The goal of the Christian life is to live in the presence of God, where all of life is seen as being unfolded beneath his gaze, under his authority, unto his glory.

When you wake up in the morning, what's your goal for the day? Do your goals change if you look ahead five, ten, fifteen years?

Hi, I'm Nathan Delby Bingham, and welcome to Renewing Your Mind. A businessman once asked our C-Sprull that question,

what's the big idea? What is the goal of the Christian life? And in a message recorded in the late 1980s, a message that's never been featured on Renewing Your Mind before, and was originally released exclusively,

Philly Gineer's Ministry partners, he answers that question. And it's a wonderful message. It captures Dr. Sprull's passion, his clarity, and even his sense of humor. So I'm sure that you're going to want to share it with your family and friends. Here's Dr. Sprull.

How many of you have ever been called a fanatic about Christianity? I mean, it seems in our culture that if we manifest any kind of exuberance or zeal, or excitement about Christ, that we are instantly labeled a fanatic.

If we manifest the same exuberance on Sunday afternoon at three-verberestadians, we're simply a fan, and that's all right. That's tolerable, but I wonder what the difference is between a fan and a fanatic.

Well, I once heard a definition of a fanatic that went like this. It said, a fanatic is a person who having lost sight of his goal

redoubles his effort to get there.

And that makes sense to me. A fanatic is somebody who passionately pursues something while he's running around in all directions and has no idea exactly what his target is or what his goal should be.

And I think that that is a major problem that we find in living out the Christian life, that we're not always sure where we're headed, what the goal is.

I got an opportunity a couple of weeks ago to speak to a prominent businessman in Orlando.

And this man is called the Wizard of Wall Street. He's a financial genius. He's a very earnest Christian and has been for years.

He looked at me and he said with great sobriety, he said, or, see, what's the big idea?

That reminded me of certain things as well. When he used that language with me, what's the big idea? I had a flashback. I saw my mother in the kitchen with her hands on her hips saying, young man, what's the big idea?

But when this prominent businessman in Orlando asked me that question, it really wasn't a thinly veiled accusation. It was a genuine question.

And when he was asking was this, he said, what is the big idea of the Christian life?

And he went on to say how in the business world, he was impressed by certain entrepreneurial geniuses who established not only 10 year goals for their companies, but who worked out their company's goals for 50 years into the future.

And I thought, wow. And he said, now, that's what I want to think like, not only as a businessman, but as a Christian. What is the overarching goal that I'm using my energy and my efforts as a Christian to achieve?

And I said, well, let me tell you what I think is the goal. And I'll do that for you now before I turn to the new test. Immediately, Latin phrase jumped into my mind. Latin phrases do that. I never know whether they're going to jump into my mind and what clause that they'll come from.

But my students at the seminary say that if there's a theological concept, Brawl has a Latin phrase for it. So we just can't do theology without the mother tongue here.

But the Latin phrase that jumped into my mind is a Latin phrase that every Christian knows and embraces, and it's a second language to them. And that is this Latin phrase that you've all heard, quorum dao.

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