Why?

Something that I’ve considered over the years, especially during college, is why?

That might be the reason why so many times that you guys answer my questions, I ask “why?”  Is it annoying?  I hope so.  :p  Is it necessary?  Yes.  We have to know why.

Why do you go to school?

Why do you have friends?

Why do you sleep?

Why do you eat?

Why do you exercise?

Why do you work?

Why do you play?

Why do you read your bible?

Why do you pray?

Why do you love other people?

Why do you believe in Jesus as your personal savior and Lord of your life?

Why don’t you believe in Him?

Why?

What’s the point?

As I got older, my father would use a phrase, “eternal value”…

Does anyone have a guess at what that means?

It means, what is something worth, if it’s not coming with us to Heaven.  J  Or if it is.  If we can take with us after we die, then it has eternal value.  If we can’t, then it doesn’t.

But it’s not that simple, almost, but not quite.

[call on someone who goes to game night]…does Halo have any eternal value?

Let’s name some things that we spend a lot of time on, but that we can’t take with us when we die.

Basketball, books,  video games…

Is there any eternal value in Halo?

Nope.  Not a bit.

But is there any eternal value in spending time with one another…yelling and laughing and being generally goofy?  You bet.  Being together with other people, as brothers and sisters in Christ, has a great deal of eternal value.

(aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand…why?)

Who do you think we’re going to spend eternity with?  Look around the room.  It would not surprise me at all to see many of you in Heaven when I get there.  J

So what is this wonderful thing of eternal value that we can take with us?

Relationships.

I know my father.  My earthly father.  His name is Mark Lee Anderson.  He is bald.  He is a pastor.  He is really smart and very, very consistent.  He goes to bed at 9:30 and get’s up waaaaaaaay too early.  He is goofy.  He gets frustrated too easily sometimes.  But he’s good at controlling his frustration.  He used to have a really bad temper when he was younger, which he generously passed on to me.  J  He is really clever, really loving, and enjoys spending time with me and my brothers and sister.  He doesn’t love horses.  But he loves my mom, who loves horses, so, in that light, he loves horses.

Why?  Why do I tell you this?

Because when I die, everything that I just told you, that odd word painting that I just gave you…

…its coming with me.  J

Why?

Because we were made for relationships.

Mother

Father

Sister

Brother

Husband

Wife

Son

Daughter

Aunt

Uncle

Cousin

Grandparents

Great Grandparents

God made us for relationships.  What has hurt me most and what has been the most wonderful experiences in my life have been through relationships.

But there is one relationship that, above all the others, we were made for.

So, what is our purpose in life?  What were we made for?  What is that one relationship?

God.  We were made to be in a relationship with God.  But we can’t!  Why?

Because of sin.

Read John 3:16 “…for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, so that whoever believes in him will not die, but will have eternal life.”

God made us to be in a relationship with him.  But he also made us capable of choosing not to.  And that, is sin.  Choosing anything other than God.  We are all born with that.  And Jesus died to keep sin…from keeping us from God.

So…Jesus has washed us clean and declared us fit to fulfill our purpose.  Which is…….

…to be in a relationship with God.

Our purpose is to be in a relationship with God and when Jesus died for us, he kept seen from keeping us from God.  J

That’s the Gospel.  That’s the purpose.  That’s the secret answer to the question of the meaning of life.

Relationship.

So ask yourself in your head right now…what is your relationship with God like?  How would you describe it?  Don’t anyone answer, just think in your head.  You can lie with you voice, but you can’t lie to yourself.  You can’t lie to God.

So, be brutally honest with yourself…be brutally honest with God.

Take a moment, everyone close their eyes.  And just be honest.

What is your relationship with God like?

…

…

…

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…now if you feel ashamed, if you feel guilty, then good!  That is evidence of God working in your heart to bring you back to him.  So if you know you’re not where you should be in your walk with God, then just ask for his forgiveness and live differently!

Not because you have to.

But because this is who God made you to be.  His son.  His daughter.  His loved one.

I love you guys.  And I definitely don’t do this for the money.  :p

But God loves you so much more than I ever could.  He knows each and every one of you better than you know yourselves.  And he loves you.  More than we can ever know.

J

So, God loves you.  Why?

Because he wants to.  J  Because that’s who he is.  He doesn’t need to.  He wants to.  And that’s never going to change.

Why?

Because God never changes.  That’s just who he is.  J