Life

Currently we’re in a message series entitled “Why Am I Here?” In this series, we’ve talked about how God created you with a purpose in mind. God’s purpose for your life transcends the 70, 80 or 90 years that you will live on this earth. God’s purpose for your life is for you to affect eternity by impacting the lives of other people here and now. Your life has far greater significance then you have probably ever realized. What you do in this life will affect your eternity and it will affect the eternity of many other people forever. Your life will produce ripples in the pond of eternity that will go on forever.

If how we live our lives is that important, then we’d better give some thought to eternity, we’d better give some thought to the unseen spiritual world. I’ve entitled my message this morning “Life in Light of Eternity.” What you see around you with your eyes is very real, but it’s not all there is. All around you is also an unseen spiritual world which is just as real. What seems to us is the most tangible, the most permanent, is our physical surroundings which we can see with our eyes and touch with our hands. The Bible tells us that what we see is temporary, but what we cannot see is eternal. NIV 2 Corinthians 4:18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

So we need to fix our eyes, not our physical eyes but the eyes of our hearts, on the unseen, on the things of God which are eternal. When you begin to live life in light of eternity, when you begin to understand the importance of the unseen, your life and values will begin to dramatically change. All the hustle and bustle of modern life must be measured on terms of what it will accomplish for eternity. Even the problems and difficulties that we face in this life will not go on forever. For the believer, they are temporary, they will be gone in eternity.

Death is not the end, but simply the doorway into that unseen realm. For the believer, death is simply the gateway into the presence of God and the wonder of heaven. NIV Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. A believer, someone who has faith in Jesus Christ, is someone who is sure of eternity and certain of the unseen world. A believer lives life completely differently than those who do not believe because the believer lives by faith in an unseen God. A believer lives in light in eternity and fulfills God’s purpose for their lives. So how can you and I live in light of eternity?

To hear more about this topic, listen to my February 5, 2006 message entitled Life In Light Of Eternity

Why are you and I on this earth? We are here not because of random chance, not because of evolution, but because an intelligent designer, God Himself, created us. Everything that God created, He created with a purpose in mind and that includes you and me. We will only be happy, we will only be fulfilled, we will only be prepared for eternity if we live out the purposes that God created us for.

As people, we tend to live life as though there will be no end, even though we know that one day our lives will end. An interesting question to ponder is “How would you live your life if you knew you had only 24 hours left?” You would give those last 24 hours to the things that you thought were most important to you in life. People’s responses to a question like this tell us a lot about their values and how they view their lives.

When you understand how God views your life, you will be able to live every day as though it could be your last. So today, my message is entitled “How Does God View Your Life?” We are encouraging everyone to read this year, in addition to their Bible, the book “The Purpose Driven Life.” This week my message coordinates with Chapter 5. In the video that we watched, I don’t believe that most of the people interviewed understood how God viewed their lives or viewed their own lives with much wisdom.

The Bible says in NLT Romans 12:2 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do. When you understand how God views your life, you’ll know what God wants you to do with your life. Don’t look around you in the world for examples, don’t copy what you see. If you want your life to change, if you want to be transformed into a new person, let God change the way you think. Begin to think about yourself as God does.

When you begin to view your life as God does, your life will be transformed. You will become radically different than the people around you in St Louis. It takes a radically different kind of person to change the world and God wants you and I to turn our world upside down.

To hear more about this topic, listen to my January 29, 2006 message entitled How Does God View Your Life?

Currently, we’re in a message series entitled “Why Am I Here?” We’ve been talking about why you and I exist, why we were created by God. It’s an important question, important for how we live our life here on this earth and important for what happens after we die. For you see, this life is simply preparation for eternity, for our life after death. That makes it critically important how we life our lives here and now, for how we live here and now will determine our forever, forever.

Yet many people live their lives as though there was nothing on the other side. Most Americans, 81%, believe in an afterlife of some sort, some sort of life after death. But what people think that life consists of varies considerably among people. The Bible speaks of only two possible destinations for life after death, heaven or hell.

Opinions are fine if your opinion is whether you like the color blue or brown. But opinions on matters of fact are simply foolish. For example, what is the average distance between the earth and the sun? 9 million miles, 90 million miles or 900 million miles. You can have your opinion, but the facts are that the most correct answer is 90 million miles, 92 million miles to be exact. God didn’t leave us to speculate about whether there was life after death or what that life might be like. He’s given us the facts the truth in the Word of God, the Bible. And that’s what we talk about here at Life Church, the truth, not speculation, not opinion, but simply the truth.

Today my message is entitled “You Were Created To Live Forever.” God created you to have a relationship with Him, not just a relationship for a mere 100 years or so, but a relationship that would last forever. God created you to have a relationship with Him that would outlast the visible universe, that how much He loves you. God has implanted in the heart of every human being the desire to have a relationship with their creator and the desire to live forever. NLT Ecclesiastes 3:11 God has planted eternity in the human heart.

You have the desire to live forever and to have relationships that last forever. That’s what makes death so painful, that’s why it’s normal to do everything we can to avoid dying. God placed that desire the desire for life, the desire for eternity in your heart. What you and I and what our children think about eternity affects every aspect of our life in this world and will affect the endless time of eternity for better or for worse. So let’s talk about how we should live in light in eternity.

To hear more about this topic, listen to my January 22, 2006 message entitled You Were Created To Live Forever

Currently we’re in a message series entitled “Why Am I Here?” The Bible tells us that most people in this world don’t know the answer to that question. Jesus describes the journey of people through life as being on one of two roads. The first road is a broad road and most people travel through life on that road, it’s easy to get onto. The second road is a narrow road and the gate to get onto it is hard to find. Here’s how Jesus described the two roads: NIV Matthew 7:13-14 For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

People on the broad road are people who don’t know the answer to the question “Why Am I Here?” They don’t have a clue, so they just follow what everyone else around them is doing, thinking it must be OK. But what the many are doing is not OK, in fact the broad road leads to destruction. Most of the people in the world, the people on the broad road, are living life for themselves, for their own purposes, for their own desires. That’s what characterizes people on the broad road.

People on the narrow road are living life not for themselves, but for God and His purposes. They know the answer to the question “Why Am I Here?” In comparison to the many on the broad road, there are only a few on the narrow road, but at the end of the narrow road is life. Life on the broad road simply doesn’t work, it’s not what God created you for. If something in your life is not working, ask yourself am I following God’s way or the my way. Are you having trouble in your marriage? Are you following God’s way or your way? Are you having trouble in your finances? Are you following God’s way or your way? Are you having trouble with your job? Are you following God’s way or your way?

People on the broad road are people driven by their own desires and purposes. People on the narrow road are people driven by God’s desires and purposes. Today my message is entitled “What Are You Driven By?” We are going to look at two questions. The first is “Are you driven by your purposes?” And the second is “Are you driven by God’s purposes?” These questions apply to your life in general and to specific areas of your life. So, just because you are a believer does not mean that every area of your life is driven by God’s purposes. In our journey through life, God changes and transforms us from me-centered people to God-centered people.

To hear more about this topic, listen to my January 15, 2006 message entitled What Are You Driven By?

Currently, we’re in a new message series entitled “Why Am I Here?” This is the most important question of life and in many ways it is the most difficult question of life. Where can you go to find the answer to that question? Can science find the answer to the question “Why Are You Here?” I don’t think so. Can philosophers find the question to that question? They haven’t agreed yet. Can you find the answer to that question by looking deep inside your soul? No, you can’t. The only way you can find an answer to the question of “Why Am I Here?” is to look to your creator, your intelligent designer, God Himself.

God has chosen to reveal who He is and why He created us. He has done it in a book called the Bible, which calls itself God’s Word. In this series, we are going to begin to explore God’s purpose for our lives. God’s purpose for our lives is a very big topic and I intend to explore it depth for the rest of 2006 in my messages. To get the most out of these messages, I would like to encourage you to read or re-read a book called “The Purpose Driven Life.” This book is filled with Scripture, almost 1000 verses and will help you see the biblical framework that describes your purpose in life. Most weeks, I will suggest a chapter for you to read in the book that will correlate with my message. This week please read chapter 2 entitled “You Are Not An Accident.”

Our Life Groups will also be exploring the topic of God’s purpose for your life. In January, our Life Groups will be using a new video driven small group curriculum on The Purpose Driven Life. Study guides for the first series called “What On Earth Am I Here For?” are available from life group leaders this week. Life groups are for everybody. They will help you grow in God, they will help you in every area of your life to discover and live out God’s purpose.

My message title today is “You Were Created For Purpose.” A lot of people don’t believe they were created for purpose. A lot of people don’t like themselves or aspects of themselves, they think they are an accident. Many people believe that some types of people have no value, no purpose, their lives have no meaning, they are a burden on society, they are expendable. If your thinking is not shaped by a biblical worldview, it becomes very warped and that warped thinking causes great problems in people’s lives.

The Bible says in NIV Psalm 138:8 The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me. God has a purpose for you. He wants to fulfill His purpose in and through your life. God has a purpose for every person that is conceived, that He creates and He wants to take care of you. NIV Isaiah 46:4 I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you. God created you for purpose and when that truth begins to settle deep into your mind and heart, your thinking will change from those all around you. You will begin to think of yourself and others as God thinks of them. You will place yourself in a place to be carried and sustained by God Himself.

To hear more about this topic, listen to my January 8, 2006 message entitled You Were Created For Purpose

Life seems to keep on moving faster and faster. Things are getting more complicated, even as we use more and more inventions designed to simplify life. People are getting stressed out with life, as life just seem to be a whirlwind rushing past. Someone had said, “This is a time when people place more value on success than significance.”

Success is a life devoted to the accumulation of things, of prestige, of money and of power. All those things seem to give a person something worthwhile, but they can all disappear in an instant and all will be gone when you pass on. This last year, as in all years, saw the passing of the rich and famous: Johnny Carson, Pope John Paul II, Peter Jennings, Bob Denver (Gilligan) and the list goes on and on. They had success, but did their lives have significance? Were their lives devoted to something that will last forever or will their successes by forgotten in light of eternity? MSG Proverbs 11:28 A life devoted to things is a dead life, a stump; a God-shaped life is a flourishing tree. That Scripture could be paraphrased, “A life devoted to success is a dead life, but a life devoted to God is a flourishing tree.”

Today, we begin a new message series entitled “Why Am I Here?” This is the most important question of life. Many people live as though the answer to the question “Why Am I Here?” is simply to be successful. For some people, success is having a nice house, for others it’s getting to a certain level in their company, for yet others success is simply having food on the table and clothes on their back. God created you for much more than that and that’s what we’re going to talk about in this message series.

My message title today is “The Meaning of Life.” Does your life have meaning? If your life has no meaning, than what’s the point of life? Unfortunately, for many people, life has no meaning at all other than to enjoy the moment. If you have no idea what the meaning of life is, if you have no idea why you are here, then you’ll never accomplish anything of significance with your life. And your life will be full of pain, despair and heartache. But, when you begin to understand the meaning of life, when you begin to understand how you fit in, something wonderful happens. God gives you hope, God gives you joy, as you enter into the adventure of life with your creator.

To hear more about this topic, listen to my January 1, 2006 message entitled The Meaning Of Life