(Based on WELCOME TO THE PLANET: WHAT ON EARTH AM I HERE FOR?
Part 1: The Challenge to Move Ahead by Doug Fields)
Today we began our 40 Days of Purpose Journey. Are you looking forward to it?
Well tonight we are going to starting a series called “Welcome to the Planet: What on Earth Am I Here For?” It is going to be following along the themes of the 40 Days Program and so hopefully you will make an effort to be here each week to unpack it with me. Tonight, I want to give you an overview of where we’re going for the next six weeks. I want to challenge you to move ahead to see if maybe there’s an answer to this question, “What on earth am I here for?”
If you’ve got your bibles there, I want you to open them to Eccles 1:2-11. King Solomon was an incredible man. He had everything you could ever want – Riches, wealth, fame, fortune, power, wisdom, a huge army, great store houses, a magnificent palace and people to wait on him hand and foot. And a few that you wouldn’t want – He had 700 wives and 300 concubines. Imagine that – 700 mothers-in-laws, not very wise I don’t think. This is a guy that for all intense and purpose had it made and knew exactly what his purpose on earth was – but under the confident exterior with all its robes and gold jewellery was a man who asked the question “What on earth am I here for?”. His questions bubble to the surface in the book of Ecclesiastes in which he questions the meaning of life. He claims that in and of themselves everything is meaningless. Read Eccles 1:2-11 (from CEV).
2 Nothing makes sense! Everything is nonsense. I have seen it all— nothing makes sense! 3 What is there to show for all of our hard work here on this earth? 4 People come, and people go, but still the world never changes. 5 The sun comes up, the sun goes down; it hurries right back to where it started from. 6 The wind blows south, the wind blows north; round and round it blows over and over again. 7 All rivers empty into the sea, but it never spills over; one by one the rivers return to their source. 8 All of life is far more boring than words could ever say. Our eyes and our ears are never satisfied with what we see and hear. 9 Everything that happens has happened before; nothing is new, nothing under the sun. 10 Someone might say, “Here is something new!” But it happened before, long before we were born. 11 No one who lived in the past is remembered anymore, and everyone yet to be born will be forgotten too.
Meaningless – Everything is Meaningless. If you continue to read through this book, you’ll find Solomon, the man who had everything, says that Wisdom is meaningless, pleasures are meaningless, work is meaningless, self advancement is meaningless. WOW - Have you ever felt this way about life? That it is all meaningless? That it doesn’t make sense? That it is a waste of time? Don’t be ashamed because it is a common dilemma, particularly in our society today. Why is it so common? Because so many people have written God out of their lives. You see, if there is no God there’s no meaning in life. I put in your notes this famous quote from a famous atheist, Bertrand Russell, who said, “Unless you assume a God, the question of life’s purpose is meaningless.”
If we don’t believe there is a God, then you essentially believe that you’re here by accident. That millions and millions and millions and millions of years ago something happened, some collision in a void darkness and in that collision humanity began to develop and grow. We have subsequently evolved into the types of people we are today with the minds that we have, with the way that we can think and act and reproduce. It could have just as easily happened some other way and we could have just as easily ended up looking like a frog or something even weirder. If this is what you believe in, then there are some logical consequences to this… If there is no God, then there is no reason to life and there can be no moral standards or values or right or wrong. Values and standards are only the creations of the majority of people in a society – they could quite easily have decided that child molestation, rape or murder were acceptable, if it were a different group of people making the decisions. The values we hold near and dear are only valid because the law of the survival of the fittest says that if I get the majority angry, they’ll beat me up – so I play along until I die and of course, that is the end of it. Life is therefore meaningless and anything I try to do in this life is meaningless because there is no purpose to it. Essentially what you are doing now is wasting your time completely because there is no God and no purpose to exploring these things.
The other alternative of course is that there is a God who created you and everything we see. He created it with a design and a PURPOSE and this is what we are going to explore in this series. Now if God did create this world and everything in it with a Purpose, that means there is a purpose to your life and a purpose to my life. We’ve got 2 options as we sit here this evening. We can either PURSUE this purpose or IGNORE it. That’s our only 2 options.
During the next few weeks I’m going to be teaching you from God’s love letter, the Bible. I’m going to teach you what the Bible teaches about God’s intended purpose. Then you’ve got to decide, do I buy into it? Do I either pursue it or do I ignore it? One of the key verses that I want to throw out at you this week is in Ephesians 2:10. It says, “We are God’s workmanship.” Circle the word “workmanship.” We are God’s workmanship, the Bible says, “and we’re created in Christ Jesus to do good things which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
The reason I had you circle that word “workmanship” is because if we are in fact His workmanship, then it means that He, as the designer, has a strong interest in what He’s created.
Do you remember back in school when you made something and couldn’t wait to take it home to show Mum and Dad. It may have been a present or a painting or a sculpture. You were so proud, so interest in the product. Why? Because you created it.
In just the same way, God is the designer of your life and my life. We look around and other people might not care about you. You might even look in the mirror and not care that much about yourself. You may be an unfortunate person who grew up in a family where you weren’t shown a lot of love. But let me tell you this about God. God’s loves you as His creation. He is proud of you. He’s interested in you. The Bible says that you are His workmanship and he made you especially for a purpose. You have a purpose which no one else alive can accomplish – it is custom made for you. Wouldn’t it be a shame if you lived all your life and didn’t even know what your purpose was. It would be even worse if you knew what your purpose was, but ignored it and then wished at the end of your life that you had not ignored it. In the movie, the Dead Poet’s Society, Professor Keating tells his students to Carpe diem – Seize the day. He reminds them that every person’s days are numbered and everyone eventually dies. He challenges his students to make the most of their lives.
Watch clip from Dead Poet’s Society.
I want to challenge you today to Seize the Day. Life is a precious gift that too many of us squander. Let’s commit ourselves to find out what our purpose in life is and then live those purposes. Commit during these next 6 weeks to seize the day. What we’re going to do in this series is we’re going to take a look at what the Bible says are the purposes of our life. Tonight, I want to give you a quick overview of what we’ll learn over the next 6 weeks. .
You can see in your notes here I’ve listed five things we’re going to study over the next five weeks -- God’s purposes then our response. Let’s take a look at them.
God’s purposes …
1. You were planned for God’s Pleasure
God created us to have a relationship with us. If you look at this verse in Mark 12:30 it says, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” So our first purpose is to have a relationship with God. Another word for that is Worship. Worship is – loving God with all your heart, mind and strength. Many of us when we think of the term “worship” we think of singing or music. The Bible is much broader than that when it comes to what worship is. Did you know that the Bible describes hearing the Word of God as worship. Those of you who are listening and taking notes are worshipping now.
Do you know that when you give an offering that is an act of worship? When you pray, that is an act of worship. When you work honestly and cheerfully, that is worship. The act of mopping the floor can even be worship. Sure when you sing that is an act of worship too but that’s not all what worship is. And God created us to worship Him and to celebrate Him, to love Him, to adore Him, to enjoy Him, to relax with Him.
Our response to this, when we see God’s total plan for our lives is to honor God with our livee. Honor God with YOUR LIFE. Not just during ten minutes on Sunday when you come and sing. Romans 12:1 says this “Offer your life as a living sacrifice which is your spiritual act of worship.” You were planned for God’s pleasure that you might know Him and have a relationship with Him and celebrate Him and worship Him. Because of that one purpose, our purpose is to honour Him with our life. Will you Seize the day and begin worshipping God?
The second part of God’s plan, the second reason God created us …
2. You were formed for God’s Family
Have you ever heard someone in church say something like, “Brothers and Sisters!” The reason they say this is because the Bible says when you are a Christian, you become part of God’s family so another Christian would be your spiritual brother or your spiritual sister. God wants you to be part of a family, a Christian family. It says in Romans 12:5 “…so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” Off to the side in your notes you might write down “fellowship.” Because fellowship describes the relationship of people in a family. They stick by each other. They are able to share their feelings, their hopes and disappointments.
Everybody wants a friend. Nobody wants to go through life alone. People say, I don’t need any friends. Those people are deceived or they’re lying or they don’t have any friends so they’re trying to create their world to be a better place because they live in it by themselves. It’s not true. We want to be connected with other people. It is part of our DNA and how God created us to connect with Him and therefore our response to this second purpose is that we need to connect with OTHER CHRISTIANS. There is a saying that says, you can choose your friends, but you can’t choose your family. That is true for our spiritual family also. You will not get on with everyone in the church, but you need to love and accept them as family. Some people will rub you up the wrong way so quickly – it will be like you are a natural brother or sister – but God calls you to connect with them too. Will you Seize the day and begin to connect with Other Christians?
3. You were created to become like Jesus.
Now this doesn’t mean that you try to look like Jesus on the Outside. There has been some fairly good attempts of this in recent days. But we weren’t created to look like Him on the outside, but to become like Him on the inside.
Before a person becomes a Christian, they are typically living according to their own priorities, their ambitions, and their standards which are all ultimately based on what society says is good. But when a person becomes a Christian, the basis of their life changes. They start out on a slow journey of change in which the Holy Spirit begins to mold them and shape them into the likeness of Jesus Christ. I’ve been a Christian for close to 30 years and I am nowhere near complete in my journey of change, but this is one of the purposes God has for us.
You were planned for God’s pleasure, you were formed for His family, we were created to become like Jesus – that’s called discipleship. Philippians 2:5 says, “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus.” That’s one of the reasons we were created – to be more like Jesus. Our response is to learn to grow spiritually on YOUR OWN. If you’re only growing spiritually when you come to church for the occasional sermon that you listen to you’re not growing much on your own. That’s why we have small groups, to get connected with other believers. That’s why we encourage Habits like personal devotions. That’s why we want to get you involved in ministry so you begin to grow on your own into the likeness of Christ. Will you Seize the day and start to grow to be like Jesus Christ?
4. You were shaped for serving God.
I love this verse, 1 Peter 4:10 “Each of you should use whatever gift he has received to serve others.” Circle “whatever gift.” When we became Christians, it’s like we are born into a new life and guess what, God gives us a birthday present. He gives us a spiritual gift. Now God is creative and so you don’t have all the same spiritual gift. Neither does anyone have all the spiritual gifts. But God gives every Christian a spiritual gift.
So we can go up to any Christian and say “Congratulations! You’re gifted! You may not know that you’re gifted but you are and the reason why you are gifted is to serve - serve God and his church. So then our response if this is true is to discover how YOU’RE GIFTED. One of the greatest disappointments in a church is to see people who are not using the gifts and talents which God has given only to you. He’s given you spiritual gifts. He’s given you a heart for something. He’s giving you incredible abilities. He’s given you a unique personality. He’s given you experiences. You pull all of those together and you have been shaped for serving God. Will you Seize the day and start to serve God?
5. You were made for a mission.
There’s one last part to God’s plan for your life. You were made for a mission. As soon as you see the words “made for a mission” you know what happens? The alarm bells go on … “Does that mean I’ve got to be a missionary? I don’t think I’d like to live in Iraq at the moment and Pakistan doesn’t sound too good either. Besides that, I’m no good at learning other languages. Heck, I don’t even like to travel – I’d likely throw up on the plane.” No. It doesn’t mean you have to be a missionary but it does mean that God has a mission for you.
The Bible says this in Colossians 4:5. “Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity.” One of the purposes that God created for you and I is that we were made for a mission to reach those who don’t know God. That’s the mission. Maybe your mission field will someday be Iraq. But maybe it will be Gladstone State High School or QAL or in Woolworths. Maybe it will be on the cricket team you’re on or the music group you are in. There is no limit to the possibilities, but know that you were made for a mission.
One of the reasons God created us and leaves us here is to tell other people the good news, the good news that God loves them, that Jesus died on the cross to forgive them of their sins. That when He rose again He proved He was God and that God wants us to have a relationship with Him. Our response to that is to reach out TO OTHERS. That’s our response. To share the good news with them. Will you Seize the day and grasp your mission?
A POTENTIAL NEXT STEP…
As you look at your notes you see five things that are God’s plan and you see our responses, but here’s why I’m calling this message the challenge to move ahead - I want to give you that challenge. As I put this thing together I thought, What is the response going to be of people when they hear this?
1) One response is going to be this: “Wow! That’s a lot of stuff that you talked about. I’m not really sure I believe this. I’m not really sure I get it. I’m just checking out this God thing.” - Fine. You were invited by a friend. Or you were forced to come here. You don’t really fully understand all this stuff. That’s ok. Here’s my challenge to you. I’m calling it the five-week challenge. My challenge is that you would RESEARCH the truth. Find out. At the end of those five weeks, if you don’t think this is the truth and you want to do something different with your life, that is your decision. But do you care enough about your life to look for the answer to the question, What on earth am I here for?
2) The second response is somebody going, “I call myself a Christian…but I don’t really live like it.” “I used to be real keen, but – That was ages ago – I’ve sort of moved on.” There’s a lot of people here like that. Others say “Yeah, I’m a Christian, you say. Yeah, I go to Gladstone Baptist Church. I’ve gone to church my whole life”. Spending a lot of time at church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than spending a lot of time at McDonalds doesn’t make you a hamburger. Here’s my five-week challenge to you. RETURN to the truth. Would you come back week after week with an open heart and mind prepared to return to that place where you started from – that place where you once were excited about Jesus?
3) Then there’s a third group of people. These are those who say, “I’m not just a Christian. I’m a follower of Christ. I’m committed. I’m sold out. I know what my purpose is.” I’ve met a lot of people who would consider themselves committed Christians – a follower of Christ. But as I talk with them and as I watch their life I see a lot of people who say they’re committed, they’re just committed to a couple of the purposes. They’re committed to worship and committed to being connected with other Christians. But they’re not committed to God having a mission for them. They’re not committed to becoming more like Jesus. If this is you where you say, I’m not just a Christian; I’m a follower of Christ. The five-week challenge I want to ask is this. I want to challenge you to let this truth REVOLUTIONIZE your life. Let those five purposes so invade your life that they change every element of who you are. That’s my challenge to you.
God created us for a purpose. It is important we find out what these purposes are. That’s the first step, but by itself, it is not enough. Knowledge is meaningless. The challenge that is before us during the next 6 weeks is to live the purposes. You live and worship with God. You live in community with other people. You live to grow into the likeness of Christ. You live to use your shape to serve others. You live and have a mission to share the good news. When these purposes invade your life they’ll revolutionize who you are. Are you prepared to seize the day and live life in all its fullness and purpose? Are you ready for the journey?
