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The
Three Great Questions by Reverend Murray Spackman, Vicar. Sunday 10th October, 2004 Welcome to the first of our 40 Days of Purpose!
We’re ready to start on this journey we’ve been planning
for a long, long time. I
invite you to take out your outlines, on the insert in the Pew Sheet,
because today we’re going to look at life’s three greatest
questions: Now this first question, the “Question of Existence: Why am I alive?” is not exactly a new question. It was asked thousands of years ago. In fact, Jeremiah asked it in Jeremiah 20:18. It says this “Why was I born? Was it only to have trouble and sorrow, to end my life in disgrace?” Now there have probably been times in your life when you felt that way, too. You have probably asked – “Why was I born?” Was I born just to have a bunch of problems? Was I put on this planet just to have heartache, grief and stress? Jack Hanley wrote, “I hope life isn’t a joke, because I don’t get it.” Dr. Hugh Moorhead, who is the Chairman at the Department of Philosophy at the Northeastern University, once wrote to 250 well-known philosophers, scientists, writers and intellectuals of the world and asked them, “What is the purpose of Life.” And then he published all of their responses in a book. I am told that the book is both discouraging and depressing. Some of these people offered their best guesses. Some admitted they made up a purpose in life. Some admitted they didn’t have any idea as to what the purpose of life was and if Dr. Moorhead knew, would he please let them know. Those are tragic statements, aren’t they? - because a life without purpose isn’t a life worth living at all! It is no coincidence that the suicide rate in our society has gone up dramatically. An international health study shows New Zealand youth are committing suicide at double the rate of comparable countries, and 4 times the rate in England, and we have the second highest suicide rate among developed countries in the 15-24 age group. You see, if you take God out of the equation, you don’t really have very many alternatives. So why does God want us here? Why are we on this planet? Well, the Bible says this in Proverbs 16.4, “The Lord has made everything for His own purpose.” We are here for GOD’s purose! Now God has never made anything without a purpose. Every rock has a purpose, every plant has a purpose, every animal has a purpose and if you’re alive, you have a purpose. The fact is - God has five purposes for your life. And in the next 40 days we’re going to look in detail at those five purposes, - the five reasons why God put you on this planet. But Why
did God create us ? What’s His motive or Reason or Purpose in creating
us? Well, look at this next
verse, Ephesians 1:4…”Long before He laid down the earth’s
foundation, He had us in His mind and settled on us as the focus of His
love, to be made whole and holy by His love.”
If you don’t get anything else as we start this 40 days, I want
you to understand this, that God says He made you, to love you!
That’s God’s reason for creating you !
You might want to write that down.
“I Was created to
be loved by God.”. God
didn’t need you.;- He
wasn’t lonely;- . But He made
you in order to love you. So
WHY am I here? – Why do I exist?
TO BE LOVED BY GOD. 2. The second key question of life is the “Question of Significance: And if you want to know how much you matter to God, look at the next couple of verses from the Bible, there on your outline. God says, “I am your Creator. You were in My care, even before you were born.” (Isaiah 44:2) and the next verse says, ”You (talking about God) scheduled each day of my life before I began to breathe. Every day was recorded in your book.” That’s how much you matter to God. God wants you to know the meaning of life. Why you are here! God wants you to know how much you matter to Him, and He wants
you to know His purposes - And He’s done a lot to help you out in
learning those. If you stay
with us the next 40 days, we’re going to talk about that.
In fact, God’s Plans for you are not just for this life – they
are for eternity! Look at the next verse, “His
plans endure (for how long?) forever;
His purposes last (how long?) eternally.”
So the
purposes we’re going to talk about in the next 40 days are not just ones
which will last for a few days, a few years, and then fade away,! They are
for the rest of your life on earth, - they're for the rest
of your life for eternity!– These purposes must be
extremely important, if they are to last for eternity!
But right now, once we get to know these, God wants us to begin to practice
these purposes. This is the
warm-up act, this is the dress rehearsal for eternity.
God says “I have
plans and purposes for your life, but they don’t end at death.” You were made to last forever.
The Bible says in Psalm 33:11-
“His purposes last
eternally” God says, “I was
made to last forever.” (
write that down!) This
is not all there is: The best
is yet to come! This is the key to
the meaning of life.
1. So in answer to the First question Why Am I alive?
It’s because I was “created TO BE LOVED BY GOD. 2. In answer to the: second Question Does my life matter? : the Answer is “YES – I WAS MADE TO LAST FOREVER.! So then comes the third question,
the “Question of
Intention: or-
What is my
purpose?”
What on earth am I here for? And that’s what we’re going to spend the next 40 days looking at. In Psalm 89:47 David asked the question, “Why did you create us? For nothing? David is going through a bad time, and he wants to know why is he here on earth, “Is it for nothing?” Bertrand Russell, probably the greatest, atheist philosopher of the last century, said, “Unless you assume the existence of God, the question of life’s meaning and purpose is irrelevant.” Many years later, and not long before his death, he wrote, - “There is darkness without, and when I die there will be darkness within. There is no splendour, no vastness anywhere; only triviality for a moment, and then nothing.” If you are convinced there is no God, then you never discover your Purpose, and if you have no Purpose, then your life wont make sense, it becomes empty, irrelevant and meaningless. But there IS a God. And God made you for a reason, and He made you for a purpose. The only way you’re going to know your purpose is by first looking to Him. Now I’ve brought along a visual aid this morning! – do you know what this gadget is? ( A guitar string winder) . Does anybody know what this is? Now, here’s the point
- if you don’t know something’s purpose, then you either need
to: And so – it follows that the only way you’re going to ever know your purpose in life –is you’ve got to talk to the Creator and look in the owner’s manual Now, in the skit we saw earlier, our character ended up with the suggestion that they start their search in the Bible – and that’s the place to go to! Look in your outline again - the Bible says this, Proverbs 9:10 – . “Knowing God results in every other kind of understanding.” You want to understand the meaning of life; you want to understand your purpose of life? - Then - (Write this down.) You find your purpose BY GETTING TO KNOW GOD.. It all starts with God. Look at this next verse, Colossians 1:16, “For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible…everything got started in Him and finds its purpose in Him.” Look at the next verse, “It is in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for…part of the overall purpose He (that’s God!) is working out in everything and everyone.” If you want to know your purpose in life, start getting to know God now!. It’s that simple. And it may even take a while! - because understanding God’s purposes for your life does take time. That’s why we’re going to take 40 days to look at God’s purposes for your life. You may be asking, why 40 Days? Well, the Bible is very clear that God considers 40 days to be a spiritually significant time period. In fact, in the Bible, any time God wanted to prepare people for His purposes, He took 40 days. For instance: · Moses’ life was transformed by 40 days on Mount Sinai. · Jesus was empowered for ministry by spending 40 days in the desert · and the disciples were transformed by 40 days with Jesus after the resurrection. So, too, the next 40 days are going to transform your life. I’m absolutely confident of that. Now in that period of 40 Days we are going to do three things.:- 1. We will participate in a 40 days of Purpose small group, each week. There are over 200 people who have registered so far for these, and if you haven’t registered or joined up you will miss out on a great deal. But its not too late! You can still Register today! Fill in a gold Registration card and give it to me after the Service and we will connect you up with a group where you will be able to learn about and discuss God’s Purposes for your life. It’s not too late. Have a look on the Notice Board to see when and where the Small Groups meet. · 2. We will read a chapter, each day, from the book “The Purpose Driven Life”. Everybody who gets in a group, is going to get a free copy of that book. I want to suggest that you schedule a daily time to sit down and read it. It will take you about 15 minutes a day. I would also suggest that you get a partner that you can call on the phone and discuss what you’ve read- or it could be someone in your 40 Days of Purpose Group. Don’t go through this journey alone. Get yourself a spiritual partner. · 3. I would encourage you to do your best to hear all the remaining 5 messages in this series, “40 Days of Purpose”. What I’m going to be saying each Sunday, will introduce what you’re going to be reading and studying during the week following. Now I realize that all of us here this morning are at different stages in our spiritual journey. But that doesn’t matter! Regardless of where you are in your spiritual journey, look at this last verse. “It makes no difference who you are or where you’re from – if you want God and are ready to do as He says, the door is open.” (Acts 10:35) George Herbert once said, “It’s never too late to be who you might have been.” It’s not too late. So let’s bow our heads in prayer – Lets remember that God had a purpose in bringing you here today. He wants you to know Him and He wants you to know His purposes for you. So, just follow me in this prayer…and in your heart you can say - “Me too, God”. “Dear God, I realize that if it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t be alive. But because you made me, you must have a purpose for me. I admit that I focus on my plans for my life, not yours. But I want to know your purposes for me, so I commit the next 40 days of my life to learning about it. Thank you that you made me so you could love me. Thank you that you cared for me even when I didn’t know you. Thank you that I was made to last forever. I want a life filled with meaning. I want to start by getting to know you better. So as best as I understand, I ask you, Jesus Christ, to come into my life and help me to understand your purposes for me. I want to take the first step today. In your name I pray, Amen.” |
