Your Purpose & Value

Why are we here? Is there a reason we are sitting here this morning, in the house of God? What would be our purpose as a Christian? We have touched upon it before, and I think all of us have wondered at one time or another just what our purpose is. I think the two most asked questions about our lives are:

(a) The question of reason - "Why am I here?"

(b) The question of value - "Do I matter?"

Asking different people these questions will get you different answers.

·· Oprah Winfrey said, "You’ve got to figure it out by yourself."

·· The Materialist says, "Life is all about the acquisition of things."

·· Those who are into the self-help nonsense say, "Create your own purpose."

Carl Yung, the famous psychiatrist said, "I don’t know the meaning of life or the purpose of life, but it looks as if something were meant by it." Not to sound unChristian-like, but can we say, “Duh?”

Joseph Taylor wrote a book entitled "I Have No Answers to the Meaning of Life - And I No Longer Want to Search for Any." That tells us two things about Mr. Taylor. One, he is honestly ignorant, and two, he doesn’t care who knows it.

Sadly, there are many people who see no purpose at all in their lives. And, without any purpose to your life, you have no direction. Having no direction to our lives renders us absolutely useless.

An old farmer and his wife always went to the county fair. And, every year they saw the same pilot offering to take people up for a spin in his airplane for $10.00 a ride.

Every year, the old farmer asked his wife to give him $10.00 so he could go up. Every year, the wife responded by getting very mad at him and saying that ten dollars was ten dollars and they couldn’t afford to be so frivolous with what little money they had.

He told her that he was now 80 years old and if he didn’t go up this year, he never would. In a very angry voice, she repeated that ten dollars was ten dollars. At this point they got into an argument about it.

The pilot overheard them and offered to make them a deal. He would take them up for free - providing he didn’t hear one word from either one of them during the entire trip. If either of them said anything at all, they would have to pay him the $10.00. They agreed.

The pilot put them in, took off and during the course of the next 15 minutes put that plane through every maneuver known to man, including flips, rolls, and nosedives. And he didn’t so much as hear a sound from them.

When they landed, he congratulated the farmer on not making any noise, and asked him how come they never said anything during all the maneuvers. The farmer said, “Well, I was going to say something when my wife fell out, but like she always told me, ‘Ten dollars is ten dollars!"

Let’s talk about why you are here. The first thing we must realize is that God created us – that is why we are here. Now, for those who do not believe in God, there will never be an answer as to why they are here. For those who do believe in God, the answer to that question will be forthcoming.

First of all, ask yourself ….

1. WHY DID GOD PUT ME HERE?

We are not the first people to ask what our purpose is. That question was also asked in JEREMIAH 20:18.

“Why did I ever come out of the womb to see trouble and sorrow and to end my days in shame?”

God put you here for His purposes, not your purposes and for His pleasure, not your pleasure. When you understand that, you will start to see your life from a different perspective.

ISAIAH 49:5a, says it plainly:

“And now the Lord says – He who formed me in the womb to be His servant.”

We are not here to enjoy ourselves, but to enjoy the Lord. We are not here to wander aimlessly through life, working for our own desires, but to work for the Lord for the desires He has for us.

We look ahead and see our own desires and conclusions. We do what we want to do and go where we want to go. We forget that we have a Master and that Master has a plan for us.

In EPHESIANS 1:4, we are told –

“For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world, to be holy and blameless in His sight.”

There are three basic truths in our lives.