The Need for Purpose

Judges 20:48

And the men of Israel turned again upon the children of Benjamin, and smote them with the edge of the sword, as well the men of every city, as the beast, and all that came to hand: also they set on fire all the cities that they came to.

Israel did well as long as they kept conquering the Promised Land. The book of Judges is a result of a nation that stopped moving forward by faith and accepting what they had conquered as good enough. The result of them becoming complacent with what they had was that eventually they turned their energies to conquering themselves. In the last few chapters of the book of Judges, you see Israel fighting itself. The civil war they had was a result of the nation not having a purpose for going forward by faith to conquer nations around them. When they stopped moving forward by faith, they turned their focus to fighting against each other to their detriment. As long as Israel fought against the enemies around them, they never fought against themselves.

A church without a purpose will end up fighting itself. It is critical that a church always has a purpose to push forward so that it does not fight itself and destroy itself. One reason churches need programs and big days is to keep them focused on doing something big for God, so they don't become focused on themselves and end up fighting themselves.

Let me illustrate this principle. As a pastor, I have chosen to have two campaigns every year. We have a spring and fall campaign every year. In each of these attendance-building campaigns, we push hard to bring in visitors and to have big days in our church. These campaigns require the church to focus on reaching the outside world, giving them a purpose and a place to use their energy.

What I have noticed after campaigns is that my church tends to have more personality conflicts with the church family and marriage problems. It amazes me how these problems come up after our church has no big push to reach the lost for Christ. I have noticed that, as long as our church has a purpose to reach the lost on the outside, many of the problems of fighting resolve on their own because their energy is not focused on each other but on reaching the lost.

You may not like the pressure these campaigns create, but that pressure keeps you focused outside rather than inside. Many family problems could be resolved if you had an external purpose for your family to focus its energy on. The energy it takes to have big days has to go somewhere, because it doesn't leave when the campaign is over. Most people are not principled enough to keep that pressure on themselves after a campaign is over, and that is why the pastor must continue to have something to keep the people focused so they don't turn those energies on their brethren in the church or their families at home. The pressure is needed so that we don't destroy ourselves by turning our energy of pushing to reach the lost to fighting to conquer each other.

My friend, we have got to get back to the day when we understand that there is a reason we live by faith, and one of those reasons is to keep our energies focused outside so that we don't destroy each other on the inside. I challenge you to always keep an outside focus and pressure on yourself to reach the lost, and it will help you avoid turning your energy toward fighting fellow brothers or family members.