God's Purpose and Plan

The Foundation: You Have Purpose

Before we dive deep into Scripture, I want you to understand something foundational: you have purpose. Not because you've earned it or proven yourself worthy, but because God spoke it over your life before you were even born.

I was putting my almost three-year-old daughter to bed a couple weeks ago, and she looked up at me and asked me to sing "Washed in the Blood." As I held her and she started worshiping, I found myself praying: "God, make her a worship leader one day." But then I realized something profound. If me, as an earthly father, have dreams and visions for my little girl, how much more does the God of the universe think about you, dream about you, and have a plan for your future?

David wrote in the Psalms that the thoughts of God for us are unimaginable and uncapturable. Think about it this way: the thoughts of God are like a waterfall constantly moving over your life. You're loved. You're called. You have purpose. You have all of it.

For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.

The Problem: We've Lost Sight of Purpose

Here's what I've noticed about our generation. There's a tendency in us—not just to try and survive, but to try and prove ourselves worthy of other people's approval. We scroll through social media watching other people live out their purposes while we sit in our rooms doing nothing. We numb ourselves with content, with substances, with distractions.

Why do we do this? Because when you feel like you're failing at purpose in your current season, the only way to disengage is to allow your mind to drift somewhere else. This is why people get drunk. This is why people get high. The core issue beneath every vice is the same: we're all looking for meaning and purpose.

I remember being 16, 17 years old, watching all my friends go to college and do things. And what I learned on the backside of wanting purpose is something troubling: weight, pressure, and anxiety. I knew there was something in me, but instead of feeling excitement and hope and faith that God was going to do it, I settled into anxiety.

Do you know what anxiety is? Anxiety is thinking about a future without God in it.

Many of you, when you think about what God's going to do in your life, you're not factoring in the waymaker. You're not factoring in the one who put purpose in you. And you find yourself walking into this season thinking, I don't know if I fit in. I don't know if I'm good enough.

The Truth: Pressure Is a Privilege

I was talking with my friend Graham recently, and I asked him how he deals with pressure in life. He said something I love: "Pressure is a privilege."

You can live one of two ways, friends. You can either have no pressure and play Fortnite all day. But what I think God wants to get in your heart is this: before you were born, heaven had an assignment for your life. And I don't want you to get so caught up in the distractions of this world that you forget God actually wants a godly ambition and pressure for you.

The Example: Samson's Purpose and Calling

Let's look at Samson. He was a judge in the Old Testament—not a judge like in a courtroom, but the strongest, most powerful man God appointed to deliver His people from oppression and bondage.

The Israelites had been captured by the Philistine army. The people of God were living in oppression, shackled, chained. They were praying, "God, deliver us." And you know who God sent? He sent a man named Samson.

Before Samson was even born, God showed up to his parents and put purpose in his life. He was going to be a deliverer. Let me correlate this to your life: You don't know how you walked in today. Maybe you thought, 'My parents didn't necessarily mean to have me. It was an accident.' But there are no accidents in the kingdom of God. Before you were ever born, heaven had a plan and a purpose for your life.

Samson was born with incredible expectation. He had to train to deliver God's people. The Bible says he was yoked with strength—and I mean supernatural strength. When the power of God would come upon him, he wouldn't just be physically strong. A lion would come at him and he would snap its jaw with his bare hands. One time at his own wedding, he killed 30 men with his bare hands because they figured out his riddle the wrong way. Another time, he defeated over a thousand people.

But here's the thing: God has given all of you a specific strength, call, and gift. And in your flesh, you can operate in it. But there's also what we call an anointing—a power from God that will come upon what you do and elevate it to a new level.

The Downfall: One Wrong Decision

But listen to how the story ends:

The Philistines captured him, gouged out his eyes, took him to Gaza, where he was bound with bronze chains, and forced to grind grain in prison.

How does someone with that level of purpose, calling, strength, power, and anointing end up with his eyes gouged out, chained up by the very enemy he was supposed to deliver his people from, rotting in prison?

The greatest threat to your purpose is not an outside enemy. It's you.

Let me remind you: God has already stepped on the heel of Satan. There is now no more condemnation in Christ Jesus. Satan can whisper lies to you, but you combat that with the word of the Lord. He's already been defeated. The same power that rose Jesus Christ from the dead lives in you.

The First Mistake: Not Consulting God

Let's go to the beginning of Samson's story. In Judges 14, verse 1 and 3:

Samson went down to Timna and there he saw one of the daughters of the Philistines... Then he came up to his father and mother and said, "I saw one of the daughters of the Philistines at Timna. Now get her for me as my wife." But his father and mother said to him, "Is there not a woman among the daughters of your relatives... among our other people? Why must you go take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?" And Samson said to his father, "Get her for me, for she is right in my eyes."

Do you catch what Samson says? Not "God told me." Not "I prayed about it." Just, "She looks right in my eyes."

Here's the problem: The opposite of faith is not fear. The opposite of faith is sight. Because we don't walk by sight. We walk by faith.

This is TikTok theology, friends. "Does it feel good? Does it look good? If it does, I consume it." We don't even pause and ask, "God, is this for me?" You look at a college and think about the party scene. You see someone and think they're attractive. You never pause to ask, "Is this what God wants for me?"

Now here's what's fascinating. At the very end of the book of Judges, God says to the people of Israel: "It's because they did what was right in their own eyes." The sin of a generation played out and manifested in the sin of an individual.

Watch out for the sin of the culture becoming the sin you internalize in your own life. Just because it's popular online does not mean it needs to be popular in your spirit. Just because it's what everybody else does doesn't mean it's what you need to do.

I wonder: Is there a generation here that says, "I want to do what's right not in my eyes, but what's right unto God in His eyes"?

The Warning: Don't Date the Culture You're Called to Change

He was called to set them free, but he starts giving love eyes to the very people he's called to deliver his own people from.

Here's how I know this hits home: Some of you have walked through dads who have let you down in big ways because of their sin. You've had a dad who walked out. You've had a dad who cheated. You've had a dad who made a mistake. And here's what I want to encourage you: Learn to look at the pattern of brokenness and learn from it, not follow the same thing. Don't fall in love with the lust that took your father out.

Write this down: Disciples don't ask, "What do I want?" They ask, "What does God want?"

You want to find your purpose? Ask God. But some of you say, "I tried, Ben. He didn't answer." What did you do? You prayed for about 14 seconds when you woke up. Here's the thing: If you really value God giving you purpose, you will value spending alone time with Him. Some of you want God to microwave a purpose into your life, but He's saying, "I want to birth and develop this inside your soul over time."

You're called to not blend in. You're called to stand out. As followers of Jesus, we don't live by what feels right. We live by what is right. We live by the word of God.

The Covenant Symbol: What Reminds You of Your Calling?

Samson had this beautiful, luscious long hair. And the Lord told him: "Samson, one rule. Don't cut your hair, because the hair represents that you are set apart and I have called you for a purpose."

Now, thank God we don't live under the same covenant today. Shave your head, do whatever you want. But here's what it was about: Every time Samson looked in a mirror, his long hair was reminding his heart, "I'm called and I'm set apart."

I would encourage some of you: Have something that reminds you daily that you're called and set apart.

The Compromise: Delilah

Samson finds himself dating Delilah, a Philistine woman. The Philistine army comes to her and says, "Will you find out where his power comes from? He keeps breaking our chains." Over multiple nights, Delilah pesters and pesters Samson. Finally, he falls asleep in her arms and says, "My power is in my hair."

That night, she cuts his hair. He wakes up thinking, "I'll just shake myself free like I always do." But he doesn't realize something crucial:

He did not know that the Lord had left him.

He had gotten confused. God's grace had been allowing him to move in prior seasons when he had messed up. So he thought, "God's going to do the same thing now." But he didn't realize the one who gave him the power was no longer with him.

Isn't that like us? We sing in worship on Sunday, and three weeks later we're cursing out our teacher or our brother. We act as if God was never there. That's because it's a slow, overtime drift. Samson walked in with purpose and calling flooding his life. Then he made bad decision after bad decision after bad decision. And because the power was still working, he didn't even realize the one who gave him that power had left.

The Core Issue: What Do You Value?

Here's what you need to understand: Please do not put more value on the gift God has given you than on the person who gave you the gift.

I was in the back a few moments ago with my phone and Bible, and they both fell on the ground. My first thought? "Is my phone screen cracked?" You know that prayer, right? Please God, please God, please God. I flipped it over—no crack. And my Bible was on the ground while my phone was in my hand. I just chuckled because it revealed what I actually valued in that moment.

Here's where some of you need to hear this: You need to value what God has put in your life. Some of you are devaluing the cross by how you're living. Some of you are devaluing the cross by how little you think of yourself. Some of you are devaluing the breath in your lungs, the blood that paid for you.

Can I remind somebody in this room: The most costly price was paid on the cross. You and I get to live under the blood of Jesus. We need to make sure we keep the right things valuable.

How could Samson fall? He stopped valuing God.

And here's how you miss your purpose: You start valuing what people think over God. You start valuing how you perform over God. You start valuing whether you have a girlfriend or boyfriend over God.

Some of you need to get this in your heart tonight: I will value the most valuable thing on the planet. And that is the grace, the mercy, the blood that was poured out for me.

Value what God values. He values you. Some of you have treated what God gave you as something cheap, something transactional. You've excused God's grace for His permission. But just because God's given you grace doesn't mean He wants you to continue in that sin.

The Prison: The Consequence of Sin

So Samson finds himself in prison. His eyes are gouged out. The Lord has left him. He's blind, humiliated, broken. And you might think, "He deserves it. He messed up. He's reaping what he sowed."

But here's where it gets interesting. The narrator of this text zooms out and puts a little subtitle before Samson makes his first wrong decision. He writes:

His father and mother didn't realize that the Lord was at work in this, creating an opportunity.

Do you catch this? Samson's making a poor decision, and the narrator comes in and says, 'His mom and dad were freaking out, but the Lord was at work in this.'

Friends, catch this: God doesn't just use your strength. God uses your weakness. Samson's making a knucklehead decision. And God's saying, "I'm so good at this, Samson. I'm going to take what you messed up. You tried to run away. You tried to screw it up. And I'm going to work it all together."

The Grace: Hair Growing Back

Now watch the end of the story:

But his hair began to grow back.

You can try and screw up the purpose for your life, but the grace of God is so good. It's so faithful.

When I think back on my life, it wasn't my strength. It wasn't my muscle. It wasn't my mind. It was the grace of God.

Years down the road, when you're at a college reunion or high school reunion, and kids ask, "Whatever happened to that kid?" I want you to say: "Man, it wasn't my strength. It wasn't my wit. It wasn't my intellect. It wasn't my skill. It wasn't how much I grinded. It was the grace of God. God met me. God showed up. God healed me. God restored me. I tried to screw this thing up so many times, but the grace of God."

Some of you need to hear this: God's not going to just use your strength. He's going to use your mess-ups.

The Restoration: Prayer in Weakness

Samson's in prison. His hair's growing back. He's blind. And you know what he tells the guards? "Put me up against a pillar."

The entire Philistine army is around him. He's blind, gouged out. They think they've got him. And you know what he prays?

Lord, remember me.

He repents. He says, "God, give me strength." And all of a sudden, his strength returns. He tears down the walls and the pillars and defeats the entire Philistine army.

Some of you need to catch this in your spirit: The prayer is not, "God, I'm already great, so just put a cross on my sport and I'll feel good about it. God, I'm already gifted, so be a cool accessory in my life. God, I got good looks, so be in my bio."

This is not the call.

The call is: God will oftentimes get you to your lowest point to get you to pray again—"God, remember me. Remember where my strength comes from."

The Invitation: Your Choice

I wonder tonight if you're in this room and you would say, "I want that grace for my life. I've been dealing with shame. I've been dealing with condemnation. I've been feeling like I don't have a purpose or a calling." If that's you, shoot your hands toward heaven. The Holy Spirit is going to give you a deposit of His grace right now.

Jesus, tonight I pray that the blood of Jesus that covers a multitude of sins would cover every young person in this room who receives it. We need new grace for our future. We need new hope. We need faith that comes from You, oh God.

Lord, tonight we dedicate our future into Your hands. We want Your plan. We want Your purpose. We don't want to look like everybody else. We want to look more like Jesus.

If that's you, if you're saying, "I want to look more like Jesus. I want to make Him king and lord and savior of my life. I'm laying down my agenda, my plan, and I'm saying yes to Jesus," here's what that means:

• No longer do you get condemnation for your mess-ups and sin.
• You get the grace of God to cover all of it.
• Shame leaves your life.
• All God sees when He sees you is His righteousness.

If tonight you need to receive Jesus into your life, on the count of three, I want you to leave your seat and meet me at the front. One, two, three.