The Meaning of Life

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Scripture Reading: Ephesians 4: 2-13 “ Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit-- just as you were called to one hope when you were called-- one Lord, one faith, one baptism;

One God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.

This is why it says: "When he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men." (What does "he ascended" mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.) It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”

            Heavenly Father; I ask you to bless this message. As every person reads it I ask that you Dear Lord reveal your never-ending, everlasting, unconditional Love to each of them. Forgive me again for all my sins of commission and omissions. I give myself to you for you in your name that we all might see Jesus and Him more clearly. Fill us with your Holy Spirit. In Jesus Name we thank and praise you; Amen.

            First I need to try to explain title of today’s message. Any of you who have experienced “The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy” will get the attempt at humor. If you haven’t  It will be hard to explain and completely get us off the topic. Let’s just say that the question of the meaning of life is indeed the ultimate question that deserves a much closer look.

            It first was brought back to the forefront of my mind this past week while listening to the “Key Life” radio broadcast. Steve Brown teaches the grace of God in a wonderful way. You can get an example of Steve’s teaching at www.keylife.org.

During the question and answer section of the program some asked the ultimate question. “What is the meaning of life?” The answer given although completely true stirred something within my spirit and I knew I had to seek the answer in God’s word for my self. It is my hope that the revelation of God’s will for our lives will bring all of us into a deeper relationship with Him.

            Let me begin with an illustration; we were working on the Habitat For Humanity house on Saturday. The site supervisor assigned out the jobs for everyone to do. My assignment was to get this huge pile of mulch out of the middle of the back yard. He did not care what I did with it. I could put more around the trees that already had mulch or find other places to spread it around. I just needed to get it out of the middle of the yard because the contractor was coming the following week to give the final grade to the yard.

So I spent the next four hours filling wheelbarrows full of mulch and putting it around the house and trees and along the walk. If you had just come up and seen what I was doing you might think that my purpose was to mulch the trees and walkway. In fact I was asked a couple of times if I was going to plant flowers around the house where I was placing the mulch. Without knowing what my true purpose was I could have stopped after lining the walk and left the pile sill in the middle of the yard. My point is that we all need to know our purpose for living in order to fulfill our lives. That is why Jesus told us that the thief comes but to kill, rob and destroy but He came that we might have life and more abundant.

Let me get to the point. I think it is clear both throughout scriptures as well as in nature itself. That everything that is should bring forth glory to God. It is the reason I live. Oh yes there are so many times that I fall completely short. In fact there are times when I must absolutely bring disgrace onto His name. That is where grace comes in. Of myself I fail because of my own selfishness, so as I allow Jesus to become more of me He fulfills me. Let me try to use some scriptures to explain;

(1 Cor 10:31 NIV)  So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

As we look back in Genesis after God created everything he looked it over and said “it is good.” (Gen 1:31 KJV)  And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

We live our lives with free will. Unfortunately we chose to go our own way. That is where the encouraging word comes in. You see God is love. He does not just posses love, He is love, and He loves you. He knew that we would not be able to make it on our own so He came and made Himself available for us. He who knew no sin became sin for us that we might have the righteousness of God: (2 Cor 5:21 KJV)  For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

To get back to the point; it is when we know what our purpose in life is that we can press forward to the high calling that is in Him. When we then realize that we can not achieve our purpose without Him He is already there to give us His wisdom, strength and power. All to his glory Amen    

So what ever you do this week aim at it somehow bringing glory to God. Do it through Jesus working in you and the Holy Spirit Power upon you and you will know that the Kingdom of Heaven is within you. It is here and now. You can experience the abundant life through Christ by finding your meaning for life in bringing glory to God.