What on Earth am I here for? May 6

4 week sermon series based on "What On Earth Am I Here For? by Rick Warren --The Rev. John Donnelly WONDERFUL. FANTASTIC. INCEDIBLE. That’s the way I describe our 4 week sermon series and bible study. I am not boasting about myself, because our sermon series is based on the internationally bestselling book, The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren. • Now, I believe that some of you have read this book, yes? Did you like it? • Now, just in terms of book purchases alone, this is the most significant Christian book in the past 50 years. • Well, the first 7 chapters of that book have been repackaged as the booklet that you received this morning, called “What On earth am I here For?’ This is your book and you are free to take it home today, but you will need to bring them back, because we are going to need these books during all of May. So, if you would like to leave it here, and then write your name on the back—pens can be found in white baskets in each pew. On your way out, you may leave your book in the basket by the door, and it will be waiting for you for the next time. Before we continue, we are very pleased that our 8th through 12th graders are joining us. Our bible study will be made better by you being here. So, I want to begin by this very serious biblical study, by inviting one of your young people to come up here, and to join me in a game of dice. Yes, today we are making history at CCQF—because this will be the first occasion in 200 years that any clergy person will play a game of craps right before the altar. So, you roll the dice. To win, you have to get the same score again before you get a 7, 11, or snakes eyes. Now in this crap game, we are not playing for money—rather, we are playing for IQ. In this game, we are pretending that ______, here, has as not been born yet. So, you are going to roll the dice, and see what you end up with. Now, you continue rolling the dice until that number comes up—and if you do, you win an average or above average IQ. If you lose the crap shoot, then you will receive a below average IQ. There are some big thinkers in our society, who believe that everything that happens, happens by pure chance. “All that happens is purely random—including all the creation of the universe, our planet, animal life, and even human life.” In this worldview, there is not God, or if God exists, God is entirely irrelevant. There is no benevolent presence or spirit behind the universe. Rather, we are all at the mercy of the scientific laws of nature, which operate totally dispassionately until we die and exist no more. Such a world view has been around for several hundred years, and has a strong following among our friends, family, and even without our own community. So l what do you think? Was the universe created totally by random chance? Was your DNA make up a total roll of the dice? So, let’s look at the Christian worldview. Turn to page 12 in your books, and let’s read the first 2 paragraphs. YOU ARE NOT AND ACCIDENT.YOUR BIRTH WAS NO MISTAKE OR MISHAP, AND YOUR LIFE IS NO FLUKE OF NATURE. YOUR PARENTS MAY NOT HAVE PLANNED YOU, BUT THAT DOESN’T MEAN THAT GOD DIDN’T PLAN YOU. HE WORKS EVEN THROUGH HUMAN ERROR AND FAILINGS, AND HE WAS NOT SURPRISED BY YOUR BIRTH." The dropping down to the line in bold print, “YOU ARE ALIVE BECAUSE GOD WANTED TO CREATE YOU.” Now to me, that sounds pretty heady. The Lord God king of the universe willfully created ME? Maybe he made a mistake. Why would he want to make little you and little me? You can find the answer to that question by turning to page 15, looking at the line in bold print, “God made you so that he could love you.” This is the heart of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the central power point of today’s message. • So, I want you to get this down, but I also want you to personalize it. So, please repeat after me, “GOD MADE ME----SO HE COULD LOVE ME. Now in the Bible, the Greek word for love, agape, is a verb—its and action. True love expresses itself to the beloved. • So, let’s open up the floor and hear from some of you: If YOU are an object of God’s love, how does God express this love to you? (Make a list) What a great God we have! His purpose driven life, is to love us!!!! As part of God’s love fours, He has a plan for our lives. As Jesus says in today’s Gospel, his plan is that we would have a good life, that our lives would be abundant is hope, abundant in peace, and abundant in love. Ts theme is echoed in today’s Ephesians reading. You will find part of that reading on page 9 in your booklet, the 2nd section in italic print. Let us read together the first line of that passage: IT’S IN CHRIST THAT WE FIND OUT WHO WE ARE AND WHAT WE ARE LIVING FOR.” Look at the 2nd &3rd word of that sentence “In Christ.” Now this simple phrase is totally deceptive. You see, to be, quote “In Christ,” actually means the opposite. It really means that Christ is in YOU. To be In Christ, means that He is in your heart and should, along with his peace, hope, and love. To be in Christ is sort of like the Alien movies, where the monsters were living inside people’s bodies. Well, Jesus is no monster; and He’ll only live in you, if you invite Him in. How many of us here today were baptized as small children?” How many of you remember it? Whether we remember our baptisms or not, your baptism in Christ was an objective milestone in your life. The Greek word baptism means to immerse, to saturate, like a sponge soaking up water. So that’s why we use the water –as an outward and visible sign of God’s inward and spiritual grace. So baptism is a promise...a promise from God that one day, we will be saturated in Jesus Christ. This occurs in a two stage process: When a child is baptized, he or she is adopted into God’s family. For most of us, stage 2 occurs later on, when we voluntarily, individually, invite Christ into our heats, to release His presence, His hope, His peace, and His love. This is the background that makes our scripture on page 9 so important. So, I’d like you to look at it again, but with my amplification. It is when we have been baptized into God’s family, and has invited Christ into our lives, that we find out who we are, and what we are living for. So, why on earth and I here? Because God has a purpose for your life and part of that purpose is that you will receive all the abundant love and life that he has planned for you. This is true, no matter if you are: old or young; rich or poor; smart or dumb; healthy or sick; religious or not. None of that matters, because God loves you anyway. So, I invite all of you, including those of you who are visiting today, to continue to join us in this journey of discovery, as we learn just what on earth we are here for. • We hope some of you visitors will come back and join us next Sunday. • Whether you do or not, take your booklet home and enjoy it for yourself. • Also, we have even launched an online bible study, to which you are invited. Details are in your bulletin. It is my hope that you will continue to reflect upon these matters. Simply to ask you the question, what on earth am I here for, is to enter a whole dimension of life that is sacred and holy. In Christ, you will find some wonderful answers. AMEN.