"What on Earth am I here For?"
Sermon Transcript for October 12, 2003By Rev. Mike Beck
Welcome to “40 Days of Purpose”! We got off to a wonderful beginning on Wednesday evening. There were almost 200 people here to watch the simulcast. We made 40 copies of that for people who weren’t able to be here. There are only five left on the table. If you weren’t able to be here, grab one. We’ll make some more later. It was interesting; I was in Nashville, Tennessee on Friday morning to consult with my doctor. And he asked me, he said, “Mike, what are you preaching on Sunday?” And I said, “Well, our church is involved in the ’40 Days of Purpose’. I’m going to be speaking on ‘What on earth am I hear for?’” He smiled and he said, “That’s interesting.” He said, “The church I attend is involved in the ’40 Days of Purpose’. We’ll be hearing about that same theme on Sunday.” And I was talking last night with Merilee Allen who said she had seen on TV that President Bush and a number of members of his cabinet are also studying through “40 Days of Purpose”.
The Scripture is a very honest book. Persons in the Scripture who know God even they periodically asked this question. What on earth am I here for? Prophet Jeremiah one day asked, “Lord, why was I born? Was it only to have trouble and sorrow and to end my life in disgrace? The Prophet Isaiah in a moment of discouragement said, “Boy, God sometimes my work all seems so useless. Sometimes it seems that I have spent my strength for nothing and for no purpose at all.” And in Psalm 89, David says to God one day, “God, why did you create us? Was it for nothing?”
In our day the world offers up a variety of answers to this question, “Why am I here?” The philosopher would tell us the answer is found by looking deep within. The survivalist would say the purpose of life is just to try to stay alive—survival of the fittest. A naturalist would say that the purpose of life is just to perpetuate itself. The Hedonist would say to us the purpose of life is pleasure. In the words of the beer commercial, “You only go around once in life so you’d better grab for all the gusto you can get.” In our day, the materialist philosophy says to all of us, “Life is about the acquisition of things.” And we go into bookstores and we find numerous self-help books most of which contain very similar advice. They say you’ve got to invent your own purpose for life, discover your dreams, set goals, believe in yourself, work hard, never give up and the end result will be success in life.
And, friends, I want to be successful. There’s nothing inherently wrong at all with having dreams and setting goals and believing in our self and working hard. But the only problem is, success alone will only bring partial satisfaction for we are still left wondering, “Why was I born? Does my life matter? What is my purpose?” Bertram Russell, the atheistic British philosopher stated it this way. He said, “Unless you assume the existence of God,” which he did not. He said, “The questions of life’s meaning and purpose are irrelevant.” And, friends, he’s right! If there is no God, if you and I are just a freak chance of nature, or if we are just complex pond scum, then we never will know life’s ultimate purpose in life.
But, friends, the Good News we proclaim each weekend here at Grace is, there is a God! And God made you and God made me for a reason and a purpose. And the way to know that purpose is to look to Him. In Chapter One of The Purpose Driven Life is this important paragraph. Rick Warren states, he says, “Fortunately, there is an alternative to speculation about the meaning and purpose of life. We can turn to what God has revealed in His Word. It’s called ‘revelation’.” And then he uses this analogy. He said, “If you want to discover the purpose of an invention, the best way to do that is to talk to the inventor. The same is true in discovering our purpose—to ask God.” The very first words in the Bible are these, “In the beginning God created.” Without God, there would be no ultimate purpose in life. It all starts with God, it continues with God and it all ends with God. In the beginning God created!
And in Proverbs 9:10, read it with me, God’s Word tells us, “Knowing God results in every other kind of understanding.” So if we want to know our purpose for being here on earth, we don’t start with us. We begin by getting to know God. Read these words with me from the first chapter of the Book of Colossians. “For everything, absolutely everything above and below, visible and invisible, everything got started in Him and finds its purpose in Him.” In Ephesians 1:11, Paul writes, “It is in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for, part of the overall purpose that He is working out in everything and in everyone.” In Christ we find who we are.
Let me tell a little of the rest of the story related to Cindy Fortier for Cindy came to the very first ALPHA course that was offered here at Grace. The team was a little bit nervous doing it for the first time. Reverend Dan went in to meet with them afterwards and they said to Dan, “What in the world are we going to do? There’s this lady in the course named Cindy who when we were sharing tonight why you are here said this, ‘I don’t want to be here. I’m only here because my husband made me come. I’m not even sure there is a God.’” And they said, “We must have a tiger by the tale.” Advance the clock forward three years for Cindy is in my Disciple Bible Study group that’s meeting now on Sunday evening. We went around at the beginning of the class three weeks ago in the first session and asked people why they were there. The same Cindy Fortier said, “The last year I’ve been going to school to get my nursing degree. I haven’t been able to do anything other than come to worship. And I just miss being able to grow in the Word. I’m so excited about being able to immerse myself in the study of Scripture.” And I said, “Time out. Is this the same person that made those comments that I mentioned to you just a moment ago at her first time at ALPHA?” For she’s discovered that it is in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for.
The Bible tells us that each one of us matters to God. I want you to hear God speak your name through these Scriptures. The Book of Isaiah, Chapter 44, Verse 2, God says, “I am your creator. You were in my care even before you were born.” And Ephesians 1:4, God’s Word says, “Long before God laid down the earths foundation, He had us in mind. And He settled on us as the focus of His love.” But don’t miss the last part, “to be made whole and to be made holy by His love.” God made you to love you. He wasn’t lonely. God already had fellowship with Himself through the persons of the Holy Spirit and the Trinity. But God made us to love us. God wants you to know your purposes for life and in the coming days we’ll discover more fully what those purposes are.
And I want to say this. Those purposes are not just for this life. God has placed within each one of us an eternal soul that He wants to equip for all of eternity. Psalm 33:11 puts it this way, “God’s plans endure forever. His purposes last eternally.” I was made to be loved by God. I was made to last forever. This life, good as it is, is not all there is! And we won’t find those truths in the self-help books, good as they may be. They are found in God’s revelation of Himself in Scripture and revealed most fully in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ. II Corinthians 5:1 is a glorious promise because every one of us hearing my voice this morning, whether we be 8 years old or 80 years old, these earthly bodies are wearing out. From a physical standpoint all of us have a terminal illness. Unless the Lord comes again in our lifetime, someday they’ll do a memorial service for me and for every one of you. But oftentimes in those services we read these wonderful words from II Corinthians 5. Read them with me, “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 He Himself has made which will last forever.” And, friends, that gives meaning to life.
About an hour and a half before our 5:30 p.m. service last night, I stopped out at the hospital to visit John and Louise Sellers. I had done a memorial service a week ago for their son Tom, who in the prime of life at age 60, died of a massive heart attack. I’m happy to report, Louise is incredibly better. I was so worried about her when I had seen her a week ago. When I walked in to her room there at Todd-Aikens yesterday, she wasn’t in her bed. And I was wondering, “Was she gone?” And her roommate said, “No, her and John are out on the deck outside.” And I walked out and couldn’t believe my eyes. And you know the first thing that Louise said to me? Her health is poor, one of her two sons has just gone on, and she said, “Mike, we serve such a good God who gives meaning to our lives.” It takes depth of faith in the midst of the worse that life can pass out to be able, through the tears and the rain, to trace the rainbow. Proverbs 9:6 put it this way in The Message translation, “Leave your impoverished confusion in the lane. Walk up the street to a life with meaning.”
What I am trying to say today is this. If we want to know the purpose for life, we don’t just look deep within. We don’t just read self-help books. It doesn’t start with us. It starts by looking and focusing on God. The more you get to know Him, the more you will know your purposes for living. The “40 Days of Purpose” is designed to create an environment where that can take place in your life. As I mentioned last week, renewal in God’s church is never program-planned--it’s spirit-breathed. “40 Days of Purpose” is not a program. It’s simply designed to create an environment where as we focus together, God does some neat things in our lives. So I want to ask you, unless you are out of town on vacation, to commit to being here every single one of the next six weekends to hear the messages that Reverend Dan and I will bring. I want to ask you to pick up one of The Purpose Driven Life books if you’ve not yet done so. And I’ve got to believe that most of you have done so. In faith, we ordered 300 copies. There are only about 18 left. But if you haven’t yet got your copy, pick it up this morning. Take 15 minutes to read one chapter each day. There is a reading schedule in your bulletin. I want to encourage you to share in one of the small groups. There are groups that meet in the three Sunday school classes following this service today. There are groups tonight at 6:00 p.m. Bring your lunch and come to the church tomorrow at noon. Or there are groups on Wednesday evening at 7:00 p.m. And the fact is, if you added up what time it would take to do all of those things, it would average out to about an hour a day for the next 40 days. So here’s the question. Is the rest of your life and all of eternity worth 40 hours of time now?
Reverend Dan and I realize that we are all in different stages in this spiritual journey. That’s okay. We can all take the journey together. Some of you are seekers. You’re perhaps saying, “I’m not sure I buy all of this, but I’m at least willing to check it out.” Welcome, for when I read the gospels, that’s the attitude I see in all twelve of the disciples. Jesus simply said, “Follow me.” And they said, “I’m not sure”. But they did. Some of you are new believers. If so, the next 40 days are going to get you off to a great start in your life with Christ. Some of you have claimed the name of Christ, but if you are really honest, you are not walking close to Him. It’s more about your purposes for life, not Gods. If that’s you, wouldn’t these 40 days be an awfully good time to really sell out 100% to God? For some of you, friends, are trying to straddle the fence. You’ve got one foot on God’s side, but you’ve still got one foot still firmly planted on the world’s side. And then you wonder why you are not experiencing any joy. Just put that picture in your mind of how uncomfortable you would be trying to straddle that fence. Some of you are strong believers and during these 40 days you are going to go deeper than you’ve ever gone before with God. And let me encourage you, bring someone along with you1
Regardless of where you are at in your spiritual journey, look at this last verse. Let’s read it together, “It makes no difference who you are or where you are from. If you want God, are you ready to do what He says? The door is open!”
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