Lighthouse Baptist Church
and Christian Academy

Why was I born? Was it only to have trouble and sorrow, to end my life in disgrace?

Jeremiah 20:18

There are probably times in your life when you felt that way too!

Questions

1. Was I born just to have a bunch of problems?
2. Was I put on this planet just to have heartache, grief, and stress?

Arthur Ashley Brilliant says "My life is a superb cast, but I can't figure out the plot."
Jack Hanley wrote, "I hope life isn't a joke, because I don't get it."

Dr Hugh Moorhead, chairman of the Department of Philosophy at Northeastern University, wrote to 250 well-known philosophers, scientists, writers, and intellectuals of the world and asked them, "What is the purpose of life?"

Some offered their best guesses,
Some made up a purpose in life
Some didn't have any idea

1. Carl Jung, a famous psychiatrist said "I don't know the meaning of the purpose of life, but it looks as if something were meant by it."
2. Isaac Asi'mov wrote, "as far as I can see, there is no purpose."
3. Joseph Taylor wrote, "I have no answers to the meaning of life and I no longer want to search for any."
4. Oprah Winfrey said, "You've got to figure it out by yourself"

These are tragic statements, because the life without purpose isn't a life worth living!

It's no coincidence that the suicide rate in our society has gone up.
It's now the #2 killer of teenagers.

Here's the point - If you take God out of the equation, you don't really have very many alternatives.

You can try the Philosophical approach

1. The survivalist says, "The purpose of life is just to stay alive. Live as long as you can."
2. The naturalist says, "The purpose of life is just to perpetuate itself, which means you are here just for biological reasons."
3. Rap artist, Ice T, wrote, "The only reason we're here is to reproduce. Chill out and reproduce, Keep the species alive."
4. The Hedonist writes, "The purpose of life is pleasure, have fun, party-hardy."
5. The Materialist says, "Life is all about the acquisition of things." So your life is measured by the things you own.

The Problem is: he who dies with the most toys, still dies!

You can try the Self-Help approach

1. You can go into any book store and find hundreds of books on this subject.
2. They say, "You've got to invent your purpose."
3. They say, "You've got to create your own purpose in life."
4. They say, "You've got to:
   
   1. Discover your dreams,
   2. Go after your goals,
   3. Have some ambitions,
   4. Dream big dreams,
   5. Aim high,
   6. Believe you can achieve,
   7. Have faith,
   8. Figure out what you're good at,
   9. Never give up,
   10. Involve other people."

Here's the point - These are good advice and they will if you do these things. But being a success and knowing your life purpose are not the same. You can have raving success in life, and still never know "What on earth am I here for?"

What did God put me on this earth for?

The purpose of your life is far greater than:

1. Your own personal fulfillment or
2. Your own happiness, or
3. Your own peace of mind

You were made by God
You were made for God
You were put here for His purposes!

Until you understand that, life isn't going to make sense!

Questions

1. Why does God want us here?
2. Why are we alive?
3. Why are we on this planet? Is there a reason?

The Lord has made everything for his own purpose,

Proverbs 16:4 (GW)

God has never made anything without a purpose!

1. Every rock has a purpose
2. Every plant has a purpose
3. Every animal has a purpose
4. Every human being has a purpose

The truth is God has five purposes for your life!

Long before he laid down earth's foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love.

Ephes. 1:4 (Msg)

God says:

1. He created you to love you.
2. You were created to be loved by God.
3. He is love and wanted to create something to love, so He created you.
4. He didn't need you.
5. He wasn't lonely, He made you in order to love you.
6. He didn't need you, He wanted you.

My work all seems so useless! I have spent my strength for nothing and to no purpose at all.

Isaiah 49:4 (NLT)

Here's the Point: You were made for meaning, if you don't have meaning and purpose and you don't know why God put you on this planet, life doesn't make sense!

During World War 2, there were prisoners in a Nazi Concentration Camp in Hungary, that were processing human sewage in a factory. The allies came along, bombed that factory and blew it apart.

So the prisoners had nothing to do. The Nazi soldiers had the prisoners take all the rubble of that factory and move it to another field.

The next day, they had them take that same rubble and move it back in reverse.

The next day, they had to take that stuff and move it back and day after day, they had no meaning or purpose.

It was just work doing the same thing over and over with no meaning and no purpose.

1. The prisoners began to go crazy.
2. They began to lose their will to live because there was no meaning no purpose in their work.
3. They were just moving bricks back and forth, back and forth.
4. Many of them began to throw themselves in front of the guards trying to get shot, trying to commit suicide.

Why? Because people search for meaning because their created for meaning.

As you go through life, you're going to live at one of three levels:

1. Survival Level
Lowest level [this is where most people live].

You just:

• Barely get by
• Exist
• Are controlled by your circumstances

2. Success Level

• You have a comfortable life compared to others
• You're wealthy
• You have some possessions, good health, and prestige

If you're so successful, why don't you feel fulfilled?

Here's the Point: It takes more than success and status to satisfy

3. Significance Level

You need to do three things to reach this level:

1. You know the meaning of life,
2. You know how much you matter to God
3. You know God's purposes for your life and you're living them out

I am your creator. You were in my care, even before you were born.

Isaiah 44:2 (Contemporary English)

You (God) scheduled each day of my life before I began to breathe. Everyday was recorded in your book.

Psalm 139:16 (LV)

Do you matter? Yes

1. God made you.
2. God made you to love you.
3. You matter to God!
4. God sees everything in your life, good, bad, and in between.

Questions to answer

1. Is God playing games with us?
2. Is God intentionally trying to confuse us?
3. Does God keep us in the dark so we don't really know why we're here, what we're here for and what our meaning is?
4. Is that God's plan? No!

God wants you to know

1. How much you matter to Him.
2. The meaning of life.
3. His purposes.

His plans endure forever, His purposes lasts eternally.

Psalm 33:11 (GN)

Here's the Point: Life's purpose is not about you, it's about God! Because God's purposes are eternal!

God says "I have plans and purposes for your life and they don't end at death!"

God wants you to practice the things you're going to do in heaven forever.
God says "I was made to last forever!"

When 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.

2 Cor. 5:1 (TEV)

Question

Do you want to know how much you matter to God? He wants you to keep you with Him for the rest of eternity. Your life is not an accident! This gives meaning to your life!

Leave your impoverished confusion and live! Walk up the street to a life with meaning.

Proverbs 9:6 (Msg)

David asked (Psalm 89:47) "Why did you create us? For nothing!"

The greatest atheist philosopher Bertrand Russell said, "Unless you assume the existence of God, the questions of life's meaning and purpose is irrelevant."

If there is no God,
If your just a freak chance of nature,
If your really just pond scum, YOUR LIFE DOESN'T MATTER

The fact is THERE IS A GOD! God made you for a reason and he made you for a purpose. The only way your going to know your purpose is first looking to Him.

2 Things to think about

1. If you don't know the purpose of something, it's likely to be abused or misused.
2. The only way you're going to know what something's purpose is a) talk to the inventor, b) read the owners manual, or c) talk to your creator.

It's not by listening to the philosophers, why because their guessing
It's not looking within, because you're not going to find it there
It's not looking within self-help books, because just saying create a purpose

You've got to talk to the Creator and look in His owners manual. It's the only way you will ever know your purpose in life!

Knowing God results in every other kind of understanding.

Proverbs 9:10 (Living)

3 Things to remember

1. God created you to want to know the meaning of life.
2. God created you to crave purpose in life.
3. The only way you find your purpose is be getting to know God.

For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible... everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him.

Col. 1:16 (Msg)

It's in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for... part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone.

Ephes. 1:11 (Msg)

1. The more you get to know God
2. The more you're going to understand the ways and wisdom of God
3. The more you're going to understand the meaning and purpose of life.

Question

1. Where are you looking for meaning?
2. What are you doing to gain purpose?

You're not going to learn it:

• On a talk show
• In some se'ance
• Reading tea leaves
• Going to a seminar

The only way you're going to learn the meaning of life and your purpose of life is to get to know God!

It all starts with God
It's all about God
In the beginning God

With your message notes today is a card, please pull it out and read out loud with me.

Believing that God created me for His purposes and that the best use of my life is to fulfill those purposes, I commit the next 40 days to better understanding of God's five purposes for me.

1. I will participate in a 40 days of purpose small group
2. I will read each day's chapter from the Purpose Driven Life book
3. I will do my best to hear all 7 messages in this services.

If you added up what time it would take to do all those things, it would be less than 48 hours. Is the rest of your life and is all of the rest of your eternity worth 48 hours of your time?

I think it is.
I want you to sign the card
I want you to take it home
I want you to put it up on your refrigerator to remind you.

It makes no difference who you are or where you're from - if you want God and are ready to do as he says, the door is open.

Acts 10:35 (Msg)

Pray: Dear God, I realize that if it weren't for you, I wouldn't be alive. But because you made me, you must have a purpose for me. I admit that I focus on my plans for my life, not yours. But I want to know your purposes for me, so I commit the next 40 days of my life to learning about it. Thank you that you made me so you could love me. Thank you that you cared for me even when I didn't know you. Thank you that I was made to last forever. I want a life filled with meaning. I want to start be getting to know you better. In Jesus name, Amen.