Keith Battle - The Purpose War

My subject today is «The Purpose War.» Whenever someone talks about purpose, typically they are making a reference to the meaning of their life. It is to ask the question, «Why am I here? What is my assignment? Why did you let me live? Why, when they started shooting, did the bullets not hit me? Why did I walk away from McArthur when the car didn’t make it? The car was totaled, and I walked away. How come I didn’t get aborted? All the people got aborted in your generation and mine. How come? How do I get through? Forget about abortion; how come I wasn’t stillborn? How did I make it out of that delicate process, coming down the birth canal, and come out alive? And then, since I’m still here, what am I supposed to do? It’s got to be more than a job. What difference am I supposed to make while I’m here? What minds am I supposed to change? What impact am I supposed to have? That purpose is God’s work; it requires an understanding of how He has wired me. What are my passions? What are my abilities? What are my talents? What are my skills? What am I great at? How have you uniquely wired me for your purpose? That is what purpose typically is. When we talk about purpose, however, it becomes clear from this classic verse that there are two purposes for our lives. There is the divine purpose of our life, as we clearly see Jesus say, „I came that you might have life and have it more abundantly. I came to give you a rich and satisfying life.“ That is a divine purpose. But as sheep, which this whole passage is talking about, there is also a dark purpose in the same verse. The thief has a purpose for our lives too; he is just as intentional. „I’ve come to kill, to steal, and to destroy.“ What I love about God is that He doesn’t try to dismiss the devil’s purpose. I believe the thief is the devil, and he is a representation of darkness. God doesn’t act like the thief doesn’t have a purpose. What is exciting about it is that we can see the two diametrically opposed purposes in the verse. You see them: the dark purpose is to steal, kill, and destroy, while the divine purpose is, „I came that you might have a rich and satisfying life.“ You see those divided purposes. What we don’t see is that right between the verses is an invisible conflict. There’s a war going on for dominion over whose purpose we will align to. In fact, the only reason the assignment of the devil and the attacks of the devil have failed, the only reason he hasn’t stolen, killed, and destroyed us, is that Jesus' purpose is greater than Satan’s purpose. The only reason why it didn’t work is that Jesus blocked it. Here’s my first point: God is a protector. He is a protector; His protection gives us safety. Somebody say, „He gives us protection!“ The reason why Satan has not been successful in stealing, killing, and destroying us is that Jesus intercepted his activity. He intercepted the assignment and blocked it for our lives. I like that there’s a song in the church folks use that says, „Jesus, be a fence all around me every day. Jesus, I want you to protect me as I travel along the way. I know you can. Yes, Lord, I know you will. Yes, Lord, fight my battles if I just be still. Lord, be a fence all around me every day.“ You may not know that song, but there’s not a person here looking at me right now who doesn’t know that „If it had not been for the Lord who was on my side, I wouldn’t be here.“ The only reason I’m here today is because Jesus protected me. If you know what I’m talking about, say, „He protected me!“ When people wanted to destroy me, He protected me. When someone was looking to harm me, He protected me. When I was too drunk and too high to know where I was, He got me back to where I was supposed to be because He protected me. When I fell asleep behind the wheel, I don’t know how I stayed in my lane—He was protecting me. When I pushed my body to the limit, it could have destroyed me. My liver should be gone by now; my brain should be fried out by now; I should have full-blown AIDS right now. But the Lord protected me! I know you ain’t gonna tell because you don’t want anybody to know what He brought you out of. But I dare you to give God praise for what you can’t even tell nobody out loud! The Lord protected me. I can’t tell you everything, but He blocked it. It may have been jail time; He may have blocked my mental health problems; He may have blocked my suicide attempts. But whatever it is, I’m here today because He protected me. He protected me. And you know what? It’s one thing to know what He protected you from, but God has protected us from things we don’t even know about. We never saw it coming; we never saw the plans. We just kept walking, unaware of what He prevented.