Living Life With Purpose
Wlhy Are We Here?

by Pastor M. J. Fitch
January 8, 2012
Text:  Ephesians 1:4-11

To view a video of the sermon, click here

Everybody Loves Raymond was a sitcom that ran for 9 years, ending just about 7 years ago. It wasn't a show that I watched, but it was a very popularshow. Anyone watch it? I read about an episode where Raymond has to have that dreaded talk with his daughter - telling her the "facts of life". In the show, Ray sits on the edge of the bed with books spread out before him, hoping they will help him explain to his daughter where we all come from. And then his daughter throws him a curve ball. She says "Daddy, I don't care about how we got here." Ray looks surprised and very relieved. "I want to know why God put us here." Raymond's expression is priceless. It's a combination of bewilderment and "let me out of here." She continues to press the question. Now, he's starts to wish could talk about the birds and the bees instead of this! He's stunned and he's stumped. Finally he fumbles his way into the only answer he can think of: "Well, honey, sometimes it gets... Well, it gets really crowded in heaven, so God sends some down here." Now his daughter has that expression of total confusion!

Raymond's response really describes a lot of us, doesn't he? We know a lot more about how we got here than why we were put here. It just seems to be a difficult question to answer. How would you answer it? What is your purpose in life? Why are you here?

One church went to the streets to see how the average person would answer that question. Some of heir responses were quite interesting. One person said, "I can't say I know the purpose. I think after I die I'll find out what the purpose of life is." Another said, "My purpose? Uh - I think my purpose is….uh, I don't know." Some did have quicker responses. And their answers reveal what is most important their lives. What is your purpose in life? "To have fun.,..to be happy…to have good time and enjoy my life….to have as much fun as possible in as short a time as possible." One person even answered that the purpose for his life was to smoke marijuana.

There were some other answers that were better - some that we would deem more honorable: some said the purpose of life was to live a moral life … to raise a good family … or to raise kids to have a good future.

What is so interesting is that people usually respond to that question by starting with themselves. We ask the question, "What do I want to be? What are my dreams? What are my goals?" We read self-help books, watch TV shows or go to seminars - that tells us how to improve ourselves and believe in ourselves. But, as Rick Warren says, "(while all) these recommendations often lead to great success… being successful and fulfilling your life's purpose are not at all the same issue! You could reach all your personal goals, becoming a raving success by the world's standard, and still miss the purposes for which God created you. …You cannot arrive at your life's purpose by starting with a focus on yourself. You must begin with God, your Creator. You were made by God and for God….and until you understand that, life will never make sense."

You see the only One who can really answer "Why am I here" is the one who put you here! As it says in Colossians 1:16, in speaking about Jesus Christ, "All things were created by Him and for Him." Write that down in your sermon guide and memorize it! Created by Him and for Him! In fact - put your name there - MJ/Ellen/Molly

Steph/Lora Mae - was created by Him for Him. Or another way to say it, found in the Message Bible is: "Everything got started in Him and finds its purpose in Him." I got started in Him and I can find my purpose in Him. He's has created and designed each of us and we can only know our purpose through Him.

Let me give you an example. Let me show you this picture. Anybody recognize what this is? Have any idea how it is used? Well, it is a corn stripper. You place this kitchen gadget on your ear of corn and you can strip the kernels off the ear. Pretty fancy gadget if you ask me. Well, when you don't know the purpose of an invention - you can't ask the invention what its purpose is. Obviously. Only the creator of the invention or the owner's manual can really tell you what the purpose of the invention is.

The good news is that we can turn to our Creator and our owner's manual to find out why we are here and what our purpose is. Ephesians 1:11-12, our text for today, tells us that: "It's in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone."

You were made by God! He has a purpose for you being here right now - at this very point in history. God has a purpose for you. He designed you for the overall purpose He is working out in all the world. Until you and I understand that - life will never make any sense. As Ron Hutchcraft says, "Your life will never be fulfilling and it will never know its purpose until you have (Christ). Like the earth was created to revolve around the sun, you and I were created to revolve around our Creator."

You see I believe that if we are going to know why we are here and what our purpose in life is we have to start with God. We have to center our lives around the One who created and designed us. We have to have that personal relationship with Christ and know His words through the Bible. As the text says - it is only in knowing Him that we will know who we are.

Look again at our text for today - specifically at Ephesians 1:4 - it says, "Long before he (God) laid down the earth's foundations he had us in mind. And he settled on us as the focus of his love to be made whole and holy by his love. Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!) He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son."

Think about that. God has made each one of us to be the thing that He focuses all His love on. And if that is not enough to make you feel important - it says that God decided this long before the foundations of the world were made. We are here to be in a love relationship with God. Each of us are his adopted sons and daughters - custom designed with God's plan in mind! When you don't know this basic truth - when you lose sight of the reason you were born and what your purpose in life is , life can seem pretty hopeless and meaningless. In fact, the people that seem the most unhappy and restless in life are those who have lost that connection with God or they have substituted God's divine purposes in life for things like power and success, pleasure and partying - even greed, hatred or revenge. As Rick Warren says, "Nothing matters more than knowing God's purpose for your life and nothing can compensate for not knowing them…. Without God, life has no purpose, and without purpose, life has no meaning. Without meaning, life has no significance or hope…. The greatest tragedy then is not death - but life without purpose."

Bible commentator William Barclay once said that there are two great days in a person's life - the day we were born and the day we discover why. When you have that personal relationship with Christ - and really learn God's word - you can discover that "why". And when you find God's purpose for your life - you can find focus and direction - and amazing hope and joy. And you will finally be living that life that God created you for.

Which is why Greg and I think it is so important to begin our new year by focusing on "Living a Life with Purpose". God has great plans for you and for me - and for this church. We need to find our purpose - to know "why" we are here, so that we can be living the life God has called us to. We need to know God's purposes to grow to be that passionate disciple of Christ we are yearning to be.

We are basing this sermon series on Scriptures found particularly in the book of Ephesians….which would be a good book to read throughout this series. We will also be reading and focusing our thoughts on that well-known book The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren. I'm sure many of you have read this book, but if you haven't, I encourage you to read it along with us. Get a small group together and study it more in depth. There are all sorts of resources for this book that we can share with you - just talk to Greg or me about it. It is Rick Warren who has searched the Scriptures and gleaned from them these 5 purposes that God designed for each of us. Summing them up -

- God planned us for His pleasure

- God formed us for God's family

- God created us to be like Christ

- God shaped us to serve Him

- God made us a for mission

Our goal for this next six weeks is to really discover what the purposes of God are for our lives and to dedicate ourselves to living those purposes out through the power that God supplies. We are hoping you join us in that endeavor and will be here each and every Sunday.

For now, let me emphasize to you that I believe God has created you with a special purpose and design. You are uniquely positioned here at this time and place - for this generation and for the people you come in contact with. God wants to use you in the overall purposes He is working out in the world. Much like Queen Esther, in the Bible, who had to put her life on the line for the sake of the Jewish nation, the question comes to us, "Who knows if you weren't sent to the kingdom for such a time as this?" God has a purpose and a plan for you - even in the difficult and challenging moments of our lives - to make a difference.

Ashley Smith came to find this out in an incredible way. She had been through a very difficult time in her life. As a 26-year-old single mom, she had had a pretty rough journey. Being brought up a Christian, she rebelled as a youth - had brushes with the law and some drug problems and finally got married and had a little girl. And then her husband died from stab wounds during a violent attack. So by March of 2005, she was just starting to get her life back together again and settle into a new apartment. One night, she ran out at 2am for a quick run to the store. When she returned, accused killer Brian Nichols forced his way into her apartment at gunpoint. Nichols was the object of a very large manhunt in Georgia history after his deadly escape from a downtown courtroom where he left the judge and three others shot to death. Later, he shot another man. Initially, he bound and gagged Ashley. Eventually, he began to trust her enough to give her some freedom. And for seven hours, she began to talk to the killer in her living room. She talked about the battles of her life - about the little daughter she was supposed to pick up the next morning - and about her newly reborn faith. With his permission, she read to him from the Bible and for the book she was reading, The Purpose-Driven Life.

Ultimately, he allowed Ashley to leave to go see her daughter - after she seemingly had persuaded him to consider ending the killing and to give up peacefully. After she called law enforcement - as he almost surely knew she would - they swarmed around that apartment only to see him come out and quietly surrender. Later, Ashley Smith recalled some extraordinary things that Brian Nichols had said to her. He told her he thought she was an angel sent from God - that he was lost and that God had led him right to her so she could tell him, from the well of her own hurt, how the people he had hurt were feeling. She told him he was a child of God and that she wanted him to do God's will. Then she said, "I guess he began to want to." For days, the national media talked over and over again about those extraordinary seven hours and the incredible young woman who had helped end a bloodbath. Smith downplayed her efforts and later said "Throughout my time with Mr. Nichols, I continued to rely [on] my faith in God. God has helped me through tough times before, and he'll help me now," She said "it was not her strength or courage. It was all God who was now leading her "purpose-driven life."

Why are we here? Ashley definitely found her purpose in life in sharing the love of God with a troubled soul. And her decision to act on that made all the difference for Brian Nichols and for that community.

Do you know why you are here? Have you found your God-given purpose in life?

I asked that of our daughter Mary recently and she said, "our purpose in life is to live up to your God-given potential, praising and worshiping God by using the gifts and abilities He gave us to make a difference in this world."

Wherever you go this week - whoever God puts you with - remember why you are here! Live up to your God-given potential - and make a difference in this world!

Invitation

Resources:

Rick Warren, Purpose Driven Life, 2011 by Zondervan Publishing.

Story about Brian Nichols and Ashley Smith found at www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Nichols and in an article by Ron Hutchcraft, "Bigger Purpose Than You Ever Dreamed" - #4822, July 5, 2005.

Story about "Everyone Loves Raymond" found in an article written by Ron Hutchcraft, "Figuring Out the Meaning of it All - #6242, December 14, 2010.

William Barclay quote

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/w/william_barclay.html