Why Are We Here?

Introduction

Why are you and I here? What is our purpose? What is the meaning of life? Many people in our world ask these “big” questions on a daily basis and are some of the most frequently asked questions on Google. People want to know what our purpose is. Is life an accident. Are we created by pure luck or chance? Is there a higher power? Are we supposed to do something unique with our lives? Why are we here?

From the perspective of many non-Christians, the answer to this question varies. Some people say that we are here to make the world a better place for future generations. This is a noble answer! Others say that we are here to live it up and enjoy as much fun as we can have during our lives because this world is all that there is. We should follow our hearts and make ourselves happy. This is a more self-serving answer! Still, others believe that there is no purpose to life at all. Several billion years ago, they argue, something happened and eventually life started to form and over time humans evolved from these less intelligent life forms. There is no purpose to life because there is no higher power and our lives are a cosmic accident.

We must get our purpose right as human beings. Our purpose isn’t primarily to do what sounds the best to ourselves or to simply do what is easiest or right in our own eyes - we see in Judges 21 the ramifications of that

Judges 21:25 ESV

25 In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

What are we here for? Are we supposed to take easy route? The wide road? Jesus has some strong words against that option in Matthew 7 as He says

Matthew 7:13 CSB

13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who go through it.

Our default setting as humans is to seek to please ourselves. To do what makes the most sense to us and to not consider the needs of those around us. Whenever we live with this mentality, we fail to understand our overarching purpose in life. What is that purpose? Why are we here? We exist to glorify God in everything that we do.

Maybe you’re a student here this morning and you’re wondering how this applies to you. You’re curious about your purpose and why God has you here this morning. Understand that God doesn’t make mistakes - you have the opportunity in your classroom to be a light in the darkness and to glorify God in the way you act and speak around others.

Maybe you’re an adult here and you’re wondering why you’re here. You’re struggling with your identify and purpose. Let me encourage you to see that God has a purpose for you exactly where you are. That He has equipped you and placed you in a unique position to be an ambassador for the Kingdom of God and to bring Him glory in the way you live your life on mission for Him. God is most glorified when we are most satisfied in Him… Are you satisfied in Christ this morning?

This morning we’ll be in 1 Corinthians 10:23-11:1 and we are going to study what our purpose is as Christians and as the local body of Christ. We are here to glorify God and point people to Jesus Christ in everything that we do. Let’s read this morning

1 Corinthians 10:23–11:1 CSB

23 “Everything is permissible,” but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible,” but not everything builds up. 24 No one is to seek his own good, but the good of the other person. 25 Eat everything that is sold in the meat market, without raising questions for the sake of conscience, 26 since the earth is the Lord’s, and all that is in it. 27 If any of the unbelievers invites you over and you want to go, eat everything that is set before you, without raising questions for the sake of conscience. 28 But if someone says to you, “This is food from a sacrifice,” do not eat it, out of consideration for the one who told you, and for the sake of conscience. 29 I do not mean your own conscience, but the other person’s. For why is my freedom judged by another person’s conscience? 30 If I partake with thanksgiving, why am I criticized because of something for which I give thanks? 31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God. 32 Give no offense to Jews or Greeks or the church of God, 33 just as I also try to please everyone in everything, not seeking my own benefit, but the benefit of many, so that they may be saved. 1 Imitate me, as I also imitate Christ.

We Are Not Here to Honor Ourselves (23-24)

As humans, we usually think that we’re right and that if someone disagrees with us, they’re naturally wrong. Whenever you were a child, did your parents give you a curfew? My parents did and that time was usually 10pm unless I had permission to be out later. Now, why did they give me this curfew? Was there a law in Ozark saying that teenagers had to be home by 10pm on school nights? No. Did all of my friends have this rule? Absolutely not… I might’ve been a little jealous about that too! Honestly, I didn’t think this was the most fair rule and sometimes parents make rules that are unique to your specific family that don’t always make sense in the moment. Why do they do this? Because even though the world might say something is ok, the world isn’t the best judge of what is wrong and what is right. Our world says to honor ourselves… The Word says something different. Paul shares this in Ephesians 6.

Ephesians 6:1–2 CSB

1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, because this is right. 2 Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with a promise,

Our world says honor and obey yourself, regardless of your age. The Bible strongly disagrees. The Bible says that honoring yourself is not always beneficial.

Think of some things in life that are legal but not beneficial. How many of you are fans of soda? That would fall into this category, right? It’s legal, maybe the caffeine helps you out, but it’s not very beneficial for our bodies. Thinking a little deeper in our country, consider pornography. Pornography in our world is something permissible - it’s legal - but as Christians we would hopefully all agree that it’s not beneficial and it certainly doesn’t honor God. It’s a sin! Did you know that pornography plays a direct role in nearly half of all divorces in the United States? Did you know that 3/4 Americans believe that pornography is “morally acceptable?”… Not only is it legal, but it’s acceptable. This is our world, friends! It’s all about self gratification. It’s all about doing what pleases ourselves regardless of the consequences. It’s all about my rights. My views. My this, my that. What does Paul share with us in our text?

1 Corinthians 10:24 CSB

24 No one is to seek his own good, but the good of the other person.

Not everything is beneficial. Therefore, we should seek to do good to the other person. Did you know that this is a pretty constant theme in the New Testament?

Philippians 2:4 CSB

4 Everyone should look not to his own interests, but rather to the interests of others.

Romans 15:1–3 CSB

1 Now we who are strong have an obligation to bear the weaknesses of those without strength, and not to please ourselves. 2 Each one of us is to please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. 3 For even Christ did not please himself. On the contrary, as it is written, The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.

Whoa. Christ didn’t please Himself… Instead, what did He do? He died for those who insulted Him. He laid down His life! As Christians, we are not here to honor ourselves. We are here to honor those around us. Why should we do this? Because we remember what Jesus Christ did for us.

Because of what Jesus has done, sometimes we have to take the high road and do what is right instead of what is easy. Instead of honoring ourselves, we have to consider what Christ would do. This might require us to lay our “rights” down because you and I are not here to just go with the flow and take the easy way out. You and I are here to be image bearers of our God. This is the purpose of humanity, isn’t it?

Look back to creation in Genesis

Genesis 1:26 CSB

26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, the whole earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth.”

You are not here by accident. God has created you. He has formed you. We read in the Old and New Testament that He knew you long before you were born. There’s no such thing as unplanned to an all knowing God. He has a plan for your life. Your life has purpose!

Those are Biblical truths but they shouldn’t puff us up and make us turn inward. They should turn us outward and force us to live in a Christlike manner towards others. These truths should send us to our knees or to our feet as we give praise to our God for what He has done! Whenever we turn inward, not only do we often fail to love others and reflect the image of God, we also rob God of His glory as we’ll discuss more in depth with verse 31.

We Are Not Here to Win an Argument (25-30)

Because we are sinners, there is a temptation for us to be combative with others rather than compassionate with them. How many of you are professional arguers? Maybe you’re not willing to raise your hand in public, but internally you’re nodding your head up and down because you get joy out of winning arguments and being “right.” From the dawn of time there have been conflicts between people and we experience relational conflict today as well. The world shares with us that we are here to “win” and do whatever it takes to do so. Again, begin with a self-centered mindset. You have an opinion and its based on evidence. You think you’re right, no, you know that you’re right and you want everyone to know that you’re right and everyone else is wrong. Your purpose is to prove your dominance, your strength, your rightness, to win your argument. In our world, people would rather be seen as a winner than a loser. You’d rather be strong than weak. The New Testament talks about this struggle in several passages between the weak and the strong. What’s really interesting in Scripture though is that being strong or weak isn’t about strength, it’s about conscience - as Paul talks about in our text. Look with me in Romans 14 as we find this

Romans 14:1–3 CSB

1 Welcome anyone who is weak in faith, but don’t argue about disputed matters. 2 One person believes he may eat anything, while one who is weak eats only vegetables. 3 One who eats must not look down on one who does not eat, and one who does not eat must not judge one who does, because God has accepted him.

People in the early church had differing views about some “disputed matters.” These were matters of conscience - matters of Christian liberty. Non-essentials to the Christian faith. Some felt like they couldn’t eat meat offered to idols and others thought that it wasn’t a big deal. Who is right and who is wrong? Well, in our individualistic world, we’re always right and if you disagree with me, then you’re always wrong. We’re naturally argumentative and combative about trivial matters!

Paul’s challenge in our text is simple: Don’t violate the conscience of another believer.

How many of you like meat? Whenever we think of meat today, we think of it often as a common food. We eat meat every day for the most part! In Paul’s context here to the Corinthian church, this wasn’t the case. Many people in the 1st century world treated meat as a delicacy as it was a more expensive option than it is today. Because of this, if you wanted to eat meat, your best bet would be to go to the town market and buy it there. Unlike Walmart, though, in the town market you’d usually have 2 options of meat: Really expensive and kind of expensive. There wasn’t a “best choice” or “great value” option! The really expensive meat was from the farmer himself. The kind of expensive meat was meat that had been sacrificed to false gods by priests in their respective temple. The meat was used in idolatry. As a result, there were some Christians who had previously been Jews and they couldn’t in good conscience eat this kind of meat because it violated their conscience. This quickly became a thorny issue in the church and people had arguments about who was right and who was wrong.

What are some thorny issues in churches today? We probably don’t argue about whether it’s ok to eat sirloin steak or not, we do argue about other topics. How often should we observe the Lord’s Supper? How often should we have business meeting? What time should services start? What Bible translation should we use? The list goes on and on, right?! How do we address these types of issues? We first start with the Word. There are some things that are essentials to our faith: The divinity of Jesus Christ, the truthfulness of God’s Word, Salvation being by grace through faith in Christ alone! These are essentials to our faith. Did you know that you can be a Christian whether you prefer the KJV, the CSB, or the NIV? We hold a preference, sure, but just because we like one more than the others, we know that this isn’t a matter of salvation - it’s not an essential to our faith. Yet, the enemy would love to come in and cause an argument. To bring about division. To puff us up and make us think that we’re always right and if you disagree with me then you’re automatically wrong. Our default human nature is to think in this type of combative, argumentative manner.

So, how can we fight against this? We remember that our purpose is not to win arguments. Paul notes that everything is the Lord’s. On a matter of Christian liberty, if you feel one way about it, don’t go out calling Christians bad names just because they feel differently! That’s how Satan wins. If Mike comes up to me and says that blue carpet is the best church carpet and I think that red carpet is better, it’s ok for us to disagree about the color of the carpet. If Joe tells me that he’s convinced that the pre-millennial view is the correct eschatological view and I hold to a different position, it’s ok to disagree on that! Let’s not cast our stones at one another or say that the other person has weak faith. That’s not why we’re here!

Some of the best Christians I’ve had the privilege of reading about and knowing personally have felt differently than I do about various things. The world says that if you disagree with me then you’re wrong. The Bible gives us numerous examples of people who disagreed over various things (think of Acts 15 as several of the early Christian leaders disagreed over things), yet, they remembered their overall purpose which is what Paul highlights at the conclusion of this text.

We Are Here to Glorify God (31-33)

You and I are not the center of the universe - contrary to what many parents tell their newborn children! The world does not revolve around us. Nearly 500 years ago, Nicholas Copernicus noted that the planets do not revolve around the earth but instead, around the sun. Galileo expounded on Copernicus’ ideas and further made this argument that our solar system revolves around the sun - not our planet. Does anyone here love science? Specifically, does anyone else love studying about our galaxy? Friends, one of the lies that Satan loves to whisper is that we, as humans, are either so big that we don’t need God or that we are so small that we’re insignificant to God altogether. Both are completely wrong.

We as humans are incredibly small. Our planet, as big as it is, is tiny. The sun, meanwhile, is large. It is estimated that 1.3 million earths could fit inside the sun. If the earth were the size of a golf ball, the sun would be a sphere 15 feet in diameter. That’s enough golf balls to fill up an entire school bus! Did you know that our sun is an average sized star, though? There’s a star a long ways away from the earth called Canis Majoris and whenever I heard about this star in Jr. High, it wrecked my prayer life because I was used with being the center of things. I liked thins revolving around me. I liked telling God how to do His job… Canis Majoris stunned me and made me stop in my tracks. If the earth were the size of a golf ball, Canis Majoris would be Mt. Everest. It is estimated that you could fit 7 quadrillion earths inside Canis Majoris. You could cover the state of Texas with golf balls 2 feet deep. Our God is a big God and this should naturally make us shrink back and realize that we’re not as big as maybe we thought we were. Church, sin puffs us up. Sin distorts the truth. Sin puts God on our level and the fact of the matter is that God is so utterly holy that there is an uncrossable chasm between ourselves and our God. But God… The greatest 2 words in the Bible. What did God do? He sent His Son and made us alive with Christ! Jesus is the loving bridge that connects us to God.

You and I are not the center of the universe… There’s only 1 person big enough to occupy that spot and He is already seated there on His throne and He is reigning as its rightful King. We read in Genesis that He spoke, and there it was. We read in Romans that

Romans 11:36 CSB

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

We read in Hebrews 2 that

Hebrews 2:10 ESV

10 For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.

Colossians adds that God not only made all things, but sustains them

Colossians 1:17 CSB

17 He is before all things, and by him all things hold together.

God is in the center. He is the King. He sustains all things. He gives us breath in our lungs as Isaiah 42:5 shares with us. He is holy and as Isaiah shares in Isaiah 6, you and I are people of unclean lips. We cannot approach the Lord on our own… But we read in the Bible that we can draw near to Him through Jesus Christ. We look at our world and we see man so fascinated by space that we sent astronauts to the moon. We read in Scripture that God so loved the world that He sent His only Son. We read further that the holy, unapproachable God reached down to us. See, every other religion tells us what man must do to get to God. Christianity tells us what God did to reach man.

Because of the bigness of our God, the only appropriate response has to be one out of humility. God is the star-breathing God and He also spoke life into our lungs. He is the planet forming Creator and He also loves us as His own. He knows all the stars in the sky and He knows all the hairs on your head - some of you make His job that much easier!

Why are we here? Ultimately, you and I are here to give God glory. I know that this is a singing church and that this church is blessed with a tremendous worship pastor. Did you know that we’re not the only things in creation that sing? Did you know that even the stars sing? Look it up when you get home, stars make a noise. As Chris Tomlin put it, “You and I are made to worship.” We are created not to receive glory but to give glory to the only One worthy of it.

Now, how can you and I give God glory, how can we fulfill 1 Corinthians 10:31? Here are 4 practical ways to fulfill your purpose:

Love God

In the Old and New Testaments we see a command to love the Lord your God in places like Deuteronomy 6:4-7 the OT Shema and we see this in Matthew 22:37 from Jesus. Loving God gives God the praise and glory that He rightly deserves!

Trust God

Trusting in God gives Him glory because we acknowledge that God is all knowing and all powerful and we are neither. Therefore, we trust in His plan and on His timing. We know that He is the Creator and that He is the King. Romans 4:20 shares with us that Abraham trusted in God and in doing so, gave glory to God. May we do the same!

Give Thanks to God

Giving thanks to God gives Him glory because we acknowledge that God is the giver of every good and perfect gift. We give Him praise for what He has done. 2 Corinthians 4:15 speaks to this truth as we see that grace increases thanksgiving and that thanksgiving is done for the glory of God.

Obey God

There can be some tension when it comes to works in the life of a Christian. We know that our works do not save us, but we also see a clear command from Jesus Christ that we are called to act differently as a new creation! Matthew 5:16 shares with us a command from Jesus to let our light shine so that others will see our good works and give glory to God!

Ultimately in this text, Paul is emphasizing the importance of looking out for others rather than for ourselves and doing everything for the glory of God. We don’t take shortcuts or try to benefit ourselves above all else. We look through things with a Christocentric lens. We imitate Christ. We glorify Him above all else. We build one another up. We love the Lord our God and we love others as He has loved us.

Conclusion

So, what is your purpose? After looking at our text, I pray that each of us would realize that our purpose is so much bigger than just ourselves. That we are apart of something big! Maybe you’re still thinking that you are irrelevant and don’t matter. Maybe you’re still feeling awfully small after realizing how small our planet it. Understand this: God doesn’t make mistakes. We serve a big God. A star breathing God. A planet forming God. A life giving God. He sees your fears, needs, struggles, doubts, and dreams. Bring them before Him. Come to Him just as you are but don’t expect to leave just as you are. Jesus changes lives! Whenever He is at the center of your heart, He will change you from the inside out.

Are you giving God glory today? Are you a follower of Jesus Christ? If not, understand that that is why you’re here. You have a purpose in life and that purpose is to know, love, and glorify your Creator. He loves you. He created you. He has great plans for you. Surrender your all to Him today!