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Sermon Notes | Is there a purpose to life?
EXPLORE GOD | Is there a Purpose to Life?
Are you alive for a purpose? A specific purpose?
Is life random? Do things happen simply from coincidences or accidentally?
To over-generalize: there are 3 types of people here today.
- Folks that are kicking the tires. Trying to determine if there is a God.
- Folks that are in a very difficult spot in life. Desperate for answers
- Folks that know God.
Let’s be honest. You came to a Christian Church. I’m going to give you my thoughts on God’s purpose. God’s solution is very humbling, rewarding and fulfilling.
A few quotes about purpose:
Russian author Leo Tolstoy – “What is life for? To die? To kill myself? No, I’m afraid of death. To wait for death till it comes? I fear that even more. Then I must live. But what for, in order to die?”
Ernest Hemingway – “Life is just a dirty trick, a short journey from nothingness to nothingness.”
Henry David Thoreau – “Most people live lives of quiet desperation.”
Another Russian novelist: Andrei Bitov grew up in a communist country where the government denied the existence of God. However, God got his attention on a dreary day on the metro in St Petersburg. “I was overcome with despair so great that life seemed to stop at once, preempting the future entirely, let alone any meaning. (the present is so bad, who cares about the future) Suddenly, all by itself, a phrase appeared: “Without God life makes no sense” repeating it in astonishment, I rode the phrase up like a moving staircase, got out of the metro and walking into God’s light.”
There are two questions of purpose: What is the purpose of today or this situation? AND then: What is the overall purpose of my life?
When we survey our world in America, we are tempted to ask ourselves these questions: Is our purpose to: help others? Be happy? Contribute to society? Raise a family? Keep your head above water? Do no harm? Take care of the earth?
We often begin at the wrong starting point…us. We ask self-centered questions like, “what do I want to be?” What should I do in life? What are my goals, my ambitions, my dreams for the future?