just with the question of survival. Many people are preoccupied with the issue of putting food on the table and keeping a roof over their heads. I do understand that. I know what it is to live from paycheck to paycheck and not have the luxury of taking time off just, as they said in the seventies, to find myself. Yet even when that is granted – even when we understand that people just have to do what they have to do in order to survive – I would still argue that we easily miss what life is all about. I am thinking of a young man who once told me that he couldn’t come to church any more because he had to work on Sundays, and he had to have that job in order to pay for the car he had bought. I asked him why he needed a car; his answer was that he needed a car to get to his job! Hmm. Doesn’t that go around in a circle? We just go around and around without really seeing the purpose. So again, what on earth are you here for? Your answer is written in what you do with your time, where you spend your money, and what you really care about. But do those things agree with God’s purpose for your life?

I am going to lay down a fundamental premise, and I want you to say it with me. It has three parts. Listen very carefully, and then we’re going to repeat them. The basic thrust of what I want to say this morning is this:

“It’s not about me; it’s not about you; it’s about the purposes of God.”

Now can you say that with me? “It’s not about me; it’s not about you; it’s about the purposes of God.”
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Well, now, that doesn’t add up to what most of the world out there actually thinks and does. But the Bible is clear that what the world thinks is wise and what God says are different things. Very different. “The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.” And what the world says about the purpose of life is at variance with what God says it is.

The culture wants to tell us that accumulating things is the purpose of life. If you don’t have the latest, the best, and the shiniest, you are out of it. You are missing it. The culture’s “wisdom” is that the purpose of life is to build bank accounts, buy goodies, and to enjoy yourself. “Enjoy yourself” – what a phrase that is! I always cringe a little inside when somebody leaves worship and says that they enjoyed themselves, because I really did plan worship to enjoy God, not ourselves. But the culture says, accumulate, buy, enjoy yourself. That’s the purpose of life.

Mike Tyson earned – if you call it that – 300 million dollars and is now bankrupt, having spent it all on lavish things. I’d say he was bankrupt in ways other than in the checkbook, wouldn’t you? $300 million: what was that all about? And that’s success? Spare me! My son, along with a number of other workers at a prominent internet company, discovered several years ago that their stock options were worth a great deal. So many of them cashed out. A bunch of folks, in their thirties, who don’t have to work anymore. I never expected to see my child retire before I do! But Margaret and I are proud of him, because he has not spent lavishly, he has not gone out to buy expensive toys. Some of his coworkers have, and Bryan says that it’s clear that their money has not made them happy. Marriages go astray and toys break down. Having things is not the purpose of life. What on earth, then, are we