Meaning

You may be surprised to learn as I was what the longest running television show that's still airing on television is. It's the Simpsons. Yeah. You know who I'm talking about? They should have a slide up there. Yeah, that's them. Good looking family. What is up with her hair? So, this show's been running for like twenty-eight years, the longest running show on television. Now, I'll let you draw your own conclusions on what that says about our culture - that the Simpsons is the longest running television show still running. Now I may be the last US citizen never to have seen a full episode of the Simpsons. I know there's a couple of you saying that you haven't either, but I actually may have watched them all. No, I'm kidding, I haven't. I've never seen an episode. But I am familiar with some of the cultural memes that come out of the show. And because it's been around a long time - I was still actually a late teenager when this show started. I mean that's how long this show has been going on, you know?

And there was an episode in the late 1990's called "Homer the Heretic". Homer's the dad, and Homer is having a dream or whatever and having a conversation with god. This cartoon god. And he's walking with this cartoon god and Homer says I want to know what the meaning of life is. And this cartoon god in the Simpson show says well, you'll have to find out when you die. Homer said I can't wait for that. I need to know what the meaning of life is right now. And so this cartoon god said you mean you can't wait six months? Homer didn't even get it. It flew right over Homer's head and Homer said no, I can't wait six months, I need to know what the meaning of life is right now. And so this god-character said okay, Homer, the meaning of life is... and then the show ended. Credits rolled. That was it. Left everybody hanging.

Here's the thing. Everybody is asking about the meaning of life, apparently even Homer Simpson. And I don't know when it happens in your life, or maybe when it happened but if you've lived any life at all, you've probably come to places in your life where you have actually asked questions about the meaning of life. What's this all about?

Some of you are getting ready to graduate high school or graduate college and this is a time sometimes where you have those kinds of thoughts and those kinds of conversations when you're sitting around with your friends really late at night and you're having one of those I wonder what we'll be in ten years or I wonder what we'll be in twenty years conversations, right? Maybe that's when you start thinking about it. Or maybe for you, when you got married and you realized that you had responsibility outside of yourself. You started going whoa, whoa and had to start asking some questions about what does life mean, what is this all about? Or maybe it was when a child entered your life and all of a sudden you're taking this child home, whether from the hospital or through adoption or whatever and you're starting to go what am I going to teach this child about we believe? What am I going to say to this child? How am I going to raise this child? And you start asking the questions about the meaning of life and what it's all about. Or maybe you just got into the workforce and you started working a bunch and you started making a lot of money and then you realize you're making a lot of money and spending your money and your time on a lot of trivial things that aren't bringing you really any happiness. And you start asking the question in your own mind and your own heart, like what am I doing? What is the meaning of all this? Why am I doing these things?

Or maybe you had a friend or a spouse or a co-worker that died. And you realized just how finite our lives are and you started asking questions about your own life. Like what am I doing? What's going on? What's the meaning of all this? Or maybe on a business trip or on a vacation you got to be in a really beautiful place. Maybe it was beach or mountains or canyons or wherever and you got a chance to be alone for a little bit and you just took it all in and the majesty and the beauty and the awe-inspiring nature of it all made you feel really small, really tiny. Maybe even really insignificant and you started asking yourself what's my place in all of this? What am I doing here?

I don't know where it might be for you, but I know everybody asks those questions at some point. For me, I flirted with those questions when I was graduating high school, because I had a close group of friends and we had some of those late night what are we all going to be in ten years, fifteen years, twenty years? Will we all still be friends? Will we stay in touch? Will we do all those kinds of things? What's the meaning of all of this? And remember this was before texting and before Facebook and social media. That's back when you had to pick up a phone and dial things and call people and speak to them. Or write them a letter with paper and pens. This was before all of that. So we're asking ourselves will we stay in touch? What is this all about? What is the meaning of all of this? But I quickly enough let that go, because life just moved quick and so I just let that go.

But where I really came back around to thinking about this with some depth was my sophomore year at the University of Georgia. And I still actually remember sitting in my apartment at Sussex Club in my room that I shared with another guy but I was just in this room by myself sitting on the edge of my bed and I was contemplating what was this all about. And I started running logically and linearly how I viewed what life was all about. What's my purpose here and what am I doing here? What's the meaning of all of this? And I started saying, well I guess the first meaning for me is graduating from the University of Georgia (which may have been a miracle in and of itself). And I could have stayed there for quite a while thinking just about that - that would be incredible. If I actually graduated, that would be something.

And so then I said, okay, then what? Well then, maybe I'll get a job, start making moolah. Okay, then what? Well then, hopefully there'll be a young lady that'll have me and hopefully her name will be Edie, and hopefully I'll be able to get married. Cool. Then what? Then we'll buy a house and we'll have some kids - maybe a dog, probably not a cat. I grew up with a cat, Muffin. And I had a dog at one time that was a psychopath. My dad got a dog that needed assistance and my dad nicknamed the dog Gunny, like for gunnery sergeant. And that's what the dog was. He frightened me. My Dad - when he would say go feed the dog, go feed Gunny - my brother and I would just cry. We can't do it, Dad. Gunny is going to kill us. He hates us and he speaks English. When we go out there he just goes ruff, ruff, I hate you. I swear it, it felt that way.

Okay, great, so I bought a house and we had some kids and then what. Then I'm going to work and make a whole lot of money and be really successful. Okay, then what. Then I'm going to retire early, I'm going to move to Florida. I'm going to wear really ugly shirts. I'm going to drive so slow that everyone's infuriated by me. I'm going to play a lot of shuffleboard. I'm going to smoke a pipe in my car with the windows rolled up. I know. Some of you are flirting with that idea right now. That's okay, cool. I do that. Then what? Then I die. Okay.

Then what? I didn't really know at that point, and so I started looking back over my life going okay, so here, let me just sum it up for myself. This is me sitting on my bed in my sophomore year at the University of Georgia. Let me sum it up for myself. I'm going to work all these years and make all of this money and then I'm going to die. My family is going to get my money and then they're going to die and then somebody else is going to get it and pretty soon people I don't even know are going to be living high on the hog - that I've never met. So basically I figured out that my meaning in life was that I am a human savings plan for people I've never met and who maybe aren't even born yet. You want to talk about casting a dark, dark cloud of depression over my life in that moment, that's exactly what I felt. Because I was like, is this really what this looks like?

I mean, everybody's asking the question about what the meaning of life is, and whenever it is you've thought about it. You've asked the questions that go along with that. Do I matter? Am I actually made for something? Am I significant in the grand scheme of things? We've all asked those questions.

For those of us who really come to a place where we believe that God is at the center of our lives and God is at the center of how we view the world, that our world view is shaped by placing God at the center and how he's revealed himself in the person of Jesus and how we understand Jesus based on the revelation of the scripture that teaches us about him. When we have is that we realize that we've got inherent meaning in life just based upon the fact that God is. That there is an inherent meaning in our lives because of that fact.

Even the apostle Paul in the book of Acts when he was teaching at Mars Hill - in Acts chapter seventeen he quoted one of their famous poets called Epimenides, but in it he said this, referring to God he said, "In him we live and move and have our being." You see, Paul understood that really our meaning, everything about us, the way we live, move and have our being is really tied up in God himself. That there's an inherent meaning because of being tied up in relationship to God.

Even the Westminster Confession in the mid-1600's that summarized the Church of England and then the Presbyterian Church, the church of Scotland's doctrine. It basically summarized what the purpose of humanity is. It said it this way, it said man's - and it's referring to humanity's - humanity's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. That's pretty much right. Humanity's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. And for those of us that have God at the center of our world view as revealed in Jesus as understood through the Scripture in knowing Jesus. We understand that there's some inherent meaning in terms of our lives.

But for those that don't hold God at the center, that maybe don't even care about the nature of God at all or believe in God at all, they've got problems. And by that I don't mean they're personally vile people who do bad in society. I mean they've got some existential problems and here's why: to answer the question of meaning - and I told you in this series, I have to sometimes go into philosopher mode, so just stay with me a little bit, we'll land the plane in a few minutes, alright? Just stay with me.

To answer the question of meaning, there really can only be two ways of answering that question. The first way that you answer the question of meaning is that there has to be some outside something that ascribes meaning to you so that you have meaning. In other words, something objective outside of yourself actually ascribes meaning to your life. That's one way to view how we get meaning. The other way to view how we get meaning is that we create meaning for ourselves inside of ourselves. This is what I would call subjective meaning. One is objective, in other words it's something outside of ourselves that actually gives meaning to our lives, the other is subjective because it's us creating within ourselves meaning for ourselves. There's really only two ways to answer this problem.

And you see, for those that say there's no God or whatever, and leave God out of the center of their world view, they've got a really big existential problem, because ultimately they agree that the universe and everything that we have cannot give meaning to a life. That's what people who don't believe in God believe. They believe that the randomness of the universe that we live in doesn't really have meaning because it's random. It's a bunch of colliding atoms and all kinds of stuff that creates biological accidents that have now somehow found their way into life - whatever that is, whatever creature, whatever form, whatever plant, whatever animal, whatever human.

And so there's this kind of idea that it's meaningless in terms of ascribing meaning to a life - and by the way, I'm not just setting up a straw-man here. This is what famous atheists through the course of centuries have said. And even modern ones say. This is exactly what they communicate. In fact, if you were to go back a bit and you were to read some of them, you would find them saying exactly the same thing.

For instance, you don't even have to go back very far. Alex Rosenberg who wrote "The Athiest Guide to Reality" - listen to what he said: What is the purpose of the universe? There is none. What is the meaning of life? Ditto. Does history have any meaning or purpose? It's full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. So that's what he thinks. Does the universe itself have any meaning whatsoever?

Bertrand Russell, who was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, famous atheist/agnostic, British guy who died in about 1970, well published, quoted often. He said this: That man is the product of causes which had no prevision of the end they were achieving; that his origin, his growth, his hopes and fears, his loves and his beliefs, are but the outcome of accidental collocations of atoms; that no fire, no heroism, no intensity of thought and feeling, can preserve an individual life beyond the grave; that all the labors of the ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness of human genius, are destined to extinction in the vast death of the solar system, and that the whole temple of Man's achievement must inevitably be buried beneath the debris of a universe in ruins--all these things, if not quite beyond dispute, are yet so nearly certain that no philosophy which rejects them can hope to stand. Only within the scaffolding of these truths, only on the firm foundation of unyielding despair, can the soul's habitation henceforth be safely built.

My guess is you wouldn't invite him to a barbecue, right? He wouldn't be the guy you go, "Hey, for little Suzy's sixth birthday, let's have him dress up as a clown and entertain the kids." He'd be like .....there is no meaning to life. You have no purpose, right?

But ultimately, listen, this is what they agree upon, if you read some of the modern kind of the new atheists, people like Richard Dawkins and the now-deceased Christopher Hitchens, they acknowledge the same thing. That the universe has no meaning. There is no objective meaning that is given to our lives by something outside of ourselves.

So, if there is no objective meaning, then what do you do with the gnawing inside for everyone - atheists included - that gnaws at them for a sense of destiny or purpose or meaning or significance? What do you do with that? Well, you only have one option. You've already concluded in your atheism that there is no objective meaning in the universe, nothing outside of yourself that ascribes meaning to your life. So what do you do? You have to make it up for yourself. It's your only other option. And in fact, that's what we see with philosophers and essayists and thinkers and astrophysicists in our history that have pondered these things when asked or thinking about the meaning of life.

Listen to a few of them. Anais Nin, she wrote this: There is not one big cosmic meaning for all; there is only the meaning we each give to our life, an individual meaning, an individual plot, like an individual novel, a book for each person. Joseph Campbell said this: Life is without meaning. You bring the meaning to it. The meaning of life is whatever you ascribe it to be. Being alive is the meaning.

Then you've got Stanley Kubrick, you guys remember him? The director, direct a bunch of films like 'Apocalypse Now', 'Clockwork Orange', and all of those kind of films, 'Eyes Wide Shut' or whatever it was. Multiple award-winning director. Here is what he said: The very meaninglessness of life forces man to create his own meaning...The most terrifying fact about the universe is not that it is hostile but that it is indifferent; but if we can come to terms with this indifference and accept the challenges of life within the boundaries of death -- however mutable man may be able to make them -- our existence as a species can have genuine meaning and fulfillment. However vast the darkness, we must supply our own light.

Charisma Carpenter, who you may know - she's a modern actress who starred in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. If you watch that, don't acknowledge it. Here's what she said: I think essentially the meaning of life is probably the journey and not really any one thing or an outcome or a result. I think it's kind of the process and I think that if you can find happiness in the process than maybe that's it. I'm sorry - what? Stick to acting, stop being a philosopher.

Some of you might know the astrophysicist Neil Degrasse Tyson - very famous in our day. He was asked by a six-year-old at one his lectures what's the meaning of life. An astrophysicist who is also an atheist by the way. And instead of going to some objective meaning about it, here's what he said: "...maybe meaning in life is something that you create, that you manufacture for yourself and others. When I think of 'meaning' in life, I ask, "have I learned something today that I didn't know yesterday?" This is a brilliant astrophysicist's answer to meaning in life.

Now here's the thing. There's some really big problems just philosophically with these ideas. Really big problems. When you don't have God at the center, and in fact eliminate him, you have established there is no objective meaning whatsoever for life. So life is not ascribed meaning by any outside force. You are having to create that meaning for yourself. There are two really huge problems with that. Here's the first one: It's so subjective that everything is the same.

So, for instance, if one person here decides that their meaning in life is that they want to destroy lives because they are a homicidal maniac and that's their meaning in life - that then has to be philosophically based on this thinking, on par with the person who said their meaning in life is making sure that impoverished African villages have clean water so that people can live. Those are morally the same thing in this line of thinking because it is completely and totally subject to one's own definition of meaning. It's completely and totally subjective. That's a problem.

Say, well, you know, well society actually says - because you can't say that that's bad and that's good. You can't say that. Well society, though, says that this is bad and this is good so... Oh, so society is going to borrow from objective meaning then, because they have to reach into the objective meaning bag to even call it right or wrong. You can't have your cake and eat it too, there.

But there's a second huge problem with this idea, and that is that if you've established that your life actually has no objective meaning, how then can life with no objective meaning ascribe meaning to itself? Does meaninglessness have the power to create meaning where no meaning exists? Sorry to be logical, but that's just how it is.

So what do we do with all of that? Well, we remind ourselves that that is a futile and frustrating way to try and seek out meaning in life, and that the Scripture has had right all along. That when God is at the center, we then understand meaning in the life that we lead.

I'm going to illustrate that with David. David wrote a Psalm, Psalm sixteen and I can't tell you exactly when the Psalm was written. Scholars are a little bit all over the map. You could say it was possible that he wrote that just prior to becoming king - that's a possibility. I think the likelihood is that he wrote Psalm sixteen while he was king in a particular circumstance, probably when he was talking with Nathan but nonetheless, it was probably in that timeframe when he was king that he wrote this. And what David wrote when he was writing in Psalm sixteen, is he wrote basically understanding of meaning. That he understood everything in his life finds meaning because of his relationship to God. And that meaning in his life actually goes beyond - even though he was still a little murky in his full understanding of this - goes beyond even just the life that he leads. It goes beyond even his own living.

So I want us to take just a quick look at this, and then I'll summarize with a couple of things that we'll leave with that I think will be helpful for us. But I want you to begin looking at Psalm sixteen beginning in verse one. David writes, Keep me safe, my God, for in you I take refuge. I say to the Lord, "you are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing." I say of the holy people who are in the land, "they are the noble ones in whom is all my delight." Those who run after other gods will suffer more and more. I will not pour out libations of blood to such gods or take up their names on my lips. Lord, you alone are my portion and my cup; you make my lot secure. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; sure I have a delightful inheritance. I will praise the Lord, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me. I keep my eyes always on the Lord. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

See here's what David begins this Psalm, helping us to understand. He says apart from God I have no good thing. Now I want you to think about that for just a second because sometimes the way that people define meaning for themselves is based upon what they do or the relationships that they have. That's how they define meaning. David says, o.k. I have an occupation. King. Which means I've got access to a lot of stuff. Right? I've got riches. I've got wealth. I've got power. I've got everything. Here's what David says - I'm the king, man! And apart from God I have no good thing. So David is functionally saying that if I am the king apart from God, then it doesn't mean anything. Because my life is defined in the God who made me.

David even says how he rejoices in the relationships when he talks about the holy people who are in the land. He has a wonderful relationship with people but he says, apart from God I have no good thing. My relationships in and of themselves find their meaning because of my relationship to God. David said He himself is my portion. He is my cup. He is my inheritance. David says when God is at the center, then my life begins to find its meaning and everything that touches my life, whether it's occupation or relationship finds its meaning in this one great true thing: that God is my everything. This is what David is trying to help us understand and see.

But you know David actually sees even beyond his life having meaning in God. He realizes this - that his life in the now has meaning in God, but his life to come also does. It's debatable how much David understood about this, because the idea of life after death was not something that was really pronounced in ancient Israel in the time that he was writing. It was understood, but it wasn't talked about a whole lot.

But listen to what David writes beginning in verse number nine. He says, Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure (or rest in hope), because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, nor will you let your faithful one see decay.

David is saying here, whatever else happens to me in this life I know that my meaning comes from God, because apart from him I don't have any good thing. No matter what it is. Having a great occupation or great relationship, I really don't have a lot if I don't have him. But David says, you know what? I can even rest easy knowing that at the conclusion of my days, when my days are numbered and they're done, that I still have confidence that my life means something because the God who I've put my confidence in will not let me see decay, and he will help me when I go to the realm of the dead.

Now the beauty of this is that the Spirit of God was inspiring David to write. How much David understood about what he was writing about is debatable, but David was not only writing about his own heart and his own desires but he was writing about Jesus. David was absolutely writing in Psalm sixteen about the one to come, the Messiah. How do I know that? Well, I know that because when Jesus came and he died and he rose from the dead, and then ascended back to the Father, he promised his disciples that he would send his Spirit and that they would be empowered. It would remember all the things that he told them and he would guide them into all truths, right? And when he sent his Spirit at the time of Pentecost, when his faithful disciples, this small group of one hundred and something that were gathered in Jerusalem, when the Spirit of God descended upon him, and Peter began to preach to everyone who was listening about the gospel of the resurrected Jesus, Peter told all of those Israelites exactly what David had said.

Listen to what he said in Acts chapter two. He said, Fellow Israelites, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God's deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. David said about him: "I saw the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest in hope, because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, you will not let your holy one see decay. You have made known to me the paths of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence." Fellow Israelites, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried and his tomb is here to this day. But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him an oath that he would place on of his descendants on his throne. Seeing what was to come, he spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, that he was not abandoned to the realm of the dead, nor did his body see decay. God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it.

Why is this so hopeful? Why is it so hopeful for us that David is talking about this idea of meaning in life that is summed up in the nature of God, but is actually, by the leadership of the Spirit prophesying about what is going to happen to the Messiah who we know ultimately does rise from the dead. Why is that so important to meaning?

Well, Paul helps us flesh out what Peter said. Listen to what Paul said in 1 Corinthians fifteen: But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him.

See here's the great news - the great news is because of what God has done in Jesus, is that not only does our life have inherent meaning because of what God has done in Jesus in our lives now, but Jesus who the one who has risen from the dead is the firstfruits of resurrection. In other words, he is getting up from the grave, and the Scripture says that when he who is alive right now, who is living an indestructible life - returns, that he is going to get up all of those who have placed their faith in him, and they too will be risen from the dead.

Here's why that is so beautiful! It's so beautiful, ladies and gentlemen, because the reason that we have an enduring life is because we have enduring meaning. You could even flip that: we have enduring meaning because in Jesus we have enduring life. I think it works both ways. You see for us, when we get to the place of understanding that the life that we lead right now has inherent meaning because of God himself because we were ultimately made to demonstrate his glory, that because our life has lasting duration it has lasting meaning. Or, because our life has lasting meaning, it has lasting duration.

You see, if you want to write this down, this will be a great way to summarize. Life has meaning because we were made for God's glory. That's why life has meaning. Because we were made for God's glory. Now, it's one thing to say that theologically and theoretically and philosophically, because sometimes you hear that phrase and you're like, I don't know what you're talking about. I'm not sure what that means. O.k.

You know, as a pastor I have conversations plenty. There are times where I just want to stop hearing myself talk - a lot of times actually. So in many occasions in my life, I'm quiet because I have to talk so much in my life, right? And there's a point where if you breathe enough of your own exhaust you'll eventually die. I just get sick of listening to myself, right? But I have these conversations with people all the time - people who sometimes are wandering aimlessly in life and they're trying to land on this meaning of life thing, right? It might be in our community or wherever and it's just like, you're a pastor, can you help me with this? And this is what's going on, right?

Usually it's around three things. Here's the first one: I just wish I knew what path to choose. I wish I knew what road to take. Don't raise your hand, but have you ever been in that ball park? That's one. The second one is, I just wish I could find what really makes me happy. And the third one is if I found what road to take and I found what really makes me happy I wish I could just make it last because it never does. Do those sound familiar to anybody? I wish I could figure out what road to take. I wish I could find out what makes me happy. And I wish it would last.

What do you do with that in that kind of search? Well, you look no further than the last verse of the Psalm, because what David helps us to understand is three things that answer those three questions.

The first thing he shows us is this is that our life path can be known. It can be made known. Listen to what he says in the very first part of verse eleven: You make known to me the path of life. Right? So I'm just borrowing from the Scripture at this point. Your life path can be made known. You don't have to wander around aimlessly for your whole life. You can know. And do you know how you'll know? When you life is tied up in relationship to God.

You see, I got some really good advice when I first came to know Christ. I don't remember who it was. It was just a guy who I was talking to in the church that I was a part of in Atlanta. And he said to me Jerry, here's what you need to do. You're getting spaced out and tied up in a bunch of different things because I'm like, what am I supposed to do now? Where am I supposed to go? Should I just punch out at University of Georgia and just go to a Bible college right now and just...should I move to Africa right this second? What do I need to do? He's just like, hey, man. How about we try this? The Scripture says something that I think you need to know. I want you to look with me. And he shows me and he opens his Bible to Proverbs three, and he says here's what the Scripture says. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and don't lean on your own understanding but in all your ways acknowledge him and submit to him. And then he said now stop reading. And I went there's a little more left. And he said stop. I said o.k. He said build a wall right there. I'm like say what? He said build a wall right there, and I said what are you talking about? He said build a wall right there between your half of the verse and God's. What do you mean? He said your job is to stay on your side of the wall and do what it says. Trust God with everything that you are. Submit to him, acknowledge him, surrender to him in all your ways. Don't just lean on everything you can figure out but you abandon yourself to God. And here's what God said: I will make your paths straight. I'll do that. That will no longer be your job. Your job is to know me and I will see to it that you are where I want you. Why? Because you were made for my glory.

Now, some of us need to hear that today, because what we are in the business of is we are wall climbers. We want to scale over, trust God a little bit but get on the other side and try and direct our own paths. He said no, no, no! You trust me with all of your heart. Don't lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge me, surrender to me, submit to me. And I will make sure that I have you where I want you because your life is tied up in me and you were made for my glory and I care more about where you're going to be than you do about getting there so trust me. This is what God does for us.

So, instead of wandering around aimlessly, where do I go, what do I do? Know God in the person of His son Jesus by the power of his Spirit and God says I will get you where you're supposed to go for my glory. Your life path can be made known.

And guess what else? Joy can be found. Instead of saying, I just wish I could find happiness, well listen to what David tell us by inspiration of the Spirit in part b of the last verse. "You will fill me with joy in your presence."

This is so much better than just happiness which is circumstantial. By the way I'm a fan of happiness. I'd rather be happy than sad any day. I'd rather it be sunny than rainy any day. Happiness, however, is circumstantial. Joy is an enduring quality that comes only when we find ourselves in the presence of the God who made us because something inside of us, when we are connecting with the God who made us, there is a joy unspeakable and untouchable that is within us. And instead of wondering how do I just make myself happy, start asking the question of where do I find joy and you will find it in the presence of God. Why? Because you're made for his glory. That's why.

And thirdly: Pleasure is eternal. So instead of saying, you know what - even if I find some things that make me happy, I just want them to last. God says to us this morning, man, your life path can be found. Joy can be experienced. And your pleasure's going to be forever. Why? Because in this enduring life that I'm giving to you, there is enduring meaning, and because you are found in Jesus, and Jesus is at the right hand of the Father, your pleasures are eternal at his right hand.

Does that answer the question of meaning or what? Is this not what you are longing for when you walk around saying I wish I knew which road to take, I wish I could figure out what makes me happy and I wish that it would last. And God says to us your life path can be known, joy can be found, and your pleasure can be eternal. But how do you get it? When you understand that life has meaning because we were made for God's glory!

You see a life, ultimately, that is lived for God's glory will never be absent of meaning. That's why Pastor Daryl's life and its meaning is not done. I was frustrated that he only got to live forty-nine years. He's my friend. He's Carla's husband. He's Olivia and Abby's dad. But I also realize that forty-nine or eighty-nine is like this in the big scheme of God. And what I came to dwell on more was the fact that Daryl lived his life for the glory of God. And a life lived for the glory of God is never absent of meaning. And that his life will continue to have meaning because it's going to continue to have duration in the presence of Jesus and ultimately when Jesus comes at the resurrection. It has meaning and it will for you. A life lived for the glory of God will never be absent of meaning.

So stop your search because often times you're looking in all the wrong places. God is the source of meaning and then when he is the center, that's what changes your identity. So, if then, forever Jesus is going to be our path, if forever Jesus is going to be our life, if forever Jesus is going to be our joy, if forever Jesus is where we will find our pleasure, then why don't we start now? This is our destiny forever. This should be our reality now. You were made for God's glory. That's where you'll find meaning. Let's bow our heads together.

Before we walk out and dismissed, if you've never come to a place of actually beginning a relationship with God through his son Jesus, confessing that you have sinned and come short of the glory of God and can never save yourself and it's only what God has initiated on your behalf in the gift of his Son who lived sinlessly, died on a cross to pay for your sin, rose from the dead as a sufficient sacrifice on your behalf and who's coming again. I'm here to tell you that your life will find meaning in him. In him. And if you've never come to that place I want to invite you to, when we dismiss in just a moment, to come by the Fireside Room - clearly marked out in the Atrium. Some pastors and other prayer partners will be in there. We'd love to talk to you about what it means to begin a genuine relationship with God through his son Jesus Christ.

Father, for those of us who know you it can be very easy for us at times to get sidetracked in our search for meaning. Sometimes we look for meaning in human relationships as the ultimate. Sometimes we look for meaning in our accomplishments as the ultimate when you have made us to look to you to understand the meaning that we have in life and through you gives everything else we do, every relationship, every achievement or occupation, every activity is sustained with meaning because of you. So Father, I pray you would reorient our minds since forever we are destined, Lord Jesus, to know you as our life and to know you as our joy and to know you as our pleasure. Help us to live that way now because a world that is crying out to find meaning in so many different places needs to see people who find their meaning in the one true God and in his Son the Lord Jesus. Would you help us by the power of your Spirit to live our lives for the glory of God because a life lived for the glory of God will never be absent of meaning. We trust you to do this in Jesus' name. Amen.

I love you folks. God bless you.