When we sense no purpose, we create purpose. We have to. It’s how we are wired. Without purpose, without meaning, without a sense that we are wanted and our contribution is meaningful, we die. But we know all to well that self-created purpose lasts as long as we find interest in it, and it is only as solid as your imagination allows. 

What we long for, what we sense deep in our bones, what we want to be true even when nothing on earth tells us its true, is that there is something for which we were intended; there is someone for whom we were no accident. What if I told you that you were planned. Purposed. Intended. Chosen.  It’s true. 

The sermon today is titled "Wanted." It is the first installment in our "Identity" Series. The Scripture reading is from Genesis 1:26-28 & Psalm 139:13-16. Originally preached at the West Side Church of Christ (Searcy, AR) on February 12, 2023. All lessons fit under one of 5 broad categories: Begin, Discover, Grow, Learn, and Serve. This sermon is filed under Discover: A New Identity.

Click here if you would like to watch the sermon or read a transcript.

Footnotes (Sources and References Used In Today's Podcast):

• For this series, I formed my outline (and begin each lesson) by consulting James Bryan Smith's The Good & Beautiful You. For this lesson, see especially chapter 3: "You Are Desired" and chapter 5: "You  Are Made For God."
• For the Betty comic strip illustration, see Stanley Grenz, Created For Community (2nd ed), p. 67.
• For this version of the story about Gregory/Gloria Hemmingway, see Stephen Sizer's lesson "You Were Planned For God's Pleasure" here.  He learned the story from Philip Yancey's What's So Amazing About Grace?
• For more on Ernest Hemminway's 1953 short story, "The Capital of the World," see this Wikipedia article.
• The cultural storyline is taken from Jonathan Storment's excellent Lesson "Raised in Power" at the 2022 Harding University Lectureship.
• The Richard Dawkins quote is from his book River Out of Eden, p. 133. Found in Smith, p. 52.
• Alfred Lord Tennyson, "Prologue," In Memoriam, stanza 3.  Found in Smith, p. 53.
• "O Holy Night" is based on a French poem by Placide Cappeau (1843), set to music by Adolphe Adam in 1847. Found in Smith, p. 58.

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