I WANT TO BE A
PURPOSEFUL PURSUER OF JESUS CHRIST
Purposeful - having a purpose; full of determination; (synonyms: resolved, purposeful, determined, intent, wilful, deliberate, intentionally) **use that wilfulness for good and dig in your heels to follow Jesus**
Pursue - a continuing effort to overtake, reach or attain
Mark 5:24-34
There was a huge crowd of people following Jesus, but only one with resolved -to reach a firm decision about; to cause resolution of) faith purposely chasing after Him. The others were satisfied just following Jesus, but this woman actively pursued the Lord with faith that if she could just touch Him, He would meet her need immediately. ** I want to be a purposeful pursuer of Jesus, with the kind of faith that I know my God will supply all my needs**
Here are just a few identifying characteristics of a purposeful pursuer:
1) Listen & Follow Jesus’ teaching
Matthew 7: 21 "Not all people who sound religious are really godly. They may refer to me as ‘Lord,’ but they still won’t enter the Kingdom of Heaven. The decisive issue is whether they obey my Father in heaven.”
Matthew 7:24 “Anyone who listens to my teaching and obeys me is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock.”
1John 3:3-5 “And how can we be sure that we belong to him? By obeying his commandments. If someone says, “I belong to God,’ but doesn’t obey God’s commandments, that person is a liar and does not live in the truth. But those who obey God’s word really do love him.”
If you simple think that the Word of God is a nice collection of stories that simply serve as a good code of conduct to follow, but never truly understand and apply the power in its pages to your life, you can’t be a purposeful pursuer. A purposeful pursuer hungers after the things of God and wants to implement what God says to do in his/her life so that he/she can see the promised results and outcome that the Word of God says will come to pass (i.e. healing, prosperity, happiness, joy, peace, freedom, love, power, etc)*work the Word*. You can’t see those things if you are only a hearer of the Word and not a doer of the Word. You have to apply what God says to your life... not in theory, but actually act upon it.
2) Love
Matthew 22:37 & 38 “Jesus replied, ‘You must love the Lord your God will all your heart, all you soul, and all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
If you aren’t in love with God and understand how much He truly loves you, you won’t be able to pursue Him. When you’re head over heels in love with someone, you’ll bend over backwards for them. Catering to their every whim is joy and it makes your heart all a-flutter to do things for them and going out of your way for them doesn’t seem like going out of your way... you count it all as joy (i.e. picking up after them, bringing them something to drink/eat, running errands for them, turning on the t.v. for them, etc). You also want to spend as much time with that person as possible. Just being in their presence makes you happy and improves your mood. You want to be near them. When you’re not with them, you’re constantly thinking about that person & anticipating the next time you can be with them. If there is no love in a relationship, you could care less whether or not you see that person. You rarely think about them and doing anything for them is a hassle, a chore and an inconvenience. Love is the fuel for your pursuit of God!!
*Romans 8:28-39 *
FYI, you never have to worry that God will stop loving you!! Many times people are afraid to open themselves up for love because they are afraid of being hurt by the other person. Anyone who has ever had their heart broken knows what I’m talking about. Giving your heart to someone is frightening because “what if” they break it and hurt you. Rest assured God will NEVER break your heart. God is not like people, so don’t compare Him to them and expect Him to treat you like others in the world have. Everything about God is love and you will never regret turning your heart over to Him. I cannot put into words how truly understanding how much God loves you will change your entire world. I know all of us “know” that God loves us. I knew that for years, but until it got down on the inside of me & I really KNEW God’s love for me I couldn’t pursue Him like I am now. Knowing God’s love for me set me free from burdens and things I’d struggled with for years. I was saved and serving God, but I wasn’t totally free and definitely wasn’t able to even start stepping into the calling or true peace and happiness that God had for me until I understood that love. It will revolutionized your way of thinking and your entire life!!!!!
3) Understanding, Confidence & Trust
You have to understand and have confidence in who you are in Christ and trust that no matter what, God is going to bring the “new you” building project to completion; before you can truly purposely pursue God.
Romans 5:1&2 “Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of highest privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory.”
Romans 8:14-16 “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. So you should not be like cowering, fearful slaves. You should behave instead like God’s very own children, adopted into his famioy-calling him ‘Father, dear Father.’ For his Holy Spirit speaks to us deep in our hearts and tells us that we are God’s children.”
2Corinthians 5:17 “What this means is that those who become Christians become new persons. They are not the same anymore, for the old life is gone. A new life has begun!”
Hebrews 12:1 “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily hinders our progress. And let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us.”
When you understand your standing and who God’s made you, you are not weighed down by condemnation, worry of failure, worthlessness and anything else you can think of... you are free to run the race God has set before you and purposefully pursue Him unrestrained. Its hard to concentrate on anything, if you’re worrying about everything!! Meditating on negative things (your circumstances or what the devil is screaming) is nothing but a distraction from your pursuit of God.
Hebrews 13:6 “That is why we can say with confidence, ‘The Lord is my helper, so I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?’”
If you don’t realize you are a new creature and understand how much God loves you and who He has made you, it’s very hard to have confidence to pursue God or fulfill your purpose. However, when it clicks and you really get how crazy God is about you and just how much power, strength and endless resources He has given you access to, it becomes pretty easy to purposely pursue Him and step into the dream He has for your life. When you truly understand God has made you a new creation and how much He truly loves you, it allows you to trust Him completely. It’s pretty much impossible to submit to and whole heartedly follow someone with everything in you if you don’t trust that person. Trust brings confidence. It makes spending time with God reading your Bible, praying, going to church a joy and an essential part of your life rather than something you have to do out of obligation and your just punching your religious time card. When you trust God, nothing is impossible for you and you aren’t afraid to do anything God tells you. If yo u trust someone, you know that everything they do or say to you is for your benefit and that person would never do anything to hurt you or allow you to be hurt. God is not like people, He doesn’t have an ulterior motive. God’s ONLY motive is His love for you. He’s trying to protect you and get you your blessing and help you in everyway possible to fulfill His dream for your life and see you walk in the fullness of life He has for you! YOU CAN TRUST HIM. That trust makes those waiting times and times that we don’t understand what’s going on bearable, because we TRUST that God is in control & He’s got us. We trust that He’s handling our life and it will all work out for our benefit (Romans 8:28 “And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.”) *together - by combined action; in or into agreement or harmony; in or into a unified or coherent structure or integrated whole;* Your life is like a building, when a building starts there are thousands upon thousands of individual pieces that have to be brought together by the builder before you have the finished product of a house (i.e. concrete, lumber, nails, flooring, drywall, etc). We and our lives are the building and God is the Builder.
4) DIFFERENT MINDSET/PRIORITIES: THINK & PERCEIVE DIFFERENTLY
Psalm 119:26-36
More than anything, a purposeful pursuer wants to understand what God wants them to do and wants to pursue doing that with all that’s within them. To be a purposeful pursuer you have to determine that if God says it, you’ll do it and will follow wherever He leads.
2Timothy 2:22-26
PP’s handle situations and think about things differently than most people or the majority of the world; we have what I like to refer to as the BIG PICTURE Thinking. You can’t sweat the small stuff and you don’t allow stupid stuff to distract you from pursuing God or get side tracked from your pursuit of God. You don’t get offended because someone looked at you wrong or said something dumb and then you’re mad for 3 days. Because in eternity, is what they said really going to matter and are you going to waste your energy here on earth being upset over something that in the “big picture” doesn’t mean squat?!!?!?!?! NO!!! God revealed to me a certain situation/issue in a relationship in my life was nothing but a distraction from my pursuit of God. One this certain person would let the devil get up on their head, that person new every button to punch and tapped dance on all of them. I would be hurt, offended, angry in an instant. Then I’d spend half a day or more casting it down and get re-focused on where I’d been with God before the attack! It was a distraction from the enemy to take me off course!!! When God revealed that to me, I started asking for His strength to ignore that thing, and become unoffendable. Now, stuff from that person that used to tear me up, I’m just like “hmm...isn’t that nice.” :) It rolls off like water off a ducks back. I’m telling you that story because all of you have similar things in your life that are simply attacks of the enemy to distract you.
Matthew 5:44-48
1Peter 3:9 “Don’t repay evil for evil. Don’t retaliate when people say unkind things about you. Instead, pay them back with a blessing. That is what God wants you to do, and he will bless you for it.”
These are definitely a excellent examples of how we are called to think differently than the world!! The worlds’ way of thinking says if someone hurts you, you hurt them back. However, Jesus says we are never to return evil for evil...we are to be good to those who treat us unfairly. That’s NOT the normal track of thinking!!! Therefore the response of a purposeful pursuer to situations will be NOTICEABLY different than that of the world.
PP’s also perceive/look at situations differently.
**Examples: Leprosy healed by dipping in a dirty river, bring down the walls of Jericho by marching around the city, being fed by ravens during a famine, killing a giant with a sling and stone, a shepherd becoming the King of Israel, Jesus walking on water to get to the disciples, feeding 5,000 with 5 loaves and 2 fish, etc....
When we see a mountain/obstacle/situation, we think of Word to speak to change and intervene in that thing. We know that the Word of God can bring down any obstacle in our path. To the world that’s insane!!! Speaking the Word to our problem is our solution and that is totally opposite from the world’s way of handling things.
In closing, let me say this message has not been meant to condemn in anyway. It’s purpose is to encourage you to pursue God with everything within you. To let you know how much God loves you! Honestly, I only touched on the tip of the iceberg for this topic, but these are the main things God gave me. So, let me encourage you to step up to another level from where you are.... we go from glory to glory. None of us will have arrived and know it all until we get to Heaven. I don’t want embers (like Pastor Derber preached about), I want a full on, raging fire of God on the inside and outside of me! Beloved, I am determined to be a Purposeful Pursuer and I hope you’ll join me in this pursuit!!!
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