Goal-Oriented Life

INTRODUCTION

What is the goal of your life? Are you living every day focused on what Christ has for you or are you just drifting according to the waves of life?

I want you to think about your life. Do you have a dream in your life? Do you have dream-oriented goals in place? Are your dreams and goals in life in line with God’s will and purpose for you?

In order to achieve your God-given purposes, one need to set godly goals. Once goals are in place, one needs to make progress in that direction.

Author Orison Swett Marden, “All who have accomplished great things have had a great aim, have fixed their gaze on a goal which was high, one which sometimes seemed impossible.”

Baseball Player Steve Garvey, “You have to set goals that are almost out of reach. If you set a goal that is attainable without much work or thought, you are stuck with something below your true talent and potential.”

Howard Business School study on goal setting statistics revealed the following:

83% of the population do not have goals

14% have goals in mind, but goals are unwritten

3% have goals written down

14% who have goals are 10 times more successful than those without goals.

3% who have written down goals, are three times more successful than the 14% with unwritten goals.

Do you have goals in life? Goals for your spiritual life, your relationships, your career?

What is the goal of your life? Are you living every day focused on what Christ has for you or are you just drifting according to the waves of life?

I want you to think about your life. Do you have a dream in your life? Do you have dream-oriented goals in place? Are your dreams and goals in life in line with God’s will and purpose for you?

In order to achieve your God-given purposes, one need to set godly goals. Once goals are in place, one needs to make progress in that direction.

Author Orison Swett Marden, “All who have accomplished great things have had a great aim, have fixed their gaze on a goal which was high, one which sometimes seemed impossible.”

Baseball Player Steve Garvey, “You have to set goals that are almost out of reach. If you set a goal that is attainable without much work or thought, you are stuck with something below your true talent and potential.”

Howard Business School study on goal setting statistics revealed the following:

83% of the population do not have goals

14% have goals in mind, but goals are unwritten

3% have goals written down

14% who have goals are 10 times more successful than those without goals.

3% who have written down goals, are three times more successful than the 14% with unwritten goals.

Do you have goals in life? Goals for your spiritual life, your relationships, your career?

What is the goal of your life? Are you living every day focused on what Christ has for you or are you just drifting according to the waves of life?

I want you to think about your life. Do you have a dream in your life? Do you have dream-oriented goals in place? Are your dreams and goals in life in line with God’s will and purpose for you?

In order to achieve your God-given purposes, one need to set godly goals. Once goals are in place, one needs to make progress in that direction.

Author Orison Swett Marden, “All who have accomplished great things have had a great aim, have fixed their gaze on a goal which was high, one which sometimes seemed impossible.”

Baseball Player Steve Garvey, “You have to set goals that are almost out of reach. If you set a goal that is attainable without much work or thought, you are stuck with something below your true talent and potential.”

Howard Business School study on goal setting statistics revealed the following:

83% of the population do not have goals

14% have goals in mind, but goals are unwritten

3% have goals written down

14% who have goals are 10 times more successful than those without goals.

3% who have written down goals, are three times more successful than the 14% with unwritten goals.

Do you have goals in life? Goals for your spiritual life, your relationships, your career?

God Set Goals

Do you know that God sets goals? God has goals for the universe, earth, history. He set goals for the Israelites. God has goals for eternity and God certainly has goals for your life.

1. Jesus had set goals

The Bible says that Jesus had goals and he often announced publicly what his next goal was. I am going to do this now. I am going to do this now and he publicly announced in advance what his goal was for the next phase of ministry.

Jesus’ first and the foremost goal was to reach the cross where he would die as a ransom for the sins of the world. Jesus spoke about his goal of death many, many times:

Matthew 16:21 From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.

John 2:4 Jesus replied, “My hour has not yet come.”

Matthew 17:22 When they came together in Galilee, he said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men.”

Jesus had set times and goal in his life.

After prioritizing his major goal, which his to die on the cross for the remission of sins of mankind; Jesus also had short-term goals that led him to that big picture or the final goal.

Matthew 20:28 Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.

Jesus wanted to die on the cross, so Jesus started traveling towards Jerusalem. He set his life in that direction months before.

Luke 9:51 As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem.

.. and 9:53 but the people there did not welcome him, because he was heading for Jerusalem.

Thirdly, in 17:11 Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee.

The Bible says in Luke 18:31 Jesus took the Twelve aside and told them, “We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled.”

… then in 19:28 After Jesus had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.

Our Bible says in Luke 13:32 ³¹At that time some Pharisees came to Jesus and said to him, “Leave this place and go somewhere else. Herod wants to kill you.” ³²He replied, “Go tell that fox, ‘I will keep on driving out demons and healing people today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will reach my goal.’

Look at the goal-oriented life of Jesus. His life was not hindered by his enemies, people or circumstances. Jesus was goal oriented.

Jesus came to establish the Kingdom of God: Luke 17:21 The Kingdom of God is in your midst.

Everything that Jesus did in his public ministry was to establish the Kingdom of God. He was going to Jerusalem but in the meantime Jesus also had short-term goals. To cast out demons, heal the sick, rise the dead, the preach the kingdom. All this was a foretaste of the coming kingdom in glory which was already inaugurated by Jesus.

Nothing – not the power of the king or the opposition of the religious leaders could stop Jesus from his focused efforts. Jesus was goal oriented.

2. Apostle Paul had set goals

Philippians 3:12-15 ¹²Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. ¹³ Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, ¹⁴I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. ¹⁵All of us, then, who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you.

Paul was goal oriented. His focus was set on the goals. Paul is telling us to take view of such goals in life.

What was apostle Paul’s goal?

Philippians 3:10-11 ¹⁰I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.

Why do we have set goals

Because it is a spiritual responsibility.

You are going to go through life either by design or by default. You either set goals and decide what is important for you in your life or circumstances and people and people are going to decide your life for you.

If you don’t have a goal in your life:

You are giving the control of your life to other things.

You are giving the control of your life or somebody else.

If you do not have goals for your life, you are not living, you are just reacting, you are just existing.

If you do not have goals in your life, you are just flowing through life, you are drifting through life, you are life wasting your whole life because you have not clarified what is important in life for you.

Therefore, goal setting is a very important spiritual discipline.

Philippians 3:15 All of us, then, who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you.

Paul said, “I set my goal. I strive to my goal. Also, move to it. And I keep my eyes on the goal. I focus on that goal. And you need to take view of such things.”

Five Reasons Why You Need To Set Goals In Your Life.

1. Goals are statement of faith

Goalsetting is not secular, but a spiritual habit that we need to develop.

When you set a goal as a believer, you are saying, “I believe that God wants me to accomplish this in my life and I am trusting God to do it by such and such time.”

Goals are not just a statement of your faith, they stretch your faith. The bigger your goal, the more your faith will be stretched and that pleases God.

Hebrews 11:6 ..without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

Romans 14:23 Everything that does not come from faith is sin.

So if I don’t have any goals, I don’t need to take any risks, if don’t take any risks I don’t need any faith. If I don have any faith, I am being unfaithful and in sin.

Ephesians 3:20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.

Let the size of your God determine the size of your goal.

We limit God by our unbelief. Goals are statement of faith.

The difference between a goal and a dream is that you put a deadline on it. You say, “Lord by your grace, this is what I am praying to happen by 2021, by 2025.”

When two blind men met Jesus and said, “Have mercy on us, Son of David.” Matthew 9:29 Then he touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith let it be done to you.”

According to your faith it will be done. Nothing happens in your life, until you start dreaming. So set goals by faith.

Goals are statements of your faith.

2. Goals focus my energy.

They keep you focused. Also, they keep you from wasting time, money, energy, and repetition.

Selection is the name of the game. Focus is the key to an effective life.

Paul says, “It is this one thing I do.” The more you focus your life, the more powerful and the more effective your life is going to be. If you spread your life and do many things in your life, you will make no impact at all. But if you focus your life, it is going to going to be powerful, it is going to be strong, and it will change the world.

ILLUSTRATION

Light diffused has no power at all but when you focus light, it has enormous power. The sun cannot set things on fire because it is diffused. But when you take a magnifying glass and pass the sun rays through it, you can set a paper on fire. If you focus light even more, it can become a laser and a laser can cut through steel and glass. A laser can kill cancer cells. You can live a laser -focused life.

Goals focus my energy.

The world is full of distractions. You can spend your life being distracted, you can waste your life doing things and that which are not meaningful, or you can invest your life. The greatest use of life is to invest in that which is going to outlast it.

Remember, you don’t have time to do everything. Here is the good news. God does not expect you to do everything. There are only a few things that are worth doing in this world and in that few things there are only a couple of things that you are expected by God to do. The key to being effective in life is to do what matters most in the major times of the day and keep the others for the lesser part of the day. Prioritize your time and energy for your goals.

My goals focus my energy.

1 Corinthians 9:26 Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air.

Paul is saying, “I am just not messing around with my life. My life is important to God. So everything I do matters and I will be focused on what I do. I want to do things in my life which will bring honor and glory to God. I will be focused.” I don’t run without a goal.

Some of you are running and running and running in circles. You are not heading anywhere because you are not focused. Goals focus our energy.

3. Goals keep me going.

Goals give me hope to keep moving. Also, they give me hope to endure and  persist. Your vision gives you a purpose to get of bed every morning.

Goals Help You Navigate A Tough Time.

When you are going through a difficulty, what do you do, you keep going. You don’t want to make a home in that difficulty, your destiny is beyond that. You keep pursuing your goal in Christ. The way you can overcome is that you have a goal beyond your circumstances.

Jesus endured the cross because he looked forward to the goal and the glory that was set before him. Hebrews 12:2 For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Jesus looked beyond the pain to the payoff. We need to do that too.

Goal gives us that hope.

Job 6:11 “What strength do I have, that I should still hope? What prospects, that I should be patient?

NLT But I don’t have the strength to endure. I have nothing to live for.

You need a goal to keep you going.

ILLUSTRATION

A study was done on the survivors of the holocaust. In WW2 the Nazi’s killed 6 million people and many other besides Jews. They put them all in the death concentration camps. These people faced a lot of tragedies and hardships. They studied those who survived the holocaust and they discovered only one thing common in all those people. Everyone of them had something to look forward in life. Everyone of them had something waiting for them. Every one of them had something that they wanted to live for. They had a goal.

Yes, they were many who died innocently. But most of the survivors were the ones who had something to look forward to in life. Some did not even want to escape, they lost hope and simply gave up their will to live and they died in the camp.

ILLUSTRATION

Six months after starting the church, which I call one of the tough times of my church ministry. I was just 28 years old. We had around 30 people coming to church and we had hired a small 600 sq. foot hall. One Sunday morning there were no believers at church. I was so discouraged. Anyhow, I preached that day again like the day we began church. I preached to glory and Samuel who was 8 months old then. We were disheartened but we knew God had called us for church ministry and even if we fail, we need to continue to work hard and God will do the remaining.

What kept us going through those difficult years is the goal and vision that God had gave us.

When you have a long-term goal you keep going.

Long-term goals keep you from being discouraged from short-term setbacks

Everybody has setbacks, everybody makes mistakes. Everybody has failures. In fact, failure is the only way you succeed. You cannot succeed in life without failure because that is where you learn what works and what does not work. That is why failure is not a failure, but an education. We all fail and the more we fail and learn form our failures, we are moving one step forward to success.

Goals keep me going. Long-term goals keeps you from being discouraged form short-term setbacks.

You may have come this weekend and you are discouraged, maybe you are feeling down. If you are discouraged and feeling low, you need to set some new goals.

4. Goals build my character.

The greatest benefit to your life and to your goals is not going to be accomplishments and achievements you require because of those goals, but what happens inside you while you are moving toward the goal. God is more interested in your character than he is in your accomplishments. You are not taking your success or career to haven, you are taking your character. So God is more interested in who you are and what you become than he is in what you do and accomplish and what you succeed at. God is interested in you.

Drifting does not build your character but goals build your character. If you set your goal and you get a vision, then God says, “I can work in you” and God builds your character.

So while I am working on the goal, God is working on me. That is what God wants to do in your life. Goals help build your character.

Philippians 3:12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.

I have to “press on.” It takes time, it takes energy, it takes focus, it takes intention, it takes courage in spite of failures in order to reach your goal. As you work on your goal, God is building character in you.

You will never become the person God intends you to be unless you intend to become that person. Goals build your character.

Markers to know if your goals are godly.

Not every goal that you set is a good goal. Not every goal that you are going to set God is going to bless. So you want to set the kind of goals that God is going to bless and God is going to give you the power to do.

Here are the secrets to setting our goals for life: When you get ready to set your goals, it is good to ask these three questions.

1. Will this goal honour God?

What kind of goal will honor God? What kind of goal will bring glory to God?

Any goal that causes you to trust him more, to depend on God more, to love God more, to love others more, to serve God, to serve others without selfish reasons. Those are good goals.

1 Corinthians 6:20 …you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.

Are you using your body to honor God?

Everything can be done to honor God. 1 Corinthians 10:31 So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

When you do your daily chores with the right motive, right attitude you honor God.

2 Corinthians 5:9 So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it.

2. Is this goal motivated by love?

God is not going to bless a goal motivated by selfish reasons. God is not going to bless a goal motivated by greed, competition, envy, grief or guilt or grudges, worry or fear or anxiety, materialism or by ego or by pride.

James 4:3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

But when you set a goal out of love where you say, “Lord this goal is because I love you and I want to love other people,” God is going to honor that because it is all about love.

1 Corinthians 16:14 Do everything in love.

1 Corinthians 14:1 Follow the way of love.

Love should be your highest priority.

We must have a desire to love the unloved and the lost. I want to love the people who are hard to love. That should be my goal.

If you set loveless goals, you are going to treat people as projects. You are going to run all over them to get to your goals. You are going to run over your marriage, friends, relatives and others because of your loveless goals.

Our goal should not be primarily about accomplishments but about relationships. It is about learning how to love.

3.Will this goal involve depending on God?

Hebrews 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please God.

If you do not have a goal that does not require faith, then it is not pleasing to God.

Romans 14:23 Anything that does not come from faith is sin.

Proverbs 16:9 In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.

God is very integral in your goal setting. God provides the three things you must have to reach your goal.

Three things you must have to reach your goal.

1. God’s Spirit.

God’s Spirit empowers us. Our goal is not based on will power but God power. It needs God’s Spirit. I need to trust God.

Zechariah 4:6 So he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty.

I need God’s Spirit to empower me and lead me in the process.

2.God’s Word.

God’s word guides us. The Bible is God’s manual for life. The more you read it, study it, meditate on it, the more purposeful and strong you will become.

When Joshua was given a great goal to take over the leadership to the Promised Land, God had these words to say to Joshua. Joshua 1:8 Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.

You will successfully attain the goal of your life, the purpose of your life, if you become a person of the word of God.

Everything you need to know about life is in this book. Psalm 119:105 Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.

3.God’s people.

God’s people support and encourage me. You will not be able to reach your goals on your own. It takes a team to reach your goal. That is why we have small groups, Bible studies, care cells, in our church. We have the youth groups, children’s groups, and men’s groups, and women’s groups in the church. Even during this Covid season, all these groups are active online.

You are not going to anywhere in the crowd.

If you are intentional in growth and reaching your goals, you need to be in a team. A team where people can pray for you, there is someone to encourage you, to support you. You need a community.

Ecclesiastes 4:12 Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.

MSG By yourself you’re unprotected. With a friend you can face the worst. Can you round up a third? A three-stranded rope isn’t easily snapped.

It is like playing football alone with a team on the opposite. You don’t have anyone to protect you. If you are not involved in a small group as a Christian, you are having no one to protect you, to support to, to lift you up, to stand up for you.

Three people are a small group.

Good Goals Will Be Rewarded.

Good goals will be rewarded by God.

If you have good goals, you are going to be rewarded twofold:

Eternal Reward: First you are going to be rewarded by God in eternity. The real reward for setting good goals is going to come in eternity. 1 Corinthians 9:25-26 ²⁵Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. ²⁶Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air.

Secondly, you are going to be rewarded here by giving you the favor of God from people here.

God goals will bring the respect of others.

Proverbs 11:27 Whoever seeks good finds favor.

GNT If your goals are good, you will be respected.

When you have a good goal, it brings respect. It brings honor. When you give your life for a good goal, it builds a legacy for Christ.

ILLUSTRATION

October 2 our nation celebrates the birth of Mahatma Gandhi. Why do the nation celebrate the birth of a man? Gandhi set the goal of his entire life to seek for truth and nonviolence. The whole nation of India, takes one day off to remember Gandhi for his life and contribution.

How much more of an impact we can have if we have goals based on the word of God?

Failure is not final and success is not permanent. You would have failed in the past, but you can start fresh now that you know the biblical principal of goal setting. I must know that I are bound to fail unless God helps me. Never be afraid to rock the boat if Jesus is your captain.

Get A Big Goal For Your Life From God And Start With Short Term Goals.

Some of you listening to me probably would have given up in life. The Covid-19 has brought in a lot of upsets in people. Don’t give up. God has not given up on you. Start all over again.

Set small goals in your big plan.

ILLUSTRATION

If you are going through a surgery. Your first goal will be to see if you can sit up in your bed. Then your next goal is to see if you can free your legs and sit on your bed. The next goal is to see if you have the strength can take one step in the room. The next goal is to see if you can walk in the hospital wing. And then you go home.

All of these goals are very small goals and they are very important goals because to get from where you are now to the future God has for you.

Success is not one big leap, it is many small steps, many small goals accomplished that leads to success.

So I have a big goal, for that I have a short term goal.

I want you to know God and dream about your life, and have a vision and goal for your life. I want you to dream for your life and be used by God like you never imagined.

CONCLUSION

God set goals. Jesus had goals. Apostle Paul had goals. You need to have godly goals in life.You need to start envisioning your life: How do I see myself in my relationship with God? How do I see myself in my relationships? Where do I want to grow in my career? Dream great dreams. Have a vision for your life and trust God.