What is the meaning and purpose of life?

Why were we put here? I think everyone wants to know why we were put here. Why are we on Earth? My purpose in life is to live a normal life. To be a citizen, a productive citizen. I don't fully know why I'm here, but I enjoy that. I enjoy knowing that because then that creates endless possibilities for myself. I would like to make a difference. Even if it's only in one life, I'd prefer to do more. Because I think the meaning of life, in my opinion, is to find something that you're passionate about and use that passion to make the world around you a better place. What is the purpose of life? Anyway, let's talk about it this morning. Good morning! Who is stoked to be in church today? Because I am. I love it. I love to hear that.

So my name's René, another one of the pastors here. Welcome to Explore God. That is the name of our brand new series. Seven weeks long, we are starting it today. And here's what this is all about. In this series, we are asking what you could call life's big questions. Like, why am I here? Is there a God? Why believe the Bible? Why do people watch pro wrestling? These are the kinds of questions I have that I really, really struggle with. So grab your message notes. These are going to help you follow along with the series. Let me just explain what's going on here.

Every weekend, what we're going to be doing is starting our messages with a video like the one you just saw. What we did was we went to the streets of communities around the Bay Area. We asked real people on the street, each one of these questions in turn, and what we're going to do is play some of their responses and then we're going to see what the Bible teaches. This series is for people who are asking those questions and being asked. You know? If you ever wonder, how can you answer your kids, your grandkids, your friends, or yourself? If you have these questions.

And one of the things I think is really cool about this that's kind of new for us with the series is we are doing this together with over 150 churches all around the Bay Area. I mean, like, from Marin to Monterey, from the West Coast to the East Bay. All these churches are doing this together, which I think is super, super cool. And we're doing this because really we're all a part of a group that's been meeting for probably about five years or so called "Transforming the Bay with Christ" or TBC for short. There's some of us right there. You recognize Herman Hamilton, right? And I was just trying to blend in, just being conspicuous in this group, but... There's Matt Valencia from Regeneration Church in Scotts Valley and Tyler Scott over there at Community Presbyterian Church in Danville. A lot of these great guys.

So here's the thing. When I look at this picture, I am seeing men and women from different denominations. I mean, I am looking at Pentecostal to Presbyterian. So you're talking about like, Holy Rollers to the Frozen Chosen, and it's represented right there. But we all decided last year that this fall we would do this series together as in the same topic, the same week we are going to do it. Our small groups are going to be studying the same thing. 150 churches. And you know what? It didn't even take like arm twisting. Everybody's like, "Yes, we have to do this." Why? Well, first of all, we are all actually friends. And we thought, you know, do our churches and communities even know this? We got to demonstrate this because Jesus said they'll know that you are disciples by your love for one another, right? Amen?

And we need to show that churches are not in competition with each other. That we are all in this together across denominations. If we worship Jesus and we believe the Bible is the Word of God, we are all together in this. And then there's a second reason that we wanted to do this together. All of us as pastors, we're all, you know, like you probably, hearing about people leaving the faith and the term these days is often used, "deconstructing their faith." And maybe somebody you know has gone through this, or maybe you are going through this right now.

And so what we decided we'd do is take the top seven questions researchers say that people have about faith, about God, about life right now. Not the, you know, top seven questions about culture, war issues, and so on that change from year to year, but kind of the big seven questions about really existence that everybody beyond borders really truly has deep down inside. Now, I got to tell you, this series is not just sort of content for spectators. This is an invitation for participants. And that's why all of these churches are doing these small discussion groups that tie into the weekly sermons. We just grow best by discussing these things together.

And so I urge you to get into one. You do not have to know the right answers to these questions. Just bring your questions. You do not have to even know the Bible. These groups are about, you know, really exploring these ideas together and getting to know one another. TLC.org/smallgroups to get hooked up. And also we got a table outside. And if you're watching on the live stream and you're like, I'd love to do that, but I'm watching from somewhere else in the world or the Bay Area right now, remember there's 150 churches all over the Bay Area doing this. And so if you go to the URL explore.com, you can find a map that looks just like this. You can zoom in and you will probably find some sort of a small group, a discussion group, that is right around the corner from you.

We've got groups meeting on the campus at UC Berkeley, on the campus at Stanford University. I mean, all over the place. Is anybody else stoked about this? Because I'm kind of excited about that. So here's what we were thinking. You know, these kinds of sort of big questions about life. For most of human history, human beings would ponder these. They'd look up at the stars at night and they'd wonder about these questions. And honestly, I think that's part of what makes us uniquely human, right? No other creature on the planet finds their existence problematic, you know? Dogs don't look up at the stars and wonder these questions. Cats don't for sure. Cats know their purpose in life. It's to be served by other humans.

But human beings, this is part of what makes us essentially human. Yet, these days, who looks up at the stars and ponders anymore? We're all so busy. We're all so caught up with our devices and the pace of modern life. Now, kids still ask these questions. Five-year-olds, I can tell you that, I have grandkids that age. They ask these questions. How do I know there's a God? You know, why are we here? But as adults, sometimes we forget to ask these questions in the busyness of life. But that doesn't mean they're not still there, right? They still linger down deep inside of us. And sometimes in the middle of the night, or sometimes when we're having problems, or sometimes when we come to a life transition, these questions emerge again.

And so what I want to invite you to do, what all of these churches are inviting you to do in this series, is sort of rediscover part of what it means to be essentially human. And really begin to ponder these questions again. And find answers to these questions. A lot of times Christians get to the point where, yeah, we know we believe about Jesus and God and stuff, the Bible and stuff like that. Yeah, but why? If a co-worker, if a friend asks you, "Well, why do you believe? What evidence do you have?" We don't really know what to say. And so let's rediscover that sort of philosopher's heart that's inside of you as a human being and explore these questions together.

You ready for this series? I'm really ready to. Let's dedicate it to God together. Would you pray with me? Lord, please be with every single church that's a part of this all across the Bay Area. I want to pray for Shoreline Church in Monterey right now, Regeneration Church in Scotts Valley, Peninsula Bible Church in Palo Alto, New North Church in San Francisco, Marin Covenant Church in Marin, and many, many, many more. I pray that you would reawaken inside of us what it feels like, the rewards of thinking these questions through and seeking after truth. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

Dr. Atul Gawande is a physician who tells about a doctor at a nursing home who persuaded the administration to bring in dogs and cats and parakeets, a colony of rabbits, and even a group of egg-laying hens to be cared for and looked after by the nursing home residents. These weren't just, you know, therapy animals, therefore a half an hour and then gone again. These were really adopted like as pets, as animal companions, by these residents like permanently. What happened next? Quote, "The residents began to wake up and come to life." Watch this. People who weren't able to speak started speaking. People who had been completely withdrawn and unable to walk started coming to nurses stations and saying, "I'll take the dog for a walk." All the parakeets were — it's funny to me that he puts this on a level even above. They can speak, they can walk, plus they adopted the parakeets! And they were named by the residents.

Now, this is huge. Watch this. "The use of drugs for agitation dropped significantly to 38 percent of the previous level." That is a significant drop. "Even mortality fell 15 percent." Now, how does the doctor explain that? Quote, "I believe the difference in death rates can be traced to the fundamental human need for a reason to live." And then he asks a very interesting question. He says, "Why simply existing, why being merely housed and fed and safe and alive, seems so empty and meaningless to us." What is it more that we need in order to feel that life is worthwhile? He says the answer is that we all seek a cause beyond ourselves.

Now, is that really true or is that just like a Western civilization thing? Well, check this out. In research, 74 percent of people globally say they think about the meaning and purpose of life. This goes across borders, across cultures, across economic class. Because we as human beings understand what research is proving, that just having a sense of meaning brings all of these benefits, well-being, joy, purpose, stability. It's empowering, it's liberating, it's healthy to kind of know what you're here on the planet to do. This is why USC professor Dallas Willard spent his entire career really talking about this. He said, I love this quote, "Meaning is not a luxury for us. It's a kind of spiritual oxygen that enables our souls to live."

As Paul Gauguin, the famous artist, put it, the three top questions all humans really have is, where do we come from? What are we? And where are we going? Now, since this is a church and since I am a pastor, you probably think that the way I'm going to answer these three questions is just to reel off a bunch of answers from a bunch of Bible verses and close in a word of prayer. But one of the things that surprises a lot of people about the Bible is that it doesn't just lecture you. It doesn't just present you with propositional truth answers like boom, here they are, boom, from heaven. The Bible isn't just full of answers. The Bible's full of questions too.

These same questions. People in the pages of the Bible question God, even get mad at God, deny God, fall away from God, sometimes wander slowly back to God. And when you skip those stories and you skip those parts of the Bible, when you skip those questions and you just jump right to the answers, what happens is, I mean, at one level you just miss so much color and so much texture, but also you get the impression that nobody in the Bible ever had these questions. And so you should never have these questions either. Aren't the answers obvious to you? Shut up with your questions. That's just not the way the Bible works.

Many, many, many people in the Bible have these exact same questions. Not bad people, good people. People held up as role models in the Bible. The people who wrote the Bible said things like this. Isaiah, my work all seems so useless. Have I spent my strength for nothing and for no purpose at all? Or Jeremiah, why was I ever born? My entire life is filled with trouble, sorrow, and shame. Or David, for what futility have you created all the children of men? And probably most famously Solomon, who is probably the author of Ecclesiastes, at least traditionally he is because the author is identified as a king in Jerusalem and he is the richest of all who have come before him. That fits Solomon's description, even though he is not named in the text. But he says in Ecclesiastes 1:2, meaningless, meaningless. Utterly meaningless. Everything is meaningless. Aren't you glad you came to church to be encouraged today?

So what does he mean meaningless? Watch this, watch this, don't miss this. So in the original Hebrew that this is written in, meaningless can actually be translated vapor. It's all just vapor, you know? That doesn't mean it's useless. It doesn't mean it's worthless. It means it's temporary. It's fleeting. It doesn't last. And I have with me a very sophisticated piece of equipment to produce vapor as an illustration. A water bottle right here. Here we go. That's vapor. He's just saying, you know, you see it and you grasp for it but you can't really reach a hold of it. It's just not solid. And Solomon knew what he was talking about.

He goes on, as you might know, for the rest of the book of Ecclesiastes to kind of elaborate on how he tried to find meaning, especially in chapter 2. Here's some verses. He says, for example, I tried to find meaning by building huge homes for myself and by planting beautiful vineyards. So he tries development, right? And he doesn't find meaning there. Then he says, I collected great sums of silver and gold. So he tries money. And then he says, I hired wonderful singers, both men and women. So he tries entertainment. So I mean development and achievement and money and entertainment. What's left? Oh, yeah. And a harem as well. I had everything a man could desire. I denied myself no pleasure. And in case you're thinking, oh, yeah, you know, he was just a hedonist. He says, I also found great pleasure in hard work. But it, too, was absolutely meaningless. It was all just vapor.

Now, I got to be honest. When I first read Ecclesiastes, I was in high school, and I thought, well, Solomon just didn't do it right. If I could get everything that he got, I'd be pretty happy. But it kind of reminds me what actor Jim Carrey said, love this quote. He said, I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that that's not the answer. Or the famous carmaker Lee Iacocca, who in his autobiography said, here I am in the twilight years of my life still wondering what it's all about. I can tell you this, fame and fortune is for the birds. Sounds like he's quoting Solomon.

So if all that's true, how do you find real meaning? I have no idea. Let's just close in a word of prayer. No, just kidding. How do you find something that's not just vapor? How do you find something, you know, that's solid? Well, when people say, what's the meaning of life? Usually they mean it in sort of two dimensions, right? First question is what's the meaning of life? Capital L, right? Like, what's the purpose of our existence? Why does creation exist? Is there like an overall arc to history? And then the second dimension is what's the meaning of my life, my own personal journey through this thing called life. These are kind of the two dimensions to this question.

You know what is occurring to me? The two demographics right now that we're seeing attending Twin Lakes Church and growing in great numbers is, and this has been the case for probably about a year, is young families with little children who are maybe in the first decade or so of their careers and then retired people who have just recently retired or are just getting ready to retire. Those two demographics seem to be really on the increase in this church. And you know what? Those two demographics are asking these questions. Like, as I start my career, what am I doing here? What's the meaning of it all? And as I wrap up my career, what was that all about? And what's my purpose now that I don't have that purpose anymore?

And there's two ways really to answer this question. I mean, there's a lot of ways, things called existentialism and so on. But here's, let me try to make it kind of perhaps easier to grasp. I don't want to say philosophy for dummies because that would be very insulting. But here's the way I understand it, right? There's two general camps. There's invented meaning. Like, life doesn't actually have a capital M meaning, right? Not a capital P purpose. There is no purpose. There is no grand scheme. It's all just random. It's all just an accident. So if you want to find meaning in life, you've got to just choose your own destiny. Like maybe I'm going to live for political change on this issue. Or I'm going to live so that my family can be happy. Or I'm going to live to make money. Kind of invented meaning because there is no real meaning.

But then other people say no, there is inherent meaning to life. Like objective meaning. Meaning that's actually there, not just in your feelings. Now it probably won't surprise you to learn that this second one is what the Bible teaches. That God has a purpose for everything. Like in Proverbs 16:4, let's read this verse out loud together, all right? Let me hear you. The Lord has made everything for his own purposes, right? It's all not just some random accident. There is purpose that is designed by God for everything. And you know what? It's all going somewhere. Romans 8:28 says we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his what? Purpose. That's right. God has a purpose that is not just invented, it is actually given to you by God.

So God has a purpose for everything. And also God has a purpose for me and for you. We are God's masterpiece. He's created us anew in Christ Jesus so we can do the good things he planned for us. It's not just stuff we decide to do that we invent. It's stuff he planned for us long, long ago. And then one of the most compelling things about Jesus Christ was you don't just follow Jesus as a philosopher or a theologian. You follow him because he gives you a mission for life. He said many times things like this, "As the Father sent me, I am sending you." You're not just like a student of Jesus. He gives you a mission.

So what is our mission? Well, I can summarize it this way. Good news, good deeds, love God, love people. He sent us to share the good news and to do good deeds out of love for God and love for people who are made in God's image. And the beautiful thing about this, everybody, can you say these four words out loud with me? Let me hear you. Good news, good deeds, love God, love people. The beautiful thing about this is that you can do these things no matter who you are, where you are. Maybe you're a stay-at-home parent. Maybe you're a caretaker of an aging relative. Your purpose, even in changing those diapers, doing that laundry, it's still good news and good deeds. That's meaning given to those tasks by God.

Jesus said even the smallest act of kindness will be seen by God, rewarded by God. Maybe you say nobody sees the laundry I do, the diapers I change, the meals I cook. God sees and God will reward. None of it is meaningless. All of it glorifies God. Or maybe you're recently retired, used to be maybe even the CEO of a company, or you were up there in the C-suite. And now you're retired, you're wondering if you have purpose anymore. You know, for followers of Jesus, this was always your mission and this is still your mission. Now God has woven this mission into the fabric of the universe. This is inherent meaning, planned by God.

You could call these two things created meaning. I create it. Life is only when I make it. And discovered meaning, there is real actual meaning that I discover. These are the two general ideas about meaning. Now listen, as we start this series, it's really important for believers and for me not to, you know, demean or insult people who don't see things exactly the same way we do, on this question or any other question. For example, invented meaning, subjective meaning, can serve people well in their lives. Christians should never say to their secular friends, "Oh, you don't believe in God then, your life is meaningless." Yeah, that won't be very effective, first of all. And secondly, it's just not true. Created meaning is not worthless.

But if this is all you have, then ultimately, vapor. You need to have something more solid, something that lasts, inherent meaning. Why? Well, let me just share with you why I think this is so important. Three points very quickly that I found extremely compelling from Tim Keller's great book, Making Sense of God. Number one, inherent meaning is more intellectually beautiful. And what I mean is it's a more beautiful thought. Because if you do not believe that life has any real purpose, no capital M meaning, then it's all really ultimately pointless, right? Anything you do is basically rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. The furniture looks neater, but the iceberg is coming.

The philosopher Thomas Nagel put it this way, "Even if you produce a great work of literature, eventually the solar system will cool and all traces of your effort will vanish." The problem is that although there are justifications for things big and small within our lives, none of these explanations explain the point of your life as a whole. In fact, it really wouldn't matter if you'd ever existed. Well, that's pretty intense. But what I'm saying is if that's what you believe and you really make yourself as aware as possible of the implication of your belief, it's kind of horrifying. But for Christians, it's the opposite. It's not horrifying, it's inspiring to really think it through.

Because Christians believe that even though they're suffering now, there is a God who made us in His image. That means He made us in love to be loved by Him and to love Him in return. And when human beings turned away from that, God came on a rescue mission, and He sent Jesus Christ who through His death and resurrection conquered death and conquered sin and will one day return and give us a world without suffering, and the deepest longings of our hearts will be fulfilled there. And all we've done for Him will be rewarded. If you don't believe in ultimate meaning and you really think it all through, it's horrifying, but as a Christian, if you think it through, it's beautiful and inspiring.

And then second, I find inherent meaning to be more socially motivating. And here's what I mean by that. Let's say your goal, as many people said in the video, my goal is to make the world a better place. My goal is to help disadvantaged people. You might say, "Well, what I want to do is really help poor people." Who's to say that is a more noble cause than, "Well, I want to get rich by trampling on poor people." If there's no objective reality, who's to say that one is a more noble cause than another? The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. talked about this over and over and over again. And let me just give you a quote from one of his sermons. I'm going to quote him at length here because this is really good.

He said, "We have adopted in the modern world a sort of relativistic ethic, right, and wrong are merely relative to our perspective, right?" But I'm here to say to you this morning that some things are right and some things are wrong, eternally so, absolutely so. It's wrong to hate. It always has been wrong and it always will be wrong. It's wrong in America, it's wrong in Germany, it's wrong in Russia, it's wrong in China, it was wrong in 2000 B.C., and it's wrong in 1954 A.D. It always has been wrong and it always will be wrong. Some things in this universe are absolute because the God of the universe has made it so. Segregation is wrong because it's out of harmony with the moral and eternal laws of the universe, that all men have the imago dei, the image of God, and this gives them worth, this gives them dignity, this is at the very heart of the Christian gospel. Amen?

Now listen to the way he brings this home. Christianity affirms that at the heart of reality is a heart. Now that is so good I want to read it again. Christianity affirms that at the heart of reality there is a heart, the heart of a loving father who works through history for the salvation of his children. Man cannot save himself, bound by the chains of his own sin and finiteness. Man needs a savior and God has a great plan for this world. His purpose is to achieve a world where all men will live together as brothers and the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ and he shall reign forever and ever. Hallelujah! Does the church say Amen?

Do you see how he bases his call for reform on the whole idea that this is part of God's ultimate purpose? There is an inherent meaning behind it all. I think this explains why almost all the great social reforms in Western history were led by people of faith. And who's currently doing the work? Nicholas Christophe is a liberal atheist columnist for the New York Times. And so I was riveted when I read this in one of his columns a few years ago. He says, "I have little in common politically or theologically with evangelicals or Catholics but I've been truly awed by those I've seen in so many remote places. Combating illiteracy and warlords and famine and disease." He says, "A disproportionate share of the aid workers I've met in the wildest places over the years long after anybody sensible had evacuated have been evangelicals, nuns or priests." Why? Because they have an eternal motivation for that kind of change.

So inherent meaning is more intellectually beautiful, more socially motivating and then finally let's bring it home. It's more practically durable. And by that I mean it lasts through all the tough times of life. Viktor Frankl was a Jewish doctor who survived the Nazi death camps in World War II. He wrote a famous book about why some stayed strong and others gave up and died. And his conclusion was it all had to do with a person's sense of meaning. He said many of those in those camps had made their career or their social status or their families or their possessions their whole meaning in life. And then the Nazis took that all away. No more career, no more status, no more family, no more possessions. And those people just withered up and collapsed.

Frankl said the only way for prisoners to survive was as he put it to "relocate the main meaning of their lives to something outside the camps, something outside of life, something even outside of this world." He said as he put it, "they rediscovered the depth and vigor of religious belief." And that's what sustained him. "Finding meaning is the primary motivational force in human beings." You know, if the meaning of life is loving God and loving people as given to us by Jesus Christ, that cannot be destroyed by any adversity you ever face because you can do that from a hospital bed. You can do that at home, you can do that at work, and you can know that that will actually outlast anything else you do.

Now, you might be thinking, "Wow, this is good, I'm persuaded." Inherent meaning is beautiful and it's more motivating and it's more durable. But, René, how do I know that there is a God who actually exists to give us this meaning that's eternal? How do I know that the whole idea of God isn't just wishful thinking? Great question, which we will cover next weekend. For now, let me close with this. Dion Sanders, before his team got flattened by the ducks yesterday, he had won two Super Bowls, appeared in a World Series, made a ton of money. Yet, in 1997, at the height of his success, you know what he did? He drove his car off a cliff in a suicide attempt. Why? He says, "I was empty, no peace, no joy, losing hope with the progression of everything." He's talking about his progression of success.

Now, amazingly, he survived a 30-foot drop without any significant injury. And he says, "I finally just got on my knees and gave it all to the Lord." And discovered something. Recently, Sanders needed to have part of his foot amputated and several other surgeries. And he recently tweeted this, "I'm walking with a limp now, but nevertheless, I am walking in my what? My purpose." It's like he made the same arc that Solomon was on, because we started with Solomon, and we'll end with him. Here's his conclusion. After all this, there's only one thing to say. Have reverence for God and obey His commands, because this is what we were all created for. In a world of vapor, God is the only true solid.

Let's pray together. Would you bow your heads with me? With our heads bowed, listen closely. There's three groups that I would love to speak to. All right? Just with your heads bowed, your eyes closed. First, if you would say you're not yet a believer, why not pray, "God, if you are real, please show me." And then this week, keep your eyes open. Keep your heart open. Because Jesus promised, "If you ask, it will be given to you. If you seek, you will find." All right, second group with eyes still closed. If you are a Christian, I just want to challenge you to pray, "Lord, would you please show me if I'm truly centered on you, or am I actually still grasping at vapor? Search my heart and bring me back to being grounded on inherent meaning."

And then third, maybe you are right now where Deon Sanders was a few years ago, at the end of Europe. Today can be the day that, as he put it, "I finally got on my knees and I gave it all to the Lord." You can pray something like this in your heart right now. "Lord, I don't understand it all, but I want to give you my life today. Come into my life and save me." Jesus, I choose to believe that at the heart of reality is a heart. It's your heart, the heart of a loving Father, and I'm coming back to you today, my good, good Father. And Lord, we pray all this in Jesus' name, amen.