LivinLife On Purpose
The Two Camps

Intentional Christianity

• Be Intentional – The choices we make determine the substance of our life.
  
• Living intentionally is to:
  
  • take action deliberately or intended.
    
  • live life with a plan in mind, a life of meaning.
    
  • to stretch toward a thing in order to fulfill a larger function

We are not today what we were yesterday. We will not be tomorrow what we are today. We are in the process of being changed. This change for believers is not the change of mere difference, but a transformation. We are becoming like Christ.
Living the Life You Were Meant to Live by Tom Paterson

We have a problem:
we remember the things we are supposed to forget and forget the things we are supposed to remember!

Test yourselves to make sure you are solid in the faith. Don’t drift along taking everything for granted. Give yourselves regular checkups. You need firsthand evidence, not mere hearsay, that Jesus Christ is in you. Test it out. If you fail the test, do something about it.
II Corinthians 13:5 MSG

Instead, let us test and examine our ways. Let us turn again in repentance to the LORD.
Lamentations 3:40 NLT

Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that. Don’t be impressed with yourself. Don’t compare yourself with others. Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life.
Galatians 6:4-5 MSG

Life Review Choices ...

• Choice #1 — DISCOVER Who You Are
  • “Make a careful exploration of who you are ...”
• Choice #2 — DISCERN What God Has for You
  • “... the work you have been given ...”
• Choice #3 — DECIDE to Sink Yourself into It
  • “... sink yourself into that.”
• Choice #4 — DENY Yourself
  • “Don’t be impressed with yourself. Don’t compare yourself with others.”
• Choice #5 — DEVELOP a Plan of Action
  • “... take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life.”

The Two Camps

• When God breaks in, we have a revelation of His presence.
  
• Genesis 32:1-2 So Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him. When Jacob saw them, he said, This is God’s camp.” And he called the name of that place Mahanaim.
• Genesis 32:24-31
  • Peniel – The face of God
    
  • “Then Jacob was left alone; and a Man wrestled with him until the breaking of day.”
    
  • “I will not let You go unless You bless me!”
    
  • Our 3 week fast – holding on or holding out?
    
  • Break up the fallow ground of our hearts!

Removing the Roadblocks

• What hinders us with God & His ways?
  
• Four words:
  
  • Worries
    
  • Wrongs
    
  • Wounds
    
  • Wishes

Your Life Review

• New LifeBuilder Group
  
  • The next three Wednesday evenings we will look at, review, and redefine:
    
    • The Center of My Life.
      
    • The Commitments of My Life
      
    • The Core Values of My Life.
      
    • The Community of My Life.
      
    • The Contribution of My Life.
      
    • The Communication of My Life.

LivinLife On Purpose
Imago Dei & Missio Dei
Genesis 1:27-28

Intentional Christianity

• Be Intentional – The choices we make determine the substance of our life.
  
• Living intentionally is to:
  
  • take action deliberately or intended.
    
  • live life with a plan in mind, a life of meaning.
    
  • to stretch toward a thing in order to fulfill a larger function
• Our sport, the pleasure that we relish as “image bearers” is to hear God’s voice and walk in His will, the “Missio Dei.”
  
  • Proverbs 10:23 NKJ “To do evil is like sport to a fool, But a man of understanding has wisdom.”
    
• Square One
  
  • Believe in God!
    
  • Believe in His Word!

Square Two

Genesis 1:27-28
“So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Meaning ~ The Great Questions of Life

• Origin – Where did I come from?
  
• Identity – Why am I here?
  
• Purpose – What is this all about?

Identity & Purpose

• Who am I?
  
  • An image bearer of the living God
    
• Why am I here?
  
  • To co-rule with Him in His creation
    
• What is this age (this life) for, then?
  
  • Redemption and restoration
    
  • Training in reigning

Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to God, rose from supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself.
John 13:3-4

LivinLife On Purpose

To do evil is like sport to a fool, But a man of understanding has wisdom.
Proverbs 10:23 NKJ

Intentional ~ Square One

• Believe in God, believe in His Word!
  
• Our sport, the pleasure that we relish is to hear God’s voice and walk in His will.
  
• Be Intentional – The choices we make determine the substance of our life.

An Intentional Life

• Actions done deliberately or intended.
  
• A life with a plan in mind
  
• A life of meaning.
  
• From <Latin> intendere : in-, toward; + tendere, to stretch
  
  • To stretch toward, extended
    
  • To expand in order to fulfill a larger function

Success In God’s Eyes

• Genesis 39:1-2
  “Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. And Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him down there. The LORD was with Joseph, and he was a successful man; and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian.”
• Success or prosperous = <Hebrew> (tsaòlach)
  
• To push forward or break out
  
• Pushing through or stretching toward the fulfillment of God’s will.

Annual Church Fast

• 21 days – until Sunset on Saturday the 24th
  
• Fast as the Lord leads
  
• Juice fast – “Daniel” fast – partial fast – comfort food – non-food fast (TV, sleep, etc.)
  
• Matthew 6:16-18
• Why fast?
  
  • We fast as a discipline for mourning, repentance, self-humiliation, and hunger for the illumination of God & revival.
    
• In the spirit of the discipline and in faith
  
  • We gather for prayer on Saturday afternoon
    
  • We will have a special service on the 24th at 2pm called our “New Beginning Seminar.”

Square One ~ Start At The Beginning

• Psalm 19:1-4a NLT
  “The heavens tell of the glory of God. The skies display his marvelous craftsmanship. Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make him known. They speak without a sound or a word; their voice is silent in the skies; yet their message has gone out to all the earth, and their words to all the world.”
• Hebrews 11:6 NKJ
  “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”
• Romans 10:17 NKJ “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
  
• Faith does not come from trying to believe, faith come by hearing!
  
• Genesis 1:1 NLT “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
• God is and His Word is!
  
• Hebrews 4:12-13 NKJ
  “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.”

LivinLife on Purpose

• It is a pleasure for a man of understanding.
  
• Our sport, the pleasure that we relish is to hear God’s voice and walk in His will.
  
• Choosing to live an intentional life is to live with a plan in mind.
  
• Living a life of meaning.
  
• Biblical “success” = pushing through or stretching toward the fulfillment of God’s will.

We Are The Reason For His Season

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
John 3:16-17

His Royal Titles

• Wonderful Counselor
  
• Mighty God
  
• Everlasting Father
  
• Prince of Peace

Immanuel

• Jesus, our model, clothed Himself with humility by clothing Himself in humanity!
  
• Matthew 1:23
  
  • "Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall bear a son, and they shall call His name Immanuel," which translated means, "God with us."

Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.
Philippians 2:5-7

• “Good is the flesh that the Word has become” by Brian Wren
  
• Good is the pleasure of God in our flesh,
  longing in all, as in Jesus, to dwell,
  glad of embracing, and tasting, and smell,
  good is the body, for good and for God,
  Good is the flesh that the Word has become.
  
• I am born into eternity as Jesus was born into time!

Wonderful Counselor

• Acts 2:22 NLT
  
  • "People of Israel, listen! God publicly endorsed Jesus of Nazareth by doing wonderful miracles, wonders, and signs through him, as you well know.”
• John 14:26 NLT
  
  • “But when the Father sends the Counselor as my representative—and by the Counselor I mean the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I myself have told you.”

Mighty God

• John 20:28 NLT
  
  • “My Lord and my God!” Thomas exclaimed.
• Matthew 28:18-20 NLT
  
  • Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given complete authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Everlasting Father

• John 10:30 NLT
  
  • “The Father and I are one.”
• Revelation 1:18 NLT
  
  • “I am the living one who died. Look, I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and the grave.”
• “The same everlasting Father who cares for you today will take care of you tomorrow and every day. Either He will shield you from suffering, or He will give you strength to bear it. Be at peace, then, and put aside all anxious thoughts and imaginations. --- St. Francis de Sales

Prince of Peace

• Romans 1:3 NLT
  
  • “It is the Good News about his Son, Jesus, who came as a man, born into King David's royal family line.”
• Ephesians 2:14 NLT
  
  • “For Christ himself has made peace between us Jews and you Gentiles by making us all one people. He has broken down the wall of hostility that used to separate us.”
• Revelation 1:5 NLT
  
  • “and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness to these things, the first to rise from the dead, and the commander of all the rulers of the world. All praise to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by shedding his blood for us.”

Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.
--- C.S. Lewis

“That's My King” by Dr. S.M. Lockridge

Isaiah 9:6-7

• To the weary --- He is wonderful
  
• To the confused --- He is Counselor
  
• To the weak --- He is Mighty God
  
• To the orphaned --- He is Everlasting Father
  
• To the troubled --- He is Prince of Peace