John 10:10 b
10 – I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.
Like any loving father, at this time of the year, I am very focused on providing special CHRISTMAS GIFTS for my children. In fact, for weeks now I’ve been making mental lists as to what gifts to purchase for Daniel, Sarah, and Becca. I’ve compiled these lists by drawing on several sources of data. For example…I’ve tried to listen carefully to their conversations for clues as to the gifts they hope to receive. I’ve paid special attention to their responses to commercials on TV that advertise things I think someone their age might want. I’ve watched them as they have leafed through the numerous Christmas catalogues that have come in the mail and as we’ve walked through their favorite stores in the mall. I’ve looked closely at their daily routine so I could see things that they might need to make their lives a little easier. Now, I’ve gone to all this trouble because, like any Dad, I love my children and if at all possible, I want them to give them GOOD THINGS in life…especially at Christmas.
I share all this because, as our Redland family celebrates Jesus’ birth this year, I want us to understand that since the Bible teaches that God is like a Father-the PERFECT Father. Well, I think that means there is a very real sense in which HE has a CHRISTMAS GIFT list with OUR names on it. And, on this list are the PRESENTS or GIFTS He wants to give you and me.
Now, this isn’t really much of a stretch because Jesus once said that God thinks this way. Do you remember His words? Our Lord said, If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in Heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him! (Matthew 7:11 ) The little epistle of James goes so far as to say that EVERY, …GOOD AND PERFECT GIFT…is from above, coming down from the Father.
So, the Bible teaches that it is God’s nature to want to provide us-His children-with good gifts.
And then, another thing I want to point out as we begin the Advent season is that the SOURCE of all God’s gifts to us is found in Jesus Christ. As William Barclay once said, Jesus is the ‘YES’ to every promise of God. When God sent His Son to earth that first Christmas night, He GAVE us so much and this Christmas I want us here at Redland to understand exactly what this means. To do this we’ll need to unwrap together several of the gifts of God that were made possible by the birth of His only Son. Today I want us to unwrap the gift of purpose-filled living and next Sunday the gift of a church family. On December 16 we’ll open the gift of the Holy Spirit and on the 23rd God’s gift of peace. We’ll save the best gift of all for last, as on Christmas Eve we open the gift of Jesus Himself. I want us to do all this gift-unwrapping so that we can both UNDERSTAND these gifts and LEARN how to benefit from them. We’ll finish our study of this subject on the Sunday after Christmas as we see what we can discover about wisdom from those wise men, those visitors who came to Jesus’ home in Nazareth two years after His birth and were the first to respond to God’s Christmas gift giving by bringing their own gifts to Him.
But let’s get back to unwrapping TODAY’S gift. And by the way, forget saving the paper or ribbons. Let’s tear right into it because PURPOSE in life is a gift all of us desperately want and need. I mean, if there were a Christmas gift catalogue that listed all our greatest inner desires, I think PURPOSE would take up a full page. And, this yearning for purpose is nothing new. The quest for meaning is as old as the hills. Even in ancient times people realized that something was missing in their lives. I for one believe it was this inner hunger for fulfilment that inspired the Greeks to write the mythological tale of Sisyphus. Remember the story? Sisyphus was punished by the gods for sharing some of their secrets with mere mortals and his sentence for this crime was to roll a massive stone to the top of a hill, watch it roll down again, and repeat the exercise over and over again. His was a life consigned to meaningless futility, which is how many people have felt about their lives for thousands of years. A national survey was conducted recently and in it people were asked, If you could ask God only one question and you knew He would give you an answer, what would you ask? Of the top five responses four were various forms of this question: What is the PURPOSE or meaning of life? So, even today thousands of years after the Greeks were moved to write the story of Sisyphus, people still want to know why they are here-why they were born. Even in the 21st century we hunger for something meaningful to live for.
Now if Forest Gump’s mom were asked to deal with this issue she would no doubt say that, Life is like a bunch of chocolates. You never know what you’re going to get. And many of us would agree…because life can be SWEET like chocolates. It can also get STICKY at times, like chocolates. And then, there are many times when life seems to be full of NUTS!
By the way, did you know that there is actually a web site devoted to this quest for meaning in life? It’s opening screen says, Click HERE to discover the meaning of life. You click on the word here and another screen pops up that says, Meaning of life. When you click on that, it recycles again and says, Follow this link to the meaning of life. So you click that sentence, and it recycles once more and says, This will link to the meaning of life. Click there and you end up back to the original screen which says, Click HERE to discover the meaning of life. It’s sort of a cyber-circle. Well, to some of us that is what life is like: a meaningless and endless cycle that seems to take us nowhere.
Oh, we keep TRYING to find purpose. In fact we follow many different links on the Internet highway of life in an effort to find fulfillment. For example some of us seek purpose by PURSUING HAPPINESS, you know shopping and partying and pursuing pleasure.
Unfortunately, like the chocolate from Forest Gump’s box, pleasure tastes good for a moment but ultimately it melts away. Others try to find purpose in life through EXCITEMENT, so they become adrenaline junkies, always looking for the next high but unfortunately, thanks to the law of diminishing returns, these people are never really satisfied. Most people look for purpose in life by pursuing SUCCESS in some arena. They pour themselves into their careers and get all kinds of positive re-enforcement and that sparks a cycle of working harder and harder…for more kudos. But REAL fulfillment-LASTING fulfillment-always seems just beyond their grasp. If you doubt that then listen to the following titles of many best-selling books…books that have to do with the DOWN side of success.
Ambitious Men: Their Drives, Their Dreams, and Their Delusions; The Price of Success: Is It Worth It?; Quiet Desperation: The Truth about Successful Men; Beyond Success-Coping With the Fast Track Blues; If I’m So Successful, Why Do I feel Like a Fake?; The Success Trap: Rethinking Your Ambitions
The writers of these books have found out that success doesn’t really satisfy. It too is a dead end for those who are trying to find genuine, lasting fulfillment.
A few years ago Life magazine published an entire book on how individuals have coped with this quest for purpose. The publication is a cross-section of words and pictures and it includes comments from all kinds of people….from philosophers to drug addicts…from painters to plumbers. Here’s an example of the kinds of things the book quotes people as saying. Jose Martinez, a taxi driver in New York city wrote,
We’re here to die…just live and die. I live driving a cab. I do some fishing, take my girl out, pay taxes, do a little reading, then [a few decades later] get ready to drop dead. Life is a big fake! You’re rich or you’re poor. You’re here, you’re gone. You’re like the wind. Life is nothing!
Now, I think that there have been times in our lives when all of us could relate to this taxi driver. So many times life seems like a wild goose chase with no goose. In our most honest moments we have all wondered why life is not more rewarding. We discover that even our best experiences rarely leave much of lasting value, and often the anticipation is more fulfilling than the experience we are anticipating. Many people channel surf through life looking, and hoping, for something to catch their attention, only to end up bored, jaded, and flat.
Well, the Bible records that thousands of years ago a man struggled with this same problem. He had pleasure and excitement, success and wealth, power and prestige but he found that in spite of all this life still lacked something. He chronicled his search for this SOMETHING in a book. His name of course was Solomon, the son of David and Bathsheba. Solomon ruled the nation of Israel during 40 years of peace and prosperity. In his early life, he wrote the Song of Solomon, a passionate love story of one man and one woman. In his middle years, he wrote Proverbs…a collection of profound sayings written by one who had obviously paid attention in life and had taken notes. And, in his later years, he wrote this brutally honest little book entitled, Ecclesiastes. By then the passion of his youth was gone. The practicality of middle age was past and he had become cynical. Listen as I read to you a familiar portion of this book:
Ecclesiastes 1:2 – Meaningless! Meaningless! says the Teacher. Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless!
3 – I tried cheering myself with wine, and embracing folly-my mind still guiding me with wisdom. I wanted to see what was worthwhile for men to do under heaven during the few days of their lives.
4 – I undertook great projects: I built houses for myself and planted vineyards.
5 – I made gardens and parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them.
6 – I made reservoirs to water groves of flourishing trees.
7 – I also owned more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before me.
8 – I amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces. I acquired men and women singers, and a harem as well-the delights of the heart of man.
9 – I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me. In all this my wisdom stayed with me.
10 – I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor.
11 – Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.
Didn’t Solomon’s comments sound similar to those of that taxi driver? He asked the same purpose-seeking question we all do at times when he said, What does a man GAIN from all his labor under the sun? In other words what is left over when all is said and done? When you turn the light out at the end of the day, are you satisfied? As you climb higher and higher on the ladder of corporate or business life, do you find that it’s leaning against the right wall? When it’s curtains on your life if you keep living as you have up until this point, will you have made a meaningful difference? When you get to the end of life are you happy with what you gained? By the way, success and fulfillment are different things. You see, success is GETTING what you want. But fulfillment is WANTING what you get. Well, Solomon wondered, Do I WANT what I GOT? And the answer was, NO! His eventual conclusion was that life was meaningless, purposeless. Even though he had all that life UNDER the sun could provide, he still came up wanting more. He was still hungry for something else.
Well, what about you? Do you ever question the meaning of your life? Have you ever experienced an emptiness? Has your life ever felt like one giant treadmill? If you answered, yes to any of these questions, then listen, because I believe the Bible teaches that Solomon’s problem was that he was LOOKING for purpose and meaning in the WRONG place. Listen to my reasoning and perhaps you’ll see what I mean. In verse 11 of chapter 2 Solomon said there is nothing to be gained UNDER the sun. Well, I think God included this cynical statement in the Bible, to teach us that meaning in life is not found UNDER the sun but ABOVE it. I mean if a person, like Solomon, spends a lifetime investigating the meaning of LIFE and comes up empty, then perhaps our PURPOSE lies in the realm of the AFTER life. It just could be that we can find our much-needed fulfilment by living for things that have ETERNAL significance because as C. S. Lewis used to say, That which is not eternal is eternally obsolete.
Look at it this way. If a person like Solomon has every thing VISIBLE and still wants more, then perhaps the meaning in life is found in that which is INVISIBLE. Do you see where I’m going? Do you catch my drift here? I’m saying that purpose and meaning in life for any human being is found in knowing GOD, because as Paul told young Timothy, only GOD is …eternal, immortal, and invisible. (I Timothy 1:17 ) So our PRIMARY purpose in life is found in this….
1. …knowing GOD.
You see, our lack or meaning and direction in life is really a loneliness-an emptiness. You and I-every human-is an immortal being dwelling in a mortal body and we long for fellowship with our immortal, eternal Creator. We yearn for the eternal. That is why everything on this temporary planet doesn’t really satisfy. The real problem is that deep inside all people are LONELY for God. Only He is capable of providing the companionship that chases our aloneness into the shadows. Only He can satisfy, sustain, and secure us.
Think of the people you love most in this world, your wife or children or parents. Imagine what it would be like to be a marine in Afghanistan right now separated from these who are so important to you. Think of how lonely that would feel-how empty. No matter how busy you were, or how successful you were in battle, something would be missing from your days. You would feel incomplete. Magnify this and you begin to understand how lost people…non-Christian people…feel. There is something missing: daily relationship with SOMEONE that would make them feel complete. Without Christ, there is a God-shaped whole in every human life. You see, we are like the Prodigal son, still hungry after filling our lives with the world’s pleasures, longing to come home to what we really need…a relationship with our Heavenly Father.
This understanding is what moved Augustine pray to God and say, Thou hast made us for Thyself and our hearts are restless until they find their all in Thee. This inner yearning is what inspired the Psalmist to write,As the deer pants for streams of water so my soul pants for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. (Psalm 42:1 ) My soul thirsts for You God…in a dry and weary land where there is no water. (Psalm 63:1 ) This is what John 17:3 means when it says, Now THIS is…life: that they may KNOW You, the only true God and Jesus Christ Whom You have sent. As John 1:1 says, In Him was LIFE and that life was the light of men.
So, this is why our days are dark and empty, if we don’t have a relationship with God. No matter how much excitement we experience or how much pleasure we enjoy. No matter how successful we are, there is still something missing. As Augustine said, He who has God has everything. He who does not have God has nothing. He Who has God and everything has no more than he who has God alone.
And, you see, when Jesus came to earth and died on the cross, He made it possible for us to have this relationship with God that we so desperately need. As He said in John 10:10, Jesus came so that we might, …have life…life in all it’s fulness.
On the cross He removed the sin barrier that separated us from God so that we could have this caliber of life. As Paul wrote in Ephesians 2, You…were once without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. For He has…destroyed the barrier…the dividing wall of hostility…In His body He reconciled us to God through the cross….Through Him we have access to the Father….
So, the only way off the treadmill of meaninglessness is to be in this personal relationship with God that Jesus makes possible. As C. S. Lewis once said, God cannot give us happiness and peace apart from Himself because there is no such thing. This is why Paul wrote the church in Philippi and said, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of KNOWING Christ Jesus my Lord. (Philippians 3:8 )
Paul discovered that when we give our hearts and lives to Jesus and then enter in to a growing love relationship with God life looks different-better-fuller-more beautiful-somehow. Have you ever heard the old song that goes,
There were bells on the hill, but I never heard them ringing.
No, I never heard them at all, till there was you.
There were stars in the sky but I never saw them shining.
No, I never saw them at all, till there was you.
That song is from The Music Man and if you’ve ever seen that popular musical then you know this song is sung by Professor Harold Hill, a cynical con artist who goes from town to town swindling people out of their money. But then, he goes to Iowa and meets a lovely young woman who causes him to develop a whole new appreciation for life. Suddenly he sees beauty in the world that he had never noticed before.
Well, a relationship with God through Jesus has the same effect on us, though to a MUCH GREATER extent. As you get closer to the Lord you discover a level of joy that you never knew before. Even the common things of life become filled with meaning. A beautiful landscape is more than just nature; it is God’s creation for you to enjoy as His child. Your relationships with other people are more than social interaction; you see them as chances to impact lives for eternity. Your work becomes much more than a paycheck; it is God’s calling on your life. Even trials and tribulations take on meaning as you see them as other chances for God to provide. A relationship with God through Jesus gives us greater appreciation for ALL areas of life.
And this leads to the other thing that brings our life meaning…because when we KNOW God…we see the importance of…
2. …making Him KNOWN….
We discover that God draws us into intimate fellowship with Himself so we might share His compassion for those around us. This is what led the Apostle Paul to say, I consider my life worth nothing to me, unless I can finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me the task of testifying to the Gospel of God’s Grace. (Acts 20:24 )
A recent survey asked people 95 and older what they would do differently if they had their lives to live over again. Some said they would REFLECT more. Others said they would RISK more but the thing that most of them said was that they would do more things that would OUTLIVE them. In other words they would spend their hours and days living for things of ETERNAL significance. And you and I know as Christians that nothing has more eternal significance than making God known-telling others of what really happened that first Christmas night when God expressed His love for all mankind by sending His only Son into the world. Bill Hybels writes and says that when we understand this principle, …our values will change forever. We’ll be seized by the realization that every other earthly activity pales in comparison with helping an individual man, woman, boy, or girl come into a saving, liberating, life-changing relationship with the God of the universe.
This reminds me of a true story I read this week about Steve Jobs, the co-founder of APPLE computers. Jobs realized that the meteoric growth of his corporation necessitated the hiring of an experienced executive who could provide overall leadership. So he went after a well-known top executive in the corporate world named, JOHN SCULLY, who was with Pepsi-cola at the time.
After wining and dining him a bit, he started to get the sinking feeling that Sculley was going to turn him down. So he took him to the top of an apartment building overlooking Central Park in New York City and made his final, last ditch effort to get him to join APPLE. But even then it didn’t look as if he was going to be successful at getting Sculley to work for him. So, finally, in total exasperation, STEVE JOBS, looked John Sculley in the eye and said to him, Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water, or do you want to change the world? Sculley says that this challenge knocked the wind out of him. And eventually it prompted him to leave Pepsi and join Apple Computers.
Well, like John Sculley, all of us have a God-given yearning to change the world. But personal computers will never impact the planet Earth as much as leading someone into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. You see when you lead someone to Jesus their lives change and a powerful chain reaction is set into place. Hybels writes, A husband affects his wife…parents affect their children…friends tell friends. Co-workers clue in co-workers. Little networks of Christians are formed. Churches are established and strengthened. New ministries are launched. And pretty soon, there’s new life breaking out all over the place. The poor start getting cared for, the hungry are fed, the sick are visited, the lonely are loved, the wounded are helped toward wholeness. Before you know it, that corner of the world has changed a bit.
Now, let me ask you a question. Isn’t today a good day to mark as the day YOU decided there was more to life than selling sugared water, so to speak? Wouldn’t today…the first SUNDAY of ADVENT be a great time for us, as Christians, to say to God, With Your help, I’ll go and I’ll start some chain reactions in my own part of this world. The Bible teaches that you and I were custom-designed for this work. As Paul says in Ephesians 2:10, We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Now, I wonder-and I’m speaking to Christians here-could it be that your walk with God lacks meaning because you are not doing the good work God designed you to do? I mean, if your Christian life has lost some of the zip it once had, could it be due to the fact that you are not serving in a church…not using the spiritual gifts He gave you for that purpose? Maybe you are supposed to be making God known by teaching 1st Graders the Bible here at Redland or by working in our TEAM KID ministry. Perhaps you were designed to make God known by working by building a house with Habitat for Humanity or by helping with our Wednesday night suppers. Maybe you’re not tithing as you should, which means there are not as much funds available as there should be to send missionaries or purchase Bibles, so that more people can come to know God. I wonder if your faith is not as real as it used to be…as exciting and fulfilling as it once was, simply because you are not sharing your faith in God with others.
Now, let me speak to those of you who are not Christians. I don’t know if George Harrison was a Christian. I hope he was. But one thing he said on his death bed is so very true. The pursuit of God is something that cannot wait. If you are not a Christian, then I know there is something missing in your life. In fact, I know you aren’t really living. In John 14:6 Jesus said, I am the way the truth and the LIFE… This means a person can’t experience truly abundant life apart from Jesus Christ. So, don’t wait. Decide today to pursue a relationship with God. Pray, right now and ask Jesus to be your Lord and Savior.
As we sing our closing hymn we invite you to respond publically or privately to God’s leading. You may want to simply come to the altar and pray and say something like, God, I want to live the adventure You intended for me. I want to know You more and to do all I can to make You known by others. You may want to come forward and ask to join our church or to share with me your decision to become a Christian. As God leads, I invite you to come.