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Plainly Speaking
with Karl J. Forehand
Purpose
– Part 2
(Life’s 3 Greatest Questions)
by Karl J. Forehand
*This series developed in part based on Rick Warren’s
“Purpose Driven Life”
Jack Hanley said, “I hope
life isn’t a joke – because I don’t get it.”
We often not only forget the purpose of our lives, we often forget why
we matter. George Bernard Shaw said,
“There is true joy in life – being used for a purpose – a mighty purpose –
being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap. It is possible to have a mighty
purpose. Jesus definitely had one ---
Paul had one – we can too!
However, Thoreau said, “Most men
live lives of quiet desperation.”
Thoreau had determined to live life deliberately. He didn’t want to die and find out that he
had never lived. To live life
deliberately, I believe we have to understand the three basic questions. The anchor for this message is John 3:16.
"For God so loved the world, that He gave His
only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have
eternal life.” (John 3:16)
1. What am I Alive?
Where could we go for
possible answers?
We could go to new age,
mysticism. This type of approach
says that we must look within to find the answers. The problem is that most of us find emptiness when we look
inside. We discover the truth that
our hearts are deceitfully wicked. We
won’t find a holy answer in a wicked heart.
If our hearts can be holy, then we must look to the one that made the
wickedness good to find the answer.
The creator knows why the creature is alive.
We could go to humanism. Humanism says that we are alive to please
ourselves. Ernest Hemingway certainly
lived a humanist life. He sought and
found pleasure in every way. Yet,
Ernest Hemingway said, “I live in a vacuum that is as lonely as a radio tube
when the batteries are dead, and there is not current to plug into.” Solomon exclaimed that all the pursuits of
this life are “vanity – a chasing after the wind.” We find that the pleasures never really fill the void. Just pleasure for pleasure’s sake usually
yields misery and never gives any great answers to life. I love eating, but if my goal in life is
to fulfill that desire, I will die early in a large casket; and I still won’t
have answered the question.
Maybe I could focus on achievement. This approach says I am alive to
achieve. What I have found is that
goals constantly have to be replaced by new goals. We learn from others that what we accumulate we must leave to
someone that didn’t earn it.
Achievement is honorable; but it still doesn’t satisfy or answer the
question. If we were only alive to
achieve, we ought to find some lasting satisfaction in it.
We could, like the rapper (Ice
Tea), take a survivalist approach.
He says, “The only reason we are here is to reproduce.” May I say, without passing the right
legacy, reproducing only perpetuate the problems. This is why some advocate abortion. Reproduction is not the problem or the solution; because it
doesn’t answer the question.
Why DID God create us? The answer is found in the Word of
God. It is not necessarily in one
specific verse, rather it is found in the whole of Scripture. We DO see it in this little verse that
every child learns in Sunday School.
It says, “For God so loved the world.” We exist, very simply, to be loved by
God.
1st John, chapter 4,
gives us a lesson on love. It says:
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In verse 7, that love originates from God
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In verse 19, it says that He loved us BEFORE we loved Him
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In verse 9 and 10, it says that He manifested His love TOWARD us in His
Son
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In verse 11, it tells us we love others because God loved us first – it
is a cause and effect
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In verse 16 and 17, it says we are perfected when we love others. It start with His love for us, and we are
perfected when we love others and show them God’s love. Then they can accept God’s love…
We say, “But, God doesn’t love
me.” Remember, God doesn’t LIKE you,
because of your sin. He IS
head-over-heels in love with you because He chose to. You may not feel it, but that doesn’t make
it any less true. He spent the whole
of the Bible trying to tell you He does.
We say, “No one else loves
me.” The One that matters the most
does. The truth is that other people
do. They may not have shown it
correctly. You may have learned to
thrive on resentment so long that you have made yourself believe that they
don’t. It may be that you have made
it difficult for people to express love for you. But, even if NO ONE loves you, the creator of the universe died
to show you that He does.
We may infer, “Hey, I’m not
worth loving – I’m not the guy/girl who makes the team.” As you get older, you will realize that
many “successful” people wind up with empty lives. How many rock stars go over the cliff? Yet, we realize that many simple people
have triumphed greatly and die fulfilled because they realized the most
important thing is to be loved by God.
Realizing that God loves us
gives us a divine purpose instead of just a human objective. We are created to be loved by God and
remember, love is a verb.
2. Does
my Life Matter?
John 3:16 gives us a clue
about significance. Why were we
created? We were created to live
forever. There are at least 3 levels
of significance:
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survival – which is just existing
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achievement – accomplishing goals, accumulating things, conquering
enemies
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significance – knowing why you are here, knowing how much you matter to
God, and knowing God’s purpose for you.
In Christ, we are able to do
things that last forever – that is significant. With Christ, we are able to lay up treasures in heaven, where
moths and rust don’t corrupt and thieves to not break in and steal.
How do we usually measure
significance?
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Did I impress anyone?
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Did I get my name in the paper?
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Did I accumulate any material?
We have to understand that life
is the beginning of eternity? God has
possessed us for eternity. Wedding
vows say, “I want to love you the rest of my life.” Our significance is found when God say “I want to spend
eternity with you.”
We are not just killing time. We are not just building up credits for
heaven. We are not progressing toward
a funeral, then beginning eternity.
We ARE living out the first few moments of eternity. We ARE entering the Kingdom now. Everything we do matters. Our relationship with the Lord is imminent
and critical – every day matters. If
I understand marriage is for life, I will be a better husband. If I understand my relationship with the
Lord is eternal, it become much more critical.
We are reborn, recreated to live
forever. The Bible says, “Though the
outward is decaying, the inner man is being renewed day by day. Why?
Because the inner part is eternal.
True significance is found when we realize we are created to be loved
by God – that is why we exist? We are
re-created to live forever – that is why we are significant.
3. What
is my purpose?
Let’s take a look at one of
Paul’s prayer:
For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on
earth derives its name, that He would
grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with
power through His Spirit in the inner man;
so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you,
being rooted and grounded in love,
may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and
length and height and depth, and to
know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up
to all the fulness of God (Eph. 3:14-19)
Very simply, our purpose is to know
God better. Purpose is expressed
in the five purposes of the church:
evangelism, worship, discipleship, fellowship, service. If those are the purposes of the church,
they are certainly the purposes of the believer. The purpose of man is not just becoming like Him, but also
getting to know Him better. We can’t
do one without the other.
What if the president of your
country hired YOU to work for Him. He
said, “I just want you to spend time with me and get to know me and carry out
my wishes.” Would that be a great
honor? Would that give you
purpose? You would call all your
friends and say, “You won’t believe it….”
What a job! What a purpose! That reality is that the person that
created that president wants the same thing – He wants to get to know you and
have you in service for Him.
The reason these things seem
simple is because we don’t fully understand them. I believe, if you will understand them, you will see their
significance. My prayer is that God
will help you fully understand:
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That He created you to love you
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That He re-created you to live eternally and do eternal things
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That He wants to get to know you much better and for you to get to know
Him.
Karl
J. Forehand, 2002
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