Making Sense of the Purpose of Life
Make It Make Sense Series | Part 4
Tom Brady. Three Super Bowls. Millions of dollars. Married to a supermodel at the peak of his career.
In an interview after his third championship, he sat down and said: "I think to myself, there's got to be more to life than this."
What is it about a man who could have it all and still say "I don't have it all"?
Solomon could have told him.
The wisest man who ever lived. The wealthiest king in history. Hundreds of wives. Every pleasure imaginable at his disposal. And when he looked back on a lifetime of accumulation, the first words of Ecclesiastes weren't satisfaction and gratitude. They were:
"Absolute futility. Everything is futile."
Why? Because we were made for something this world can never give us.
The Pursuit That Always Disappoints
Solomon didn't half-heartedly pursue happiness. He went all in.
In Ecclesiastes 2, he tells us he tested pleasure. He ate and drank and consumed. He built houses, planted vineyards, made gardens and parks, constructed reservoirs. He accumulated silver and gold, singers and concubines, herds and flocks. He became greater than all who were before him in Jerusalem.
And after all of it? Futility. Chasing after the wind.
Most of the things Solomon pursued weren't evil in themselves. Money isn't evil. Houses aren't evil. Achievement isn't evil. The problem was what he did with them, he took GOD off the throne of his heart and put those good gifts in His place.
We do the same thing. We fill our lives with entertainment, social media, achievement, relationships, status… not because those things are wrong, but because we're asking them to do something they were never designed to do. We worship the gift and not the Giver.
But GOD is not just the Giver. He IS the ultimate gift himself.
CS Lewis said it best: "If I find a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most likely explanation is that I was made for another world."
The Well We Keep Going Back To
There's a woman in John 4 drawing water from a well in the middle of the day, alone, because she doesn't want to be seen by anyone else. She's had five husbands. A lifetime of going back to the same sources looking for something that would finally satisfy.
Every day the same cycle. Grab the bucket. Throw it in. Crank it out. Take a drink. And the next day, do it all again. Because the water never lasts.
Jesus met her there. Not to condemn her. Not to shame her. But to ask her one question:
"Are you tired of coming back to the same well?"
He wasn't talking about the well in the ground. He was talking about the well in her heart, the exhausting, relentless cycle of going back to the same sources, the same relationships, the same habits, the same distractions; hoping this time it would be different.
"The water that I give will become in you a spring of water welling up to eternal life." — John 4:14
He's asking us the same question today.
The Purpose We Were Made For
Ecclesiastes 12 | Philippians 2 | Revelation 21
At the very end of Ecclesiastes, after all the chasing and accumulating and pursuing, Solomon lands on the only conclusion that makes sense:
"Fear GOD and keep His commandments, for this is for all of humanity."
This is our purpose. This is what we were made for. Not pleasure. Not achievement. Not fame or wealth or influence. To fear GOD and keep His commandments.
But here's the honest problem: none of us can do that perfectly. Before Anthony Pena even got home from church Sunday with his three kids in the car, he knew he would be impatient. He would fall short of the standard. We all do.
That's where the gospel steps in.
Jesus is the greater Solomon. The wiser teacher, the glorious temple, the infinitely greater king. And He did what none of us could, He perfectly kept every commandment. He fulfilled the purpose of human life. And then He died for those of us who couldn't, transferring His perfect righteousness to us.
And the promise waiting on the other side? Revelation 21:
"He will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more. Grief, crying, and pain will be no more."
Anthony Pena told a story about his baby daughter waking up crying in the night. He runs to her. She stops the moment she sees him. Because she's with her daddy. And sometimes he gets to cradle her and wipe the tears from her eyes, one of the most intimate moments a father can have with his child.
That's the picture of what GOD promises us.
The GOD of the universe, the one we can't even look at the sun for from 93 million miles away, says: "As enormous as I am, I'm going to hold you like the child that you are. And when I tell you it's okay, I mean it."
The purpose of life is Jesus Christ.