This is part 1 in the 6 Questions Every 18 Year Old Must Answer series
Katy Perry is one of the most famous people on the planet. In fact, she is the most popular person on the internet with 144 million followers collectively on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram!
With legions of online fans, she has the world at her fingertips. When she sings, stadiums listen. What she wears, defines fashion. When she performs, Sasha and Malia Obama join in. When she campaigns for a cause, people donate. When she uploads, people download (she has the most digital sales of all time).
Fan or not, you can’t deny her influence.
But fans, fame and fortune don’t keep you immune from troubles. Katy Perry hit rock bottom when her husband, Russell Brand, broke up with her on New Years Eve 2011… via a text message. In an interview, Katy revealed that this heartbreak caused her to ask the deeper questions of life.
It’s often at moments of transition, change or loss that we get reflective. We ask, “What’s the deal with life?”
The meaning of life
Why am I here? How would you answer this question? The ‘meaning of life’ question, is the most important question that anyone can ask.
As you’ve grown up, you might have had a growing inkling that there’s something more to life. But now that you’ve finished school, you really should stop and consider what life is all about. There will never be a better time to consider the purpose of life.
You’ve got the time to think about important things now that you’re no longer at school. You’re old enough to take responsibility for your beliefs and your choices. Plus, you’ve got your whole adult life ahead of you, so there’s no harm in trying to kick off on the right track!
We can experiment to try and find out what our purpose in life should be, or we can ask the One who made us: our Creator. God made life, so it makes sense to consult him because he knows how it works and what makes it go best.
One of the massive claims of Christianity is that there is meaning to life.
It’s all about Jesus
Maybe you’ve heard Christians bang on about Jesus and think it’s a little weird. But it’s hard to avoid the Bible’s message that Jesus is the key to understanding what life’s all about.
According to one part of the bible, all things were made by Jesus and for Jesus. Not only did Jesus make us, but our whole purpose in life is found in him.
One of the best places to see this truth is in a book of the Bible called Ephesians. It’s a letter written by the Apostle Paul to a church in Ephesus, an ancient Greek city that’s part of modern day Turkey.
In Ephesians, we hear the message loud and clear: life is all about worshipping Jesus.
Some may balk at the suggestion that the key to life involves worship. But the reality is that we all worship someone or something. Whether it is a traditional religion or something else like: success, status, sport, sex, style or self.
We all make someone or something the ultimate in our life – that one thing we couldn’t live without, the one thing that is all-consuming.
Ephesians 3:11 says that God accomplished his eternal purposes in Jesus Christ. All of God’s purposes find their realisation in Jesus. That’s massive. It means that all of life is ultimately about Jesus.
What does it mean for God’s purposes to be realised in Jesus?
Jesus: God’s master plan
God is at work in history. He is at work to one day bring all things under the rule of Jesus, all things united in Him.
Ephesians 1:9-10 says that God has made “known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.”
We may not know all the details of the future. But there is one thing we can be certain of: God is at work to bring all things under the rule and reign of His Son, Jesus.
The crazy thing? The eternal God actually cares for us and he includes us in his plans.
If you’re still celebrating the end of your schooling years, you may not be particularly phased by what’s next. Soon enough, though, you will need to make decisions that affect the rest of your life.
SPOILER ALERT: JESUS WINS
The trajectory of all of human history is that everything will belong to Jesus. If that’s the end game, what difference does it make today? How should we live while we wait for Jesus to return as the ruler of everything?
All of life for Jesus’ glory
We live for something bigger and someone better. All that we do should be to the one end: bringing glory to Jesus. (Check out Ephesians 1:6, 12, 14.)
Jesus is glorious; to give him glory is to give him what he deserves.
We are to honour Jesus with the honour he is due. We are to worship Jesus because he is worthy. After all, he is the creator of the universe and the author of life. When he returns, no-one will be left in doubt: the whole universe is about Jesus, the glorious King.
THE COPERNICAN REVOLUTION
In the 1500s Nicholas Copernicus, a mega maths nerd, put forward a revolutionary new way of thinking about the relationship of the sun and planet Earth.
Up until that point, people believed that the sun revolved around the Earth. Copernicus said it was the other way around: that the sun is at the centre and that planet Earth revolves around the sun.
People thought he was crackers. But we’ve since realised that Copernicus was on the money.
To live for Jesus’ glory is to live with Him at the centre of your world. Maybe you need a Copernican-Style-Revolution to see that the Son (Jesus) is at the centre of the universe, and not you.
THE FOMO GENERATION
FOMO = Fear Of Missing Out.
Perhaps you hesitate to give the rest of your life to Jesus, because of a fear of missing out. You’d rather be where the action is because you don’t want to miss out on the party.
But there is no danger of missing out when you’ve got Jesus.
In Jesus you’ve got everything
According to Ephesians 1:3 God has “blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.”
Those who belong to Jesus lack nothing. If you’ve got Jesus, you’ve got everything!
Ephesians 1:4-14 lists all of the spiritual blessing you have in Jesus: chosen, holy, blameless, predestined, adopted, blessed, redeemed, forgiven, loved, inheritance, saved, sealed with the Holy Spirit.
Jesus loves you! He died for you and rose again. Our faith in his finished work at the cross guarantees that every blessing listed in Ephesians 1 is ours.
The temptation is to think that the world has something better to offer. It doesn’t. Purpose, meaning, significance and satisfaction are found in Jesus. In him, you’ve got it all.
Why am I here?
Life is all about Jesus. God is working to unite all things in Jesus, who is at the centre of the universe. We are to live for Jesus’ glory. Because in Jesus we have everything we need.
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Find out more about JESUS: who he is, why he came and what it means to follow him.