business of Christianity is healing hurts and helping people. It's love. Now, if you want to get involved in your mission in the world, it will cost you. Mark 10:29: “Jesus replied, ‘Let me assure you that no one has ever given up anything for love of Me and to tell others the Good News” – that's the mission – “who won't be given back” – “a hundred times over.’”

It is not enough to just share with those in my world; it is not even enough to reach beyond my world, to dare to reach beyond it.

If I am going to be like Jesus Christ, I must care about the whole world. We have to care because God cares about the whole world. Mark 16:15: “Jesus said to His followers, ‘Go everywhere in the world and tell the Good News to everyone.’ Was Jesus talking to pastors, or was he talking to missionaries there? No. He's talking to all of us. If you're Jesus follower, he says “go everywhere”, because everybody deserves to hear the Good News.

Everybody needs Jesus. They may mask it. They may pretend and put up barriers, but in your heart, you're empty without God and you know it. But fulfilling your mission is the secret of a fulfilled life.

When you get to heaven, is anybody going to say thank you, thank you for telling me the Good News? You knew it and you didn't keep it a secret. You passed it on. Acts 13:36: “David served God's purposes in his own time." This is my prayer for you, that you will serve God's purpose in your generation, in your time.

Here's the test to know if you have completed your mission or not: If you're still alive, your mission is not completed. You have four possible responses. You can say like Moses, “Who me?” Or you can say like Jonah, "Not me." Or you can say it like Habakkuk, "Why me?" Or you can say like Isaiah, "Send me."

Do you have enough courage to say, "God use my life"? If you do, you are fulfilling your mission!

Let's pray.

Father, I know you're calling all of us to accept our mission from you, and I pray you'll give people the courage to do the right thing and not walk away in disobedience. Thank you for the privilege of being invited to be a part of the greatest cause, the building of your family and to be a history maker. Father, more than anything else, I want to fulfill the purposes you made me for. So today, I accept this fifth purpose, my mission to tell others. I want you to use me any time, any way, any place. I want to bring others to you. I want to serve your purpose in my generation. And I want to be a part of what you're doing in the world. From this day forward, I want to build my life around Your eternal purposes, and I want to help our church do the same. Help me to reach one more for Jesus. In your name I pray. Amen.

You were shaped to Serve God!

In Ephesians 2:20 in the Bible tells us, “We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do”. We’re all meant to make a contribution. The Bible says we’re created to serve, saved to serve, gifted to serve, and shaped to serve. We’re commanded to serve God back. God uses five things to shape you: Spiritual gifts, Heart, Abilities, Personality, and Experiences. This is your ‘SHAPE’ for ministry.

God uniquely shapes you, for a purpose, to serve Him. 1 Peter 4:10, “Each of us should use whatever gift he’s received to serve others.” God gave you gifts and talents and abilities and background and experiences and all these things for the benefit, to be used by serving others. Our fourth purpose in life is to serve God by serving others Ministry is a misunderstood word. Not every believer is a pastor, but every believer is a minister; meaning using my shape; talents, abilities, background, and experiences to help somebody else. In the Bible “service” and “ministry” are the same word. All are called to ministry. If you are called to salvation, you are called to serve You were created to be like Christ, and do what He did while on earth? He SERVED. Matthew 20:28, “Jesus said, ‘Your attitude must be like My own, for I did not come to be served, but to serve’.”

What does God want you to do? Look at your spiritual gifts, heart, abilities, personality, and experiences. Your attitude, your servant heart, determines your maturity. What does it take to be used and to learn to serve like Jesus? Serving like Jesus means being available. One day Jesus was walking down to go to Jericho and some blind men start yelling at him. Matt. 20:30-32: “Two blind men shouted ‘Lord, have mercy on us! Jesus stopped and called them. ‘What do you want me to do for you?’.” Jesus stopped. Most of Jesus’ ministry and miracles were interruptions. He met the need because He allowed Himself to be interrupted.

John Wesley’s motto was this: Do all the good you can by all the means you can by all the ways you can in all the places you can and at all the times you can to all the people you can as long as you ever can.

Three common barriers keep us from being available.

The first barrier to being available is self-centeredness. The Bible says, “Forget yourself long enough to lend a helping hand.” (Phil. 2:4) A servant heart, like Jesus Christ, don’t mind being interrupted because your agenda is God’s agenda. Almost every miracle and acts of ministry Jesus did, were interruption.

A second barrier to being used by God is perfectionism. Real servants, do the best they can with what they have today. They don’t wait. We’re all a bunch of misfits, have weaknesses, faults, failures, and handicaps. But, God uses us all. There are not perfect people. God uses normal people. Don’t wait for perfect conditions. Go ahead and start serving while things are not settled down.

The third barrier to availability is materialism. Jesus said in Luke 16:13, “No servant can serve two masters. You cannot serve both God and money.” The most important decision after become a believer: “Am I a kingdom-builder or a wealth-builder?” If your job is keeping you from having any kind of service, you need to make some kind of adjustment. Serving means being available.

Serving like Jesus also means being grateful.
In John 11 of Jesus serving in an incredible way. Jesus went to do ministry, to raise Lazarus from the dead. In this chapter we read “Jesus looked up and said, ‘Father, I thank You that You heard me. I know that You always hear Me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here.’” Jesus had an attitude of gratefulness in ministry. He was grateful in the tough times, when He was criticized, and when things were not easy in ministry. And we serve Him with gratefulness because of life through Jesus Christ. He saved us!

There are also barriers to achieving an attitude of gratefulness.
One of them is comparing and criticizing. Romans 14:4 says, “Who are you to criticize someone else’s servant? The Lord will determine whether His servant has been successful.” We’re all His servants. It’s a matter of His opinion, not my opinion or your opinion of one another. We’re on the same team, and have the same goal. We’re trying to make God look good to the world, and make a difference for Him. And He’s given us different abilities, different tasks.

The second barier is wrong motivations. In Matthew 6:1: “When you do good deeds, don’t try to show off. If you do, you won’t get a reward from your Father in heaven”. We need to be honest with ourselves about this. Serving to get others to like us, to be admired, or to achieve our own goals. If you want to learn to serve like Jesus, you have to learn to serve gratefully with a generous heart. You make yourself available. What does it take to be used and to learn to serve like Jesus?

Serving like Jesus also means being faithful.
It means you don’t give up, keep on going, not quitting in the middle of your assignment. The Bible tells us in I Corinthians 4:2 “The one thing required of servants is that they be faithful.”

How are we faithful, staying faithful in serving God over the long haul?
a) being grateful for all the past that God is forgiven in our lives
b) having faith in the future reward.
c) knowing that what we’re doing really MATTERS Real servants do every task with equal dedication because they know it all matters.

How will God use you? One day you will stand before God and He will ask, “What did you do with what I gave you, the talents, the abilities, the background, the experiences, the freedom, the education, the family experiences?” You may be thinking nobody’s watching you, and nobody’s noticing what you do, but God’s watching. Hebrews 6:10 says: “He will not forget how hard you’ve worked for Him and how you’ve shown your love to Him. By caring for other Christians”. God keeps His promise.

And one day we want God to say: “Well done good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things so; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness.” Is God going to be able to say “well done” to you? How is your schedule or the other priorities? The most important thing you’ll ever do with your life is serving God in ministry. It’s more important than your career, hobbies, or anything else. You were put here on earth to practice serving.

Now let’s commit this purpose of serving to Prayer!

Father I realize that I was shaped to serve You by serving others. Forgive me for the times I’ve put a “do not disturb” sign on my heart. Help me to see the interruptions as opportunities to serve. Help me to make time for what matters most. You’ve been so good to me. I want to give something back. I want to serve You freely and gratefully and faithfully, and I want to learn and grow in this ministry area so one day I can hear You say “Well done, good and faithful servant”. In Your name I pray, Amen.

We were created to become like Christ!

Everybody needs a purpose and that’s why we’re spending 40 Days of Purpose, looking at God’s purposes for your life.

• Week One: “What on earth am I here for?” You are not an accident, God loves you and He has a good purpose for your life!
• Week Two: “You Were Planned for God’s Pleasure.” Your first purpose is to get to know and love God. -Worship.
• Week Three“ You Were Formed for God’s Family.” God wants you to learn to love other people and get along in His family. -Fellowship.

This week we discover that the third purpose God put you on this planet for is to become like Jesus Christ! Romans 8:29, “For from the very beginning God decided that those who came to Him – and He knew who would – should become like His Son”. God wants you and I to develop His character; the way He thinks, the way He acts, the way He feels, His values, His moral character.

God’s will for you is that you grow up. Babies are cute, but if babies stay babies, It is tragic. Also, there are a lot of people grow older but never grow up. God wants us to mature and develop, and the standard for spiritual maturity? Jesus Christ.

God gave us a model of what He wants us to grow up like. It is a process, and this process is called DISCIPLESHIP.

God uses various ways to form us into his character. He uses the Bible, His word, to transform us. He also uses people, through fellowship. Romans 8:28 tells us “In all things God works for the good for those who love Him, who have been called according to His purposes.” God works all things for good to make us like Jesus.

There are three very unexpected tools for growth, exemplified in the life of Jesus Christ. He had trouble in the garden. He had temptation in the desert, and He had trespasses on the cross.

First of all, God uses trouble to teach us to trust Him. In the Bible this word “trouble” is often called “trials.” TRIALS are situations designed by God to draw us closer to Him. God is always more interested in what you are, your character, than He is in what you do, your career, or accomplishment. Every problem we face has a purpose, and that is to make me like Jesus Christ, to build character in my life.

If you’re going to become like Jesus Christ, you’ve got to learn to trust God completely, even when things look terrible, things are falling apart. It is easy to trust God when everything is going great in your life.
The real test of your faith is, how is relationship with God when things are going wrong and you don’t feel good?

The first unexpected tool for growth, in becoming more like Christ is that God uses trouble to teach us to trust Him.

The second unexpected tool for becoming more like Christ is that God uses our temptations to teach us to obey Him. TEMPTATIONS are situations designed by Satan and they’re intended to harm us. God never tempts us to do evil, but He is able, to use temptations for good in our lives because temptation always provides a choice. Choices are needed to develop character in our lives.

There are several important truths to keep in mind as we go through temptations:

First, is not a sin to be tempted. Jesus never sinned. Martin Luther said this: “You can’t keep the birds from flying over your head, but you can keep them from building a nest in your hair.”

Second, everyone is tempted in the same ways, all of us. We never outgrow temptation. We all are tempted throughout all of our lives. But Jesus’ example shows us that every temptation is an opportunity to do good, to make the right choice.

What temptation are you facing right now? How could God use that temptation as you choose to obey Him as an opportunity for you to grow in character? God wants to make you like Jesus Christ. He wants to build your character.

So far we have looked at two unexpected tools that God uses in our lives to make us like Jesus Christ, to build character in my life.
1st God uses trouble to teach us to trust.
Trials (troubles): situations designed by God to draw us closer to Him
2nd God uses temptation to teach us to obey.
Temptations: situations designed by the devil to draw us away from God.

The third unexpected tool to teach us to be like Christ is that God uses trespasses to teach us to forgive. Trespasses are situations designed by other people to hurt us. The Lord’s Prayer says, “Lord forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who have trespassed against us.”

Bearing the hurt of other people without retaliation is, the most important and the most difficult step in becoming like Jesus Christ. This is building character. It often involves being misunderstood, criticized, judged, being hurt verbally, emotionally or physically. These are not good things. These are evil things. God is not the author of evil, and He does not cause these things. God hates sin and evil. But He did not spare His son and will not spare us either.

What did Jesus do? What was His response to trespasses? He yielded His right to get even. He absorbed the hurt. He endured the pain. He responded to evil with good. If you’re going to become like Christ, you have to learn to forgive. How? You can’t learn to forgive unless somebody’s hurt you. The forgiveness is one of the primary qualities of God and God wants you to learn to become like Him.

Here are two tips: Number one, remember that God has forgiven you. The Bible says “Forgive others, just as God forgave you because of Christ” (Eph. 4:32). God will never ask you to forgive anybody more than you’ve already been forgiven by Him. Number two, remember God is in control. When you are hurt by somebody else, yes, they may mean it for bad, but God will use it for good in your life.

God uses trouble to teach us to trust, and God uses temptation to teach us to obey. God uses trespasses to teach us to forgive, because we can’t become like Jesus without learning to trust and obey and forgive.

• God will take us through an experience of trouble, where we learn to trust His love.
• God will take us through an experience of temptation, where we learn to obey Him and do the right thing.
• God will take us to a time of trespass, where we learn to forgive.

And we have a promise! “We go through exactly what Christ goes through. But if we go through the hard times with Him, then we’re certainly going to go through the good times with Him.” (Rom. 8:17)

I don’t know what you’re going through today But I do know how God wants you to respond to it, regardless of what you’re going through. I am confident of how God wants you to respond: “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus” (Phil. 2:5).

Pray this prayer with me:

Dear Father, life makes so much more sense when I realize that It is not about my career, It is not about my comfort, It is all about character and becoming like Jesus. Help me to use my life for that reason You gave it to me. Dear God, I want to grow in character. I want to become who You made me to be. I want to become more like Jesus in the way I think and the way I feel and the way I act. In the troubled times,“I want Your will for my life”. In going through a wilderness of temptation, please give me the strength to make the right choices. And in enduring the hurts of other people, please teach me to forgive as much as You have forgiven me.


HAVE A GREAT WEEK, and I hope to see you next week as we continue our 40 Days of Purpose!

- Reijo Nevalainen, ANTIA Project Leader

You were formed for God's family!

The last week, we looked at His first purpose, which is to get to know Him and to love Him. The Bible calls that worship because you were planned for God's pleasure.

Today, we're going to look at the second purpose, which is you are formed for God's family.

Ephesians 1:5, “His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ." The entire Bible, is the story of God building a family. Throughout history God is building a family for Himself that is going to last not just here on earth, but forever in eternity. One of the things we are going to do in heaven, in eternity, is to love God. And the other thing is we are going to love the other believers that are there.

Our second purpose in life is Fellowship. That's the word that the Bible uses to describe loving each other. The Bible says: I John 4:21. "The person who loves God must also love other believers." Despite of possible misunderstandings about the term, fellowship is loving God's family. We have to love other believers.

In God's family there are four levels of fellowship, four levels of loving God’s family, the local church.

The first level is Membership or "Choosing to belong." That means you find a church family and you choose to get connected to it. The Christian life is not just a matter of believing. It is matter of belonging, and you and I must choose to belong. Fellowship begins with belonging, with making that choice. It is a membership choice.

The second level of Fellowship is the friendship level. Learning to share. We were created in God's image. You were made for relationships. Life is not a solo act. And we all need friends. Acts 2:44. "All the believers met together constantly and shared everything with each other."
1) you can't develop friendships without meeting together; and
2) you can't develop friendships without sharing. The more frequently you meet together, the closer you're going to get.

A fundamental lesson in life is learning to share. Every little child has to learn to share and in the family of God you and I need to learn to share with other believers. The Bible is full of instructions on things we're to share as Christians with each other:

• First, we share Experiences. The Bible says people learn from one other “just as iron sharpens iron."
• Second, we share our Homes. I Peter 4:9, "open up your homes to each other." It doesn't say if they are nice ones, open them up. It just says open them up. We can worship together. We can celebrate together. We can learn together.
• Third, we share our Problems. The Bible says, “Share each other's troubles and problems.” You don't have to fix everyone's problem. God hasn't told you to do that. It just says share them. This means lend a listening ear. It is just sharing sympathy and experience.

I encourage you to get involved in a small group to experience this true sharing! Hebrews 10:25, “Let us not give up the habit of meeting together. Instead, let us encourage one another.” The primary purpose of a group is to encourage each other. I hope you'll never give up this habit we are experiencing now, because we're always going to need encouragement.

The third level of Fellowship is Partnership - doing my part. Partnership is realizing that I’ve got a contribution to make; that the family of God needs you. God wants to make a difference through your life. In every family there are family responsibilities. The same is true in God's family. The Bible is filled with the fact that you and I are to work with one another in getting this job done. 1 Corinthians 3:9. "We are partners working together for God."

We get to be part of God's plan for the universe and for Antwerp! This will happen when we cooperate and participate together in the family of God.

To be a part, you must find out, “Where do I fit, how I do I fit?” Ephesians 4:16 says. “The whole body is fitted together perfectly…As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole Body is healthy and growing and full of love." You and I have a part to play in the Body of Christ. And when we cooperate, we get much more done together than we could get done by ourselves.

My philosophy for ministry is that God has given all of us gifts and talents. It is our responsibility to discover them and use them for His purposes. After the 40 Days of Purpose you will have opportunity to take a Spiritual Gifts Inventory, a type of test that can help you determine the specific gifts God has given you for ministry or contribution to your local church family. Fellowship is each of us doing our part.

Lastly, let’s talk about the deepest level of fellowship in the family of God – Kinship.
Kinship literally means your closest relationships, your closest family. It is Loving believers like family.

Romans 12:10 says, "Be devoted to each other like a loving family." The word for fellowship in the NT is the Greek word “koinonia." The basic root literally means being as committed to each other as we are to Jesus Christ. That is family relationship. That is kinship. This is what life is all about, loving God and learning to love each other. Life is not about accomplishments. It is about relationships. This is what we want to learn and practice in ANTIA!

Loving God, is called “Worship,” and loving each other, is called “Fellowship.” The Bible says John 13, Jesus said, “Your strong love for each other will prove to the world that you are my disciples."

This is the dream I have for ANTIA: that we would not be known for our size, not our sermons, not our singing, not our strategy, not our buildings, but our love. That people would EXPERIENCE meaningful worship and fellowship. And, focusing on the things that unite us, rather than what separates us.

Today, people are not looking for religion, they are looking for a family. They are not looking for doctrine; they are looking for love. This is what Christian faith is all about, loving God and loving each other. The greatest privilege is being a part of God's family. God's family is a laboratory for learning to love.

At which of these levels of fellowship are you at?

• Have you made it to the first one, choosing to belong? Are you committed to one local church? Maybe choosing a church is your next step.

• Then you need to learn to share. The most natural way is in small group setting.

• Then you need to not just share your heart, you need to do your part. That's partnership. Find your place to give back, to make a contribution. If you're in the family of God, He has some family responsibilities for you.

• Then are there any other believers that know you are devoted to them? That you're going to be there for them in their crisis?

Even more basic question is, are you a part of the family of God? Everybody is created by God, but not everybody is a child of God. You have to choose to be a part of God's family. The good news is that you have opportunity to be in the family of God - it comes “through faith in Christ Jesus.”

As you read the following prayer, say it from your heart:

You know, Father, next to salvation, the greatest gift you have ever given us is the opportunity to be a part of your family. Thank you that we don't have to go through life disconnected and isolated.

Dear God, I want to be a part of your family and I want to learn to love my spiritual family just like you do. Forgive me for taking it casually. I want to grow in the levels of fellowship, so today I’m choosing to belong. I’m not going to float around anymore. I want to learn to share and make time to develop real friendships. I want to do my part in the family of God. I want to learn to love other believers like brothers and sisters. Teach me the meaning of real love. In your name I pray, Amen.

See you on 10 November at the Seafarer's Centre!

Reijo Nevalainen, ANTIA Project Leader

You were made to Worship God

You’re alive because God wanted you alive and He gets enjoyment out of watching you. Less than four month ago I saw my son, Arvo’s, birth and was excited; crying and heart filled with joy! I think God also smiled at your birth because He created you to enjoy you. He made you for His purpose.

Last week we talked about being objects of God love, being created to be loved by God. Now we’ll look the other side of the coin, God wants you to love Him back. In the New Testament Jesus was asked: “Lord, what’s the most important command in the entire Bible?” In Matthew 22. He said, “Love the Lord your God. This is the first and greatest commandment.”

Worship is knowing and loving God back. Today, worship is often misunderstood. What do you think of when I say Worship? Prayer, singing, ritual or communion or something you do in church? Worship is much more. Our first PURPOSE in life is to worship God. It’s our highest priority.

First, worship is my response to God’s love.
Worship is just the way I react, I respond, to God when He loves me. Notice it says “ because of God’s great mercy,” God takes the initiative, always makes the first move. God doesn’t ever ask you to make the first move.

Second, worship is giving back to God.
He gives to us, and we give back to Him. When your kids are grateful to you, as a parent, that brings pleasure to you. When we’re grateful to our Heavenly Father, that brings pleasure to Him. In Mark chapter 12, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.”

God wants me to love Him three ways: Matt. 22:37-38

• Thoughtfully
• Passionately
• Practically

NOW LET’S LOOK AT WHAT WORSHIP IS…

1. Worship is focusing my attention on God. It is focusing my mind, my thoughts, my attention on God. In some religions, the idea of worship is loosing your mind to the universe. The truth is, God wants us to worship Him with our mind and thoughtfully. The reason is God made you is to love you. The greatest expression of love is often attention.

How do I focus my attention on God?

FIRST, establishing a daily time with God. Talk to Him, read His Word.
SECOND,developing a constant conversation with God.

Focusing on God has incredible benefits in our lives. In Isaiah 26, verse 3, “you will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, whose thoughts are fixed on You!” Focusing on yourself, result are thoughts of worry, insecurity, anxiety, guilt, fear, discouragement. Focusing to God, you begin to sense gratitude and hope and confidence and love. Let’s focus on God right now. Count your blessings, think about God’s help, intervention, faithfulness this last week. 30”

2. Worship is expressing my affection to God. This is loving God with your heart and soul, with your feelings. For some this could be difficult because you might have grown up in families that did not show affections.

1 John 4:17 the Bible says, “We love Him, because He first loved us.” In many religions, God is this angry tyrant, and you have to be afraid of Him, and have you to avoid Him. But that’s not the real God. The Bible says God wants to be loved.

The most important thing you can know in life is that God loves you. And the most important thing you can do in life is to love Him back. The greatest way to express affection to God is by giving your life to Him, by yielding yourself to Him.

Romans 6 says, “Give yourselves completely to God since you have been given new life.” It’s always a response. God gave us life, then He gives new life in Jesus. He says I want you to give yourself completely back to Me. One obstacle to giving yourself to God may be fear. Fear of perhaps becoming a some strange person. But God made you to be you, with that personality -- whether you’re an introvert, extrovert, like routine, like variety. God doesn’t want to you turn into a strange or fanatic or some religious zealot. He wants you to be you. And the more you know God and the more you love God, the more normal and the more you become what God meant for you to be in the first place.

3. Worship is using my abilities for God. This is loving God with all your strength.

God wants us to love Him THOUGHTFULLY, that we see Him with our minds.
God wants us to love Him PASSIONATELY, that we sense Him with our heart and soul.
And God wants us to love Him PRACTICALLY, that we serve Him with our strength. More than words are needed to show affections, actions. And that’s part of worship!

Colossians 3:23. “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as though you were working for the Lord and not for people.” Now, this verse can revolutionize your life. It’s not what you do that matters; it’s Who you do it for. The next verse, paraphrased in the Message, it says in Romans 12, “Take your everyday, ordinary life – your sleeping, your eating, your going to work, your walking-around life – and place it before God as an offering.”

Real purpose-driven living doesn’t happen in a church, in a small group, in your personal time of quiet time with God every day, of prayer and reading the Bible. It happens in the ordinary, routine, things of real life where you go. Everything can be turned into an act of worship. Real worship is a lifestyle.

Everybody worships something. It is in our DNA. You can go to any culture in the world and find people worshipping.
If you don’t worship God, you’re going to find a substitute real quick, even if it is just yourself.

My question is this: “what are you worshipping?”
• To where you’re giving your primary attention to,
• To where you’re giving your primary affection to
• To where you’re giving your primary abilities to.

If we focus our attention and we express our affection and we use our abilities for the one who made us, God says, “I’ll take care of everything else. When you understand how passionate He is about you, how much He loves you, how much He cares about every detail, you can’t help but love God.

The greatest mistake in life is to miss your primary purpose.

The Bible says you were planned for God’s pleasure. You were made to know and love God.

I challenge you to make this the No 1 goal of your life before everything else, getting to know and love God, because that brings Him pleasure. There’s not a better goal in life than this one!

Life's Three Greatest Questions

Today we’re going to look at life’s three greatest questions:

1. The question of existence – why am I alive?
   
2. The question of significance – does my life matter? and
3. The question of intention – what is my purpose?

Now this first question, the “Question of Existence: Why am I alive?” is not a new question. In the Bible one prophet, Jeremiah asked this question “Why was I born? Was it only to have trouble and sorrow, to end my life in disgrace?” Now there are probably times in your life when you felt that way, too. Was I put on this planet just to have heartache, grief and stress?

Some time ago I asked one lady what she thought was the purpose in life? She answered: “there is not one big purpose, everyone has different ideas. We just are, and we should make the best out of this time & our lives.”For me, this is a sad statement, because what is life without purpose? If you take God the Creator out of the picture, you will have too many alternatives and no foundation to build life upon.

Here are some examples…

1. You can try the Mystical approach – the mystical approach says “look within and find your purpose in yourself.” If that really worked, all of us would know our purpose.
2. Then you can try a Philosophical approach where…

• the survivalist says, “The purpose of life is just to stay alive.”
• the naturalist says, “The purpose of life is just to perpetuate itself” - you’re just here for biological reasons
• the hedonist writes, “The purpose of life is pleasure – have fun & party.”
• the materialist says, “Life is all about the acquisition of things and is measured by the things you own.”
• the self-help approach says “You have to invent your purpose.” Read enough books and you will find your purpose.

All of these give the same basic approach – discover your dreams, go after your goals, have ambitions, dream big dreams, aim high, believe you can achieve, have faith, figure out what you’re good at, never give up, involve other people. This is all good advice and if you do those things, they will make you a success in life.

But being a success and knowing your purpose in life are not the same thing. You can have a success in many areas of life and still never know, “What on earth am I here for?” What did God put me on this earth for? The purpose of your life is far greater than your own personal fulfillment, happiness, or peace of mind.

You were made by God and you were made for God and you were put here for His purposes. The Bible says in Proverbs 16.4, “The Lord has made everything (circle everything) for His own purpose.” It’s for His purpose. God has never made anything in our world without a purpose. If you want to know if God has a purpose for your life, check your heart. If it’s still beating, God still has a purpose for you here on earth. Actually, God has five purposes for your life. In the next 40 days we’re going to look in detail at those five purposes. The five reasons God put you on this planet.

Today, I just want us to examine God’s motive. Look at this next verse, Ephesians 1:4, read it with me…”Long before He laid down the earth’s foundation, He had us in His mind and settled on us as the focus of His love to be made whole and holy by His love.” If you don’t get anything else as we start this 40 days, I want you to understand this, God says He made you, to love you. God made you to love you.

You were created to be loved by God. God is love and God wanted to create something to love and so He created you. He wanted you. And before we can talk about anything else, I would like you to understand: this is why we are on this earth – to be loved by God.

The second key question of life is the “Question of Significance: Does my life matter?” Isaiah said this “My work all seems so useless. I’ve spent my strength for nothing and for no purpose at all.” You were made for meaning. Without it, life doesn’t make sense.

Most people go through life living at one of three levels:
Level One: Survival. This is where most live today, in survival mode. Simply existing and being controlled by their circumstances.

Level Two: Success. Maybe, this is where many of us are. By the world’s standards, we have it. We’ve got a comfortable living, compared to the rest of the world; we’re wealthy, compared to the rest of the world. We have possessions, we have freedom, we have good health. We have success.

Then there is the Third Level. Not a Survival, not a Success, but step up to
Level Three: Significance.

How do you live at the Significance level? Well, you get there through three things:
#1: You know the meaning of life - that gives Significance.
#2: You know how much you matter to God - that gives you Significance.
#3: You know God’s purposes for your life and you live them out and that
gives you Significance.
God made us to live in Significance.

If you want to know how much you matter to God, look at the next couple of verses from the Bible. God says, “I am your Creator. You were in My care, even before you were born.” (Isaiah 44:2) The next verse says, ”You (talking about God) scheduled each day of my life before I began to breathe. Every day was recorded in your book.”

That’s how much you matter to God. Do you matter? – Yes.
He made you. He sees everything in your life, the good, the bad and everything in-between. You matter so much to God.

God wants you to know how much you matter to Him. God wants you to know the meaning of life. He wants you to know His purposes.

If you just stay with us the next 40 days, we’re going to talk about purpose. God has extremely long-range plans for you. Look at the next verse, “His plans endure (what?) forever; His purposes last (what?) eternally.”

God’s purposes are eternal. When we talk about the five things God put you on earth for, He wants you to practice what you’re going to do forever in eternity. The Bible says this in Psalm 33:11, “His purposes last eternally (write this down).

God says, “I was made to last forever.” I was made to be loved by God, and I was made to last forever. This life is not all there is. One of the biggest ways you can waste your life is thinking all there is, is here and now. Notice 2 Corinthians 5:1, “When this tent we live in – our body here on earth – is torn down. God will have a house in Heaven for us to live in. A home He himself has made, which will last forever.”

You want to know how much you matter to God? He wants to keep you with Him for the rest of eternity. He wants to keep you with Him forever. That gives meaning. So the question of existence – why am I alive? God answers it by saying, “I made you to love you, that’s why you’re alive.”

We can live in Survival or in Success, but God created us to have Significance. God says that your life matters. You matter so much that He intends on keeping you alive for the rest of eternity.

So then comes the third question, the “Question of Intention: What is my purpose?” What on earth am I here for? And that’s what we’re going to spend 40 days looking at.

Bertrand Russell, a great English atheistic philosopher said, “Unless you assume the existence of God, the question of life’s meaning and purpose is irrelevant.” You see, if there is no God, if you’re just a freak chance of nature, – then guess what? – your life doesn’t matter. If somebody wants to take it, they could. Because there’s no real reason, meaning or purpose.
But the good news is: there is a God!!! And God made you for a reason, and He made you for a purpose. The only way you’re going to know your purpose is first looking to Him.

There are many items we use every day for a particular purpose. If you don’t know something’s purpose, it is likely to be abused or misused. You need to know the purpose it serves. We can know the purpose of something in two ways:

• talk to the creator, or the inventor of it, or
• read the owner’s manual.

The only way you’re going to ever know your purpose in life You’ve got to talk to the Creator and look in the owner’s manual. It’s the only way you will ever know your purpose in life.

Genesis 1:1, the first verse in the Bible…”In beginning, God created.” It all starts with God, it continues with God, it ends with God. “In the beginning, God created.” The Bible says this in Proverbs 9:10. “Knowing God results in every other kind of understanding.”

• Do you want to understand the meaning of life?
• Do you want to understand your purpose of life?
• You find your purpose by getting to know God. It all starts with God.

Colossians 1:16, “For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible…everything got started in Him and finds its purpose in Him.” Ephesians says, “It is in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for…part of the overall purpose He (that’s God) is working out in everything and everyone.” The only way you’re going to learn the meaning of life and your purpose in life is to get to know the creator of life itself. “In the beginning, God.” It’s all about God. It’s just that simple.

Understanding God’s purposes for your life does take time. That’s why we’re organizing this 40 Days of Purpose -campaign. The next 40 days are going to transform your life if you want it. Regardless of where you are in your spiritual journey, I want to invite you to travel this journey together with me.

God wants you to know Him and He wants you to know His purposes for you. So talk to Him. You don’t have to use any fancy words. If you don’t know what to say, say this prayer to God with me:

“Dear God, I realize that if it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t be alive. But because you made me, you must have a purpose for me. I admit that I focused on my plans for my life, not yours. But I want to know your purposes for me, so I commit the next 40 days of my life to learning about it. Thank you that you made me so you could love me. Thank you that you cared for me even when I didn’t know you. Thank you that I was made to last forever. I want a life filled with meaning. I want to start by getting to know you better. So as best as I understand, I ask you, Jesus Christ, to come into my life and help me to understand your purposes for me. I want to take the first step today. In your name I pray, Amen.”

Join us next week, Saturday, 27 October, for the second message in finding God's purpose for your life.