Sermon Central
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Why Did God Put Me On Planet Earth?
Contributed by John Gaston on Jan 8, 2017 (message contributor)
Summary: The Bible teaches we have a definite purpose. It's to influence the people around us to make the choice to serve Jesus Christ. A C.S. Lewis quote captures to eternally critical job that we dare not neglect for the lost's sake!
WHY DID GOD PUT ME ON PLANET EARTH?
Ps. 138:8, TLB.
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR
1. There were three guys who wanted to be in the Olympics, but didn’t know how to enter. So they went to the gate of the Olympic Village to see how other athletes got in.
2. Soon a big, hulking guy walked up with bulging biceps carrying a large steel ball and said to the guards: “I’m Angus McPherson. Scotland. Shot-put.” The security team waved him right through.
3. The three guys said, “Cool. We can do this.” The first one went to the hardware store, bought a long closet clothes-rod, put on a gym suit and went up to the guards: “Chuck Wagon. Canada. Javelin.” The guards looked at his “javelin” and waved him in.
4. The second put on a gym suit and pried up a small manhole cover, and marched up to the front gate: “Dusty Rhodes, Australia. Discus.” Welcome to the Olympics, Mr. Rhodes.
5. So the 2 guys waited inside for the 3rd guy. A couple of minutes later, the 3rd guy walked up to the front gate with a huge roll of barbed wire painfully tucked under his arm.
6. “Who are you?” the guards asked. “Foster Bean,” he says. “Vermont, USA. Fencing.”
7. Like these guys, a lot of people don’t know what they’re here for!
B. THESIS A common question is…
1. "Why am I here?" "Do I really matter?" In our culture, there are those who don’t believe we’re created with any inherent potential.
2 If you go around and ask people these questions, you’ll get a lot of different answers. As to your purpose, Oprah Winfrey said, "Look inside yourself for the answer."
3. The Materialist would say, "Life is all about the acquisition of things." Those who are into self-help would say, "You’ve got to create your own purpose."
4. Carl Jung, the famous psychiatrist said, "I don’t know the meaning of life…but it looks as if something were meant by it." How profound!
5. THESIS: We’re going to look this morning at what the Bible says about our purpose, the value of having a purpose, and what God says we’re supposed to be doing as believers.
6. The title of this message is “Why Did God Put Me On Planet Earth?”
I. DO WE HAVE A PURPOSE OR NOT?
A. NOT HAVING A PURPOSE IS BAD
1. DEATH PREFERRED TO NO PURPOSE
a. Rick Warren tells a story from World War II where the Nazis forced prisoners to take all this rubble from a blown-up factory, and move it from Point A to Point B.
b. The next day, they’d take the same wheelbarrows and put all the debris and bricks back at Point A. On Wednesday, back across the street to Point B. Back and forth, day after day.
c. They were just keeping the prisoners busy, wearing them out, breaking their will. And some of the inmates, with no purpose in life, just being mocked by the Germans for the emptiness of what they had to do, got suicidal.
d. Some of them actually tried to simply jump in front of the Gestapo guards, wanting to get shot. To live a life without purpose, without significance, was worse than death.
2. The most well-known shake-the-fist-at-heaven atheists out there have admitted: “If there isn’t a God, our lives really have no purpose.”
3. Frederick Nietzsche spent the last 11 years of his life insane once he realized that. Bertrand Russell, one of the most renowned, from England, confessed in these words: “Unless you assume the existence of God, the question of life’s meaning and purpose is irrelevant.”
4. Evolution is supposed to happen by chance. Yet because physics describes all matter in mathematical terms, chance cannot play a role in origin of the universe, because probability mathematics requires a "set" to start with. Anything times zero will always be zero. Creation can’t be by chance! So we’re NOT here by chance!
5. VALUE WITHOUT PURPOSE?
a. Several years ago, the Country Gazette in Franklin, Massachusetts had this listing in its classified section:
b. “Unknown item for sale. We know it’s valuable; we don’t know what it is. If you can identify it, we’ll sell it for $250.”
c. Now isn’t that interesting! How would they know the value if they don’t know what it is? Sounds like the world today trying to figure the value of a human without knowing our purpose!
B. GOOD NEWS – YOU HAVE A PURPOSE!
1. GOD HAS A PLAN FOR A SPARROW
a. Imagine if you drive down the highway and a sparrow flies in front of your car. If you hear the sickening sound of it hitting your grill, did either you or the sparrow plan for that to happen? No!
