God's Purpose for You - Free Indeed - Ep. 40

Summary

Barry Bennett argues that people should not think of God’s purpose as one narrow, easily missed “plan.” He prefers to speak of God’s purposes: a broad range of ways to live faithfully. People have free will, and God does not control them like a puppet master. Bennett says God’s thoughts toward them are good, and they can serve him in different ways across different seasons of life.

He illustrates this with the image of a “wide place” from Psalm 18. Rather than walking a tightrope where one wrong step ruins everything, believers can try different forms of service, learn where they bear fruit, and let their focus develop over time. Bennett describes his own varied experience—including evangelism, prison ministry, missions, pastoring, teaching, and other service—as examples of this flexibility.

Core Purposes and Practical Guidance

Bennett presents the following as foundational purposes for believers:

1. Fellowship with God

   • Bennett calls this the primary purpose and the foundation for everything else.
   • Spend time with God, engage with Scripture, pray, and grow in relationship with him.
   • He connects this to Jesus’ teaching about abiding in the vine: spiritual fruit grows out of ongoing fellowship with God.

2. Walk in love

   • Love others, forgive them, and seek to be a blessing in everyday relationships.
   • Bennett says this is a present, practical calling—not something to postpone until a more distinctive ministry appears.

3. Care for family

   • If married, love and serve one’s spouse.
   • If raising children, love, bless, teach, and nurture them in the things of God.
   • Bennett treats these responsibilities as meaningful purposes in their own right.

4. Be faithful at work and in leadership

   • Employees should work diligently, be dependable, and avoid gossip, criticism, and divisiveness.
   • Managers and leaders should act with love, wisdom, and compassion rather than pursuing advancement at others’ expense.
   • Christlike conduct in ordinary responsibilities is part of living out one’s purpose.

5. Pursue health and a flourishing inner life

   • Bennett cites the biblical hope of prosperity, health, and a thriving soul.
   • He encourages spiritual growth, comparing a person rooted in God to a fruitful tree planted by water.

6. Be salt and light

   • Reveal God’s goodness to others through one’s character and actions.
   • Live by God’s standards and be a positive influence in the world.

7. Reflect God’s goodness

   • Bennett describes the church’s shared calling as making God’s goodness visible.
   • He links this to faith and spiritual strength, which he says flow from fellowship with God and a life shaped by love.

How to Approach a Distinctive Calling

• Start with fellowship with God and the everyday responsibilities already in front of you.
• Try different forms of service, such as community outreach, worship, small groups, teaching, or helping people in need.
• Notice where your efforts bear fruit, and allow your focus to develop through experience.
• Don’t force opportunities through competition or by mistreating others. Bennett suggests that further opportunities may arise as a person grows and serves faithfully.
• Trust that a distinctive role, if one emerges, can take shape over time. Believers need not live anxiously, fearing they have missed God’s purpose.

Bennett uses Jesus’ dependence on the Father as an example: Jesus said he acted in accordance with what he saw the Father doing. The lesson, in Bennett’s framing, is to rely on communion with God rather than trying to manufacture a calling through sheer ambition.

Speakers and Sources Featured

• Speaker: Barry Bennett, teacher at Charis Bible College in Woodland Park, Colorado.
• Biblical sources cited: Jeremiah 29:11; Psalm 18:1–19; 1 Corinthians 1:9; John 15:4 and 5:19; Ephesians 5:2 and 5:25; 1 Thessalonians 2:11; Psalm 1:3; Matthew 5:13–14; 2 Thessalonians 1:11; and 3 John 1:2.