I recently updated my iPhone operating system to iOS 16. Right after I did so, the operating system was wreaking havoc on my phone battery. Something was definitely not right. Something was not working. My phone was not operating correctly.

Do you ever feel like in life that perhaps you are not operating correctly? Do you feel like something is broken? Do you feel like something is not quite right?

When I had a problem with my phone, I jumped on Google to see if I could find a solution. I think I may have found it but I’m not sure.

What if I told you that I found a solution for how to fix what’s not right in your life? What if I told you that I found a solution to fix what’s not right in this world? What if I told you that I found out how you can thrive?

Today’s message is entitled, “How do you thrive?”

So, let’s learn how you thrive and let’s learn how I thrive. Before we do, let’s go to the Lord in prayer.

(prayer)

As we look at how you can thrive, we’re going to learn about four realities that you must realize in order to thrive.

First, you must . . .

I. Understand your purpose.

I’m going to get right to it: your purpose is to know God and enjoy Him. That’s why you were put on this earth.

God created you and has a purpose for your life.

God’s Word, the Bible, tells us in Genesis 1:27, “So God created man in his own image; he created him in the image of God; he created them male and female.”

God not only created you, He created you in His image. You are special among all the rest of creation because God created you to be special.

When God began to give instructions for how the people of the earth should live their lives we learn that He gave this very important command, which Jesus would later say was the most important command. God said in Deuteronomy 6:5, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.”

So, we are on this earth to love God with everything that we have. That is part of our purpose in life.

Not only are we to love God with everything but we are also to glorify Him with everything.

A man who was radically changed by Jesus, the apostle Paul, said in 1 Corinthians 10:31, “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God.”

To glorify God means to acknowledge and celebrate God for who He is and what He has done; it means we celebrate the Godness of God.

We were also created to delight in God.

Psalm 37:4 says, “Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you your heart’s desires.”

So, not only are we to take joy in God but we are designed by God to be blessed when we take joy in Him.

So, here’s what we learn from the Bible. God created us to love Him, glorify Him, and delight in Him.

God’s design for you, or we might say your purpose, is to love God, glorify God, and delight in God; and when you fulfill this purpose in your life you will thrive!

So, first, we must understand God’s purpose.

Second, you must . . .

II. Understand your predicament.

We have a big problem. Here it is: when it comes to what we can do by our own ability, none of us are able to fulfill our purpose in life.

Why? Why have we not fulfilled our purpose? Why are we unable to fulfill our purpose? You see God has a design for us but we have all rejected God’s design.

Rather than love God with all that we have, we have loved other things.

We have loved ourselves, we have loved others more than God, we have loved things, we have loved evil, and we have loved many other things rather than love God and more than we love God.

Rather than glorify God in all that we have, we have glorified other things.

We have tried to glorify ourselves, we have glorified celebrities, we have glorified politicians, we have glorified athletes, we have glorified pastors, we have gloried many other people rather than glorify God and more than we have glorified God.

Rather than delight ourselves i