Why are you here? A Communion Service Reflection
Tonight I want to ask the question:
WHY ARE YOU HERE?
Have you ever asked yourself, “Why did God permit me to wake up this morning?
Why is my heart still beating, & my lungs still breathing?
Why am I here?
What is the purpose of my existence?”
If you haven’t asked yourself that, you need to, because there is a God given purpose for each of us and to if we want to move forward in your faith this year then each of us need to discover what that purpose really is.
Throughout our lives we can listen to many different opinions, many different voices,
all trying to convince us of why we are here.
People choose who they listen to, and who they model themselves on.
For some people, their goal in life is to be like the latest celebrity,
they choose someone as a role model -
then that person, that idol, does something wrong, crashes out of public life and those who worshiped them briefly mourn and then move on to the next fad or celebrity.
Many people are looking for meaning.
Many people are searching for purpose.
Many in the world believe that we need to look within to find the meaning of life -
that the key to understanding who we are is buried deep inside us.
I was in Southend this week and I had a look in Waterstones and WH Smith and there are shelves and shelves of books dedicated to self-help.
Books that try to get you to believe that the answer is for you to invent your own purpose…
by trying to follow someone elses opinion or idea.
People are realising that self-help tools to discover your purpose in life are flawed and chasing after someone elses life does not bring contentment or real lasting joy.
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Here’s the point.
Our purpose in life, your purpose in life, the reason you were made is bigger than you!
You were made for a far greater purpose than just finding temporary success or comfort or happiness
You were made for God’s purposes!
That’s right the reason you are here,
the answer to the big question of Why are you are here is five words, one little phrase…
You were made for God.
And when you grasp that truth,
that you were made for God’s purposes,
then life can make sense!
All of us in this room right now, all of us were made for a purpose.
The Bible says, “The Lord has made everything for his own purposes.” Proverbs 16:4 (NLT)
You were made for God’s purpose’s!
There is a reason you are here, there is a reason you are alive and it is for God’s purpose!
So many people in this world do not understand their purpose.
They wander around and seek direction from the wrong people and end up in the wrong places.
In the book Alice in Wonderland
There is a conversation between Alice and the Cheshire Cat, Alice asked, “Would you tell me please, which way I ought to go from here?”
“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the cat.
“I don’t much care where,” said Alice.
“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the cat.
BUT it does matter which way you go though,
it does matter what you do with your life
because you have God given purposes to live for!
Maybe your wondering...
DOES IT REALLY MATTER? Do I really matter?
Does this life, the 70, 80, 90 years that I might live, have any significance?
Does my life matter?
Isaiah had some similar concerns and he said:
“My work all seems so useless. I have spent my strength for nothing and for no purpose at all.” Isaiah 49:4 NLT
Life can feel pretty hopeless if you lose sight of your purpose, if you lose sight of the reason you were born.
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In the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes,
King Solomon talks about some of the negative results that arise when we have no purpose.
King Solomon... if anyone should have known the answers it was him.
Solomon had it all.
He had more money than he could ever spend.
He had more possessions than he could ever enjoy.
He had many wives, too many wives.
He even had far greater wisdom than any one else in his day.
He had it all.
Yet in the Ecclesiastes 1, he writes of the negative results that come from not knowing the purpose of life.
When we don’t know the purpose of life, then life will seem empty.
In Ecclesiastes 1:2 Solomon writes, “`Meaningless! Meaningless!’...
`Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.’”
Do you ever feel like that?
Without a real guiding purpose, life doesn’t make a lot of sense does it.
Life can feel hopeless if you lose sight of your purpose, if you lose sight of the reason God made you, if you ignore being the person God has called you to be.
“`Meaningless! Meaningless!’...
`Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.’”
Many people live a life without real meaning…
going to school, working, and then dying.
Even if they are not physically dead,
they seem dead on the inside,
this life offers them nothing suitable to fill the empty void inside of them
Instead of significance and meaning there is only a deep sense of emptyness and unfulfilled dreams.
Friends, finding God’s purpose for your life brings both significance and meaning, it brings amazing hope and joy into our lives.
Your life is important to God. He really does care about the detail of your life.
You matter to God.
While you were still an embryo in your mother’s womb, God had already known you and given you a plan and purpose in this life!
The Bible reminds us in Psalm 139:16:
“You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.”
Understand, God loves you and your life has meaning and purpose and significance.
The truth is the more we discover and act upon his purposes for our life, the more we will find why we are here.
God’s purposes give us significance in this life,
and they prepare us for the next!
If you don’t know the purpose of life, you’ll never be really satisfied. Again Solomon in Ecclesiasties 1:8 said “The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing.”
No matter how much people have, they always seem to want more.
In the UK we have gone from watching one TV channel on a small 7” black & white television for a couple of hours a day to giant 3D HDTV screens, & hi-fi surround sound, 24 hours a day.
Put a 400-channel Satelite TV remote control in our hands & we’ll still be restless and complain there is nothing to watch on TV.
We’re still not content. Why?
Because the things of the world never satisfy us.
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You know you were made to exist forever?
You were created to be around far longer than just this life.
This life is like the first page in a novel that has no end; it is the dress rehearsal for your eternal existence.
The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5:1, “For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands.”
God loves us and gives our life meaning by his purposes, but what about your purpose for being here?
What is your purpose?
Different people will tell you different things…
The humanist says that purpose of life is to perpetuate itself, meaning we are here to keep the human race going you reproduce and then we die.
The hedonist, the person who drinks and dances the night away says the purpose of life is to have as much fun as long as they can, life is for pleasure.
Their lives are often shallow. Life is not always fun and simply pursuing self pleasure and nothing else has no real significance or purpose. And then they die.
The materialist says the purpose of life is to get as much stuff as you can and acquire as many possessions as you can. Often to be in as much debt as you can.
Luke 9:25 says “And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but are yourself lost or destroyed?”
“He who dies with the most toys, still dies!”
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So what is your real purpose in life???
Listen to Ephesians 1:4-5, “Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.”
Long, long ago, even before He created the heavens & the earth, God had mankind in mind.
God, who is love, created us with the sole purpose of being able to focus His love on us, & that we would be His family, adopted sons & daughters through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
And it says that God took great pleasure in planning all of this.
Can you see the sparkle in God’s eyes as He makes His plans for that day when we will be with Him for all eternity?
If you leave God out of the equation then there is no real purpose in life.
Ephesians 1:10 says, “And this is the plan: At the right time He will bring everything together under the authority of Christ—everything in heaven and on earth.”
We’re going to be with God forever.
When the time is right, when the time of waiting is over, Jesus will come & gather us together.
Whether we are in heaven or on earth, He is going to take us to be with Him, forever.
Forever, that means that we’re going to exist a whole lot longer on the other side of death than we lived on this side of it.
When you accept God as your creator, your Lord, your Saviour, then you find your true purpose.
You were made by God and for God! And until you understand that fact your life will seem pointless.
The Bible says, “Knowing God results in every other kind of understanding.”
The more we know God the more life makes sense and the more we find our purpose for living.
Our real purpose in life begins by knowing and trusting Father God.
Our real purpose in life begins by loving and trusting Jesus as Saviour
Our real purpose in life begins by allowing the Holy Spirit to work in transforming our hearts and minds and lives.
We need to be people who are willing to move forward in the purposes of God,
people who are sold out to God,
people who have found the purpose and meaning of life.
Moving forward in faith, forward in the purposes of God.
The Bible says in Ephesians 1:11 “Furthermore, because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for He chose us in advance, and He makes everything work out according to his plan.”
SO WHAT DOES GOD WANT you TO DO?
As I draw the message to a close there are 4 things I want you to grasp.
4 things God wants us to do with our lives.
The first one is this. God wants us to get to know Him. That makes sense, doesn’t it?
If we are a part of His family, & He is our heavenly Father, He would like us to know Him.
Now, how do you get to know somebody?
Well, you spend time with Him, & talk with Him.
You do things together, & take Him with you wherever you go.
Will you move forward in faith with Him?
Will you grow closer to Him?
The second thing that God wants us to do is to become like Christ.
That makes sense too, doesn’t it? If your a member of His family, & if God is your Father, then you need to take on family characteristics.
Just as my children have some of my traits because we’re family, I should exhibit some of the traits of Jesus because we’re family, too.
God is busy trying to form His character in our lives, to make us like Jesus.
That has always been His goal.
We can be so sure that in every detail in our lives God is at work.
Things happen to us in life - some good, some bad.
Why do they happen? Because God is building Christ-like character in our lives.
Third thing. God wants us to have a servant heart.
Why? Perhaps the best model of having a servant heart in the Bible is Jesus.
Remember when Jesus put the towel around His waist & washed the feet of the Apostles.
God tells us, “I want you to be like Him.” I want you to be willing to serve others.
Finally, there is one more thing that God wants us to do - that is to share our life’s purpose with others.
Why does God keep us around?
Because the plan that God has for telling others about His purpose is for those who have found the purpose to share it.
Once we understand our purpose in life, that this is preparation for eternity, God wants us to tell as many other people as we can.
Right now it’s decision time
This life is pre-school. This life is dress rehearsal.
This life is a time to get ready because we’re going to live a lot longer on the other side of death than we’re going to live on this side.
We may live 70, 80 or 90 years here.
But that is just a tiny little speck on eternity, because we’re going to live forever with God.
So the purpose we’re alive, the reason we are here is to get us ready for eternity.
That’s the purpose for our existence.
You can make a commitment to pursue the purpose of God in your life or you can choose to shut the door.
One door requires some work and effort and leads you up to the Lord and His will for your life.
The other door may seem easier but it leads downhill.
Acts 10:35 in The Message Bible says, “It makes no difference who you are or where you’re from. If you want God and you’re ready to do as he says the door is open.”
My challenge to you tonight is to take the door that will change your life for the better.
Make a real commitment to God to follow His ways, His will, His purpose in your life.
Make a real commitment to move forward in faith.
