WHAT IN THE WORLD ARE WE HERE FOR?
Philippians 3:12-21
What drives your life? (PAUSE) Everyone’s life is driven by something. What drives YOUR life? The dictionary defines the word, drive, as a verb and it means “to guide, to control, to direct.” So whenever you are driving a car, or a nail, or a golf ball, you are guiding, controlling and directing it at that moment.
Today you could be driven by family problems, or even what is in the crock pot at home right now. You may be driven by a painful memory, fears, or your beliefs. There are hundreds of things that can drive our lives.
For example, some people are driven by guilt. They spend their entire lives running from regrets and hiding their shame. They allow their past to control their future. If any of you recognize yourself as being driven by guilt or shame, I want to remind you that God turned a murderer named Moses into a leader, an adulterer named David into a mighty king, and a coward named Gideon into a courageous hero. God specializes in giving people new starts.
Other people are driven by resentment and anger. They hold on to their hurts and never get over them. You want to know something about resentment? It always hurts YOU more than it does the person you resent. While THAT person has probably forgotten the incident and gone on, YOU continue to fret and stew in your pain. The Bible says, in Job 5:2, that “To worry yourself to death with resentment would be a foolish, senseless thing to do.”
Fear is another thing that drives some people. Their fears could be a result of something traumatic in their lives, unrealistic expectations, or even genetic predisposition. Fear driven people miss out on great opportunities because they are afraid to venture out. They always play it safe, avoiding ALL risks.
Fear is a prison that will keep you from becoming what God intends for you to be. If you are driven by fear, you MUST move against it with the weapons of faith, and of love. 1 John 4:18 tells us, “…perfect love casts out fear, for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love.”
Many people are driven by materialism, thinly disguised as ambition or success. Their desire to always want more becomes the whole goal of their lives. They are always trying to accumulate more things, bigger houses, newer cars, because they think having more will make them happier, more important or more secure. They do this thinking if they get more, they will be more. But I want you to know, self-worth and net worth are not the same! Your value is not determined by your valuables!
Real security can only be found in that which can never be taken from you—your relationship with God.
One last common thing that drives people is the need for approval. Many of us are still trying to earn the approval of our parents, our peers, our spouses, and our children. I don’t know all the keys to success, but one thing I have learned about being driven by the need for approval is that one key to failure is to try to please everyone. Allowing ourselves to be controlled by the opinions of others is a guaranteed way to miss God’s purpose for your life. And without a purpose for your life, life is without meaning, activities without direction, and events without any reasons. Without a purpose, life is pointless! So what on earth are we here for? I want to share with you this morning something that has profoundly changed my life in the last six weeks. If you want to know why you were placed on this planet earth, you MUST begin with God. Because you were born BY his purpose and FOR his purpose.
IT ALL STARTS WITH GOD. You exist only because God wills that you exist. You were made BY God and FOR God—and until you understand that, life will never make sense. Life is about God using you for HIS purposes, not your using him for your own purpose. It is about becoming what GOD created you to be.
And how then do we discover God’s purpose for our lives? It’s in the Book! God didn’t leave us to speculate and wonder what on earth we are here for! He lays it out for us in our Owner’s Manual, the Holy Bible, the Word of God. And Ephesians 1:11-12 tells us that “In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will, so that we…might live for the praise of his glory.”
Those two verses give us three insights into our purpose: (1) you discover your identity and your purpose only through a relationship with Jesus Christ; (2) God was thinking of you long before you ever thought about him. He planned your purpose long before you even existed, and without asking for your input! You get to choose a lot of things, your career, your spouse, your hobbies…but you don’t get to choose your purpose. And #3, the purpose of your life fits into a much larger cosmic purpose that God has designed for all eternity.
You may never have thought about it much, but you are not an accident, you are alive because God wanted to create you. He custom-made you. He decided the natural talents you would have and the uniqueness of your personality. He also decided when you would be born and how long you would live. He has planned the days of your life in advance, choosing the exact time of your birth and death. Psalm 139 tells us about this.
The first time I read the Book of Acts, I stopped at chapter 17 verses 25-28. I was in awe of God’s greatness. Listen to these words: “…he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. From one ancestor (Adam) he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him—though indeed he is not far from each one of us…we too are his offspring.”
Not only did he decide when you would be born, he decided where you would be born! He gave each of us the special blessing of being born in the United States instead of Africa or South America or Iraq or in a rain forest. God designed this planet’s environment just so we could live in it. And God has a reason for everything he creates. He says, in Isaiah 46:3-4, “I have carried you since you were born, I have taken care of you from your birth. Even when you are old, I will be the same. Even when your hair has turned gray, I will take care of you. I made you and will take care of you.”
The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us. People, you cannot find your purpose for being here outside of God. And if you are still here, walking on this earth, that is no accident, because God doesn’t do anything accidentally. Your purpose in life has not yet been fulfilled.
Are you interested in knowing what God created you for? Do you even care? Do you feel some days like the prophet Isaiah did when he wrote, “I have labored to no purpose, I have spent my strength in vain and for nothing.” (Isa 49:4) If you feel this way, you need hope. And hope comes from having a purpose.
God said, “I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you, not to harm you, plans to give you a future with hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11) Knowing what on earth you are here for—your purpose—gives meaning to your life, simplifies your life, focuses your life, and most important of all, prepares you for eternity.
The power of focusing can be see in light. Diffused light has little power or impact, but you can concentrate its energy by focusing it. With a magnifying glass, the rays of the sun can be focused to set grass or paper on fire. When light is focused even more as a laser beam, light can cut through steel!
If you want your life to matter, focus it! Stop trying to do it all. You will soon find that you have just enough time to do God’s will. And that makes life simpler. Because knowing your purpose will define what you do and what you don’t do. By asking, “Does this activity/job/chore help me fulfill one of God’s purposes for my life?” allows you to make better choices of your time and money.
Beloved Friends, if you haven’t heard anything else I’ve said this morning, I need you to hear this: You were put here on earth to prepare for eternity. Life is a test. And one day, you will stand before God and he will do an audit of your life, a final exam, before you enter eternity.
The Bible says in Romans chapter 14, “We do not live to ourselves and we do not die to ourselves (Rom 14:7)…We will all stand before the judgment seat of God. (v.10) Each of us will be accountable to God. (v. 12)”
Lucky for us, God wants us to pass this final test, so he has given us the questions in advance. From the Bible we can know that God will ask us two crucial questions: (1) “What did you do with my Son, Jesus Christ?” God won’t ask about your religious background or how many Sundays each year you attended church. The only thing that will matter is, did you accept what Jesus did for you? Did you learn to love and trust Him? Remember that Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)
And the second question God will hold us accountable for is this: “What did you do with what I gave you?” What did you do with your life—all the gifts, talents, opportunities, energy, relationships and resources that God gave you—what did you do with them? Did you spend them on yourself, or did you use them for the purpose God made you for?
The first question will determine WHERE you spend eternity. The second question will determine WHAT YOU DO in eternity. And the importance of all that is: You will spend far more time on the other side of death—eternity—than you will here. This life is preparation for the next. While life on earth offers many choices, eternity offers only two: heaven or hell. Your relationship to God on earth determines your relationship to Him in eternity. Years ago a popular slogan encouraged people to live each as if it were “the first day of the rest of your life.”
Actually, it would be wiser to live each day as if it were the LAST day of your life. It ought to be our concern every day to use that day preparing for our final day. Next week I will talk some more about why each of us is living on earth, specifically at this place and at this time, specifically gathered as the Union Church of the Brethren congregation.
This week, I want you to remember and think about these facts: God did not NEED to create you, he CHOSE to create you. If you are THAT important to God and he considers you valuable enough to keep with him for all of eternity, what greater significance could you have? Knowing that, how could you NOT want to discover what on earth you are here for?
Please pray with me:
Father God, sometimes we forget that you have emotions, too, just like us. We forget that you feel things very deeply, that you grieve, get jealous and angry, feel compassion, pity, sorrow and sympathy as well as happiness and satisfaction. We forget that You said we are created in your image. Help us, Lord, to live giving glory and honor to you through our lives. In Your Son’s Name, Amen.
BENEDICTION:
The more God gives you, the more responsible He expects you to be. “Forget what lies behind and strain forward to what lies ahead. Press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.” Amen.
