Why Am I Here?

WHY AM I HERE?

INTRO.- ILL.- A man was walking along a road and saw an Indian lying with his ear to the ground. He went over to the Indian and heard him speaking, “Large wheels, Ford pickup truck, green color, man driving with large police dog next to him, Colorado license plate, and traveling about 75 miles per hour.”

The man was astounded. He said to the Indian, “You mean to tell me that you can tell all that just by listening with your ear to the ground?”

The Indian replied, “Ear to ground, nothing. THAT TRUCK JUST RAN OVER ME.”

Brothers and sisters, I’m sure there are times in life when you feel as though someone has just run over you with a truck or maybe even something bigger, like a tank! It may have come from a friend, a fellow-worker, or even a family member, etc.

ILL.- One lady said, “I’m married to the perfect man. The problem is, my husband expects me to be perfect too. After twenty-three years of marriage I’m not sure I can take any more of his criticism and rejection.” Talk about being run over by a tank.

ILL.- Another person said, “My boss is a nit-picker. When something goes wrong, it always has to be someone else’s fault - and that usually means mine. He calls it ‘constructive criticism’ and claims that I’m overly sensitive. But his criticism wears me down. I come home each night exhausted from his complaints.”

Another person run over by a truck or tank.

ILL.- One lady said of her husband, “I am sure that when we spoke our marriage vows he added ‘to have and to hold as long as I’m the boss.’” She said, “He believes he knows how to do everything, and by natural right, he is boss of anybody found standing in his vicinity.”

There’s another person/woman/wife just run over by a tank named “control freak.”

ILL.- I read last week some words about the infamous Osama Bin Laden, “Although he may live in a cave or some similarly primitive lair, he’s a master at manipulating people.”

Brethren, God did not put us here on earth to manipulate people! He didn’t put us here to control or conquer people! He didn’t put us here to use and abuse people!

Some people in our world are spreading poison and I’m not talking about Anthrax! They are spreading all kinds of verbal poison in order to hurt others.

God didn’t create us to hurt people. He created us and put us here to help people! To bless people!

Why am I here? Why did God put us here on planet earth? Some children have discovered the answer to this question.

ILL.- President Bush last week called on American children to donate $1 to Afghan children. Bush said that since his call for donations, the White House has received 90,000 letters. He said the American Red Cross and the U.S. Agency for International Development are channeling the money to needy Afghan youths.

"Winter arrives early in Afghanistan. It’s cold, really cold, and the children need warm clothing and they need medicines," Bush said. "And thanks to the American children, fewer children in Afghanistan will suffer this winter." He said, "One way to fight evil is to fight it with kindness and love and compassion, and the message stands in stark contrast to the message of hate that our boys and girls have seen on TV."

There it is! Those children have discovered why we are here! God put us here to care for others! To minister to people! To do whatever we can to help others! To demonstrate kindness, love and compassion!

Jesus came to “seek and to save the lost.” Luke 19:10. He went about doing good to others. Acts 10:38 Jesus was moved with compassion for hurting people. Luke 7:13.

Is not this why God put us here on earth? YES! ABSOLUTELY YES!

Someone put it this way: “What Jesus did in His body, we as His body should do in life!” What Jesus did on earth in his fleshly, physical body, we should do on earth because we are His body. We are Christ’s body!

Christ has no hands but our hands to do His work today. He has no tongue but our tongues to tell men how He died. He has no heart but our hearts to love people!

We should minister to others! We should love others! That’s the name of the game of why we are here.

PROP.- I want to consider some specific things that we can do to help hurting people. To minister to people.

1- Love liberally

2- Laugh loudly

3- Convert quickly

I. LOVE LIBERALLY

We should love people liberally, abundantly, graciously. As much as possible and as often as possible.