ATTN: As we are beginning a new year, last week, I suggested that we begin from the end. Since we know that we will one day give an account of our lives to God, it would be wise to know what will count in the end, and focus on those things. Good students will study what’s going to be on the test rather than giving everything equal weight.

So, last week, we talked about how we receive the word of God. We will have to give an account for how we have responded to the word of God. And the only type of response or faith that God will accept is the one that bears fruit in the end. That means, regarding the word, we need to not only read  it, hear it, but also meditate on it, wrestle with it and seek for understanding until it comes out through our actions, which the fruit or the evidence of our salvation. I have learned that the youth have taken the challenge to really get into the word of God and be consistent in reading it together, and I love it! Please do keep up the good work!

Today, as the second message of this new series – Beginning from the end – I want us to consider the purpose. What is our purpose? Why are we here? What are we created for? I want to apologize to the youth because they heard this message on Friday and I’ll simply be redressing that message and beef it up a bit, but it’s essentially the same message.

I don’t know about you, but I used to be an engineer and as such, I liked asking why? I want to know how things work and why things are the way they are. I was one of those kids who bothered his parents so much with the “why” question that I clearly remember my mom getting mad at me and telling me to stop asking why? To which, I’m sure I asked “why do you want me to stop asking you why, mommy?”

So, naturally, when I was a teenager, I asked the big question: “Why am I here? What is my purpose?” Now, if I wasn’t a Christian, then there would be no answer. Purpose presupposes intelligence and prior planning, but if there is no God and nature is all there is, then of course there is no purpose. I’m just a product of random chance plus matter plus time. I’ve heard people who don’t believe in God try to give meaning or purpose to their lives, but the real honest ones would simply admit that there is no purpose. Less honest ones will say, “Your life’s meaning is what you make it.” Or “ the purpose of life is what you give it.” But if you probe them further, they will admit that there is no real ultimate objective meaning to life. But if God is behind this world, then He must’ve had a definite purpose in mind when He created us. What is it?

The Westminster Catechism says, “Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.” In today’s English, that means, “The reason why we are made is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.” Well, what does it mean to glorify God? It simply means to praise Him, worship Him, appreciate Him, Adore Him, “make Him famous.” In a word, make much of God and enjoy doing it! That’s why we are made. So, you and I are created, we were placed in our mother’s womb, so that we may make God look good in the world in the world and enjoy doing that.

Is that in the Bible? Yes! By the way, you shouldn’t believe anything I say unless it is in the Bible….

1 Peter 4:10-11  [10] As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: [11] whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

So, since our purpose, the reason why we are here is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever, whatever we are doing, we are to do it to glorify God in everything. And I mean in everything and not just in thing that matter.

1 Corinthians 10:31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

So, when we are eating hotdogs and chips after service, we are to do it to glorify God – to make Him famous, or to show how good He is. When we are watching the Seahawks play today against the Vikings, we are to do it glorify God and to enjoy Him. What’s football got to do with God. Oh it does. 1 Corinthians says, “whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do!”  That means when we go to Starbucks after service to meet up with a friend, as we are sipping on the white chocolate Americano, we are to do it to make God look good. How do we do that? Not by shouting in the middle of Starbucks store, “God is good! He is awesome! You think drinking coffee is good? You guys should all drink from the Holy Spirit. He’s better! He will give you bigger buzz!” No. That would not make God look good. That would make God look like a weirdo with embarrassing children! But when we think, “umm.. this coffee is good! Thank God for giving me taste buds to taste this and money to afford this. He didn’t have to enable us to enjoy these things, but He did. How much more pleasurable He must be than these things!”

But here’s the big question: Why? Why should we glorify God? I mean did God really create us human beings so that all day long we will say to God, “You are great. You are good. You are everything. We love you. We adore you. You are the best. We suck. You rule”? Are we to be like minions telling Gru how good and awesome he is? A bunch of sycophants who are sucking up to the monarch so that he won’t kill us and will give uswhat we want? Is that really why God created us?

No, God doesn’t need us to glorify Him. God doesn’t need anything, including someone glorifying Him, telling Him that He’s great. No. God doesn’t need us to glorify Him. But we need to glorify Him for our own good. That’s right. God didn’t tell us to glorify Him so that He will feel good about Himself, but rather He told us to glorify Him so that we will have the maximum joy and happiness in life.

How is that? How is glorifying someone else going to make us happy? Shouldn’t it be that we ourselves being glorified give us the greatest happiness? Isn’t that after all, what we all truly want? There is a reason why shows like American Idol, the Voice or America’s Got Talent are popular. It gives people an opportunity to draw the world’s attention to themselves. We love being the center of attention, don’t we? We want everyone to be about us. Isn’t that why we envy movie stars, athletes, singers, because we want to be like them? We want the world’s attention telling us how great we are! We want it to be all about us. But if that’s true, why is it that some of the most famous and popular people face such tragic endings? Many of them just become bizarre and face such bizarre endings. Marilyn Monroe. Elvis Presly for those of you from the older generation. Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Robin Williams for my generation. Britney Spears or Christina Aguelera for 20 somethings. And Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus for the youth! There are examples for every generation of these stars whom the world bowed down to and yet their lives were so empty and miserable that it made them do weird things before it ended tragically.

So, it is not true that when we make everything about us, we will be happy. Just ask a bratty child who’s just opened 20 gifts on Christmas morning but because he couldn’t get chocolate at very moment, he’s throwing a fit! We are not the happiest when it’s about us. The opposite is true. We are the most miserable when it’s all about us. We are the happiest when we are about what we were made to be about. God.

So, why does God want us to glorify Him? Because it is when we are praising Him, that’s when our joy becomes complete.

C.S. Lewis says this in his book, Reflections on the Psalms, The world rings with praise — lovers praising their mistresses [Romeo praising Juliet and vice versa], readers their favourite poet, walkers praising the countryside, players praising their favourite game — {I might add, “Washingtonians praising the Seahawks, Star Wars fans going ga ga over the latest installment of the movie, 18 year old girls still crushing on Justin Bieber… }

I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till it is expressed. It is frustrating to have discovered a new author and not to be able to tell anyone how good he is; to come suddenly, at the turn of the road, upon some mountain valley of unexpected grandeur and then to have to keep silent because the people with you care for it no more than for a tin can in the ditch; to hear a good joke and find no one to share it with.

ILL: Imagine today, when the Seahawks are playing, Russell Wilson scrambles out of a sure sack, crosses over couple linebackers making them look silly and then with pinpoint accuracy, connects with Jermaine Kearse 50 yards away, wouldn’t you get up and go, ‘did you see that? Did you see that? Oh, my, that Russell Wilson!” But let’s say you are watching it alone and no one’s around. What do you do? You get on your phone and txt someone or tweet about it! “Did you see that.” But what if no one responds. You feel like you are bottled up. You want somebody to say, “Yeah, I saw that too. It was awesome.” That’s when you feel your happiness is complete!

Isn’t that why we go to the stadium to watch the game? We get so much better view when we watch it at home on TV but why do we pay all that money to go to the game to get a nosebleed seat? Because there are 60,000 others who are praising and identifying with you and that is so satisfying! What is that but a perfect picture of praise and worship?

That is why we worship God. Or God tells us to worship Him. For our maximum joy. When we praise that which is the most beautiful, most magnificent, most awe-inspiring, our joy is complete! God commands us to praise Him and glorify Him not for His own gain, but for our gain, for our joy, and for our happiness!

Psalm 16:11, “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”

But the problem is that most of do not see God that way. He is not this ecstasy inducing being who is the source of all good things that we find happiness in. Why? Because we can’t see Him as He is. Only if we can see Him the way He is, we will be satisfied with Him alone! But because our spiritual eyes are clouded, we can’t see Him as He is. So, what do we do?

1. Turn off the extraneous lights

What is the reason that we can’t see the stars on a clear night? When I was going to the university, which was in the middle of nowhere, I used to ride my bicycle at night to the edge of town. And there, when I looked up, I could see millions of stars adorning the sky. But not when I was on campus. Why? Because the extraneous lights barred me from seeing the glory of the heavens. When that happens, I needed to either turn off those lights or if I can’t, I needed to go somewhere where those lights would not affect my vision.

What are those extraneous lights? How can we simplify our lives so that we can focus on the goodness of God?

– Fasting: Not only from food but from internet, social media, shopping, etc that vie for your attention. Do this for a specified time. For the month of January, I’m fasting every Tuesday until dinner time to give myself more time to pray and meditate. I’m also fasting from certain gadget websites that I tend to spend a lot of time in.

– Silence and solitude: Turn off the music on the way to work and use that time to pray. If you are ever in waiting, such as at a checkout line, rather than reaching for your phone, offer up prayers. Or simply try to recall what you have read on the Bible or heard on the sermon to get your mind on God.

 

2. Train yourself to be godly

            1 Tim 4:7-8 train yourself for godliness; 8for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.

            – Usually decisions are made in the beginning of the year to exercise more and eat better, but that will extend our life for maybe 5 yeas at most? What about something that will impact us for all eternity?

– Bible intake. The word of God is the pure milk of God that will build our spiritual body. Methodically read through the books of the Bible. Use the Bible reading chart we gave out last week. And prayer that will align our heart with God to feel His joy more. One way to pray: Recite the Lord’s prayer one phrase at a time, but add your own words to reflect the phrase.

 

3. Persevere

There will be times when you want to quit. Don’t. Keep going. Fruit doesn’t come out right away. It takes several years before the seed grows into a tree and start bearing fruit. So, persevere to the end.