Purpose

Intro

OPEN – Defining “TELOS”

If you were to hop onto Google right now and search just the words “what is the meaning of…” you would have several options to complete the phrase before hitting the search button. Some of the suggested words that pop up are “What is the meaning of Stonehenge?” “What is the meaning of Christmas?” and…unfortunately, “What is the meaning of ‘bae’?” But when I start the phrase, the word that popped into your head was probably the same word that is the top search on Google: “What is the meaning of life?”

Somewhere deep inside of each of us we all have this unquenchable desire for purpose, don’t we? Even after about a decade and a half on this planet, you can sense that all these experiences, all this momentum, all this growth and development…it is all headed somewhere, right? It’s pretty interesting that as cyclical as life can be (the four seasons keep repeating and we have this redundant rotation of the Earth in space, etc.) it all feels like life must somehow be linear, too. Like, it’s going somewhere, leading us towards something.

However, even as we seem to have this innate longing to understand our purpose, if we glance around at our society, we become keenly aware of the lack of PURPOSE among this generation. We have more resources and information than any generation before us, yet we seem to struggle with grasping our own meaning and purpose. And this is not just a generalization of humanity, but, if we are honest, is a concept that often echoes in our own hearts on a very personal level.

Think about your life, right now. Perhaps you have an idea of who you want to be when you are an adult. You might have career aspiration or a hope for a family one day. But most of us experience a view of the future in very general terms. And even if you are one of the hyper-organized and extremely planned out people of the world, you may have already discovered that the plans you make today will have to be adjusted at some point. All of this gives us a glimpse into the notion that, as humans, we have a sense of the CONCEPT of purpose in our lives. Yet very rarely do we have a simple answer for the desire that can actually direct and influence our lives. When it comes to the idea of true purpose, we simply find ourselves lacking.

What we are lacking is Telos. “TELOS” is the philosophical Greek term for “the end, purpose or goal.”

In this series we’ll spend several weeks unpacking the HUGE impact of this SMALL word;

but first let’s define it a bit more clearly.

TELOS: Purpose Exists.

Frederich Nietzsche, a German philosopher from long ago, once said “He who has a WHY to live for can bear almost any HOW.” That may sound like a bit of a brain twister, but what Freddy was getting at is that we all need purpose. We require a “why” in order to experience real life. And without a “why,” all of our “how’s” and “where’s” and even “who’s” seem infinitely meaningless, don’t they?

The concept of TELOS speaks to the intentionality of life. It implies that things are not random and chaotic, but that everything is headed towards something. Telos directs us to the end things; it helps us focus on the “why” and the finish line. So, to begin to dissect this concept, we must start by looking back at the very beginning:

Scripture

Genesis 1:1 John 1:1-5

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

Pray

God help us see our true purpose is found only in You

Story

Me and family playing monopoly

Application 1

In Genesis, the beginning of the Bible as well as the start of human history, we see that God created. Even if we stop there, these 5 words “In the beginning, God created” should continually keep us in complete AWE of our great God! Life all started when GOD CREATED. Genesis continues to outline WHAT He created, and you should definitely read the rest of it your own, but for now let’s skip down to the New Testament with the book of John and see WHY He created.

In John 1 we see some interesting language that can be confusing, but what tends to open up the mystery of these verses is our understanding that the term “Word” is simply referring to Jesus. Here we see that Jesus was with God in the beginning when God (the Father) created. This tells us 2 MAJOR things about Creation:

Jesus was part of the PROCESS of Creation. He got to see the blank canvas of nothingness and had His hand on every brush stroke used to construct the world we live in. John tells us that all things were made THROUGH Him. How wild must it have been to walk with Jesus as the disciples did in the Gospels? Jesus helped make this planet full of people and plants and animals and now here he was, walking among it!

Jesus was part of the PURPOSE of Creation. As we see in verses 5 and 14, Jesus wasn’t just sitting and watching God make something beautiful and intricate, but the whole set up of humanity was designed to eventually include Jesus’ presence for a very specific purpose: to be a Light shining in the dark world. (More on that later)

So, as we can see in God’s Creation, in our very own existence, that there is PURPOSE. This starts us off with a very important sentence that we can be tempted to doubt. But looking at God’s Word we see very clearly that:

There is an END and a GOAL. There is TELOS.

What Does TELOS Tell Us?

Our first instinct here is to look more closely and “lean in” to see what this says about US. Seriously, if we are honest, our chief concern is not really “the meaning of life”, is it? Our primary objective in searching out purpose is to ask, “What’s the meaning of MY LIFE?” We all are primarily concerned with the purpose for our own personal TELOS.

Think on that a moment; if you’ve ever wrestled with purpose, or if ever struggled with the concept of what we’re calling “telos” before, you’ve found yourself on a personal quest. You have possibly been on a soul-searching adventure to find yourself with the hopes of facing the remainder of your life armed with the meaning behind your every action and somehow rise above the fray of the rest of a purposeless humanity, right? I can assume this with a certain degree of accuracy because, well, we ALL feel that way! That’s why when we read about the beginning from Genesis and John it can be easy for us to first identify OURSELVES as the point of Creation!

Here’s the deal…if God went to all the trouble to create galaxies, including Earth, and then make Earth habitable for humans, and then create humans for the sole purpose of allowing Jesus, who is also God, to dwell among us and ultimately go to the cross and die for us…well, it sure seems like we are a BIG DEAL! I mean, really, if we are here on purpose, that makes us SPECIAL, doesn’t it?

The short answer is YES, that’s true, we are very special! But for now let’s look at WHAT THIS TELLS US ABOUT GOD.

Story 2

Getting annoyed in math class because I would never use what I was learning in real life

Supporting Scripture

Romans 11:33-36

33 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!

34 “For who has known the mind of the Lord,

or who has been his counselor?”

35 “Or who has given a gift to him

that he might be repaid?”

36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

Application 2

What’s The Point?

What is so cool about our world is that God created us, and everything else, “ex nihilo” (that is a fancy Latin phrase that means “out of nothing”). What we should see here is that our world exists BECAUSE GOD WILLED IT. Not because we deserved it, or we just had to experience life because we are awesome. We are here because God chose for us to be here. This puts Him on a very, very different level than us! He is the BIG DEAL!

As Paul describes in his letter to the Roman church, God is ALL. He RULES. He has no equal and He needs no input or suggestions from anyone else. Everything exists because of Him and ultimately it exists for Him! Compared to Him we are nothing at all. On top of that, as His creation we turn our backs on Him and claim to be His equal or even to be greater than Him! Yet despite our pride and rebellion He STILL wants us to have access to intimacy with Him for all of eternity.

This is where our purpose, our TELOS, truly begins:

All Creation Points To God.

Yet His Purpose Is Wrapped Up In Us.

Here’s what’s crazy about our amazing God: As silly as it is for us to think that we are “all that” and uber-important, the one and only Being who knows how small and helpless we really are is the same Being who is madly in love with us and has been chasing us down since the very beginning of time. Understanding the basis of our relationship with God is the beginning of understanding our purpose, our meaning…our TELOS. Over the next few weeks you may be challenged to stretch your view of God, and that is a good thing. You also may be tempted to doubt Him. You may get wrapped up in the thought that the concept of purpose is for other people, but it isn’t for you. That is just simply not true! If you are breathing right now, you have purpose. And over the next few weeks we are going to unpack that purpose in a way that will launch you into the rest of your life with the TELOS God designed for you!

Ending Question:

Where do you find your purpose?

Pray

God help us find fulfillment in you