Why Are We Here?

These questions about the origin of life have puzzled many great thinkers for centuries, and the answer to these questions have massive implications for the way we live our lives today.

Specifically in your generation, depression, anxiety, loneliness, and suicide are at an all-time high.

This is partly as a result of the conclusions that most students come to when dealing with these questions.

Yet, if we were created by a designer for a specific purpose, this changes everything, as it provides meaning for life, purpose, motivation, and hope.

So, Why Are We Here?

Tonight we will see that God has provided us the answer to this question through His word in Genesis 1.

Tonight, we will see that because God is the King and creator of the universe, He has made us to live in fellowship with Him; to worship and enjoy Him forever.

Turn with me now to Genesis 1 as we see this first truth in the first verse of the Bible.

God is the King and Creator of the Universe

Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

In this first verse of the Bible, we see that God is the King and Creator of the Universe.

We know that God is the King over the universe because He has always existed.

Look at the first few words of verse 1… “In the beginning God.”

It does not start out with... “God was made this way,” No, the Bible assumes that God has always existed, He is the uncaused one.

Now, I know that most of you have grown up knowing and believing that God is eternal, but just stop for a second and think about what that means.

There was never a time that God was not here.

He is beyond time and space. For God to be eternal means that he is not dependent on anyone or anything to exist… He simply exists in himself.

Compare this to you and me, we had a beginning, we are bound by space and time, and are completely dependent on God for everything we do.

We know God exists because He has revealed himself not only in the Bible, but also in creation.

Psalm 19:1-2 “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.”

And Romans 1:18-20 “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.”

In describing God’s glory in creation, Pastor Paul Tripp says,

Give examples of God’s glory in creation

You see it in the sand dunes in Dubai and in the lush green valleys of New Zealand. You see his glory in the frozen tundra of the polar ice caps and the dense jungles of the Amazon. You see it in the inexhaustible wings of a hummingbird and the lumbering gate of an elephant. You see his glory in the bright heat of the sun and in the twinkling of a starry night. You see it in the multitude of faces on the streets of New York and in the pride of lions in the bush of Africa. You hear it in the rhythm of ocean waves and in the whisper of the wind through the trees. You see his glory when water boils and smell it in well-roasted beef. You see it in the passing of the seasons and in the regularity of morning and night. Fish, fowl, and flowers constantly point to him. Your local park, your favorite pet, and the garden out back are all fingers pointing to him. It is a 24/7 glory display for everyone to see…and there is no ticket needed.

This powerful message of creation means that is more natural to acknowledge God’s existence than to deny that He exists.

So, God has always existed. Verse 1 also tells us that God has created all things.

The phrase, “Heavens and Earth”...mean “sky” and “land.”

It is essentially a summary saying that God has created all things.

Because God has created all things, He owns all things. He owns the cattle on a thousand hills.

There is not one thing on this universe that God does not say “mine!”

We see all of God’s characteristics in his act of creation.

We see his Holiness in that only he can create and no one else.

We see his righteousness and goodness from the goodness and perfection of His creation.

We see his power in making the universe out of nothing.

God literally spoke existence into existence...

So, if God made all things, that means that He also made you and me.

Let’s now turn to Genesis 1:26-27 to see where we learn about this truth.

Genesis 1:26-27 “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”

God Made Us In His Image To Live In Fellowship With Him

So from this passage we see the result of the truth that God is the King and creator of the universe....in that we have been made in God’s image to live in fellowship with Him.

Being made in God’s image means that we were created with God’s characteristics and relational tendencies to be his representatives to creation.

Being made in God’s image means that we were made by God and for God.

Colossians 1:16 says, “For everything was created by him, in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities-all things have been created through him and for him.”

Isaiah 43:7 says, “everyone who bears my name and is created for my glory. I have formed them; indeed, I have made them.

We are not random particles that have somehow come together over billions of years…but we have been uniquely, fearfully, and wonderfully made by the Lord as it says in Psalms 139.

Therefore, our ultimate purpose and the reason why God made us is to worship and enjoy Him in a perfect relationship…and as a result of that perfect communion…we were made to represent his glory and character to all creation, so that all of creation would also worship and enjoy God.

According to the Bible, this means we do have purpose, we do have meaning, there is a reason God made us…and here is the truth you do not need to miss, the purpose he made us for…to have a perfect relationship with him…is the most joyous, pleasurable, satisfaction we could ever experience!

John Piper has coined the phrase… “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.”

Therefore, our greatest joy and pleasure in life will be gazing on the beauty of the creator of the universe and worshipping him with our lives in everything that we do.

So, to summarize what we have learned from Genesis 1, God is the King and creator of the universe and He has made us to live in fellowship with Him; to worship and enjoy Him forever.

But wait…lets pause for a moment, how do we know that God exists and has created all things?

Yes, the Bible says it, but what about science? Doesn’t science explain the origin of the universe through evolution? If so, then why do we need God?

But What About Science and Evolution?

First let’s understand what evolution means...

Darwinian evolution believes that all forms of life came from a common ancestor, and that over billions of years through the process of natural selection, all of life came about.

Now, we know that evolution, specifically micro-evolution exists, for we have proven facts that changes to happen within species. For example, our bodies adapt to our environments based on the climates that we live in.

But, is Macro-evolution, the idea that species change to different species over time, actually true?

Most people today would assume and understand this theory of evolution to be a fact.

But, we have to remember that macro-evolution is simply what it claims to be…just a theory.

There is no one earth who has ever seen physically or even has evidence for a species evolving into another species…the only evidence we have is for micro-evolution, not macro-evolution.

The fossil record shows absolutely no evidence of darwinian evolution and species being in the middle stages of transitioning.

Give example of vertabrates (Humans) and invertabrates

But most atheists will say that anything can happen if given enough time.

To counter this statement, Sir Fred Hoyle, the scientist who coined the term for the “big bang” recently said, “No amount of time now being considered by evolutionist is remotely accurate to accomplish the formation of a higher living organism by chance. Such an event would be comparable to the chance of a tornado sweeping through a junk yard and assembling a fully functional Boeing 747.”

Therefore, not only is there no evidence to prove darwinian evolution, it is also seems mathematically impossible…as the chances of macro-evolution are 10 to the 40 thousandth power....that is a 1 followed by 40,000 0’s.

Now, I want to provide three more reasons with some help from Apologist, Sean Mcdowell, that demonstrate that God does exist that further debunk darwinian evolution.

3 Arguments for God’s Existence

Now, there are many more arguments for God’s existence but I want to share three of the strongest with you tonight, the first one is...

The Universe has a beginning

Based on the evidence we have seen from scientific research the universe will eventually burn up.

And, based on the second law of thermodynamics, if something has an end, than it has to also have a beginning.

Therefore, the universe has a beginning. Now, if the universe has a beginning than it had to be created by a personal, powerful, spaceless, timeless, intelligent being that is outside the universe.

From the Bible’s description, that sounds a lot like God.

Therefore, the beginning of the universe points to a beginner

The second one is...DNA

The amount of information in one cell in your body is equivalent of five hundred thousand movies. And we have 37.2 trillion cells in our bodies....think about how much information that is.

How do we explain this? We know that Science and evolution cannot create information…when we see a sign or read a book, we know that an intelligent mind put it there and wrote the book.

Therefore, the information in a book points towards an author. In the same way, the information in DNA points to a mind or an author of life…which we can say with confidence is God.

The last argument for the existance of God is The Moral Argument

If there are objective moral values, God must exist. There are objective moral values, therefore God exists.

How do we know there are objective moral values? We all know that torturing an innocent child is wrong. We all know rape is wrong at all times and in all places.

C.S. Lewis said, “across cultures universally there’s common principles that everyone knows and lives as if they’re true…for example…courage, honesty, caring for posterity…the practice varies but the principles are universal.

If everyone in the world has these principles in their hearts and consciences, then these laws would have to be given by someone outside of us…which points to God being the one who put those laws on our hearts.

Romans 2:14-15 provides this idea by saying that the Gentiles who do not have the law, still sought to live according to the moral laws that God gave to Israel. This shows that the work of the law is written on their hearts and their consciences’ confirm this.

Therefore, if there is a moral law, it points to a moral law giver… ie, God.

So, because we have rational evidence that God does exist, and the Bible, which is God’s word, makes clear that He does exist and has created us in his image for a relationship with him...why should this truth matter to us? How should these truths change the way we live? I want to provide you with two quick implications

So What?

The first implication is that because God has created all things and we have been made in his image, we need to live like we own nothing.

Give illustration of an artist owning a painting.

Where are you experiencing trouble in your relationships because you are living like it belongs to you?

How does the fact that God created everything call you to change the way you think about and handle your money and possessions?

Where has thinking your body belongs to you set you up for sexual temptation and trouble?

When we live like we own nothing we will care more about our relationship with God than anything else. We will as a result worship him and not his creation.

The second implication is that because God has created all things and we have been made in His image, our lives have meaning, value, and purpose.

We should always ask the question: What is God’s purpose for ____________ ?

What is God’s purpose for my...

Relationships, physical body, emotions, possessions, money, time, gender, ethnicity, home, church, sexuality, and the list goes on and on.

Being made in God’s image should change where we find our identity, how we treat other people, and create in us the need to uphold justice for others who are wrongly mistreated.

Being made in God’s image should ultimately remind us and point us to Jesus, who is the exact image of God, for we were made to be conformed to His image.

Why are we here? We are here because a good and loving God, who has always existed, made us uniquely and beautifully to be in a loving and perfect relationship with Him. In that relationship we will worship Him and as a result of worshipping Him, enjoy and be satisfied in Him for all eternity…and that is why we are here.