What’s the Purpose of it all? (1Corinthians 15:28)

https://www.printfriendly.com/p/g/R54yYn

There may be days in your life when you’ve questioned the value and purpose of your own life;

There may be other days when you’ve said to yourself:
“get up, get out and get on*” (Click on text to hear related sermon).

The reason for these sorts of questions and statements, may be a result of a change in the environment around you and it’s subsequent impact on your perception;

• Changes such as breakdown of relationships in your family, or close friends;
• or there may have been a death of someone close to you or of someone you held in high regard;
• You may have been diagnosed with a terminal or debilitating health condition, or suffered substantial physical injury.
• You may have held to a particular theology and felt challenged to reappraise you perception of part or all of it.
• You may have become unemployed or not attained a qualification you’ve been working toward for a long time;
• You may have suffered substantial property or financial loss or physical injury due to a natural disaster such as a Tsunami, drought, fire or global pandemic;
• You may have been “ripped off” or “stabbed in the back” by someone you’ve trusted for years, maybe they’re a family member.
• Maybe the kids have left home and now you’re sitting still for a moment, looking at your spouse and wondering … “What was that all about? Maybe it’s time for a change?”
• or it may just be the thought of each day, week or year, routinely rolling onto the next is just too predictable and you’re thinking “how long can I take this?”
• It may be that any one of the above, or some other event has been the trigger to commence a practice or habit that has left you in a long term condition that has depleted your perception of self worth and or hope and you’re presently in a dark place.

Whatever the trigger and the subsequent result, the focus of consideration and my encouragement here is that before you make an initial hasty and possibly less than wise decision, or before you spend another day in a “dark place”, look up! click here for ref. Daniel 4:34

Caution: don’t get depressed at the following text, there’s amazing hope to come yet, but to consider for a moment what life can be without God in our daily reckoning, Ecclesiastes describes it as follows:

² “Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.”
³ What do people gain from all their labors at which they toil under the sun? ⁴ Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever.
⁵ The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises. ⁶ The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course. ⁷ All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again.
⁸ All things are wearisome, more than one can say.
The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing.
⁹ What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.
¹⁰ Is there anything of which one can say, “Look! This is something new”? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time.
¹¹ No one remembers the former generations, and even those still to come wont be remembered by those who follow them.

You can see in the preceding verses that perception of it all being “meaningless”, is largely based on a view that the value of ones existence relates back to the impact self has on this world and those who occupy it, it’s about me me me; for example…

v3 expresses how a human’s life is momentary yet the earth still stands; so why can’t I have ongoing relevance and be appreciated forever? And although some have remained in the memory of others by being written in archives, carved in stone or plated with gold; what about the nameless faceless billions who’ve died even though they may have selflessly served others even to death? The memory of them is gone forever. For example:
Ecclesiastes 9:14-15 There was a little city with few men in it; and a great king came against it, besieged it, and built great snares around it. Now there was found in it a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city. Yet no one remembered that same poor man.

v8. No matter how much I see or hear of the things that aren’t of God, I still can’t be satisfied to be able to say “This is all I need to see from here on!” or “these are the words I can fully trust and rest on!”, there are libraries of books, songs, poems, there are universities filled with knowledge, there are movies available of all imaginable scenarios, but people still die void of peace and satisfaction after saturating themselves in any or all of these.

In considering satisfaction through wealth and possession, Solomon writes further in chapter 2:

I said to myself, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good.” But that also proved to be meaningless. ² “Laughter,” I said, “is madness. And what does pleasure accomplish?” 
³ I tried cheering myself with wine, and embracing folly—my mind still guiding me with wisdom. I wanted to see what was good for people to do under the heavens 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 bought male and female slaves and had other slaves who were born in my house. 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 male and female singers, and a harem as well—the delights of a man’s heart. 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 labor, and this was the reward for all my toil.
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.

But… there’s another way to live which is full of hope, purpose and satisfaction, it doesn’t come from trying to satisfy self or any other person, it will never even come from trying to satisfy God; It comes by simply acknowledging God in Jesus Christ and submitting our lives to His will.

I believe the purpose of our lives is given in at least four passages of scripture in the Bible:

• Ephesians 1:9-10 And He has made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to bring all things in heaven and on earth together in Christ.
• Ephesians 2:6-7 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,  in order that in the coming ages He might display the surpassing riches of His grace, demonstrated by His kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
• Ephesians 3-9-11 …God, who created all things. His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.
• 1 Corinthians 15:28 When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all.

Our purpose for existing is to glorify God, the closer we are to accomplishing this in our desire and actions each day, the more satisfied we will be each day; That seems like a peculiar scenario in commonly practised terms of attempting to achieve satisfaction “deny yourself and become satisfied?”, but when the denial of myself is the start and practice of obedience to God; that’s exactly how God graciously grants satisfaction.

Isaiah 58:11
The Lord will guide you always;
    he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
    and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
    like a spring whose waters never fail.

God sent Christ to give us life, He want’s us to learn more of the depths of His amazing love, He wants us to know His creation beyond what we see in this time, and to live an eternal life for our good and ultimately for His glory!

2 Samuel 14:14
Like water spilled on the ground,which can’t be recovered, so we must die. 
But that is not what God desires; rather, he devises ways so that a banished person does not remain banished from him.

Whatever changes in your life, whatever causes you to stop and consider; God isn’t shaken or moved from His place, He’s eternally sure and trustworthy, His mercies are new every morning He hears and answers the prayers of those who seek Him through Jesus Christ.

James 4:8
“Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you…”

*Alistair Begg: from “The best is yet to be!” 31-Oct-2016 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOIYM4zld1o
Picture credit, Thanks Esther!
APO14-June-2020