alpha@wefc

Christianity And The Meaning of Life Sun, 13 Sep, 2009

Let’s talk about something we all know is important in life… our handphones! If you come to work and realize you have left your handphone at home, how many of you will go back and get it either immediately or at lunch time?

I was flying on an airplane recently on the way back to Singapore and noticed that many people were making strange actions with their handphones. You know when someone is doing this [gesticulates to illustrate] … that they’re playing games on their iPhone!

For me, I’m a die-hard Windows Mobile fan. So I love my HTC Touch Diamond. However it’s now 1 year old, I have upgraded many software inside of it and I’m wondering when I hit the 21 month upgrade period what phone should I get then!? Touch HD? Diamond2? Or the Omnia II!

Many of us are like this? We look forward to that next new handbag, or that upgraded computer. Now that’s fine to a point – but when this search for this new thing is actually our search for greater satisfaction, or more fulfilment in life then we’re heading for inevitable disappointment. Because you and I know that it’s only a matter of time before we get bored and we need either a new model or a new hobby altogether!

MEANING OF LIFE

Tonight we’re going to talk about the meaning of life and how there must be more life than simply trying to make ourselves happy. There must be more to life than simply having fun with our hobbies or past-times. There must be more than climbing the corporate ladder. There must be more to life than simply trying to enjoy life.

1. Meaningful Direction

So let me ask you a question about direction. Where are you headed in life? Not right now, this moment, or this week. Not even just this year or the next 5 years. But your whole life – where are you headed? What is the ultimate goal of your life and what do you want your life to really count for?

You see, if we don’t think carefully about the meaning of our lives, we will spend our time and effort simply making life a little bit more comfortable for ourselves and our family. Then when we’ve reached a certain level of comfort and there’s still a nagging lack of satisfaction deep in our hearts, we think, is there more to life than this…?

Leo Tolstoy asked this question that changed the direction of his life for the better: “What meaning does my life have that the inevitability of death does not destroy?” In other words, since everyone dies in the end, what direction or goal am I go to have that my life will have meaning even after I die?

I am here to share with you that what I have personally experienced tells me that Jesus provides the answer to this all important question of the direction of our lives.

Jesus says, “I am the way…” He can give us the direction we need. He can provide for us the deeper spiritual truth that makes our every day life much more meaningful. All of us have this built in need to search for meaning and significance in our lives. It can be temporarily filled and forgotten when we get a new pay rise, a new relationship, or a new technological gadget but these things can never give us true direction and purpose in our lives.

But you may be wondering, how can I know that I can even trust what Jesus says to be true and real?

2. Ultimate Truth and Reality

After all in the physical world you can test what is true via science and repeatable experiments but for spiritual things how can we know that anything is the truth?

Let’s have a bit of fun while I show you something…

[shows Optical Illusion 1: Moving bars]

[shows Optical Illusion 2: Wavy lines]

[shows Optical Illusion 3: Shelves]

Even when it comes to the supposedly simple thing of what we see, our eyes and brains can get things a little wrong. What appears to be true, may not actually be the real truth.

Isn’t this even more so when it comes to spiritual truth which is not as cut and dry as the physical truth of what we see with our eyes. You may have come here thinking that what Christianity teaches simply isn’t true.

I cannot scientifically prove to you tonight in what short talk that what Jesus says is the truth, but I want to tell you that it deserves to be explored. Even if right now you think it’s can’t be true … those bars are definitely moving left to right… it is important enough to be explored.

[Shows short video excerpt]

There is something similar about discovering the truth about the Matrix and the truth about Jesus.

“No one can be told what The Matrix is, you have to see it for yourself.”

I can tell you about Jesus, but you know it’s true when you explore and see it for yourself.

Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth…”

You can know the ultimate truth about life when you explore and experience it through Jesus.

The truth about life is this: God designed us for a truly fulfilling life

3. Fulfilment in Life

.. that is rich in meaning and purpose through a relationship with God. It is this relationship with God that gives us our fulfilling life.

You may say, “I’m perfectly happy with my life right now so why would I want this relationship with God?” Well I’m glad you’re happy, but let me put it to you this way….

Imagine you went to your uncle’s house to watch a movie and he had a big 42” TV and a new DVD player and recorder.

“Wow, that’s nice” you say, “Is it new?”

“Yes, I won it in a lucky draw. They delivered it and installed it!”

So you sit down to watch and your uncle walks to an old VHS cassette player, inserts a VHS tape and starts the movie!

“Errr, Uncle don’t you use the DVD?”

“No, I’m perfectly happy with my tape player.”

“But have you tried the DVD uncle? They’re much better”

“What for I try? I’m happy with the tape player!”

“But you already have such a nice TV and DVD player, uncle. You’ll enjoy your movies so much more and it doesn’t even cost you anything cos you won this all in a lucky draw!”

“Too busy to try new things! Besides, I’m perfectly happy with this tape player!”

You don’t want to be pushy or rude so you sit down to watch the grainy movie with bad sound quality cos of the old tape. At the end of the movie you say, “Thanks uncle… how about next week I come back and I’ll bring the movie for you okay?” Secretly you plan to bring a DVD he will enjoy and show him how much he is missing out on!

The point is, you can be happy now but God has already made available something even better. He wants you to know that this truly meaningful and fulfilling life is waiting for you.

Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life…”

In other words, he is the way, he is the answer to ultimate truth and what really matters, and he is our pathway to a truly meaningful and fulfilling life.

So if you’re happy with your life right now that’s great, but I still invite you to find out more about a relationship with God through Jesus that will truly satisfy you.

[shows Invitation to Alpha slide]

I’m so glad to see you here tonight, but I invite you back 2 Saturdays from now for this Alpha Course. Each time we meet we’ll have a talk exploring one aspect of Christianity and the meaning of life. If Jesus’ message has even the slightest chance of being the truth, then it’s certainly worth your finding out whether it is real or not. You’ll get to ask any question you like and you’ll get to share any opinion you have. We like to say in Alpha, that no question is too simple nor too hostile.

Conclusion

Some of you have listened tonight and you think, “Interesting… but not fully convinced.” I hope you’re willing to investigate further. I hope you felt comfortable enough with us tonight in the dinner and during this message, that you would explore this further with us in a fun and friendly setting like we had tonight. This is what the Alpha Course is about. I invite you to take the RED PILL – join us in the exploration of the Christian faith and find out whether or not Jesus really is the way, the truth, and the life.

Now maybe there’s just one person her tonight and you’ve listened to me and you feel that having a relationship with God through Jesus is spot on. You’re ready to experience this truth and you want this relationship with him to be real, and you want to be sure of that. You can have that tonight, and it’s done by telling Jesus that we believe in Him. We can do this silently in our heart as we talk to Jesus in a prayer. We believe he came to this earth and died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins so that we can be forgiven of the wrong that we have done. We believe he rose from the dead and invites us to have a relationship with him. When we make this prayer we are inviting Jesus into our life and we will begin experiencing him as the way the truth and the life.

Perhaps there is just one person who would like to do this, so let me ask all of you to be kind enough to close your eyes and bow your heads so that this person can receive Jesus in a comfortable way for him or her tonight.

I’m going to guide you in this prayer to receive Jesus. If you want to
receive him then just agree with this silently in your heart.

- Ps Ivan Liew