Preached by Apostle Andre Pelser in Umuahia, Abia State, Nigeria on 23 August 2009

Here are some ingredients that made up the purpose of Christ to help us understand our purpose in this world.

1.      He knew who He was, the Son of the living God, and what He came to do: to give His life as a ransom for many, to set up the Kingdom of God and to build the church.

2.      Course adjustments were needed to keep Him on track on His earthly mission in order to fulfill His divine purpose. For instance, on the Mt of Transfiguration in Luke 9 we read how Moses and Elijah appeared to remind Him of the death He had to accomplish when He was about to be received up.

3.      He came to take away the sins of the world.

4.      He came to destroy the works of the devil

5.      He came to glorify God and asked God to glorify Him

6.      The Eternal purpose however, is the church.

Eccl 3:11 – There is a time for every purpose under the sun

Eph 3:11 – Manifold wisdom of God revealed through the church

We are not purpose driven as some would propose, but we are led by the Spirit to express our eternal purpose in Christ.

Sin makes us miss the mark of our purpose. Mike Wood so clearly explains the true meaning of ‘hamartia' for sin that we miss our true identity as sons of God, created before the foundation of the world. Sin makes us operate in our mistaken identity, because we have a false image of the true God instead of a true image of our God. That idolatry has to be broken down so that we can have a true revelation of who God really is. When we see and know Him as He really is, we discover our own true identity in Christ and the Holy Spirit enables us to express our purpose in this world as sons of God.

Here are a few examples of ordinary people in the bible that fulfilled their purpose.

Tychichus – ‘chance happening'. He changed from being a charlatan or ‘chancer' to become a faithful and beloved brother to Paul and the other apostles.

John Mark – he caused a great dispute to arise between Paul and Barnabas because he did not have a finishing mentality but bailed out of his first missionary journey together with the two apostles. Later on Paul invites him back on the missionary team because he has become ‘useful' to Paul.

Onesimus– ‘useful'. He was a useless slave to Philemon and stole from him. This caused him to end up in the same prison Paul was being kept by the Romans. Paul led him to the Lord and sent him back to Philemon with a letter which became the epistle of Philemon. In the epistle he reminds Philemon that he actually owes his life to Paul and that he should receive Onesimus as a brother. If he still owed Philemon anything Paul was prepared to pay the deficit. Onesimus actually became useful to Philemon in the end and fulfilled his life's purpose.

When you know who you are in Christ, when your sins are forgiven, when you know your true identity in Christ and forsake your false identity, you can fulfill your divine purpose in this life like these men we mentioned in these examples.