This is Dr. Pete Norris from The Beauty of Grace Podcast. We would love to hear from you.
Welcome to today's program. The beauty of grace and I'm pastor Pete Norris of Harvard fellowship, church, Goldsboro, North Carolina. And today I want to talk to you about seeing our way clear, you know, so many times we wonder, and we question the clarity of why we're here, our existence, and why do we belong here? What's our purpose for being here. Wallace Stevens says the way through the world is more difficult to find than the way beyond it. And I think that's a tremendous revelation. He said this the way through the world is more difficult to find than the way beyond it. And I think that's pretty clear with most of us is we questioned the identity of what's my purpose for being here. What's my reason for being here. You know, I believe the glory of God is when man is fully alive and you say, well, pastor, what do you mean by man being fully alive? You know, a simple prayer rises from my heart. Jesus, take away the fog and the clouds and the veil and Help to help me to see, give me eyes to really see, you know, Jesus and John 10and 10 and said, the thief does not come except to steal, to kill and to destroy. But I come that you might have life and that you may have it more abundantly. Now,
A lot of people,
I believe Jesus has just come to forgive him. And there's no doubt about that. He has come to forgiveness to forgive us and forgiveness is awesome. But Jesus said that he came to give us life. He came not just to forgive us, but to us, to have life. And when I think about that life , what does that really mean? What does that really look like? What's the composure of why I'm here. And so many people ask me all the time, pastor, what am I really doing here? What's the purpose of me being here? Well, you know, we get married, we have children, we're born, we grow up, we get married, we have children and then we retire and then we die. And then what's the real purpose of all that. Well, I believe the purpose of that is we He came that we may have life, you know, in John 10, 10, the thief come to steal, kill and destroy it.
Most people believe that that's the devil that he come to steal and he come to kill and he come to destroy and he come to do all those things. But the great thing about this is that's not talking about the devil in John 10, 10, that's thought talking about false teachers and false prophets. And people saying things that don't line up with the word. And if anything has happened in the world, religion has really Rose up and is killing us. And, and, and it's the stealing from us. And it's destroying us and Jesus come to give us life and to give us life more abundance, not just give us life, but give us life more abundantly. You know, the scripture is very plain in first Corinthians 15 and 54. So when this corruptible shall take on incorruption and the mortal shall take immortality, then shall we be brought to pass and saying, this is written.
Death is swallowed up in victory. Now I want you to look at that. Death has been swallowed up in life. So life has overcome death, even though we're so death minded in our relationship, there was a death minded in our speech. We're so death minded in our thinking, I want you to realize today in Colossians chapter three, verse four, when Christ, who is our life shall appear, he shall also appear. We shall also appear with him. You're going to appear with him, who is our life. He said, I come to give you a life. And he is our life. That's a more miraculous understanding of the wisdom of that. You and I are fully of life. When we, the glory of God, the glory. See, we thinking about a vapor coming down and overtaking people and the glory of God overwhelming a church servic
