MELVIN M. NEWLAND
RIDGE CHAPEL, KANSAS, OK
(REVISED: 2020)
TEXT: Ecclesiastes 1:1-14; Ephesians 1:4-5,10 (Msg);
(Slide #1 – We Remember)
As most of you listening to me this morning know, my family – my parents, a younger sister, & two younger brothers – were prisoners of the Japanese during World War 2. When they set sail for the Philippines in January of 1941 I was left behind for further schooling – with plans for me to join them later.
But then came Pearl Harbor, the start of World War 2, & the Japanese invasion of the Philippines – & for most of the war years there was no news concerning what had happened to them. I didn’t know whether they were alive or dead.
I learned later that when the Japanese invaded their island of Cebu that they decided not to surrender, but to flee into the interior, to live & minister in the high jungles among the primitive mountain peoples.
For 6 months they lived up in the mountains, & were even able to start 4 churches among the mountain peoples. Finally, the Japanese Army learned that they were still somewhere on the island & began searching for them – but with no success for the mountain people hid them & protected them.
Then the Japanese printed leaflets & began dropping them by airplane all over the island, setting a deadline for their surrender, & warning them that after that deadline no mercy would be shown & that they would be shot on sight.
So they finally surrendered, & did so in such a way that the Japanese would have no way of knowing where they had been, or what villages had sheltered them.
Thus began nearly 3 years of captivity. At first, as civilians, they were not too badly treated by Oriental standards. But then, when the tide of war turned against the Japanese, all foreign prisoners IN the Philippines were moved to Manila.
And there the Japanese Army began taking out its anger on them, deliberately starving them – men, women & children – even while the prison storehouses were full of food.
For the last 10 months of their imprisonment they received only one watery cup of rice per person per day, plus salt & any weeds, grass, tree leaves or bugs that they could find to eat.
There were nearly 4,000 civilian prisoners in Santo Tomas, the name of their internment camp there in Manila.
And during the last few weeks of their imprisonment an average of 7 men a day died of starvation. My father, who normally weighed over 175 lbs., weighed only 95 lbs. when they were rescued.
Yes, they were rescued. On Feb. 3rd, 1945, the American Army was still 60 miles away from Manila when they learned that the Commandants of the Prisons in Manila had received orders that on the next morning all male prisoners in both the civilian & military prisons were to be executed & that the women & children were to be used as human shields against the American forces.
That’s when 900 men of the 1st Cavalry Division were given orders to get into their tanks & trucks &, in the darkness of night, barrel their way as fast as they could right down the highway through 60 miles of enemy territory, making as much noise as they could to make the Japanese think the entire Army was behind them.
That night these 900 brave men, on what many considered a “suicide mission,” crashed though the enemy lines & charged into a city containing nearly 50,000 Japanese soldiers.
They broke into the military & civilian prisons & held them secure against repeated counterattacks for almost 3 weeks until the rest of the American forces fought their way into Manila to relieve them.
It was because of 900 men that my family & many others were saved, & I will never forget their bravery & the sacrifice that they made.
(Slide #2 – Arlington National Cemetery)
So please understand me when I say that I have a little difficulty during this time of the year as our nation pauses to remember the price that has been paid for our freedoms, & not our freedoms only, but the freedom that many others now enjoy.
(Slide #3 - World War 2 Memorial)
As a nation, tomorrow is celebrated as Memorial Day, & in Washington D.C., among many other places, some will gather at the WW 2 Memorial to remember & honor those who served in WW 2.
(Slide #4 - Wall of Stars)
And in that Memorial there is a wall of stars, each one commemorating the ultimate sacrifice of our men & women during that war.
(Slide # 5 - D-Day - Normandy)
Then a few days later we, & some among the allied nations of WW 2, will pause again to mark the 76th Anniversary of D-Day (1944), & remember the events of that day, & to express our debt to those who paid the ultimate price for that victory.
(Slide #6 - Scroll)
Then 16 years ago (2004) as we were remembering D-Day, we & much of the world, found ourselves mourning once again at the death of Pres. Ronald Reagan.
The reason I mention him this morning is because I want us to consider something he said, & which is engraved upon his tomb:
“I know in my heart that man is good. That what is right will eventually triumph. And there’s purpose & worth to each & every life.”
(Slide #7 - There is a purpose!)
Have you ever asked yourself, "Why did God permit me to wake up this morning? Why is my heart still beating? Why am I here? What is the purpose of my existence?"
PROP. If you haven't asked that, you need to, because there is a reason why God has permitted you & me to be here.
I believe it is important for us to know the answer to that question because if we don't, there can be all kinds of negative results.
And in the O.T. book of Ecclesiastes, King Solomon talks about negative results that arise when we have no purpose.
Now King Solomon, if anyone, should have known the answer. I mean, Solo-mon had it all. He had money more than he could ever spend. He had possessions more than he could ever enjoy. He had wives more than he could ever please.
He even had wisdom far greater than any one else in his day. He had it all. Yet for a while, at least, he didn't have a real grasp on the purpose of life.
I. LIFE WITHOUT A PURPOSE
A. Look with me at the 1st chapter of Ecclesiastes, & let's consider some of the negative results that come from not knowing the purpose of life.
1. First of all, when you don't know the purpose of life, then life will seem empty. In vs. 2 Solomon writes, “Meaningless! Meaningless!... Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.”
Have you ever felt that way? Without some guiding purpose, life doesn't make much sense at all!
2. Secondly, when you don't know the purpose of life, then life can be an endless cycle of futility. In vs's 4, 5, & 6 Solomon says such things as, "Generations come and generations go... The sun rises & the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises," & "The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes..."
So life becomes like a merry go round going round & round, yet never getting anywhere. And Solomon gives this result in vs. 8, "All things are wearisome, more than one can say." In other words, "It's wearing me out."
3. Thirdly, when you don't know the purpose of life, you'll never be really satisfied. Notice the last part of vs. 8, "The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing."
We always want more. We have gone from 10" black & white TVs to giant screens, & hi fidelity, stereo phonic, surround sound. But we're still not content.
4. Fourthly, when you don't know its purpose, life itself will seem insignificant.
Listen to vs. 11, "There is no remembrance of men of old, and even those who are yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow."
That's depressing, isn't it? And I don't like to talk about depressing things. Yet we've only begun to scratch the surface of the life that Solomon describes as empty, meaningless, futile, insignificant, & out of control.
II. HOW TO DISCOVER GOD'S PURPOSE
A. Now if your life is anything like that, I want you to know that God does have a purpose for your life & for mine.
Listen to this passage in God’s Word, "Long before He laid down earth's foundation, He had us in mind. He had settled on us as the focus of His love to be made whole & holy by His love." (Ephesians 1:4-5 Msg) These verses tell us that 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.
B. The Bible also says, "And this was His purpose, that when the time is ripe He will gather us all together from wherever we are in heaven or on earth to be with Him in Christ, forever." (Ephesians 1:10)
Did you hear that? We're going to be with God forever. When the time is ripe, when the time of waiting is over, God will come & gather us together. Whether we are in heaven or on earth, He is going to take us to be with Him, forever.
APPL. So now at last I'm ready to give you the purpose of life that we talked about at the very beginning of this sermon. "The purpose of life is to prepare us for eternity."
This life is pre-school. This life is a 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 more than 90 years here. But that is just a tiny speck on the yardstick of life, because we're going to live forever with God. So the reason we're alive, the reason God has left us here is to get us ready for eternity. That's the reason for our existence.
III. WHAT GOD WANTS US TO DO
And there are 4 things God wants us to do with the years we have while we're here. Let me put it this way, "There are 4 things God wants me to do with my life."
#1. God wants me to get to know Him. Now that makes sense. We talked about this last Sunday. If I'm a part of His family, & He is my heavenly Father, He would like me to know Him.
Now, how do you get to know someone? As I said last Sunday, you spend time with Him, talk with Him, & listen to Him.
And the Bible also teaches that I can learn to know God by coming to know Jesus. Jesus Himself said, "Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father." (John 14:9) In following Jesus I'm following God.
#2. God wants me to become like Christ. The best model of being Christ like you will find in Scripture is of Jesus putting the towel around His waist & washing the feet of the Apostles. And God tells us, "I want you to be like Him."
If I'm a member of His family, & if God is my Father, then I ought 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.
So God is busy trying to form His character in our lives, to make us like Jesus. That has always been His goal.
#3. God wants me to serve Him by serving others. The world defines greatness in terms of power, possessions, prestige, & position. If you can demand service from others, you have arrived!
Jesus, however, measured greatness in terms of service, not status. God determines your greatness by how many people you serve, not how many people serve you.
ILL. John Wesley was an outstanding preacher & servant of God. His motto was "Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, & as long as you ever can." (From “The Purpose Driven Life” by Rick Warren, Chapter 33)
Now folks, that's the secret of contentment in life. When we give our¬selves away we find out what life is really all about.
#4. God wants me to share my life's purpose with others. Why does God keep me around? Because God’s plan for telling others about His purpose is for those who have learned the purpose to share it.
The Bible says, "God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ …And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation." (2 Cor. 5:19) So once I understand what life is all about, that this is preparation for eternity, God wants me to tell as many others as I can.
An old man, traveling a lone highway,
Came at the evening cold & gray
To a chasm deep & wide.
The old man crossed in the twilight dim,
For the sullen stream held no fears for him,
But he turned when he reached the other side,
And began building a bridge to span the tide.
"Old man," cried a fellow pilgrim near,
"You're wasting your strength with building here;
Your journey will end with the close of day,
And you never again will pass this way.
You have crossed the chasm deep & wide.
Why build you a bridge at eventide?"
And the builder raised his old gray head:
"Good friend, on the path I have come," he said,
"There follows after me today
A youth whose feet will pass this way.
This stream, which has been as nothing to me,
To that young boy a pitfall may be;
He, too, must cross in the twilight dim
Good friend, I am building this bridge for him."
(W.A. Dromgoole)
LET US PRAY:
