Psalm 39 What On Earth Am I Here For?

Rev. David Holwick A Purpose-Driven Life #1

First Baptist Church

Ledgewood, New Jersey

January 4, 2004

Psalm 39:3-8

WHAT ON EARTH AM I HERE FOR?

I. Facing the music.

A. The bumper sticker.

Ravi Zacharias saw a bumper sticker that read:

"I got out of bed for this?"

Like much in our pop-culture, the superficial slogan says

something profound.

Is it just habit that goads us to throw off the covers and face

the day?

Did duty do the prompting and coax us out of bed?

Maybe love did - love of a child, love of a mate, or even love

of ourselves.

We all have ample reasons not to: fears, laziness, distaste for

our work - so why do we get out bed in the morning?

The existentialist philosopher Jean Paul Sartre located this

question at the center of all philosophy.

He phrased the question like this: "Why not commit suicide?"

Sartre knew that all the philosophizing in the world means

nothing if you don't answer the question of purpose.

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B. Life's three greatest questions.

1) Question of existence - why am I alive?

2) Question of significance - does my life matter?

3) Question of intention - what is my purpose?

a) Do you know the answers to these questions?

b) No business, church, or individual can be effective,

unless they know their reason for existing.

1> A good example of this is the IRS:

Like them or not, they know their purpose.

Their handbook says: "[Even] during a national emergency

resulting from enemy attack, the essential functions of

the Service will be as follows:

assessing, collecting, and recording taxes."

While everyone else panics, they'll be doing what they're

supposed to do -- take our money.

What is YOUR purpose? #5266

II. Why am I here?

A. An age-old question.

1) Jeremiah 20:18 - "Why did I ever come out of the womb?"

2) King David in Psalm 39:4 - "Show me, O LORD, my life's end."

B. A modern angle.

Professor Hugh Moorhead, who is Chairman of the Department of

Philosophy at the Northeastern University, once wrote to 250

well-known philosophers, scientists, and intellectuals.

He asked them, "What is the purpose of Life?"

Then he published all of their responses in a book.

The book is quite discouraging and depressing.

Some of these people offered their best guesses.

Some admitted they made up a purpose in life.

Some admitted they didn't have any idea as to what the purpose

of life was and if Dr. Moorhead knew, would be please let

them know.

Carl Jung, the famous psychiatrist, said, "I don't know the

meaning, the purpose of life, but it looks as if something

were meant by it."

Isaac Asimov wrote, "As far as I can see, there is no purpose."

Joseph Taylor wrote a book called "I Have No Answers To The

Meaning of Life And I No Longer Want to Search For Any."

-- you don't have to be a genius to guess his answer.

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1) These are tragic statements.

2) Life without purpose isn't a life worth living.

C. Without God, what are the alternatives?

1) Mystical approach.

a) Meditate to find God within me.

b) Madonna:

"I'm a very tormented person... but want to be happy.

I'm working towards knowing myself and I'm assuming

that will bring me happiness."

2) Philosophical approach.

a) Survivalist - just stay alive.

b) Naturalist - perpetuate yourself.

1> Rap artist "Ice T" wrote, "The only reason we're

here is to reproduce. Keep the species alive."

c) Hedonist - the purpose of life is pleasure.

1> Have a party!

d) Materialist - acquire stuff.

1> T Shirt - "He who dies with the most toys wins."

2> My angle - "He who dies with the most toys is still

dead."

3) Self-help approach.

a) Typical book - you've got to invent your purpose.

1> Dream big, aim for your goals, be a success.

2> But success and purpose are two different things.

A> Purpose is greater than fulfillment or

happiness.

4) The "God approach" is the only valid answer.

An executive hirer, a "head-hunter" who goes out and hires corporation

executives for other firms, once told Josh McDowell,

"When I get an executive that I'm trying to hire for someone else,

I like to disarm him.

I offer him a drink, take my coat off, then my vest, undo my tie,

throw up my feet and talk about baseball, football, family,

whatever, until he's all relaxed.

Then, when I think I've got him relaxed, I lean over, look him square

in the eye and say, "What's your purpose in life?"

It's amazing how top executives fall apart at that question.

"Well, I was interviewing this fellow the other day, had him all

disarmed, with my feet up on his desk, talking about football.

Then I leaned up and said, 'What's your purpose in life, Bob?'

And he said, without blinking an eye, 'To go to heaven and take as

many people with me as I can.'

For the first time in my career I was speechless."

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a) We were made by God, and for his purposes.

1> It is the only way that makes sense.

2> Only He knows how long we are here, and why we

are here. Ps 39:3-8

b) Why does God want us here? What is his motive?

1> God made us to love us. Ephesians 1:4-5

2> He didn't need us, but he wanted us.

III. Does my life matter?

A. Isaiah's feeling of insignificance. Isa 49:4

1) We must have meaning.

During World War II there were prisoners in a Nazi

concentration camp in Hungary who were processing human

sewage in a factory.

The allies came along, bombed that factory and blew it apart.

So the prisoners had nothing to do.

The Nazi soldiers had the prisoners take all the rubble of

that factory and move it to another field.

The next day, they had them take that same rubble and move it

back in reverse.

The next day, they had to take that stuff and move it back;

day after day they followed the same routine.

It was just work doing the same thing over and over with no

meaning and no purpose.

Then something strange began to happen.

The prisoners started to go crazy.

They began to lose their will to live because there was no

meaning, no purpose in their work.

They were just moving bricks back and forth, back and forth.

Many of them began to throw themselves in front of the guards

trying to get shot.

In essence, trying to commit suicide.

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2) We were made for meaning.

B. Living at three levels.

1) Survival level.

a) Just barely getting by.

2) Success level.

a) You have it made, but you are not fulfilled.

3) Significance level.

a) You know the meaning of life.

b) You know how much you matter to God.

c) You know God's purposes for your life and you are

living them out.

-5-

C. You matter to God.

1) He made us, and cares for us before we were born. Isa 44:2

2) He has made you to last for eternity. 2 Cor 5:1

a) Life is preparation for eternity.

IV. What on earth am I here for?

A. Purpose is important.

1) If we don't know something's purpose, it will be abused.

2) To find the purpose, talk to the owner. (or read the manual)

a) To know our purpose, we must talk to God.

b) Also, read the Bible.

B. Forty days of purpose.

1) Commitment to apply ourselves to this series.

2) A lot can happen in 40 days:

a) Think of Noah and 40 days of rain.

b) Moses spent 40 days on Mount Sinai.

c) Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness.

d) The disciples were transformed by 40 days with Jesus

after the resurrection.

3) God wants to transform you!

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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:

This sermon closely follows one by Rev. Rick Warren titled "What On Earth

Am I Here For?" See summary below.

# 4626 "To Take As Many With Me As I Can," by Josh McDowell. Source:

Rev. Brett Blair's Illustrations by Email,

www.sermonillustrations.com, June 6, 1999.

# 5266 "The Essential Functions," by Rev. John Gillmartin, Gillmartin's

Sermon-illustrations-each-week (SIEW); February 6, 2000.

#22440 "I Got Out Of Bed For This?" by Ravi Zacharias, A Slice of

Infinity: Ravi Zacharias International Ministries;

http://www.gospelcom.net/slice/; October 28, 2002.

#26825 "What Is The Meaning Of Life?" by Dr. Hugh Moorhead, from a

sermon by Rev. Rick Warren titled "What On Earth Am I Here

For?"

#26826 "Killed By Meaninglessness," from a sermon by Rev. Rick Warren

titled "What On Earth Am I Here For?"

These and 25,000 others are part of a database that can be downloaded,

absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html.html