You may be surprised to know that God’s main purpose is NOT just for you to pray a prayer of salvation or go to church.
God’s purpose is for you to fulfill His purpose. It is also my desire to help you fulfill God’s purpose. That’s why I’ve been sharing a guide to making disciples. We looked at who to disciple, our main problem as disciple makers,, why you are God’s most qualified vessel to make disciples and how to share your story.
Is your purpose the same as God’s purpose?
As a young and fired up evangelist I made it my goal to win a person a day to Christ. Winning several people to the Lord on the weekends help me accomplish that goal. I started as a street preacher. A show of hands was key to praying a sinner’s prayer with those who decided to become Christians.
After a while I became convicted that I should make my evangelism efforts more personal and changed my outreach strategy to one-on-one evangelism.
Here were the steps I took to lead someone to the Lord.
- I would introduce myself and begin a conversation with a person
- Lead into the questions, “If you were to die today do you think you would go to heaven?” and if so, “why?”
- Answer with “Here’s why I am sure I would go to heaven, because Christ is my Lord and Savior”
- Share my testimony
- Share the Gospel using my favorite tract. Often times, “Steps to Peace With God” by Billy Graham
- Ask, questions like “Is there any reason why you can’t give your life to Christ today? Do you want to start serving him today?”
- If yes, lead the person in a repeat after me “sinner’s prayer”.
After the person became a Christian, I would explain that he should begin to read his Bible, pray, attend a church, and tell his friends about Jesus.
Was I doing the right thing or accomplishing God’s purpose?
I can answer that question by saying that I was doing much more than the majority of Christians will ever do and if you do the same thing you will also be accomplishing much more than many complacent Christians.
As far as effectively accomplishing God’s purpose, I’d like to explore how you and I could do better. To do that we need to find out what God’s main purpose is.
What’s NOT God’s #1 Purpose?
God is a missional God and his ultimate goal may not be what we have been taught to think.
God doesn’t necessarily have the primary goal that a person be saved or that they go to church.
“Salvation” is not enough.
I used to think the purpose of missions was salvation because God just wants everyone to be saved. He even says he is not willing for anyone to perish but come to repentance in 2 Peter 3:9. The problem is, many well-meaning evangelists can make the mistake of focusing on salvation through “repeat after me” sinners prayers. Doing so may be missing the mark and could even cause harm. Just bringing someone to a point when they raise their hand and pray a sinner’s prayer is not the same as true repentance and making a disciple for Christ. David Platt addresses this point very adequately:
The Follow Me book is one of our recommended resources.
God saved you to give you the privilege of worshiping Him for all eternity.
Highlight this quote to tweet it:
“Salvation is a prerequisite to true worship and obedience to Christ”
“Churches” are not buildings.
When we think of churches we instantly associate it with a building with a pastor, staff, programs and “worship service”.
“Where do you go to church?” is a common phrase among Christians.
These associations are not necessarily wrong but Christ’s Church is often referred to in a singular sense as “The Church” or “My Church” (Matthew 16:18). He also refers to the Church as the bride of Christ or bridegroom. The bride of Christ is the imagery and symbolism of marriage is applied to Christ and the body of believers known as the church.
I’m all for both “church” and “churches”, in fact, one of our goals is the intentional multiplication of churches.
Here’s some more definitions of Church:
- Universal Church- all places all times
- Local, city or regional church – most common usage
- What is the difference between the universal church and local church?
- House Church- a church that meets in someone’s home
- Church Building- a structure where the church gathers to meet.
- Wikipedia- a church building, often simply called a church, is a building used for religious activities, particularly worship services.
Read about how to simplify a complicated church
What is God’s Purpose?
God’s purpose is Global worship of Him.
We were all made to worship. These words are synonymous “loving, worshiping, serving, giving and going”.
I highly recommend the Perspectives course. The first lesson focuses on purpose and teaches us God is on mission to be loved, served and worshipped by people from all humanity…
For His glory in global worship, God purposes to overcome evil by redeeming a people who will love and obey Him within every people.
Perspectives Reader- The living God is a missionary God.
The use of church buildings can be instrumental in accomplishing God’s purpose. People “go to church” to participate in a “worship service” but true worship is a lifestyle of obedience,.Webster’s Dictionary,1828 defines worship as “to honor with extravagant love and extreme submission”.
God’s main objective is that everyone get the opportunity to love and adore Him for all eternity. I believe the best way to assist people in accomplishing God’s purpose of Global worship is through disciple making.
Obey 3 Priorities to Accomplish God’s Purpose
True worship is defined by the priority we place on who God is in our lives and where God is on our list of priorities.
If our purpose is global worship of God we must obey 3 priorities.
- Love God
- Love Others
- Make Disciples
These 3 priorities come from Christ’s commands in the Great Commandment (Matthew 22:36-40) and the Great Commission (Matthew 28:16-20).
Jesus calls us to love and worship Him through radical obedience (John 14:15). Because we love Him with our all, we will love others as God loves them, and because we love others we will disciple them to make more disciples.
On a side note, If you read Why Purpose or your purpose you’ll see principles from Rick Warren’s “Purpose Driven Church. The 5 components of the Purpose Driven Life are :Worship, Fellowship, Discipleship, Ministry, and Evangelism. Notice I’ve narrowed God’s/our purpose down from 5 to 3 priorities.
Now read about how these 3 priorities are the best way to simplify a complicated church. and the goal of our disciple making movements which I call “GC ²”.