What’s the Point of My Life?
00:00:00.000 | Why do you exist?
00:00:06.200 | Why do I exist?
00:00:08.520 | That's the question we kick the week off with, and it comes from a regular
00:00:13.100 | listener to the podcast named Tyler, a young Christian, and Pastor
00:00:16.840 | John joins us over the phone.
00:00:18.560 | Pastor John, hello, and thank you for taking my question.
00:00:20.640 | I found that I flourish in almost anything when I understand the big picture.
00:00:24.360 | When this is true, I understand the why behind everything I'm
00:00:28.600 | doing and where I'm going.
00:00:30.200 | Unfortunately, as I'm now laying the foundations for the rest of my life as a
00:00:34.160 | Christian, all too often I find myself asking why and not getting an answer.
00:00:38.760 | It seems that every sermon at church and every lesson from fellow believers is
00:00:43.400 | quote unquote, in the weeds of immediate life application, and doesn't relate
00:00:47.940 | back to the larger storyline of God's purposes and creation and recreation.
00:00:51.960 | So what is the overarching concept for my life, my reason for existence
00:00:56.800 | and relationship with God?
00:00:58.340 | I know if I better understand this, I could dive into the details and perform
00:01:02.960 | them more effectively and more joyfully within this larger context.
00:01:07.120 | Pastor John, what would you say to Tyler?
00:01:08.540 | Yes, yes, yes.
00:01:11.600 | That's exactly the way I think about it.
00:01:15.540 | Tyler and I are wired very similarly, it seems.
00:01:20.400 | Actually, I think all human beings are wired this way, only some feel it
00:01:28.500 | more consciously than others.
00:01:31.340 | I think we're all made to find our significance by being
00:01:35.020 | attached to the ultimate.
00:01:37.660 | So all human beings are created to attach their tiny little lives to
00:01:45.140 | something absolutely majestic and glorious so that their life takes on a
00:01:51.200 | sense of wonder and eternal significance, not because of who or what we are in
00:01:56.320 | ourselves, but because of how we're attached to and participate in the life
00:02:01.360 | and purposes of the creator of the universe.
00:02:03.920 | So yes, yes, yes.
00:02:05.040 | Amen.
00:02:05.840 | Tyler.
00:02:06.880 | Oh, how I remember the tumultuous and wonderful days between 1968 and
00:02:14.720 | 1971 when my world was being rebuilt, destroyed and rebuilt by an
00:02:23.520 | understanding of the overarching sovereign purposes of God to be
00:02:29.640 | glorified in this world.
00:02:31.840 | It was a kind of Copernican revolution to read Jonathan Edwards, the end for
00:02:38.640 | which God created the world, or to read Daniel Fuller's distillation of that
00:02:43.800 | book in his unpublished class syllabus called the unity of the Bible with the
00:02:48.560 | glory of God at its center, or to read his essay in a collection called things
00:02:54.760 | most surely believed by the faculty of Fuller Seminary, in which he gave an
00:03:00.080 | exposition of Isaiah 43, six and seven.
00:03:03.840 | Bring my sons from afar, my daughters from the ends of the earth, everyone who
00:03:10.160 | is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.
00:03:19.000 | I remember reading that chapter and feeling, Oh God, this is awesome.
00:03:24.560 | Now, what was new about this for me was not that I was to live for the glory of
00:03:33.200 | God, I mean, my mother and my father continually quoted for me, first
00:03:40.040 | Corinthians 10 31, Johnny, whatever you do with the eater, drink, do all to the
00:03:45.120 | glory of God.
00:03:45.760 | I knew that was my duty, but what I had not seen was that this was God's design
00:03:55.360 | for himself, not just my duty toward him.
00:03:59.920 | God's purpose in creating the universe was that he would glorify himself in all
00:04:08.800 | that he does in creation and providence and redemption, all that he ever did.
00:04:14.760 | He does for his own glory.
00:04:17.760 | He obeys first Corinthians 10 31 as the reason for his very existence, because
00:04:25.560 | he's built into his nature as the sovereign God.
00:04:29.600 | This was the great ultimate purpose of all things.
00:04:32.720 | It wasn't just my duty.
00:04:34.240 | It was the grand design of the universe.
00:04:38.200 | I remember kneeling with Noel and our beat up old used couch in our brand new
00:04:46.080 | home is newlyweds in Pasadena.
00:04:48.400 | As I was learning these things, I remember kneeling in prayer with her and
00:04:52.720 | turning to her and saying, isn't is amazing how our prayers have changed as
00:05:00.760 | we are discovering what we're saying when we say, hallowed be your name.
00:05:08.040 | I just think I, I, I mouthed that prayer without realizing I am calling upon the
00:05:17.000 | living God to fulfill his ultimate purpose for the universe in bringing all
00:05:23.840 | things to reverence and treasure and glorify and value his name above all
00:05:32.320 | things.
00:05:33.200 | And that's what happens when, when your universe is being turned upside down.
00:05:38.200 | One of the first evidences is in your prayer life and how everything now is
00:05:43.800 | revolving around the prayer.
00:05:46.000 | Do your great purpose, glorify your great name, hallow yourself, do your will,
00:05:51.320 | bring your kingdom.
00:05:52.240 | You're the center, make it happen instead of just me, me, me, me, me.
00:05:57.000 | And I recall how my own sense of calling to the ministry of the word took on a
00:06:05.720 | clear purpose in the light of Philippians one 20.
00:06:08.720 | Um, it is my eager expectation, Paul said, and my hope that I will not at all be
00:06:15.040 | ashamed, but that with full courage now is always Christ will be magnified in my
00:06:24.960 | body, whether by life or by death.
00:06:29.240 | Oh, so I, I wasn't just arbitrarily pulling out of the Bible a purpose for my
00:06:36.680 | life.
00:06:37.240 | I was being swept up into the grand purpose of the universe, which, which Paul
00:06:43.360 | himself was part of.
00:06:45.000 | He, he had drawn it down from God's great glorious purpose for creation and
00:06:49.920 | redemption.
00:06:50.440 | He'd made it part of his life and said, whether I live or whether I die, I have
00:06:55.120 | one passion, magnify Jesus.
00:06:58.960 | In other words, live to make Christ look magnificent.
00:07:06.840 | Almost everything I've done in the last 50 years has been a working out of what
00:07:14.720 | it means that God created the universe for his glory.
00:07:20.960 | And the greatness of being human is to join him in that eternal purpose.
00:07:29.480 | This is where Christian hedonism came from.
00:07:32.520 | This is where the sovereignty of God finds its root and meaning.
00:07:36.600 | This is where the meaning of worship is rooted.
00:07:39.520 | The ministry of the word is rooted.
00:07:41.680 | Global missions is rooted.
00:07:43.480 | Acts of justice are rooted.
00:07:45.200 | Sacrifices of marriage are rooted.
00:07:47.920 | Routines of daily work get their meaning here.
00:07:51.160 | Everything else find their ground and their significance in God's purpose to
00:07:59.200 | create and do all acts of providence and all acts of redemption for his glory.
00:08:07.040 | So I want to say to Tyler, yes, yes, yes.
00:08:10.080 | You will be able to dive into the painful and happy particulars of your life if you
00:08:16.520 | keep in view this great overarching purpose.
00:08:21.120 | And that purpose is to live in such a way as to make the surpassing worth of God in
00:08:31.960 | Christ look like what it really is.
00:08:35.000 | To live in such a way as to make the infinite value of Jesus more plain than if
00:08:42.960 | you had not lived.
00:08:44.600 | This doesn't answer all the detailed questions of ethics in our lives.
00:08:51.600 | But it does give direction for how to pray and how to meditate and how to pursue
00:08:58.080 | God's wisdom in the in the world, in our daily life.
00:09:02.360 | So, Tyler, let me just give you those three passages again, because they made all the
00:09:09.200 | difference in my life.
00:09:10.200 | Isaiah 43, 7, that God created you for his glory, created everything for his glory.
00:09:15.680 | This is the great overarching purpose for you and everything else.
00:09:20.040 | Philippians 1, 20, where Paul says whether he lives or dies, he does everything for the
00:09:25.960 | goal of magnifying Jesus Christ, showing his supreme value over everything.
00:09:32.360 | And then finally, Father, hallowed be your name.
00:09:36.800 | Crying out to God every day.
00:09:39.400 | I'm doing this at 71 years old.
00:09:42.480 | I'm crying out to God every day.
00:09:44.240 | Oh, please let the last decade or whatever of my life be a greater, greater than ever
00:09:52.640 | magnifying of your supreme value.
00:09:57.720 | This is the great unifying vision of human life.
00:10:01.280 | And may the Lord make it clear to you and free you from any sense of wasting your life.
00:10:07.960 | Glorious.
00:10:08.960 | This is what we're all about.
00:10:10.520 | This is the point of your life, Tyler.
00:10:13.360 | Your joy, our joy, the glory of God, and the purpose of this little podcast all wrapped
00:10:18.160 | together into one end in this universe that God is most glorified in us when we are most
00:10:23.440 | satisfied in him.
00:10:24.280 | Oh, beautiful.
00:10:25.840 | This is the unwasted life.
00:10:29.000 | There's so much to chew on in this episode, but if you want even more to chew on, visit our
00:10:33.040 | online home at desiringgod.org/asbestorjohn.
00:10:36.120 | And there you can explore all 1,250 or so of our episodes.
00:10:40.200 | You can scan a list of our most popular ones, read full transcripts.
00:10:43.400 | Even send us a question of your own.
00:10:44.720 | And of course, if you want these episodes delivered to you three times per week,
00:10:48.720 | subscribe to the Ask Pastor John podcast in your favorite podcast app.
00:10:52.560 | While joy in God is at the center of the purpose of our lives.
00:10:58.120 | So what are the three most common threats to the joy of this current generation of
00:11:03.240 | believers?
00:11:04.000 | Where is our joy made susceptible?
00:11:07.520 | It's a question on Wednesday.
00:11:09.600 | Wow.
00:11:10.000 | Another great question coming from you, the audience.
00:11:12.160 | Keep them coming.
00:11:12.760 | Thanks for sending those in.
00:11:13.800 | We love the questions that you send in.
00:11:16.120 | Your engagement is critical to what we do.
00:11:18.200 | I'm so grateful.
00:11:19.640 | And I'm your host, Tony Reinke.
00:11:20.880 | We'll see you next time.
00:11:21.760 | Bye.
00:11:22.240 | [inaudible].
00:11:28.240 | [BLANK_AUDIO]