Currently we’re in a message series I’ve entitled “Created To Do What?” You were created by God with a purpose in mind, you were created with an assignment to carry out. Many people never figure out what God created them to do and they live miserable, unfulfilled lives. Other people have an idea what God created them to do but they’re afraid to do it or they don’t want to do it, so they too live miserable unfulfilled lives. To live a happy, fulfilled life, you have only one option, to do what God created you to do.
This morning some of you may think that it’s too late for you, that you’ve gone off track from God’s plan and you can’t get back on. I want to tell you this morning that it’s never too late to get back onto God’s plan for your life. God can take you from wherever you are and help you to get on track to exactly what you were created to do from this day forward.
Today I want to talk about the question “Why Was I Created As I Am?” Why do I look the way I do? Why do I have the set of abilities and gifts that I have? Why do I live in St Louis and not in China? Why do I like the things I like? Why have I gone through the things that I’ve gone through in life? T]Part of the answer to all those questions is that you were created to help others, you were created to minister. God shaped you in a special way because He has a special task, a special ministry for you.
NIV Isaiah 64:8 O LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand. God is the potter, you and I are the clay. God has shaped and formed you exactly the way that he wanted, you are the work of His hand. There are many different kinds of pots, each to serve a different function. So too God has created each one of us differently, because He has a different function, a different ministry for each person to fulfill.
Some of you today feel like you have gotten a raw deal in life, that the potter did not know what He was doing when he created you and placed you in your life circumstances. NIV Isaiah 29:16 You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, “He did not make me”? Can the pot say of the potter, “He knows nothing”? If you as the clay tell the potter that He doesn’t know what He is doing, you will remain miserable. But today, God wants to do something new in your life. He wants you to acknowledge that God created you and He did a good job. God wants you to know deep down in your heart that you were created just as you are to do something special.
To hear more about this topic, listen to my September 3, 2006 message entitled Why Was I Created As I Am?
Dear Pastor Dan,
I really enjoyed reading your blog, although I’m not a citizen from Missouri, but from Wa. state.
I wound up to your website after listening to Rush Limbaugh today on the radio about Amendment 2 of the ballot measure in your state.
I’ve heard Michael J. Fox was stating on your TV stations to let the people know NOT TO VOTE for the candidate who’s against Stem Cell Research. Anyway, Rush stated that Initiative Missouri citizens are going to vote on a ballot not about stem cell research, but human cloning.
Anyway, I went to the Missouri coalition on Lifesaving cures, looked for section 6.2, and the initiative said if passed, it would allow fertile human embryoes which will be discarded will be used for Sonamic Nucluei Transfer (aka cloning).
Now, I don’t it’s wrong to hate democrats or liberals, but how do they get away with this? This is crazy! I just hope this initative
won’t pass!
Anyway, I’ve had a strong, Christian upbringing. And I hope and pray I will stay as a solid Christian believer and I can move back to South Carolina with my loved ones. I can’t stand living in the Puget Sound area with so liberal people.
God Bless,
Don Ostrem Jr.
Pastor Dan,
I’d like to know one thing.
If God has a purpose in life for me, and the church is always spuing death and damnations to all sinners.
If the church automatically rejects me to hell, why should I continue to believe that God has a purpose for me?
In my younger days I went to church regularly, attended most sermons and youth activities. Found solace in my bible.
Then I hit puberty. Everything changed. I wouldnt say I was a very sexually active guy. The problem is the people I was attracted to.
I presume from the preceding sentences that you might get the gist of what I am saying? In any case to elimate all misunderstandings: I am a Gay Male (in my 30’s).
I have never been attracted to a woman. I have never had sexual relations with a woman.
My question again. If God created me for a reason or a purpose, why did he create me as a Gay Male?
All that has transpired from when I first realised that I was Gay till this day was that the bulk of my life thus far has been misrable.
Oh the sermon you posted is nice and I appreciate the words even here in South Africa.
RJVEN
riaan,
God has a purpose for your life and authentic churches offer eternal life to all sinners through Jesus. The Bible makes it clear that all have sinned and need God’s forgiveness.
Your question is “why did God create you a gay male?” God didn’t create you a gay male, he created you a male. Since each of us lives in a world of sin, sin affects each of us in different ways. Some people are born genetically prone to serious diseases. God did not create them like that, disease and sickness are the result of sin. We recognize that disease and sickness are not good and so we pray and use medicine to try to be healed.
Homosexual tendencies are the result of sin in our world, they do not come from God. They are temptations that must be resisted like any other temptation. The fact that you are tempted sexually by men is no more wrong then if you were tempted sexually by women. The sin comes about if you give in to the temptation. Having said that, it is abnormal to be attracted to men and many homosexual men have been healed by God and freed from those tendencies.
The current philosophy in the world says that if you have homosexual tendencies, you should embrace and enjoy them. Your comment is honest, as you are miserable, as are the vast majority of homosexual individuals. It is an abnormal condition that needs to be overcome with God’s help.
NIV 1 Corinthians 6:9 Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders 10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. This shows that homosexuals can be changed, just like any other sinner. You can find help with the Christian organization Exodus International.
I got to your site by accident, and I am very blessed knowing that there are few pastors who are willing to address the homosexual issues with loving truth.
You addressed the issue pretty straight forward and based on scriptures. H. is just like any other sin and one should resist it with the same mind set as murdering or stealing. The problem is that H. – today – is been presented as not being a SIN so make the ‘resisting’ much harder because it is presented as “a life style” not a deviation from God’s creation.
So far I haven’t heard from any group of people proposing to make “adultery” another life style. That is because – so far – we still consider adultery as a sin which must be resited.
These two sins are the same in the sight of God so without much to say about them, they shoud be resisted, repent and turn away from them – just as any other sin.
You also you said… this is not going to be possible to conquered without the washing of the blood of Jesus and the enpowering of the Holy Spirit to resist the temptation -step by step.
hmm……ur words has changed my life.it also makes me believe that I shouldn’t give up cos, I was created for a special purpose…..thanks for the message
thank you for sharing the truth, it has set me free