ANSWERING LIFE’S BIGGEST QUESTIONS
Part 1 – What is the Point of Life?
(Ecclesiastes 1:1-11)
January 13, 2019
Dr. Mark S. Hartman
1. WHAT HAPPENS TO THE PERSON WHO DOESN’T FIND A MEANINGFUL PURPOSE TO LIFE?
A. A life without meaning is empty.
Ecclesiastes 1:2 “Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.”
B. Life without meaning is a life just going around in circles.
1. Ecclesiastes. 1:3-8 What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun? 4 Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever. 5 The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises. 6 The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course. 7 All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again. 8 All things are wearisome, more than one can say. The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing.
2. “About a third of my cases are suffering from no clinically definable neurosis, but from the senselessness and emptiness of their lives. This can best be described as the general neurosis of our time.” (Psychologist Carl Jung, Modern Man in Search of a Soul.)
C. A life without meaning brings no real satisfaction.
1. Ecclesiastes. 1:9-10 What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. 10 Is there anything of which one can say, ‘Look! This is something new?’ It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time.
2. “I had won Wimbledon twice before, once as the youngest player. I was rich. I had all the material possessions I needed. It’s the old song of movie stars and pop stars who take their life. They have everything, and yet they are happy with nothing. I had no inner peace. I was a puppet on a string.” (Boris Becker, tennis star)
2. PEOPLE WITHOUT A MEANINGFUL PURPOSE HAVE THREE OPTIONS:
A. Option 1: We can try to make up some meaning.
B. Option 2: We can just try to escape.
C. Option 3: Find the real meaning of life with the God who made you. Real life begins with God.
1. Ephesians 1:4-5 Long ago, even before He made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in His eyes. 5 His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ. And this gave Him great pleasure.
2. Ephesians 1:10 And this was His purpose; that when the time is right He will gather us all together… to be with Him in Christ forever!
3. You were made to live forever with God.
4. Straddling the top of the world, one foot in China and the other in Nepal, I cleared the ice from my oxygen mask, hunched a shoulder against the wind and stared down at the vastness of Tibet…I had been fantasizing about this moment for many months. But now that I was finally here, actually standing on the summit of Everest, I just couldn’t summon the energy to care…. I snapped four quick photos, then turned and started back down. My watch read 1:17 p.m. I spent less than 5 minutes on the roof of the world.” (Jon Krakauer)
5. What Solomon discovered is: A life without God at the center of a person’s purpose is futile. But, a life that puts God at the core of its purpose is a life worth living.
3. THERE ARE THREE THINGS GOD WANTS US TO DO WITH OUR LIFE.
A. God wants us to get to know Him.
Spend time in God’s Word.
Download the You Version of the Bible by going to your cell phone app: YouVersion. Set it up and go to “plans.” Scroll through the plans and find which plans can be the greatest blessing for your life. You can read the passages or listen to them being read to you. Get into the Bible every day by picking your own plan.
For a variety of printed out Bible reading plans search online: daily bible reading plans printable – image results.
B. God wants us to cooperate with Him as He changes us to become more like Jesus.
1. Romans 8:28-29a To those who love God and are called according to His plan everything that happens He causes to fit into a pattern for good. For God chose us to be changed into the image of His Son, Jesus.
2. Galatians 5:22-23 The Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. (NLT)
3. God uses the principles from His Word and the everyday challenges and circumstances from our life to make us like Christ.
C. God wants us to learn how to love others in the same way Jesus loved.
Luke 6:31 Do to others as you would like them to do to you. (Jesus) (NLT)