What is the meaning of life? What is the reason to live? Why are you here? What are you living for? In what ways does your life make a difference? How do you lead a meaningful life? Listen to this message to discover not only what happiness experts says, but, more importantly, what Jesus’ purpose statements were and how that can affect your purpose today.
Rick Warren’s Three Levels of Living
survival
success
significance
Martin Seligman’s Three Levels of Happiness
pleasant life
good life
meaningful ilfe
Both put purpose at the pinnacle of human experience.
Jesus’ Purpose Statements
to preach the kingdom of God everywhere (Luke 4.43; Mark 1.38)
to seek and save the lost (Luke 19.10; 1 Timothy 1.15; also Luke 4 in Nazareth)
to call sinners to repentance (Mark 2.17; Acts 3.26)
to give his life a ransom for many (Matthew 20.28; 1 John 4.10)
to provide others with an abundant life (John 10.10)
Thanks for listening. I got my information from Eusebius’ church history book 7 chapter 22. Here is a quotation:
6. “But after both we and they had enjoyed a very brief season of rest this pestilence assailed us; to them more dreadful than any dread, and more intolerable than any other calamity; and, as one of their own writers has said, the only thing which prevails over all hope.
But to us this was not so, but no less than the other things was it an exercise and probation. For it did not keep aloof even from us, but the heathen it assailed more severely.”
7. Farther on he adds:
“The most of our brethren were unsparing in their exceeding love and brotherly kindness. They held fast to each other and visited the sick fearlessly, and ministered to them continually, serving them in Christ. And they died with them most joyfully, taking the affliction of others, and drawing the sickness from their neighbors to themselves and willingly receiving their pains. And many who cared for the sick and gave strength to others died themselves having transferred to themselves their death. And the popular saying which always seems a mere expression of courtesy, they then made real in action, taking their departure as the others’ ‘offscouring.’
8. “Truly the best of our brethren departed from life in this manner, including some presbyters and deacons and those of the people who had the highest reputation; so that this form of death, through the great piety and strong faith it exhibited, seemed to lack nothing of martyrdom.
9. And they took the bodies of the saints in their open hands and in their bosoms, and closed their eyes and their mouths; and they bore them away on their shoulders and laid them out; and they clung to them and embraced them; and they prepared them suitably with washings and garments. And after a little they received like treatment themselves, for the survivors were continually following those who had gone before them.
10. “But with the heathen everything was quite otherwise. They deserted those who began to be sick, and fled from their dearest friends. And they cast them out into the streets when they were half dead, and left the dead like refuse, unburied. They shunned any participation or fellowship with death; which yet, with all their precautions, it was not easy for them to escape.”
thank you very much for that. A few minutes after I posted this, I thought it most probably must be Eusebius’ Church History. I’m sorry, I probably could have saved you the trouble of posting the quote. (I hope you were able to copy and paste rather than type out.) But first I wanted to check.
I’ve got a nice edition of this book, but I thought it was packed away in a box, so I looked at an online edition, and couldn’t find the plague in the contents. Then I found my book staring at me on my shelf, with the chapter in book 7 entitled “the Pestilence.”
Anyway, I’m sure you’re extended quotation will be very useful for other readers, who do not have the good fortune to have a copy of Eusebius’ Church History, where it is easy to find the chapter on the terrible plague of 250.
Sean,
What a wonderful sharing! It was a joyful reminder of “back to basics” realities, focusing on our purpose in light of the approaching hope. It was a meaningful oasis this Thanksgiving morning before the prospect of another occasion in which to lovingly honor YHWH and His son. Thanks!
Great teaching, as always. Thank you. Fascinating example of the Plague of 250. What was/were your sources for this?
Hey David,
Thanks for listening. I got my information from Eusebius’ church history book 7 chapter 22. Here is a quotation:
Hi Sean,
thank you very much for that. A few minutes after I posted this, I thought it most probably must be Eusebius’ Church History. I’m sorry, I probably could have saved you the trouble of posting the quote. (I hope you were able to copy and paste rather than type out.) But first I wanted to check.
I’ve got a nice edition of this book, but I thought it was packed away in a box, so I looked at an online edition, and couldn’t find the plague in the contents. Then I found my book staring at me on my shelf, with the chapter in book 7 entitled “the Pestilence.”
Anyway, I’m sure you’re extended quotation will be very useful for other readers, who do not have the good fortune to have a copy of Eusebius’ Church History, where it is easy to find the chapter on the terrible plague of 250.
Sean,
What a wonderful sharing! It was a joyful reminder of “back to basics” realities, focusing on our purpose in light of the approaching hope. It was a meaningful oasis this Thanksgiving morning before the prospect of another occasion in which to lovingly honor YHWH and His son. Thanks!