What are these two questions all of us ask and answer?

The first question is this: "What is my life about?" We may ask that question in many forms. "What do I live for?" "What is the most important thing in life to me?" "What is the number one consideration or issue in my life?"

Most of us ask and answer that question by the time we are twenty years old. Once we answer that question, we are not likely to change the answer. Changing answers happens, but it does not happen easily. Our answer determines the way we live for a long, long time.

The second question is this: "How am I going to produce (or achieve) what I have decided life is about for me?" The "how" question is basically a simple question. "I have decided what my life is about. How am I going to get there? How am I going to make it happen?" While our "what's" do not change very often, our "hows" may change many times. If one "how" does not work, I need to find a "how" that will work.

If you examine most of us at age 30 and age 50, the "what" answer often has not changed. The "how" answer has probably change a lot.

Maybe your reaction is, "Big deal! That is the most boring observation I have heard in a long time!"

It is a big deal. In fact it is a very big deal. Two more observations.

Observation one: whatever the person you are married to is living for on your wedding day will likely be the same "what" he or she will be living for in 40 years. If you do not like the "what" he or she is living for when you are engaged, don't marry him or her.

Observation two: your answer to the "what" question will definitely determine the place God has in your life. One of the most critical spiritual problems among Christians is this: we say we believe in God, but our "what" answers oppose God.

1. Let me illustrate the fact that a person can say he or she believes in God, but he or she actually opposes God because his or her answer to "what is my life about" opposes God.
   1. Consider:
      1. If my answer to "what is my life about" is money, then my money will always be more important than God.
         1. The best God can ever hope for in my life is second place.
         2. Any time I have to make a decision between money and God, God loses.
      2. If my answer to "what is my life about" is sex, then sex will always be more important than God.
         1. The best God can ever hope for in my life is second place.
         2. Any time I have to make a decision between sex and God, God loses.
      3. If my answer to "what is my life about" is having fun (whatever I consider having fun to be), then having fun will always be more important than God.
         1. The best God can every hope for in my life is second place.
         2. Any time I have to make a decision between having fun and God, God loses.
      4. I could illustrate the point in a lot of ways: success of whatever type, acceptance of whatever type, achievement of whatever type, social prominence in whatever segment of society that is important to me, etc.
   2. The point is simple: my answer to the question, "What is my life about?" determines the way I look at God and the place I allow God to occupy in my life.
      1. The determining factor in how I live my life is my answer to the question, "What is my life about?"
      2. My answer to that question determines the position I allow God to assume in my life.

2. Perhaps your quiet, inner voice says, "David, I do not like the direction you are going with this. If you are going to make the point that God should be number one in my life, your are going to turn me off and freak me out."
   1. "If you are going where I think you are going, I don't want to hear this."
      1. "After all, what do you expect from me?"
      2. "I am here, and there certainly are many other places I could be doing many other things much more enjoyable."
      3. "I follow most of the rules when it is really important."
      4. "I give; isn't the big thing you want my money?"
      5. "I don't stand in my family's way of being as religious as they want to be."
   2. "What does God want anyway?"
      1. That is an excellent question!
      2. What does God want?
      3. In different ages was it different things, or has it always been the same thing?
      4. This morning I want to suggest that before you decide what you want in life, you need to understand what God wants.

3. Genesis 3 tells us there was a time when God had open, free, direct communication with people.
   1. Before evil entered human life, this world was very different.
      1. God had daily conversations with people--they were made in His image and likeness, and God enjoyed talking to them.
      2. At that time there was no shame; there was nothing to be ashamed of.
      3. At that time there was no fear; there was nothing to be afraid of.
      4. At that time there was no need to hide from God; God was not associated with danger.
   2. What does God want?
      1. He wants what He enjoyed when there was no evil in human life.
      2. Basically what God wants has never changed.
      3. He wants what He had and wanted in the beginning.

4. Let scripture declare what God wants.
   1. Think with me for a moment about Exodus 19.
      1. The situation:
         1. God already had rescued Israel from Egyptian slavery.
         2. God already had separated Israel from Egyptian control by bringing them across the Red Sea.
         3. God already had brought this huge mass of people to the foot of Mount Sinai.
         4. God was now ready to speak the ten commandments to them.
      2. This was to be a special moment in Israel's relationship with God, and God wanted them to understand what a unique, special occasion and opportunity this was.
         1. God asked Moses to give a special message to Israel before He voiced the ten commandments to them.
         2. Listen to God's special message to Israel recorded in Exodus 19:4-6:
            You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings, and brought you to Myself. Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel."
      3. What did God want? God wanted a people who belonged to Him by choice, who were uniquely His because they wanted to be uniquely His.
      4. He wanted a people who belonged to Him as people belonged to Him before there was evil in human life.
   2. Think with me for a moment from Deuteronomy 7:6-8:
      1. The situation:
         1. It is now almost a generation later from Exodus 19.
         2. Moses is an old man.
         3. Only three adults who left Egypt are now alive, and soon there will only be two.
         4. The old man Moses does not want the second generation of Israelites to make the same basic mistake their parents made.
      2. Soon they will enjoy the fulfillment of God's promise--soon they will enter the land God promised them and become a settled nation.
      3. Listen as Moses gave them this message:
         Deuteronomy 7:6-8 For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but because the Lord loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers, the Lord brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
      4. What does God want?
         1. The same thing He wanted when He spoke to their parents at Mount Sinai.
         2. He wants a people who belong uniquely to Him by choice; they are His because they want to be His.
         3. He wants a people who by choice belong to him just like people did before evil existed in human life.
   3. Think with me a moment from Titus 2:11-14.
      1. The situation:
         1. The moment of Jesus' crucifixion is long past.
         2. The moment of Jesus' resurrection as the Christ is long past.
         3. The good news of what God did in Jesus' death and resurrection was declared to the nations, among both the Jews and those who were not Jews.
      2. Now all people can be God's sons and daughters; all can be forgiven; all can be saved.
      3. And what does God want? The same thing God always wanted.
      4. Listen as Paul writes Titus:
         Titus 2:11-14 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.
      5. He wants a people who belong uniquely to Him by choice because they want to be His.
      6. He wants a people who are uniquely His just as were people before evil existed in human life.

"David, you are always asking us questions. Let me ask you a question. What do you want?" That is a good question. I have been a preacher for 49 years. For 41 of those years I have served God's people full time. In all that time what I wanted has not changed much. First, I want to be one of those people who belong uniquely to God. Second, I want you to be one of those people who, by choice, belong uniquely and exclusively to God. I cannot explain to you how important that is to me.

I have learned two things. First, I have learned that if I am to be one of those people, I must be committed to that purpose every day. Second, I have learned that each of you will be one of those people only if you choose to be.

So I guess the question is this: who do you want to be? What is your life really about?