A sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ the Redeemer Church, Manhattan, KS, 13 June 2010
· About a year ago, CNN ran a story on suicide in Japan.
· It started with the account of a man named Taro who was in financial trouble. He had gone into debt, lost his job, and then been evicted from his apartment.
· He said, “My will to live disappeared… I'd lost my identity, so I didn't want to live on this earth.”
· So he bought a one-way train ticket to a national forest, planning to disappear in the dense woods and kill himself with a knife.
· Park rangers say the forest is a popular place for people like Taro to commit suicide – hundreds do it every year.
· The overall statistics are grim. Japan has the worst suicide rate in the world – .02% of the nation’s population committed suicide last year!
· Suicide happens when you think you are god and you don’t have a reason to live – or when a god outside of yourself tells you there is no more reason for you to live. Knowing the purpose of your life is important to life!
· It starts with knowing who sets the purpose for your life. Whoever does this is your god.
· Lots of people have taken stabs at articulating the meaning of life. Here are a few:
There are some who say that there is no meaning to life because there is no personal God to give it meaning, only an impersonal material universe:
o “Why is there something rather than nothing? We do not know. We will never know. Why? To what purpose? We do not know whether there is a purpose.” ~ André Comte-Sponville, French philosopher, The Little Book of Philosophy
o “We are survival machines - robot vehicles blindly programmed to preserve the selfish molecules known as genes.” ~ Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene
o I am reminded of Douglas Adams’ humorous science-fiction series that poked fun at any attempt to define meaning in life by suggesting an absurd answer: “The answer to life, the universe, and everything is: 42” ~ Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Others, however, say that there can be meaning to life and that we are to define that meaning for ourselves:
o The 20th Century philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre took the ideas of the Humanistic French revolution from the previous century and promoted the worldview of existentialism. In his book, L'Existentialisme Est Un Humanisme, published in 1946 he wrote, “First of all, man exists… and afterwards, defines himself.” Sartre taught that in order to find meaning in life, we must make up a reason to live – any reason – it doesn’t matter what – and then live it out.
o The late psychologist M. Scott Peck, in his popular book, The Road Less Travelled, put it in more spiritual, New Age terms: "To put it plainly, our unconscious is God. God within us. We were part of God all the time… Since the unconscious is God all along, we may further define the goal of spiritual growth to be the attainment of godhood by the conscious self. It is for the individual to become totally, wholly God. The point is to become God while preserving consciousness. ...then God will have assumed a new life form. This is the meaning of our individual existence.”[1]
o This kind of autonomous, anti-authoritarian self-expression also shows up in a soft-core form in modern self-help books. Listen to this, for instance, from Steve Pavlina: “How to discover your life purpose in about 20 minutes: 1. Take out a blank sheet of paper… 2. Write at the top, ‘What is my true purpose in life?’ 3. Write an answer (any answer) that pops into your head… Repeat step 3 until you write the answer that makes you cry. This is your purpose.”[2] ~ Who decides what your life is about? Your emotional self.
o Other humanists relate our meaning in life to a corporate goal in evolution. In his book, The Philosophy of Humanism, Corliss Lamont wrote, “Men can find plenty of scope and meaning in their lives through… helping to evolve a new species surpassing Man.”[3] Wow! Wanna do something meaningful with your life? Engineer the next evolutionary form of mankind using computers and genetic manipulation!
o The Dalai Lama, on the other hand, wrote, “What is the purpose of life? I believe that the purpose of life is to be happy.”[4] Hey, whatever makes you happy; do that, because, after all, life is all about you!
There are other worldviews that define our life purpose in terms of the will of other people:
o Although foreign to most westerners, this is common throughout the world in small, traditional communities. In that kind of society, you might be a carpenter because your father and grandfather were carpenters and the village needs a carpenter, so you have no choice.
o The westerners who probably see it most are those in the armed service. You’ve probably heard the phrase describing the mindset of the privates in the Army in the “Charge of the Light Brigade” by Alfred Lord Tennyson: “Forward, the Light Brigade! Was there a man dismay'd? Not tho' the soldier knew Some one had blunder'd Their's not to make reply, Their's not to reason why, Their's but to do and die: Into the valley of Death Rode the six hundred.”
o This kind of group-think[5] also shows up in other group pressure type situations like Communist communities and gang communities.
o Although it is sometimes tempting to be lazy and let someone else define our life purpose, we Westerners generally don’t like being told what to do. Even less attractive is the final option:
· In 1646, the English Puritans started publishing the Westminster Shorter Catechism, which starts with the answer to the purpose of human life: “The chief end of man is to Glorify God and enjoy him forever.” And by “God” they meant the God of the Holy Bible.
· The God of the Holy Bible makes plans and executes them: In Gen. 1:27-28, this God is recorded as saying, “Let us make man in our image,” and then He makes the first man and woman.
· But even before that, God had laid plans concerning mankind:
o 2 Tim. 1:1 “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, according to the promise of the life which is in Christ Jesus… 9 who saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before times eternal.”
o Eph. 1:4 “…He [God the Father] chose us in Him [God the Son] before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blemish before Him in love, 5 having foreordained us unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ unto Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of his grace… 8 which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, 9 making known unto us the mystery of His will, according to his good pleasure which He purposed in Him 10 unto an administration of the fullness of the times, to sum up all things in Christ… 11 in whom also we were made to be an inheritance, having been foreordained according to the purpose of Him who works all things after the counsel of His will; 12 to the end that we should be unto the praise of His glory, we who had before hoped in Christ.”
· If Jehovah-God created matter and energy, and created your life in His image, then He is the rightful owner of your person and He is the One who should determine what your purpose in life is.
God sent prophets and apostles to reveal His plan concerning mankind. Those guys wrote down in the Holy Bible what God revealed to them about His purpose, and what the Bible says is that the overall reason why God made people is in order to that He would be glorified:
· In Isaiah 43:7 God says, regarding the nation of Israel “…[I]t was for my glory I created him...”
· This may seem arrogant at first, but it is entirely appropriate for anything which is created to give honor to its creator. That’s why painters sign their name to a painting, so that the painter will get the honor for the work he did. [ILLUSTRATE with painting by Mema?]
· Now, God’s children were often disobedient, but that did not thwart His purpose. He simply disciplined them in order to bring them back around so that they would glorify Him again! In 20:26 , the prophet Ezekiel recorded where God says, “I polluted them [Israel] in their own gifts… [that is, God incited the Israelites to offer their children as burnt sacrifices to idols] that I might make them desolate, to the end that they might know that I am Jehovah.”
· God even acted in judgment against those who weren’t His people to bring glory to Himself. Moses recorded in Exodus where God spoke to the Pharaoh of Egypt, saying, “…I will send all my plagues upon your heart, and upon your servants, and upon your people; that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth. For I could have put forth my hand, and struck you and your people with pestilence, and you would have been cut off from the earth, but instead I made you to stand in order to show you my power, and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth.” (Ex. 9:14-16)
· And the more people who give glory to God, the more glory God gets, so He revealed his plan to the Apostle Paul in the New Testament to “multiply grace” out to “many” people – including Gentiles – throughout the world so that He would get more glory: 2 Cor. 4:14-15 “We know that He who raised up the Lord Jesus will raise up us also with Jesus, and will present us with you. For it’s all for your sakes, that the grace, being multiplied through the many, may cause the thanksgiving to abound unto the glory of God.”
· And, in the last book of the Bible, the Apostle John recorded a glimpse that God gave of the end result of God’s plan to bring glory to Himself, where “every created thing which is in the heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things are in them… [were] saying, ‘Unto Him Who sits on the throne, and unto the Lamb, be the blessing and the honor and the glory and the dominion for ever and ever” (Rev. 5:13). That’s God’s purpose, and He will achieve His purpose!
· Not only has God revealed His purpose in creating humankind through stating His intentions, He has also revealed His purpose for mankind through giving commands to us. God tells us to do certain things, and these commands let us know what He wants:
· Psalm 150:6 “Praise Jehovah! Let everything that has breath praise Jehovah!” (cf. Ps. 135:1)
o Praise Him for who he is Psalm 100:4-5 “… praise His name. For Jehovah is good and His love endures forever; His faithfulness continues throughout all generations.” (cf. Ps. 135:3)
o Praise Him for what he has done: 2 Chron. 2:12 “…‘Praise be to Jehovah…who made heaven and earth!…’”
o Psalm 139:14 “I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made…”
o Dan. 2:23 “I thank and praise you, O God… You have given me wisdom…”
· Follow God’s moral commands (i.e. 10 Commandments):
o Isa. 60:21 “[My] people shall all be righteous… that I might be glorified.”
o Mat 5:16 “… let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”
o Even in giving the moral laws, God was concerned that He be glorified as the world observed the ethics of His people.
· “Love one another” John 13:34; 15:12,17; Romans 13:8; 1 Thess. 4:9; 1 Peter 1:22; 1 John 3:11,23; 4:7,11,12; 2 John 1:5.
o Our love for one another springboards back to God’s glory, because if we have love for one another, the world will know that we are Jesus’ disciples (John 13:35).
o Furthermore, Christians will have greater cause to glorify God, as Paul said in Rom. 15:5-6 “May… God… give you… unity… so that… you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
The way God intends to get glory for Himself is by providing such a great salvation that we will want to glorify Him. The Apostle Paul wrote about this at length:
· Gal. 1:4 Jesus “gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us out of this present evil world, according to the will of our God and Father.” So God’s strategy includes deliverance from evil.
· Rom. 8:28-29 “And we know that God works all things for good, for those who love God, even to those who are called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also foreordained to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.” God’s plan of salvation includes regeneration into a new life of blessing.
· Rom. 12:2 “…be transformed by the renewing of your mind, and ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” God’s will is that we be saved, including a transformation of our sinful selves.
· Sometimes, as I mentioned earlier, God’s people don’t respond so well, so God uses chastisement to bring us to the point where He can bring us to repentance and forgiveness of sin. Jer. 36:3 “It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I purpose to do unto them; that they may return every man from his evil way; that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.”
· Heb. 2:3 “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great a salvation? which having at the first been spoken through the Lord, was confirmed unto us by those [apostles] who heard. 4 God also bore witness with them, both by signs and wonders and by manifold powers, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to His own will.” It was God’s will to provide salvation through the death and resurrection of Jesus and for the good news of that salvation to be preached to us so we would believe in it. That’s God’s strategy to achieve glory and praise from us.
Everyone is called to glorify God by rejoicing in His salvation, but not everyone has the same role to play in this. God gives even more specific life purposes to different individuals.
· The different genders have different roles to play: Eve was created to “help” Adam (1 Cor. 11: 9. “…man was not created on account of the woman, but rather woman on account of the man.”) There are special roles for married women in fulfilling God’s goal of salvation and glory, including the honorable role of being a helper to her husband (1 Cor. 7:34) and the marvelous role of bearing children (1 Tim. 2:15).
· Different men have different vocational roles to play:
o Solomon’s life purpose was to build the temple (1 Kings 5:5)
o John the Baptizer’s life purpose was to prepare the Jews for the coming of Jesus (John 1:31)
o Jesus’ life purpose was to die on the cross to provide salvation (John 12:27)
o Paul’s life purpose was to preach the gospel to gentiles: Eph. 3:8&11 “Unto me… it was given to preach unto the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ… according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
· Even the wicked have a special role to play in bringing glory to God:
o Prov. 16:4 “Jehovah has made everything for its own end – Yes, even the wicked for the day of evil.”
o Even in the eternal punishment of unbelievers, God is glorified because it shows that those who are saved from His wrath did nothing to earn that salvation, but that their salvation depended entirely upon His mercy, as Paul explained in Rom. 9:15-18, “For He [God] said to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.’ So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who exerts himself, but of God who shows mercy. For the scripture said to Pharaoh, ‘For this very purpose I raised you up, that I might show in you my power, and that my name might be published abroad in all the earth.’ So then He has mercy on whom He will, and whom He wills He hardens.”
· God also expresses His different intended life purposes through giving us different spiritual gifts and roles:
o Eph. 4:11-12 “He [Jesus] Himself gave the apostles, and the prophets, and the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers, toward the equipping of the saints, for the building up of the body of Christ.”
o 1 Cor 12:7-11 “Now, to each is given the manifestation of the Spirit toward the [goal of] bearing together, for: to one a word of wisdom is given through the Spirit, but to another, a word of knowledge - according to the same Spirit, to yet another, faith - in the same Spirit, but to another, gifts of healings - in the same Spirit, and to another, energizings for miracles, but to another, prophecy, and to another, the distinguishing of spirits, to yet another, kinds of languages, and to another, interpretation of languages. But one and the same Spirit is energizing all these, variously apportioning to each individual just as He purposes.”
· So, depending on your gender, your calling in work, your relationship with God, the spiritual gifts God gave you, and the role God gave you, your specific life purpose will not look the same as everybody else’s.
Notice the following clues. If most of them line up with the same sort of answer, then there’s good reason to believe that it is God’s specific life purpose for you.
1. What do you love to do?
2. What are you good at? (Not always the same thing!)
3. What scriptural commands resonate with you?
o Romans 12:2 resonates with my wife, Paula: “Don’t be conformed to this world…” She is energized by going against the flow.
o Not me. I love to help people by providing resources. Eph. 4:12 resonates with me, “equip the saints”!
o My oldest son, Josh, however, (at least at one stage in his boyhood) had Psalm 58:6 as his favorite verse. You know what that verse says? “Break the teeth of the wicked!” Justice resonates with him and he hates to see bad guys get away with evil!
o So, what Bible verses resonate with you?
4. What opportunities has God given you?
o I love to make music and I don’t think I’m half bad at it, but God has not given me the opportunity to make a living at it, so I don’t think it’s my life purpose. Instead, at this season in my life, God has given me the opportunity to be a pastor.
o God sovereignly opens doors of opportunity for us and keeps others shut to direct us into our specific life purpose (1 Cor. 16:9; 2 Cor. 2:12; Colossians 4:3; Revelation 3:8).
5. What have wise counselors advised you to do?
Generally these five things will line up to point in a certain direction. But sometimes things aren’t all that clear. When things are unclear, don’t panic. God is still going to direct you according to His good plan, just as he says in Eph. 2:10 “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead that we should walk in them.” God has prepared the course of your life ahead of time. Don’t worry; just keep following after Him.