Purpose Driven Life: Why Are We Here?

Have you ever had one of those defining moments when suddenly you saw everything with pristine clarity. You knew what was right. You knew what was wrong. You knew what mattered and you knew what did not. Maybe it was at a funeral.

Funerals have a way of putting things in the way we ought to see them, don't they? That's why the scriptures say Funerals are better than parties. Scriptures actually say that. Because at funerals we think about what really, really matters. Show me, O Lord, my life's end and the number of my days.

Let me know how fleeting is my life, says the psalmist. And at funerals we see that. And at funerals we see what is important, don't we? How would you like to get to the end of your life and the greatest accomplishment you had was you were one of the greatest fishermen of just fish that we knew. You were one of the greatest golfers on the face of the earth.

You had a lot of money.

Who cares on the day of death? Or maybe you go to a movie, a defining moment, where you see things with perfect clarity. Before the Passion of the Christ last night, did you notice the trivia on the E! Trivia, entertainment trivia, they kept flashing on the screen as if we should care. Michael Jackson bought Liz Taylor a bottle of perfume that cost $80,000.

Madonna annually spends $250,000 on clothing.

Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas spent on average for their wedding celebration $210,000 per hour.

And then the movie starts. He was wounded for our transgressions. He owned nothing. Often did not have a place to lay his head. He was brutally killed.

But then he was resurrected. And you know it doesn't matter about perfume. It doesn't matter about clothing. Money is inconsequential. I want to see trivia about Jesus Christ.

forget the things of this world that so capture us, that distract us, that delude us. But it's part of the battle, folks. Satan does not want us to see with clarity.

And if there's one thing that kept recurring in that movie, our battle is not simply with flesh and blood is it there are dark spiritual forces at work that want us to be blind

but Satan you have lost you are a worthless despicable scoundrel You will pay for it one day. And all those demons with you, are you hearing me? You are defeated. Jesus Christ, by his death and his resurrection, has won the victory.

Do you see? Clearly. Don't be blind. the reality is that most of us in this room probably fall into one of four categories there's some of us who've heard the gospel over and over and over again and we just don't get it you ever talk to somebody who you know they've heard it they just don't understand

and for whatever reason their minds are closed their hearts are closed they're blind to the truth well there's another group of people who heard and they understood it you thought but then a little difficulty came along in life and you found that the roots never really took hold maybe a larger group in this class is a group that started out on this journey actually walked the path for a period of time but then we let the worries of this world the deceitfulness of riches and the cares for other things sort of squelch our commitment to Christ we get overburdened with things that don't matter and suddenly we're no longer bearing fruit for Christ but then many of you many of you are bearing fruit has been richly planted in you and you're bearing fruit. That's what Christ wants for us. We need to have the ability though if we're going to be the kind of person who bears fruit the ability to distinguish between what matters and what doesn't. What is important and what is trivial. What is eternal and what is temporary.

And with the Apostle Paul we need to say we're going to fix our eyes on that which is unseen which is seen, because that which is seen is just temporary. But that which is unseen is eternal. And today I want us to see with clarity what life is supposed to be about. It's supposed to be about those things that are eternal.

I think of Mohammed. Not the Mohammed of Islam, but the Mohammed who's a gentleman in Ethiopia. who was an imam for Islam. That means he was one of the preachers in the mosque who came to faith in Christ, who was beaten by his brothers, all his teeth knocked out when he converted to Christian faith. But Mohammed, he knows what's important.

And he's now going back into mosque in Ethiopia, going to Muslim regions, carrying the gospel of Jesus Christ because he knows what is important. Pastor Fatina. Daniel, Pastor Fatina in Asosa. Converted to Christian faith during the communist regime in Ethiopia. They wanted to execute him.

Decided to let him go when a gentleman that was going to be executed with him was known by one of the executioners. And they just let him go. Pastor Fatina, age 39, single, says, my life, my life, my life is Jesus Christ. He has saved me and he now can use me any way he wants. May we see with such clarity.

The purpose-driven life is a life that sees with clarity.

SDG

if you know what that means don't tell anybody but there was a great composer who at the end of each of his works would put the initials SDG the letters SDG he did it because he saw with clarity about what life was to be about you're going to see those letters over the next several weeks And at the end of our last session on the purpose-driven life, I'll tell you what they mean and tell you the story about them. If you know, just keep it to yourself. If you want to try to find out, go search.

We'll talk about it later. Why are we here? Let's start with a passage of Scripture. Isaiah 43, verse 6b-7. Isaiah, the prophet, writes, Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth, everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.

Why are we here? This text of scripture tells us several things. It tells us first that God created us. Whom I made. He made each one of us.

He made us for a purpose. He made us for a purpose. And the purpose was we were created for His glory. We were created for God's glory. It is He who made us and we are His.

is he is the potter who shaped us but he shaped us so that we could serve and honor him as as his creation we owe him he created us and as believers in the lord jesus christ we owe him our lives because he has bought us and paid for us but folks we are here first and foremost not for ourselves we're here for him and for his glory do you see with clarity we're not here for ourselves we're here for him he created us for his glory so what is my overarching purpose in life it is that in everything I do or say to bring God glory your memory verse for the week I'm going to give you one memory verse every week And it's voluntary. You can memorize it or not. But if you see with clarity, you will.

1 Corinthians 10, 31. So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. everything you do even down to just the eating and drinking is for his glory

but what I mean when I say God's glory we use that word a lot don't we what is God's glory we're doing things for God's glory what does that mean let me make a couple of technical points that I think help us understand it in the Hebrew language

the word for weight and the word for glory are related.

The word for weight, kaved. The word for glory, kavod. And you can see that KBD. You see it? I did it in English letters so you can understand it.

KBD is in each one of them. These are related words. When we talk about God's glory, we're talking about those things that give him weight, that give him importance. that give him substance. We say somebody is a heavyweight.

We mean they are a very important person. God's glory is his weightiness. His characteristics that make him great and grand and majestic and noble and keenly and lordly. That's his glory.

And when we're living for his glory, We're always in everything we can do or say, we're wanting him to get more and more and more weightiness or more and more importance in our own eyes and in the lives of other people.

We want people to sing his praises because that's acknowledging his glory and his importance. We want more people to come to saving faith in Jesus Christ, not just because they will get to go to heaven, but because when more people come to faith in Christ, and that's more people to give him glory. it's all about him ultimately we don't just save souls to save souls we save souls to give God the glory we want more worshippers for the king because he's due all our glory we want more people singing his praises because he is a weighty and important being do you understand?

and the connection between praise and glory. In the Greek language, the same word can be translated praise or glory. There are different Greek words for praise, but there's one Greek word that can be translated both praise and glory. When we're talking about doing all things for God's glory, we're wanting to do things in such a way that He gets the praise. When you praise someone, you're praising them because of who they are, because of their glory.

And so there's this connection between honoring God, praising God and His glory. so we want to do everything we can to magnify the weightiness the importance of god and we want to do everything we can to increase the amount of praise that he gets that's why we're here folks to lift up the name of our lord to let people see him for his greatness his majesty his grandeur and we're here to praise him ourselves and encourage everyone we know to praise him You get it? We live for him.

As Rick Warren said, it's not about you or me. But I want to make one quick point that Warren makes in the material you read for this week, but maybe he didn't hit it quite hard enough. it is first and foremost about our Lord and bringing him glory but I'm going to tell you when we give him glory we also find our deepest satisfaction

by seeking him first in our lives putting him first, giving him the glory we're going to ultimately find that which gives us the greatest joy, happiness, satisfaction so giving him glory and our happiness and our joy are intertwined you know why people go out and they get drunk and they just engage in all these promiscuous affairs and they try drugs and they try to get all this money and so forth they're searching for happiness and joy in often very wrong ways and what I want to say to us folks you really want the good stuff want down deep in your pit of your soul, in your stomach, that joy, that happiness, will then give God the glory, give him the praise. Seek after him first and you will find it. I've looked for the happiness and the joy in a variety of ways in my life.

I'm going to tell you folks, there's not but one place that you will get it in the deepest, most satisfying way. and that's when you're completely committed to him and giving him the glory c.s lewis put it this way in mere christianity give up yourself and you will find your real self give up yourself and you will find your real self or as lewis said look for christ and you will find him and with him everything else thrown in. Look for Christ you'll find him and with him everything else thrown in. All that joy you're after, all that happiness all that peace all that comfort but it's only found here folks in Jesus Christ. Don't be looking for love in all the wrong places.

it's only in Christ.

I should have shown you that. Give up yourself and you will find your real self. Look for Christ and you will find him and with him everything else thrown in.

So the question is, if our main occupation of life is to bring glory to God, to increase people's understanding of his importance and his weightiness, to increase the praise that goes to him. How do we do that? How do I bring glory to God? This is what this whole book is about. It's about the answer to this question.

Do you hear me? I'm giving you the summary of the whole book. Sometimes it helps to know what the whole book is about very simply. The whole book, this whole book is about how do I bring glory to God? the week reading you've done up through yesterday was to tell you that your most important occupation in life is to bring glory to God.

Now for the next five weeks, Warren's going to tell you the five different ways that you bring glory to God. And I'm going to summarize them for you right now. So as you read in the succeeding weeks, each week you're going to be reading about one of these ways to bring glory to God. And each week we're going to talk about one of these ways. Are you ready?

If you're interested, if you see with clarity, if after watching The Passion of the Christ, you've decided that all this stuff you've been chasing after, that it's temporary, really doesn't matter, now you're committed to getting on your knees and saying, Lord, I'm yours, which is the only response, I think, that makes any sense whatsoever after watching that movie. What do you do? I mean, there's so much emotion after watching that movie. What do you do? What do you do?

You know, you want to do something. You know what you do? You get on the altar and you lay down and you say, whatever you want to do with me is okay. I'm yours. That's the answer.

That's the response that should come out of that movie. Whatever. My life is yours. I count my life as nothing if I can only do your will. So, that's your cry.

Here are the five ways. one way we bring glory to God is by serving and worshiping him so worship is one way we bring glory to God and we're going to find out this idea of serving God and worshiping him are intertwined sing the glory of his name make his praise glorious God wants worshipers

and I'm going to tell you some of the most precious moments in my life have been in the midst of praising him

sometimes in the gathered community of believers sometimes all by myself

sometimes I love just to be at home by myself or down at Joshua's Way by myself one day I was down at Joshua's Way wide open. It was at night, and I realized the shades were up. And I began to think about, you know, there are people driving up and down Poinsett Street, and they're going to wonder what this crazy man is doing with his hands up and dancing before the Lord.

I'll be a fool for Christ any day. I don't want to be a fool for people. I want to be a fool for Christ. Secondly, we bring him glory by loving our brothers and sisters in Christ. This is fellowship.

Accept one another just as Christ accepted you in order to bring praise or glory to God. So you want to bring glory to God? Then love your brothers and sisters in Christ. And some of you have been doing that in a magnificent way recently.

[Personal prayer concern omitted.]

That's what we're about. Loving our brothers and sisters in Christ. I'm glad she's here. May we love one another. May we love one another.

You know how God gets the glory? When we love one another, people say, man, why do they treat each other with such respect and care and love? And the answer is because we serve the king.

And he gets the glory when the reason for our love is the love he's given toward us.

Third way is we give him glory by becoming more and more like Christ. This is discipleship. Christ has given us an example that we should follow in his steps. And when we follow in his steps, in other words, follow his example, we give glory to God by being obedient people. So that's the third way we give him glory.

The fourth way is by loving and serving others. We're not here just to love one another, though that's very important. We're also here to love unbelievers. Love your neighbor as yourself. Second greatest command.

So you want to give God glory? We should be in the soup kitchens. We should be feeding the hungry. sick, we should be proclaiming the gospel to them, all sorts of ways to help and minister to people. And lastly, we glorify him by faithfully spreading the good news. This is evangelism.

This is to my Father's glory that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. And one way we bear fruit is by helping people come into the kingdom. We want more worshipers for the king, so his name will be lifted up even more. And he will be seen as the only one who can deliver us from death to life from hopelessness to hope.

You see? That's what this whole book is about, is those five ways of giving God the glory. Okay? Does everybody understand? Everybody with me?

All right, let me give you some lessons for the life for today. Lesson for life number one is Christ first.

Christ first. He is not to be part of our lives. He is to be our lives. To live is Christ. That's how we give him glory.

It's putting him first in everything. He is more important than our money. He is more important than our stuff. He is more important than our clothing. He is more important than our very lives.

He is more important than the air we breathe. And the way this world is going to ascribe glory to him is when they see God's own people willing to give up everything because he is so magnificent.

Do you hear me? Our willingness to give up everything for him shows that we want to give him the glory. Christ first.

Begin with the little things. Take it one day at a time. You know, sometimes I used to get discouraged in my christian life because i would go to these conferences and hear about these great people of faith and i would say man what a peon i am you know a pygmy of faith against these giants of faith you know what take it one day at a time start in very simple ways to give him the glory give him time pray to him read your bibles make church a priority in your conversation

begin to express the grace of Christ that is within you your speech should be pleasing should not be filled with cursing should not be mean spirited gossiping backbiting right so just start with the little things maybe just controlling the tongue is where we're going to start but it's amazing how we begin to give little things to Christ then we start a steamroller effect other things start to fall in place so start with the little things take it one day at a time thirdly in the end in the end there are only two kinds of people which one will you be? which one will you be? there are only two kinds of people C.S. Lewis says this two kinds of people there are people knees and say thy will be done wasn't that a great scene in the garden of Gethsemane when Jesus is there wrestling with the reality of what he's about to go through and he's being tempted I thought that was a great scene the tempter was in the garden trying to convince him not to bear the sins of the world and Jesus prays not

my will, but your will be done. Did you see that look of resolve that came on Jesus' face when he just made it clear he was going to do the Lord's will? That's one kind of person. The person who gets on the knee and says, Thy will be done. The other kind of person, C.S. Lewis says, is the person to whom the Lord will one day say, okay your will be done

you heard about me you knew about me you knew I was the only way you rejected me you turned your back on me even though I called you so okay you don't want to be a part of me your will be done You get the picture?

Fourthly, take the long-term view. Always remember there's more to life than the here and now. As Rick Warren said, and I thought this was a great quote in the materials you were reading this week, you will not be in heaven, and I put in parentheses, or hell, you will not be in heaven or hell two seconds before you cry out why did i place so much importance on things that were so temporary why did i waste so much time energy and concern on what wasn't going to last why don't get to the end of your days and say i wish i wish I had focused on what was important. Don't wait. Start now.

Scriptures keep pressing us over and over to take the long-term view, to know what's eternal and what's temporary. Satan wants us to be just the opposite. He wants us tied up in stuff that is temporary, doesn't matter. He wants us worried about Michael Jackson buying an $80,000 perfume bottle. He wants that to be interesting to us.

It makes me feel sorry for him. Doesn't have a clue about life.

Let's ask ourselves, let's ask ourselves, why don't we do it right now, in your own mind, what would my family or friends say is the driving force in my life?

If your children were asked, you know how a 10 or 11 year old will say whatever. what's important to your mama? What's important to your daddy?

Maybe you ought to do that. Let's go interview all our children. No, you don't get to interview them. I'll interview them. Just kidding.

And then show the answers.

I want my children to say the most important thing in dad's life

Jesus Christ everything else was in consecration

don't hold back let's ask ourselves to what am I holding that keeps me from following Christ fully

what is it folks

what you hanging on to what will you not let go of

maybe it's education you want to appear educated and you know these real fervent Christians they're a lot of them real uneducated and I don't want to kind of get identified with them I was coming out of Ethiopia talking to a guy who was a computer programmer in Washington D.C. who had been in Ethiopia and he looks at me and he says sort of with this disdain he says you know a lot of really religious people in this country. They're really not all that smart.

Maybe it's our pride. Maybe it's our money. Maybe it's our beer. I never will be forgiven a guy telling me if I had to come to Jesus, I'd have to give up my beer.

And I'm going to say immediately, I'm not one who believes that scripture requires total abstinence. It's clear about the dangers So I don't think his statement necessarily is correct. But I was sitting there thinking, beer and Jesus.

Beer and Jesus. And I just can't imagine this guy before the throne. I wanted my beer. Rather than Jesus Christ. But you know what the reality is?

Laugh, fat. Maybe it's not beer for us. But what is it? what is it that we weigh against Jesus and we don't give it up for him Jesus wants 100% of us he doesn't want half way

and that's what's difficult in some respects about this Christian life the scriptures don't let us be lukewarm and be comfortable The scriptures keep pressing us, pressing us, pressing us, pressing us, pressing us to be 100%. But there's something about when you finally let go. When you quit holding on to that stuff that's holding you back. When you finally let go, it's freedom. It is joy.

It is happiness. So let go. Let go. lastly and most importantly as we start this journey on the purpose driven life have I bent the knee to Jesus Christ I like the picture of getting on our knees before Christ

because many of us will know a lot about Jesus talk a lot about Jesus but the notion of surrendering and submitting to him we resist

the life bring glory to Jesus Christ is the life that is bent beneath.

Your will be done. Right?

Lord, I just pray. that as we plow through this consideration of what it means to live a purpose-driven life, that we will first be honest with ourselves before you. But I pray that you will, by your spirit, help people in this class to be different. I pray, I pray that people will say, what's happening in the Christ Seekers class? there are disturbances down there things aren't ordered the way they normally are ordered things aren't just the traditional way in Sunday school oh Lord deliver us from our traditions deliver us from our being bound by things let us give ourselves up to you freely completely, totally, without reservation life is fleeting Lord help us to see help us to see help us to see

it was in Christ's name I pray the name the name that is above everything