Illus: Even the hobo on skid row has a purpose for living. WHAT IS HIS PURPOSE FOR LIVING? Everyday his purpose for living is to DRINK ALL THE BOOZE HE CAN GET FOR THAT DAY! And when he wakes up the next day the process starts all over again.
Illus: One man had a goal in life. He was going to marry a rich young lady so that he would not have to work. This was his purpose for living each day. Every day, he did everything he could do to accomplish that goal. He finally got engaged to a rich girl, and she discovered he was after her money. She said to him, “The only reason you want to marry me is because my daddy left me a lot of money.” He said, “That’s not true. I didn’t care who left you the money!”
Some student’s goal in life is to make the very best grade they are capable of making. This is good! But sometimes that goal is not always achievable! There are obstacles that keep us from achieving that goal.
Illus: A young man had studied hard for a zoology test he had to take. He spent days and nights studying to make the best grade he could make.
When he showed up for the test he was surprised, because nothing he had studied was on the test. Instead, the professor had placed ten birdcages with birds in them before the class, and had them covered up, and all you could see was the bird’s legs. The test was for the students to look at the bird’s legs, and tell what kind of bird it was. He looked and he could not tell. He got so frustrated that he went to the professor and said very loudly, this is the stupidest test I have ever taken. He threw the test on his desk and walked out of the class. The class was large, and the professor did not know all the students by name. The professor said, “Young man what is your name?” He raised his trousers up and said, “You guess, buddy! You guess!”
As we look across a congregation of this size, you might be sitting close to someone that you do not know that well. But if you got to know them, you would soon find out what makes them tick!
That is, YOU WOULD DISCOVER WHAT THEIR PURPOSE FOR LIVING EACH DAY IS!
Every one of us has a purpose for living. I want to ask you something that is very important, “What is your purpose in life?” Every person has some purpose in life.
Today we will look at some of the purposes people live for each day. And before we close, I would like to show you from God’s Word WHAT OUR PURPOSE FOR LIVING IN LIFE SHOULD BE.
It is obvious today that many are living their lives for the wrong purposes. For example:
I. SOME PEOPLE LIVE FOR PLEASURE
I say SOME LIVE FOR PLEASURE, but it would more accurate to say that MANY wake up each morning with one thing on their mind - TO SEEK PLEASURE WHEREVER THEY CAN FIND IT.
Our society has been described as a hedonistic society. WHAT IS THAT? Hedonism is a way of life devoted to pleasure.
There is nothing wrong with seeking pleasure, but there is something wrong when all that a society cares about is PLEASURE! Let me give you an example.
Illus: Our precious young people have been brainwashed into believing that their every waking moment should be spent seeking pleasure.
They spend their lives seeking pleasures among their friends, and when they are alone they have got to be watching television, or listening to music.
Put them in a room without their friends, television, and without music and they would literally go berserk!
Their every waking moment has got to be FUN TIME.
Some might be saying, what is wrong with that?
There is a lot wrong with that. Life is not to be taken as one big giant party, life is a mixture of many things.
The Book of Ecclesiastes points out that in a balanced life, there is time for many things.
Look at Ecclesiastes 3:1-8. We read, “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.”
What is Solomon saying in this passage of scripture? He is saying that life is not one big party as some try to make it to be.
There is a time for PLEASURE, but we have to realize that life consists of more than just pleasure. In this hedonistic society, we need to teach our children that there is more to life than a good time.
Illus: You see, if a child is always partying with their friends, listening to television and music when are they going to have:
• Time to talk with God
• Time for God to talk to them
• Time to Meditate on the things of God
• Time to think seriously about life’s problems
A HEDONISTIC SOCIETY WAS THE DOWNFALL OF NOAH’S GENERATION.
Look at Matthew 24:38-39. We read, “For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, 39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.”
Notice, Noah’s generation was having such a JOYFUL time, the Bible says in verse 39, “And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away…”
But notice something else; look at the verse that precedes this passage. Look at verse 37. We read, “But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.”
DID YOU GET THAT?
The Lord said that before He returns for his church, the society existing at that time would be like Noah’s generation.
The age in which we live is an age of seeking PLEASURE! Many wake up each day for one purpose, to seek PLEASURE. If it does not feel good they do not want a thing to do with it.
II. SOME PEOPLE LIVE FOR POPULARITY
You can ask people in our society:
• Why do you have all those rings in your nose, ears, eyelids, and tongue?
• Why do you wear your pants so low that it looks like they are about to fall off?
• Why do you wear that weird hair-do?
• Why do you drink alcoholic beverages?
• Why do you smoke?
• Why do you take drugs?
• Why do you young fellow want to wear your hair long like a girl.
Illus: A preacher asked a young man this question about his hair, and he said, “Because my girl friend likes me to look like that.” The preacher very politely told him, he needed to get another girlfriend because he would not date a girl that wanted him to look like her sister!
You can go on and on about WHY THEY DO THE THINGS THEY DO, and many times they will tell you that the only reason they got involved in these things was because they wanted to please the crowd they hang out with, and everyone else is doing it.
That is, they know that if they do not do these things, they will not be popular.
Illus: More than a hundred years ago, Soren Kierkegaard warned that the age of the crowd was upon us. In such an age, said Kierkegaard, people would not think of deciding for themselves. They would follow the advice given to children going off to a party: "Look and see what the others are doing and then behave like them." (Cited by Kenneth Hamilton, The Irrelevance of Relevance. Christianity Today, March 1972.)
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO INDIVIDUALS?
In our society today, many live their lives for the wrong purposes, all we have is a bunch of carbon copies.
Listen, when people tell us we are not like everyone else, we ought to want to hug their necks. Why? Because God does not want us to be like everyone else!
Illus: (Humor) If God wanted us to look alike, He would have made us all twins. And as I look at some of you this does not excite me at all!
God created us as individuals for a very special reason.
Illus: Nebuchadnezzar built a statue that everyone was to bow down before at the sound of the music. But when everyone was doing what the next fellow beside them was doing, there were three still standing, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They refused to bow to the god of Nebuchadnezzar.
Listen, when you follow the crowd, you have to always remember that the road to hell is BROAD, and many there be that go that way. And when the blind lead the blind they both fall into the ditch.
Listen, we ought to all strive to live our lives being RIGHT rather than being POPULAR.
Illus: When Barry Goldwater got the nomination for the Republican Party, he was conservative on the issues. He refused to compromise what he believed, and he lost the election. At the next convention, he was one of the keynote speakers, and he was introduced as the “Man who had rather be right than be President!”
But the lost world in which we live had rather be POPULAR than be RIGHT! POPULARITY is the PURPOSE of the World.
You can be POPULAR today. All you need to do is do what the people want you to do and you can be popular.
• Dress like they do
• Talk like they talk
• Go where they go
• Engage in the activities they enjoy
Do these things and you can be popular!
Pilate released Jesus to the crowd so they could crucify Him. Why? Because he was a politician that wanted to please the people!
But listen, there are times we have to look the crowd in the face and say, “I am not going to do that because I know it will displease the Lord. And I’d rather please the Lord than to please you people.”
Some people live each waking moment compromising everything the Word of God teaches. Why? Because they live for POPULARITY!
III. SOME PEOPLE LIVE FOR PRIDE
Some wake up in the morning and the one thing they seek to do that day is to MAKE AN IMPRESSION on people that they associate with.
• Some drive cars they can not really afford
• Some live in homes they can not really afford
• Some wear clothes they can not afford
To these people the one big thing in life is to be a BIG SHOT! These people walk around trying so hard to look like a big shot with their nose up in the air, it is a wonder they do not drown when it rains.
Let me give you an example of how some people will go through the trouble of trying to look like a big shot.
Illus: A couple in Columbia, SC, were going to get married. She came from a very affluent family. They did not have to pretend they were wealthy, they were wealthy. He came from an average family that did not have a lot of money. But before the wedding, his family decided they would throw a party for both families and for those who were going to participate in the wedding. They arranged to have it in a large church fellowship hall.
This father and mother spent all kinds of money decorating the building. They had everything color coordinated, and the food was out of this world. Everyone there was impressed! One of her sisters called her aside and said, “How can you afford to spend this kind of money on a wedding supper like this?” She said, “We cannot afford it, but did not want her side of the family to think we were poor!”
Listen, this crowd that lives for PRIDE, will do anything to look like they are something.
There are people like this that wake up each day, and their purpose in life that day is to try and IMPRESS someone into thinking they are something, when they are nothing.
They need to realize that it was PRIDE that was the PURPOSE OF LUCIFER.
Look at Isa. 14:12-15, "How art thou fallen from heaven, 0 Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit."
Prov. 16:18, "Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall."
Some people:
• Live for Pleasures
• Live for Popularity
• Live for Pride
But -
IV. SOME PEOPLE LIVE AS PAUL
Every day Paul woke up, he had one purpose in life.
WHAT WAS IT? Look at Phil. 1:21 "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain."
Every day Paul woke up with one thing on his mind and that was to LIVE FOR CHRIST. He looked for ways he could serve the Lord.
Look at Rom. 14:8, "For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's.”
• We need to recognize that God placed us here for a purpose, and we need to be determined to fulfill God’s plan for our life each day.
HOW DO WE DO THAT? WE DO IT ONE DAY AT A TIME. Each day God opens doors for us to serve, and we are to step through those doors.
And when God places doors before us, we have to be determined that we are going to step through those doors.
Paul was. Look at Acts 20:24. We read, "But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.”
• Our PURPOSE in life should be to ATTAIN CHRIST-LIKENESS
Phil. 3:13,14, “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."
Conclusion:
We all have PURPOSE in life. The question is, “What is YOUR PURPOSE in life?”
Is your PURPOSE:
• PLEASURE
• POPULARITY
• PRIDE
Or is your PURPOSE - TO LIVE FOR CHRIST!
Won't you PURPOSE today to KNOW CHRIST, and to live your life IN CHRIST?
I. SOME PEOPLE LIVE FOR PLEASURE
II. SOME PEOPLE LIVE FOR POPULARITY
III. SOME PEOPLE LIVE FOR PRIDE
IV. SOME PEOPLE LIVE AS PAUL
