Why Do You Exist? PURPOSE

When I talking about the people who said, yo, you need to read this book. We're not talking about the people who gave the gift that kept on giving. They gave the book to a friend. We don't know how many people's lives, his book, his touch, but what that tells me is that there are over 60 million people in the world who are trying to figure out what their purpose is in life. There are over 60 million people in this entire world who are trying to figure out the meaning of life.

There are over 60 million people who purchase this book looking for an answer to the question of why do I exist and I'm, I'm, I'm confident that those readers and those people who bought that book were not only Christians. I am confident that those people, if it's been translated in that many languages all over this world, there are people desperate to figure out, God, where do I fit in in the grand scheme of things, God, what piece of this puzzle do I do and do I create for this?

For this whole masterpiece you're trying to create God, where do I fit in in this thing? And you know why people are asking that question. Because we've accumulated wealth, we've got our families, we've been promoted, we've had the degrees, we've , we've , we've done all of these wonderful things in life. But you know what, something is still missing. I've traveled the world. I , I've got, I've got a beautiful trophy wife and trophy family and a beautiful trophy house and a beautiful trophy car.

I go to a , an amazing church. I've got everything I need, but yet something is missing. So what is my purpose in life? Cause this is not it. Some people think that, you know what? I want to, you know, so many. I talk to kids all the time. And when you, when you have these conversations about money with them, everybody wants to be rich, right? Everybody wants to be rich. Everybody. I mean, when we let this thing, everybody was like, yo, I have to deal with bills, man.

Money wired money was not an object. Yeah, we all could use a few more dollars in our paycheck, right? Hmm . Yeah. Y'all can confess. I mean, Hey, I'm confessing. We all could use a few more in this world. We live, the economy's changing. You know, things are getting more expensive and you're getting paid less. Your boss is getting bonuses, but you haven't seen a Christmas bonus in five years. Let's be honest here. Let's tell the truth.

We could all use a little bit more, but here's what I know that rich people aren't sleeping at night. Here's what I know. Quote unquote, successful CEOs aren't sleeping at night, so what are they doing to find out to fill that void? Here's what they're doing. They're using drugs, are cheating on their wives. They're doing all types of stuff. They're taking medication to try to get some sleep because they thought that wealth was their answer to happiness.

They thought that wealth and accumulating stuff was their way to happiness. And today I want to share a story with you about a man in the Bible who had a whole lot of money. He had more wisdom than anybody in the Bible. He had a whole bunch of wives and some side chicks I want to tell you, and in the end, towards the end of his life, he felt, you know what? I've done all of these things. I've got a good name, but man, it's got get better than this. What is my purpose?

So if you have your Bible, if you have your notes, we're going to go old Testament today, and I'm going to be reading from the book of Ecclesiastes, these , the book of Ecclesiastes, and through the process of elimination, we'll start this journey in discovering what God's purpose is for our lives. This is what it says in Ecclesiastes chapter two verses nine through 11 and I want to share this with you. What's God's purpose for you is not what God's purpose for you is.

Now we're going to do this process of elimination. Okay? Ecclesiastes two nine 11 says this, so I became greater than all who had lived in Jerusalem before. Me and my wisdom never failed. Anything I wanted I would take. I denied myself. No pleasure. I even found great pleasure in hard work, a reward for all my labors, but as I looked at everything I had worked so hard to accomplish, it was all so meaningless. This watch how he describes it, it was like chasing the wind.

There was nothing really worthwhile anywhere. King Solomon [inaudible] , one of the wealthiest and Wise's Kings there ever was an old Testament scripture. King Solomon, a man who had built many buildings, temples had a vineyard, so he had the best wine. There was, I'm sure King Solomon who had 700 wives and 300 concubines and other natures , and this was before Viagra.

King Solomon had it going on and he says, all of these things I've accumulated was just like in the end I figured out it's just like chasing wind. If this was a science class, I would say class, let's get up and go outside and chase the wind and you'd all look at me and be like, what? And if the wind was blowing, that would make it even a little bit easier because you can feel it. Well, if it's blowing this way, I'm a chase it that way.

But you know, sometimes the wind can start this way and end of the goal and a circle. And if we go out right now where there's no wind, it's almost impossible to chase it because we don't know from which direction it's flowing. Now I know science says it flows. What does a West to East or East to West, how's it flow? Something like that. But here's the thing. The bottom line is we don't know where the wind started and where it ended in chasing it is impossible is what he's trying to say.

It's like chasing when you be going in circles, trying to figure out where it started, where it ended, where's it going, where's it going to turn next? We can't do it. And then trying to figure out our purpose in life on our own. It's impossible. That's what he's saying. In essence, trying to figure out why you're here on this earth is impossible. We could be just like Solomon, we can can, can, can listen to our parents and say, you know what? You are a Santiago or you are a Raul and Rawls .

This is how we operate. You are a Santiago and Santiago. All Santiago's are doctors and lawyers and [inaudible] and we're Morehouse. Men are wear this and wear that and they can describe and identify who you are according to your name and you would think that's my purpose is to listen. My great granddaddy was a , you know, was a pastor or a church builder and, and, and my granddaddy was a church builder and a pastor.

And so by default I'm going to be a pastor and church builder because that's my DNA. But I got some news for you that may not be your purpose. If we know the story of Solomon, we know who his daddy was, right? King David, woo, woo, King David. Before Solomon, we thought there was no greater King than David who humbly , uh , worked his way to become King.

So it's natural for Solomon to think, I come from David, one of the great Kings, I am destined to be King, but I'm going to be even greater because God told my daddy, well, my daddy wanted to build this, this great tip before him that he wasn't going to do it. He was going to be me. So I got this special covering over my life. So that is my purpose, is to be a great King. And I'm going to share with you just a little bit later that that was not the purpose for King Solomon.

Now, your career and your accomplishments could be the result of you pursuing your purpose. Your career or your accomplishments could be the reward of you pursuing your purpose, your career. Watch this and your accomplishments could be the thing that ignites you pursuing your purpose, but in totality they are not your purpose. If they were, then Solomon probably would not have had to write such scripture or better yet, let me go. New Testament.

Neither would Paul. Paul was born from good pedigree, was born from the tribe of Benjamin. He, he was destined to be a, he was a wise Pharisee. He knew a lot. He knew old Torah, the old Testament back and forth. He was the main and then this group came up called Christians and he was like, I'm going to be the first one to shut them down because I believe in what we, what we're doing here. But he also realized , if you don't believe me, jump with me.

If you have a Bible or a mobile app, you can read this with me in Philippians chapter three verse seven, watch this. Even Paul, this man had good pedigree. He came from a , a a strong line of people. Uh, you know, he thought that he had it going on and even he says this, I'm gonna read from a chapter three for seven through 11. Watch this. Watch what happens. This is Paul. I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done.

What things, the hype, what things, the hype. Watch this. He was a Pharisee, a part of a group that demanded district disobedience of law. He was zealous. He heartfully purchased , persecuted the Christian Church. All of these things, his pedigree, his status, his wealth, all of those things he now says are meaningless apart from God. Isn't that interesting? Because that's what Saul said originally.

I mean, Solomon said originally in the old Testament and now you have another great leader, a great, a great apostle for the Christian Church saying, you know what ? All of this stuff that I thought was powerful. All of this stuff that I thought matter is meaningless. All of my studying, all of my sacrifices, I made all of the stuff that my granddaddy, my great granddaddy, my whole line did is meaningless apart from God and oftentimes what we do is tie our purpose into our careers.

Oftentimes what we do is tie our purpose and why we exist on this earth and to a person and to our accomplishments and to our jobs and to what's in or what's not in our bank accounts and the purpose you serve as much greater than that. The reason Rick Warren's book soul , that many copies in that in that timeframe was because that many people are not satisfied with their current life situation. They want more. There's an obvious void in their life.

I don't understand it, but I'm need to find it and I'm going to read this book, the purpose driven life, this , see if I can find what I'm supposed to be doing here on earth and perhaps perhaps some of you are like that. Can I tell y'all something before I became a Christian, that was my story. That's partially what led me to this place that I'm in now. Y'all know my testimony. I won't have to go over, but I was lost. I was lost. I thought I had it going on.

When I looked at my material possessions, I was in a good place. When I looked at my money, what? That was pretty solid for me at the time. When I looked at where I lived, man, I was in a good spot. When I looked at who was laying next to me, men today, that was a good day, but I was lost. I looked at that whole situation and said, man, if this is, is this hum gonna spend the rest of my life every weekend doing what I do and still not satisfy . Something's missing.

Something is missing as some of you all in this room tonight, today, this afternoon, rather have that same struggle. Something is missing. I thought that by this age it would look like this. I'm here. I made it to this age. I thought that was , I got this job. Once I got this position, it was going to be this one . I thought that once I got married, all my goodness, things would change.

I thought that once I had this baby, all things will be different, but let me tell you baby, you still searching for your purpose. Yes. Part of your purpose is to be husband, wife. Part of part of your purpose in life is to be mommy. Daddy. Part of your purpose in life is to be where you are now, but there's a greater thing, even greater than that you're supposed to be. If you , if you're a parent, you supposed to be training your town up to be the next leader of this nation.

I'm not talking about America by the way. I'm talking about our Christian nation, training them to train others. There's a greater purpose. As a husband or wife, you serve a greater purpose, a greater purpose. We thought it would be one way and it's not. Why? Because we're still in pursuit, active pursuit of what God's purpose is for our lives.

And as long as we're holding on to it, trying to create it, we'll never discover what our genuine purpose is on this earth, which is my next point, which is my very next point. If you're taking notes. Here's my very next point. I'm gonna spend just a little bit more time on this one. Your second point is your purpose has God given not manmade. Your purpose is God given, not manmade. Yeah, sure.

You can write your goals, you can write the plans for your life each and every year and how you want to pursue them. You can, you can write your bucket lists, you can do a hundred life goals and all of this, this stuff. You can that, that's, that's cool, that's cool. But at the end of the day, if any of those goals don't line up to him, then we're not in sync with his purpose for our lives.

And, and, and, and, and , and my goal is to begin to get us to think along the lines of lining up and being in sync with his life. I would hate for any of us to get to the end of our lives and be like Solomon, who busted his butt. He was really cute. He had a bad rep in the end. He was a great King who was a wisest King. He did some stuff that other Kings could not do. He, he, he broke down barriers in terms of commerce that never ends , that, that, that , that didn't exist before.

Where, where, where before we wouldn't trade with that group of people because they're our enemies. He was like, nah, I'm going to do business with them. There's some amazing things built all of these phenomenal buildings, done some amazing things, but in the end of his life, he says, all my goodness, all of these decades of labor are in vain. I've been busting my tail for what? Nothing. Because in the end, I'm still not satisfied. 1000 women. That's what I said.

700 wives, 300 concubines could not satisfy that void. All of the money in the world, which he had technically speaking, did not satisfy that void. Being ranked. The greatest did not satisfy that void. And he looks and he's in his, in his meditation, it says, you know what? I get it. He comes to a place of peace. Let me share with you. He comes to a place of peace and he gets it right here toward the end of his life. And I'll share this. This will be the last scripture I share.

Uh , I've shared this one. Then I got one more. I want to share that . I'll finish this up. Ecclesiastes, he's three nine through 11 says this. What do people really get for all their hard work? Really? What did we get? We work on a job. We get a paycheck, we work at a corporation, we get a paycheck. If we're really good, we might get a [inaudible] bonus. But what do we really get is this question. I had seen the burden God has placed on all of us, on us all.

Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God's work from beginning to end. The desire for more which is eternity is planted in each of our hearts and what we're searching for. We will not find here on earth

Start today by coming to mosaic one Oh one that'll be your starting point, but honestly that's the greatest gift and you know why people don't get excited about it all the time. Like really get excited about it all the time cause we can't see it. We can't Google it to see what a picture of heaven looks like. Dang gone. It does .

You mean to tell me we can send stuff all the way up in space , but we can't send a camera to heaven so we can see what it looks like in advance and then I'll may have a reason to be excited because science can't compete with God. I don't care how hard you work on it . You'll never get a camera to heaven .

He was the greatest pop star there ever was. He had his own fantasy land at his house. He even had monkeys and dry zebras and lions and tigers and bears and Oh my. He had it all. But you know what? He didn't have sleep. He died trying to sleep. Michael Jackson. Isn't that something you would think, wow. You know, in our little minds are like, man, I would just, you know, if I had a bad day, me and bubbles are just going to go get on the roller coaster and hang out.

If I got a bad , if I'm having a bad day, man, we just going take a FERS full ride me and bubble . If I'm having a bad day, I'm just going to take a jet to, to , to, to, to Paris and eat S car goal. I mean literally we us, cause we don't have that kind of wealth. I mean if you do, let's talk after church. There's some land that I think the church could purchase anyway. Amen . We don't have that kind of wealth. We don't have Mike's wealth, but do you know what he was really trying to do?

He was trying to fill a void that had been taken away from him at a young age. He never had a childhood, so that's why he spent the night with little kids, has sleepovers grown man. It wasn't strange for him because he never had it strange for us, but it wasn't strange for him. All the things he ever wanted, he had. Can you imagine that? Remember that question I started with earlier. What if money was not an object? What would you do? Imagine that.

Just like, you know what today I just, you know what? After church, I think I'm just going to go fly, fly to Italy, take my wife to dinner, find us a little spot and Sicily , somewhere like that. Maybe you know, and and have a bite to eat. Can you imagine just being able to do that? And there are people in this world that can do that, but you know what? They can't do that many of y'all do fairly well now. You're saying you perfect at it, but you do it fairly well. They can't sleep.

They don't have peace. We on this level struggling to pay our bills, but we have some degree of peace. We can sleep at least four to five hours peacefully.

Your purpose is not your career or your accomplishments and your purpose is not manmade. It is only God given. And in order for you to figure out what your purpose is here on life, you need to be in regular communication with the one person who provides that direction. And that's gone. And if you're not communicating with them regularly, it's impossible. Yes, I said that word impossible to discover your purpose here on earth. It is impossible to discover your purpose here on earth.

Listen, our purpose begins with home . We know not what we know. It is impossible to feel your purpose. Fulfill your purpose apart from God. Here's the wonderful thing about about purpose. This is what I love. God never changes. Jeremiah 29 11 y'all know this one. What does he say for I know the plans I have for you. Stop right there. I can read the whole thing but I'll stop right there for I know the plans I have for you. It doesn't say four .

I know the plans I have for you and I want you to know too , he says for I know the plans I have for you. It doesn't say I know the plans I have for you, but you need to figure it out as well. He says no for I know the plans I have for you. He doesn't say, I know the plans I have for you, but you need to jump on. Boy says for I know the plans I have for you and that's all you need to know is that I know and that's good news for you, baby.

I know the plans I have for you and let me finish it and it's for good, not disaster. It's for good, not disaster. Why? To give you a hope and a future. Wow. Ooh, that is good. Because broader and more recent, Tiago sr did not know that he would one day be a pastor. Especially at one point in my life I didn't like or believe in God, but he knew the plans he had for me and they were for good and not disaster. I was headed down a disastrous path.

But God said, no baby, keep on going just for walk with me. I'm going to get you to where I need to get you to . It's going to hurt the process. Of course it's not going to feel good. You may not agree with the process. I don't need you to agree. I just need you to keep on moving. Cause once I get you there, you'll understand why all that stuff happened in your life. I made it redeemable to use it for what I'm getting ready to do. You are now living in your purpose.

Some of his friends can say I cause they were hanging out with them . Some of his friends can say, well, when we talked about it, he said, but we never know really why he wrote in the way he wrote. Because only William Shakespeare and God know that. Why am I going to question the author?

Why am I going to try to figure this thing out when God says I know the plans, it's just like you're telling your kids, listen, we , you know, you telling your kids to plans and they trying to tell you what, what, what they think the plans are. My kids do that all the time. Juniors specifically. Um , we, we, they are over here . Us having a conversation, me and my wife talking about, you know what? Maybe we should go for ice cream that day . That if we're going to ice cream today , right?

What time are we going to, I ain't going for ice cream. I never said we were going for ice cream. I know the plans now. You roll with me and you might get some ice cream, but you overhear conversation and you think, and we're like that we over here , God saying some Fuster we see God giving us hints to what our life could look like, right? We, we hear God just, just instructing us or we see God blessing our friends and we think, Oh, that same thing gonna happen to me in the same way. [inaudible]

the same way he knew their plans. He knows your plans and only he knows it and only he can change it and only he can instruct it and only he can tell you how fast you'll get to it and how you get to it. And when you'll get to it, all you have to do is be a willing vessel and go along with the flow that makes life easy, doesn't it? It should. It should.

Literally, it should make life easy to just go on it, on cruise control, knowing that I'm not in control anyhow, it gets much easier, much easier. Here's the conclusion, watch this. Ecclesiastes 1213 this is, this is what it are . So, so we wonder like, well, does Solomon ever get it? Does he conclude with what the purpose is for his life? And he does. He doesn't say it completely here. Now I'll tell you , uh , what I came up with in my studying , but here's what he says in Ecclesiastes.

He's 1213. That's the whole story here. Now is my final conclusion. Ready? This is what it's all about. This is the purpose. Fear God and obey his commands for this is everyone's duty. Fear God and obey his commands for this is everyone's duty. If I can go back to even Paul here, what does Paul say?

I realize that everything that I've done in my life, all of my successes, all of my accomplishments, everything that they , they set me up for was nothing apart from God compared to being in relationship with Christ compared to hanging out with Jesus compared to representing him in everything that I do compare to relying on him and not me because I'm just not that smart or talented or gifted compared to all of that. It was meaningless. And Solomon saying the same thing. It's so simple, right?

To fear God, right? Obey his commands. You like, you're thinking it's something deeper, but you know that's one of the hardest things to do. To fear God is not to be afraid of him, to fear God according to scripture, is to reverence him, to Revere him, to hold him up here to fear God is the same type of fear you would have for your mother or father. It's a high level of respect. In other words, I don't figure it out on my own.

When you were a kid, you didn't try to figure everything out on your own. You went, mom, dad, how do I figure this out, mom, dad, can I do this? You went to them for guidance. That would , that's what fearing God is. It's not trying to figure it out on your own. It's going to a higher source like you would go to mom or dad when you are a child and in some cases, as an adult, I still go to my father and my mother for advising. Some of y'all still do too, but it's your, you're fearing them.

It's a healthy type of fear. It's a reverence. It's a high level of respect. Now, what was Solomon's purpose? Yes. Part of it was to be a great King, but it was not for his benefit. It was to bring the people of Israel a hope and a future under his reign. Those people saw more wealth than they'd seen in a long time. They had just come out of exile. This new King is building buildings. He's making the economy strong again. He's got people working. People are buying land there . They're there .

They're occupying the land that was promised to them. All is well, but he's getting all the credit. Here it is. He comes to the end of his life and says, you know what? I did a good thing, but my purpose the whole time was for me. I didn't do it for my people. I did it for my people so that I could have a good rep. my purpose was to empower my people and show them that you are greater than than this wealth. You are greater than all of this stuff.

Just some years ago, y'alls ancestors were an exile. Now look at you. That's my purpose. To fear God and obey his commands and empower his people over these next several weeks, my brothers and sisters, I pray that you catch that very important message that that's what our purpose is and I'm going to share with you all now that we've gone through the process of elimination, we don't ever have to talk about it again.

You don't have to ask me or wonder or guess if your career or your accomplishments are your purpose. You don't have to wonder if if, if your goals that you've wrote written manmade are your purpose, you don't have , that's gone. We know that we have to rely on God to define who we are and what we are supposed to be doing. So over these next couple of weeks, I hope that you come bring people.

I know that y'all know people right now that are lost, not just lost spiritually but lost in terms of what they want to do with their lives. I know that you all know people right now that are just trying to discover why does life exist? Why do I exist in this life? What is the meaning of life? Get those people here. They don't want to miss. They can miss any other, but they don't want to miss this series. The series is going to really go deeper. All right . Let us pray and then move on.

God, I thank you so much for everybody here under the sound of my voice. God, thank you, God for allowing us to just really, really, really dig deep into discovering.