What on Earth Am I Here For? · Part 1

0:30 This week, I wanted to look at the most fundamental message that this church was built on, which is the question, what on earth am I here for? For 40 years, we've been helping people understand the purpose of their lives, that God has five purposes for your life. Not 10, not 15, not two, not three, five. When I started Saddleback Church 40 years ago with Kay and a small band that later joined us, I said, Lord, give me a slogan that we could build the foundation of this church on. And it was a slogan, a great commitment to the great commandment and the great commission will grow a great church. The great commandment and the great commission are two of the most famous sentences of Jesus. And in those two passages, there are five verbs, and they represent the five purposes why God made you. Now, the five purposes are all through Scripture.

1:31 Jesus explains them in the Great Commandment, Great Commission. Paul explains them in Ephesians 4. The church models them in Acts chapter 2. Jesus prays about the five purposes with the disciples in John 17. but today we're going to do a review of the most fundamental message of this church um barck twain once said the two most important days in a person's life are one the day you're born and two the day you figure out why Thank you. Unfortunately, most people go through life never knowing why they were born. They miss God's purpose for their lives. And yet God isn't playing games. He's very, very clear in his book about it. God has never created anything without a purpose.

2:24 God is a God of purpose. Every plant has a purpose. Every animal has a purpose. Every fish had a purpose. If you're alive, God has a purpose for your life. If your heart is beating right now and you're breathing air, it means God still has a purpose for you. Otherwise, you wouldn't be here. So God has never made anything without a purpose. Now, if you wanna know the purpose of your life, you gotta begin with God because he's the only one who can tell you. If I were to hold up an invention here tonight and you'd never seen this invention before and I said, guess what the purpose is. You would just be guessing. You would have no idea if you had never seen it before what the purpose of the invention was unless either A, you talk to the creator, the inventor of the invention, or B, you read the owner's manual.

3:19 Now the same is true spiritually. You will never know the purpose of your life unless you A, talk to God, the creator made you, or B, read the owner's manual. You can guess at it, that's what philosophy does. Well, I think the purpose of life is this, and I think the purpose of life, you're just guessing. You're just guessing. Or you can do the popular way, which is, I call it the Star Wars way, trust the force, Luke, look within. Look within yourself and discover your purpose. Somebody just needs to be obvious and open about it, and say, folks, that doesn't work. Looking within, come on. We've all done that. It doesn't work. I looked within, all I saw was a bunch of confusion.

4:08 And you can't tell you what your purpose is because you didn't create you. That's kind of logical. It is nonsensical. It is irrational to think that you can look within and discover your purpose. You didn't make you. You didn't create you. Only the God who made you can tell you the reason he made you. And that's what the Bible tells us all about. Now, up here on the screen, Ephesians chapter one in the Bible says this, it is in Christ that we find out who we are and what we're living for. Part of the overall purpose, he, God, is working out in everything and everyone. God has a purpose for your life, but he also has a purpose for everybody else's life. and he's working out that purpose. History is moving toward a climax. It is not cyclical.

5:00 It is not a cycle. There are seasons, but history is moving toward a climax. And even physics will tell you that we know the universe had a beginning and it's gonna have an end at some point. We know this from the laws of physics today. We didn't know this even 100 years ago, but we know today. Well, the Bible had said it, but scientists have now backed it up. So what we're gonna do is look at God's overall purpose for all of us, but God's unique purpose for you. Colossians chapter one, verse 16 says this. Everything, absolutely everything, got started in Christ. He's the creator. And finds its purposes in him. In him. So let me summarize. you were made by God and you were made for God until you figure that out life's never going to make sense you try all kinds of things but it's not going to make sense number two you were made to last forever it is not an understatement to say that God has long range plans for your life you're only going to get 60, 80, maybe 100 years on this planet that's not very much time this is the testing ground this is the proving ground This is the preschool before the real story begins.

6:22 This is the warm-up act, the dress rehearsal before the real thing happens in eternity. You're going to spend far more time on the other side of death in eternity, heaven or hell, than you do on this side on earth. You only get, at the most, 100 years here. So what is this for? This is the warm-up act. This is the dress rehearsal before the real play begins. This is the first lap around the track before the real race begins. This is the preschool. This is the get ready stage. This is not heaven. That's why there's a lot of problems and sorrow and suffering and sadness here. It's not a perfect place.

7:03 But God has long range plans for your life and how you choose to use your life here on this side of eternity will determine where you spend the other side of eternity. with God or without him. Do you want him in your life or do you don't want him in your life? It's your choice. God says like Burger King, have it your way. You get to choose. This life is preparation for eternity.

7:29 In heaven, you're gonna do five things. God wants you to practice those here on earth so when you get to heaven, you're not a doofus. You know how to do it. You know how to do it. Now, today, what we're gonna do is review God's five purposes for your life. This whole church for 40 years has been built on this message, God's five purposes for your life. We're even organized around these five purposes. Now, in order to save my voice, I'm gonna do part of this message by video, but I'm gonna do part of it live at the end. There are five purposes for your life. Write these down. Number one, first, God planned me for his pleasure. God planned me for his pleasure. Many, many scriptures deal with this. Let me show you some. Revelation 4, verse 11. You, God, created everything. And it is for your pleasure that they exist and were created.

8:25 You were made so God could love you. You were made for his pleasure. If God hadn't wanted to love you, you would not exist. You were made for God's pleasure. Psalm 149, verse four. The Lord takes pleasure in his people. How many of you are parents? Can I see your hands? You're parents. Okay. Do you take pleasure in your kids? You say, sometimes.

8:52 Yes, sometimes. But the truth is, when they're sleeping at night, they may have been devils all day. They're angels while they're asleep. And I used to walk in and sit down and watch my kids sleep. And I would watch their little bodies, there rise and lower watch their chest rise and lower rise and lower i got so much pleasure out of watching my kids breathe as little kids why because i am their father i created them they didn't have to be doing anything spiritual they didn't have to be memorizing bible verses winning people to Christ, you know, studying scripture. They were just sleeping. This is the way God feels about you. God gets pleasure in watching you be you. All the time. I'm not talking about your sins, but I'm talking about when you just be you.

9:49 When he wired you to organize, and you know how to organize a closet or a garden or something. When he made you to be a salesperson and he watched you make a good sale, he goes, that's my girl, that's my boy. When he sees you do art or music or math or mechanics or whatever, it's not all the spiritual stuff. God just enjoys watching you be you because he made you. You were planned for God's pleasure. You've heard me say this many times. You can't make God stop loving you. You can try, but you will fail because God's love isn't based on your perfection. it's based on who he is it's based on his character psalm excuse me ephesians 1 4 on the screen long before he laid down the earth's foundations that's how long ago god thought of you god had us in mind and he settled on us not horses not cows not ants he settled on us human beings as the focus of his love.

10:55 You were planned for God's pleasure. How many times over 40 years have you heard me say, God doesn't just have love, he is love. The Bible says God is love. It is his character. It is his essence. It is his nature. Now, as I've told you before, he didn't need you. He wanted you. It was his love that wanted to create you. now the difference between us and animals is unlike animals we're made in god's image your first job is to let god love you and your second part of that job is you to learn to love him back and the more you understand how much god loves you the more you're gonna love him when you say i don't love god enough that's not your problem the problem is you don't understand how much he loves you because if you really understood how god created the entire universe to create you to love you, you can't help but love God back. You don't know how much God loves you if you don't love God. You just don't get it yet. One day Jesus is walking down the street and the guy walks up to him and says, Lord, what's the most important commandment in the whole Bible? Jesus says, well, that's not a big deal. I can solve that. I can answer that in two sentences. I can summarize the whole Bible. He says all the law and all the prophets in just two sentences. Love God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and strength. Oh, and by the way, love your neighbor as yourself. It's all about love. Why? Because the first purpose of your life is you were planned for God's pleasure. He made you to love you. And he wants you to learn to accept his love and to love him back. Jesus said this on the screen, love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind, this is the first and greatest commandment. This is the first purpose of your life, to let God love you and to learn to love him back in response. The most important thing in your life is to know God, to know that he loves you. And the most important thing to do in your life

13:06 is to learn to love him back. So every morning, I suggest you do what I do. You can kneel or you can sit on the side of your bed. But before I get out of bed, I usually just sit on the side of my bed and I'll say something like this, Lord, I know you made me to love me. Thank you. And I love you.

13:29 And Lord, today, if I don't get anything else done, I wanna know you a little bit better and I wanna love you a little bit more because that's the first purpose of my life. If at the end of the day, I don't care how many problems you had, how many sins you committed, how many things went wrong in your life, if at the end of the day, you know God a little bit more and you love him a little bit better, that was a successful day.

13:56 On the other hand, doesn't matter how many things you accomplish, how much money you make, how many times you get your picture plastered on some magazine or billboard or whatever, how famous you become, it doesn't matter. If you don't know God a little bit more and love him a little bit better at the end of that day, you just wasted that day because you were not put on earth just to mark things off your to-do list.

14:22 That is not the purpose of your life, to mark things off your to-do list. Now, this first purpose of life, write this down, is to know and love God. He planned me for his pleasure, and so the first purpose of my life is to know God and to love God. The Bible word for knowing and love God is called worship. Worship. Worship is letting God love you and loving him back. Anytime you're expressing love to God, you're worshiping. Worshiping, a lot of people think, is music. Music is a way to worship. But you can worship in silence. You can worship in giving. You can worship in listening. you can worship in a hundred different ways. Worship is simply expressing my love to God. You could be building something for the glory of God, and that's worship. It's expressing your love for God in any different way. Now, the alternative to worship, you know what it is?

15:18 It's worry. The opposite of worship is worry. Worry is the warning sign you stopped worshiping. Worry is the sign that you've got to focus on you, not on God. So every day you have a choice every single minute of your life. Am I going to worry or am I going to worship? If you worship, you won't worry. If you worry, you won't worship. One or two will be in your brain all the time. Look at this verse on the screen. The Bible says people who don't know God are always worrying. Why? Because they're not focused on his greatness and his love. they're focused on their problems and insecurities. That's the first purpose of your life, to learn to worship. The more you learn to worship, the less you'll worry in life. Number two, second purpose of your life. God not only planned me for his pleasure, God formed me for his family.

16:16 God formed me for his family. You were made to be a part of his family. Now last week we spent an entire message on this. God's family is called the church. So I'm going to zoom through this because we spent an entire week looking how God formed you for his family. But let's look at these verses real quick. Ephesians 1.5. God's unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. And this gave him what? Great pleasure. When you get in the family of God, when you get in God's church, then God brings God great pleasure. God wanted a family you created to be a part of it. God never meant for you to go through life all alone. God hates loneliness. The very first thing God said was wrong with the earth was it is not good for man to be alone.

17:10 God hates loneliness. Now, I'm not, whether you marry or not, you need a family. And the spiritual family, as we talked about last week, is gonna outlast your physical family because it's eternal. Hey, thanks so much for being with us today and listening to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. I hope that you were just as blessed as I was from today's broadcast. Right now, here's Pastor Rick with a special message. You know, when I started Saddleback Church over 40 years ago with just a handful of people in our living room, I also began writing a simple devotional just for the people in our church to help them start each day with hope and with truth and with peace that comes from Jesus Christ. Well, you know, that little devotional grew and grew and grew. And today, Daily Hope is one of the largest email devotions in the whole world. And each day, people all around the globe are reconnecting with God's promises and finding fresh strength in his word to face whatever comes their way. Now, here's the best part. It's absolutely free. Okay? We don't have any charge for this. Every day, you'll get a quick devotional read and a podcast that you can listen to on the go. Now, you know, in a world that's more distracted and uncertain than ever, I want to help you start your day centered on what never changes. And what never changes is a God's love, his unconditional love for you and his promises to you. You know, if you'll just spend just a few minutes a day in the morning with the Lord, it can bring so much more clarity, more purpose, more peace to everything that happens in your day. Particularly, psychologists have said that what you do with the first five minutes of your day pretty much sets the tone. So friend, you were never meant to go through life alone. I want to personally invite you to just sign up for the Daily Hope

19:16 devotional. Do it today. I think it's going to bring fresh encouragement.