Living a Purpose Driven Life
(Why am I Here?)
Brian A. Moon
(Based on the Book "The Purpose Driven Life" by Rick Warren)
I am so glad that each of you has decided to be here tonight because we are about to begin an amazing journey that will lead us to new and exciting places.
Welcome to the 40 Days of Purpose… for those of you who may not know we are beginning a 40-day look into why we are here. Not here as why are we here in this room, but why are we here on earth, why do we exist, why am I alive? All of us in this place right now either have asked those questions or will at some point in their lives. There is something about the way reality is constructed that makes our little brains ask and wonder why am I alive. And it also makes us wonder things like does my life even matter, and even questions like do I have a purpose in life?
Those are the three great questions in life and we begin tonight looking into the first.
The first great question in life is, why am I alive?
When I was in college I minored in philosophy, which is a very difficult subject for most, but for some reason I am able to understand it very easily and tonight I will share philosophy in a nut-shell for you. Are you ready? Here it is… Philosophy is a bunch of men who have way to much time on their hands sitting around trying to figure the same question we are, why am I here? That is it… not real hard! But seriously these are important questions and they are questions that even the Bible talks about. Jeremiah was a guy in the Bible who lived a long time ago lets say 2,600 years ago and he said this:
“Why was I born? Was it only to have trouble and sorrow and to end my life in disgrace?” Jeremiah 20:18 TEV
As you can see trying to figure this question out can be a bit difficult and frustrating. I once heard someone say that, “I hope life isn’t a joke because I don’t get it…” But I want us to get it, God wants us to get it! He made us and he knows why he did it so maybe he might just have the answers. Throughout your life though you are going to here many different people try to tell you why you are. They will tell you things like look within yourself to find the meaning of life or if you go to some of the bookstores on college campuses you will find a lot of self – help books that try to get you to believe that the answer is to invent your own purpose… But all of these new age and self-help tools to discover your purpose in life are all flawed and here’s why.
Your purpose in life, the reason you were made is bigger than you! You can look within yourself and try to self improve yourself all you want and reach ultimate success in the world eyes but still wind up like this:
For example, H.G. Wells, famous historian and philosopher, said at age 61: "I have no peace. All life is at the end of the tether." The poet Byron said, "My days are in yellow leaf, the flowers and fruits of life are gone, the worm and the canker, and the grief are mine alone." The literary genius Thoreau said, "Most men live lives of quiet desperation." Ralph Barton, one of the top cartoonists of the nations, left this note pinned to his pillow before taking his own life: "I have had few difficulties, many friends, great successes; I have gone from wife to wife, from house to house, visited great countries of the world, but I am fed up with inventing devices to fill up twenty-four hours of the day."
You see you were made for a far greater purpose than just finding ultimate success or comfort or happiness because, You were made for God’s purposes! That’s right the reason you are here, the answer to why am I here is summed up in one little phrase… You were made for God. And until you realize that truth, that you were made for God’s purposes then your life will never make a bit of sense! You will look inside yourself for an answer and all you will find is more questions, and you can work on inventing a purpose for your life and work until your old and gray and your life will still not make sense unless you come to the realization that you were made for God’s purpose’s! There is a reason you are alive and it is for God! Think about it a life without a purpose if no life worth living. People who just walk around aimlessly are doomed to fail!
It is kind of like Alice in the fairy tale Alice in Wonderland. In a conversation between her 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.
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!
The Bible says, “The Lord has made everything for his own purposes.” Proverbs 16:4 GW
Circle the words “His own”
The reason so many people live frustrated, confused, and restless lives is because everything was made for God’s purposes. When you try to live your life for your purpose you end up working against all creation because it all was made for God’s purposes! Everything from birds to dirt was made by God for God. That includes all of us in this room right now, all of us were made for a purpose, in fact we were made for 5 basic purposes that sum up the entire Bible. And those 5 purposes are what we are going to be spending the next 40 days discovering. But, tonight know that the reason God made you and gave you these purposes is because he loves you.
The Bible says, “Long before he laid down the earth’s foundations he had us in mind. And he settled on us as the focus of his love to be made whole and holy by his love.” Ephesians 1:4 MSG
Circle the words “focus of his love”
You were made to be the focus of God’s amazing love!
Think about that… God has made each one of us to be the thing that he focuses all his love on. And if that is not enough to make you feel important think about what else that last verse says, it says that before God made the earth he had you in mind. Look around us at all the beauty and wonderful things that God has created in this earth and each one of them are for us and for our enjoyment! God showed us he loved us before we were even born by making this a beautiful planet. God had you in his mind for one reason and that reason was to love you. And that incredible love is the reason he gave you these 5 purposes to live for.
When you get into a car and go on a trip to some unfamiliar place a map is a good thing to carry along with you to keep you on the right road. Life is definitely the most unfamiliar trip you will ever take and because God loves you so much he gave us these 5 purposes to help keep us on the right road.
God did not give us these purposes to make us miserable, but rather he gave these to us so that we can have life and have it to the fullest extreme!
Before we mentioned that another question that people often ask is do I matter?
That is the second great question in life, do I matter?
Does this life of mine, these 70 or 80 years that I might live, have some significance behind them?
Does being a middle school student and a high school student and a college student and an adult and a old person with pants pulled up way to far past my waist matter? A man named Isaiah in the Bible had some similar concerns and he had this to say:
“My work all seems so useless. I have spent my strength for nothing and for no purpose at all.” Isaiah 49:4 NLT
Life is pretty hopeless when you lose sight of your purpose, when you lose sight of the reason you were born.
In World War II there were some prisoners in a Nazi concentration camp in Hungary. They worked in a factory that processed human sewage. One day the Allies came along and blew up that factory which left the prisoners with nothing to do. So the guards had the prisoners take the rubble of that factory and move it to nearby field just for work. The next day they reversed it and had them take the rubble and move it back to the original site. The next day they reversed it and had them take the rubble and move it back to the next site. They did this over and over and over. No meaning to it. No purpose. Just work without meaning. An amazing thing began to happen. The prisoners began to go crazy. They lost hope and many lost their minds. They began to throw themselves in front of the guards in order to be shot, committing suicide because death was more preferable than living life without meaning.
For many people this is the way they live life… going to school, working, and then dying. Even if they are not physically dead they are dead on the inside because life has nothing to fill that empty void inside of them that cries out for significance and meaning. But you can live better than this and that is why I am so passionate about these next 40 Days.
Finding God’s purpose for your life gives you significance and meaning that will give you amazing hope and joy! Many people in this room have grown up in less than perfect homes, with less than perfect parents, showing us less than perfect love. We grow up with the scars and hurts that this brings, and for many it effects their sense of significance. But God loves you with a perfect love and has laid out 5 perfect purposes for your life to give your life meaning. You matter so much to God that the Bible says,
“I (God) am your creator. You were in my care before you were born.” Isaiah 44:2 CEV
While you were still a little embryo in your mother’s womb God had already known you and given you a plan and purpose in this life!
The Bible also says, “You (God) scheduled each day of my life before I began to breathe. Every day was recorded in your book.” Psalm 139:16 TLB
Because God loves you so much has chosen to spare you from a life of meaninglessness and insignificance.
And the more we discover and act upon his purposes for our life, the more we will find why we are here.
One of my favorite lines from the movie The Gladiator was were it was said that, “What happens in this life echo’s in the next.”
And that is why these 5 purposes that we are going to look at for the next 5 weeks are so important. Not only do they give us significance in this life, but they prepare us for the next! Did you know that you were made to exist forever? That’s right you were made to be around far longer than the 70 or 80 years your looking at in this life. This life is just the first page in a novel with no end; it is the dress rehearsal for your eternal existence. That is why it is so important that we commit to these 5 purposes because they effect more than just this life, they will pay off forever!
The Bible says, “When this tent we live in, our body here on earth, is torn down God will have a house in heaven for us to live in, a home that he himself has made which will last forever.”
2 Corinthians 5:1 TEV
So God loves us and gives our life meaning by his purposes, but what about my purpose for being here?
That is the third great question of life, what is my purpose?
As have learned many different people will tell you many different things… The naturalist says that purpose of life is to perpetuate itself, meaning you are here to simply reproduce and keep the human race alive. Wow, that is real exciting… The hedonist like you might see down at Ybor City drinking and dancing the night away says the purpose of life is to have as much fun as long as I can, life is for pleasure. But, life is not always fun and it seems a bit shallow to simply pursue pleasure and nothing else. The materialist says the purpose of life is to get as much stuff as you can and acquire as many possessions as you can. But as the bumper sticker goes, “He who dies with the most toys, still dies!” So what is my purpose in life???
If you leave God out of the equation then there is no point to life because everything is just a random act of nature, BUT, if you do accept God as the creator then he is the only place you will ever find your purpose at. 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.”
As we will discover on this 40 day adventure the more we know God the more life makes sense and the more we find our purpose for living. So if anyone in this room wants to know their personal purpose for their life you must begin by knowing God. I understand that we have some people who are seeking out this God thing and still unsure about it all and I want to personally invite you along for this journey. Thank you for being courageous and honest enough with yourself to realize that maybe there is some truth to this all. I also understand that we have some people that call themselves “Christians” here tonight but you have never really pinned your ears back and really chased this God thing with all your heart. I want to invite you on this journey as well because you will find that there is nothing better than giving God all you have! Finally, I know we have some people who have sold out to God and found the purpose and meaning of life and that is awesome. I invite you to come too because there is no doubt about it, God is about to change all our lives and it will be the most exciting thing you have ever experienced!
The Bible says, “It is in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone.” Ephesians 1:11 MSG
Right now we all stand at a crossroads. We can make a commitment to this next 40 Days of Purpose or we can blow it off. One road requires some work and effort, one road is easy and downhill. My challenge to you tonight is to take the road that will change your life. Make a commitment to these 3 things:
1. Make Sunday Nights a priority and don’t miss a week if you can help it! – This will require some time and sacrifice.
2. If you are signed up for one of our small groups that just started make a commitment to attend them each week. – This will require more time and more sacrifice.
3. Read the assigned chapter in the “Purpose Driven
Life” book each day. This takes dedication.
Remember that this life is the opening act in the production and that you never have any gain without pain. It can be painful to make the time commitment this all will take, but I dare you to try it! No matter who you are or what you come from you matter to God and he wants you to discover the joy and meaning of life by living out his 5 purposes.
The 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.” Acts 10:35 MSG
Prayer Time -----------
God what a joy to be alive and be able to know you and your purposes for our lives. We pray for this next 40 days that you bless us with your knowledge and wisdom in your will for our lives.
If you are one of the people I mentioned earlier, you’re a seeker into this whole God deal, but tonight you know that this is it… this is what you have been searching for then there is good news! 2,000 years ago God sent Jesus Christ his Son to bridge the gap between a perfect God and mistake filled, sinful people like me and you. All that it takes to find this meaning and significance in your life is to accept God’s free gift of salvation.
If that is you and you have never begun a relationship with God through Jesus then cry this prayer out to God as best you know how in your heart.
God I need you in my life. I realize that I am far from perfect and the only way for me to be with you is to accept what Jesus did in dying for my sins and setting me free. God come and save me and forgive. Help me to know your purpose for my life. Amen.
If that was you then the Bible says God will give you the power to be saved and that one day you will spend forever with him.
Thank you God for making this 40 Days of Purpose possible and I thank you in advance for all that you are going to do! Amen.
