Looking for Purpose

Why does enough never feel like enough?

There is a hunger in people that no amount of achievement or possession quiets. The writer of Ecclesiastes says God set eternity in the human heart, so the ache is not a defect. It is a signal pointing somewhere.

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in their hearts, yet so that man can’t find out the work that God has done from the beginning even to the end.

Ecclesiastes 3:11

As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants after you, God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?

Psalms 42:1–2

He made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the surface of the earth, having determined appointed seasons and the boundaries of their dwellings, that they should seek the Lord, if perhaps they might reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.

Acts 17:26–27

Am I trying to earn God's favor with my religious effort?

The worshippers in Athens brought sacrifices to a goddess who needed a house and clothing, and Paul told them the real God needs nothing from our hands. When faith becomes a transaction, it leaves people tired and afraid, never sure they have done enough. Jesus offers rest instead.

The God who made the world and all things in it, he, being Lord of heaven and earth, doesn’t dwell in temples made with hands. He isn’t served by men’s hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he himself gives to all life and breath and all things.

Acts 17:24–25

“Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Matthew 11:28–30

Now to him who works, the reward is not counted as grace, but as something owed. But to him who doesn’t work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness.

Romans 4:4–5

For we have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteousness is like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.

Isaiah 64:6

Where did I learn to carry a god instead of being carried by one?

Athena was supposed to protect Athens, but the city stripped her gold to pay soldiers and her statue stands headless in a museum today. The things people trust instead of God end up needing to be carried, and they cost everything. Paul told the Athenians their idols could not save them.

Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands. They have mouths, but they don’t speak. They have eyes, but they don’t see. They have ears, but they don’t hear. They have noses, but they don’t smell. They have hands, but they don’t feel. They have feet, but they don’t walk, neither do they speak through their throat. Those who make them will be like them; yes, everyone who trusts in them.

Psalms 115:4–8

Some pour out gold from the bag, and weigh silver in the balance. They hire a goldsmith, and he makes it a god. They fall down— yes, they worship. They bear it on their shoulder. They carry it, and set it in its place, and it stands there. It cannot move from its place. Yes, one may cry to it, yet it can not answer. It cannot save him out of his trouble.

Isaiah 46:6–7

Has a nation changed its gods, which really are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which doesn’t profit. “Be astonished, you heavens, at this and be horribly afraid. Be very desolate,” says Yahweh. “For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the spring of living waters, and cut out cisterns for themselves: broken cisterns that can’t hold water.

Jeremiah 2:11–13

Being then the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold, or silver, or stone, engraved by art and design of man.

Acts 17:29

What is God actually asking me to turn away from?

Paul told the judges in Athens that God had overlooked ignorance but now commands everyone everywhere to repent, and he gave a reason: a day is fixed and a judge is appointed. Repentance is not a vague feeling but a letting go of the counterfeits people hold onto. The sermon names money, relationships, and impurity as examples.

The times of ignorance therefore God overlooked. But now he commands that all people everywhere should repent, because he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained; of which he has given assurance to all men, in that he has raised him from the dead.”

Acts 17:30–31

Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.

1 Corinthians 10:14

“Yet even now,” says Yahweh, “turn to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning.” Tear your heart and not your garments, and turn to Yahweh, your God; for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and relents from sending calamity.

Joel 2:12–13

Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a right spirit within me. Don’t throw me from your presence, and don’t take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation. Uphold me with a willing spirit.

Psalms 51:10–12

Is Jesus really close when I feel like I am groping in the dark?

Paul said the Athenians were feeling their way toward God like someone reaching for a wall in the dark, and then he said God was not far from any of them. That is the whole point of the sermon: the unknown God has a name and a face. Jesus was raised from the dead as proof.

…that they should seek the Lord, if perhaps they might reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. ‘For in him we live, move, and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also his offspring.’

Acts 17:27–28

You shall seek me and find me, when you search for me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” says Yahweh, “and I will turn again your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places where I have driven you,” says Yahweh. “I will bring you again to the place from where I caused you to be carried away captive.”

Jeremiah 29:13–14

“He arose and came to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was moved with compassion, and ran, fell on his neck, and kissed him. The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ “But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let’s eat and celebrate; for this, my son, was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found.’ Then they began to celebrate.

Luke 15:20–24

…because he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained; of which he has given assurance to all men, in that he has raised him from the dead.”

Acts 17:31