BROADCASTS.com

Published: Dec. 8, 2010, 7:24 p.m.

Title of my message today is:\xa0 Live Well

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(Ecclesiastes 2:17)\xa0 \u201cSo I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.\u201d

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1.\xa0 Life seems useless.

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(Ecclesiastes 1:2-4 GN)\xa0 \u201cLife is useless, all useless.\xa0 You spend your life working... but what do you have to show for it? ... The world just stays the same.\u201d

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2.\xa0 Life seems tiresome.

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(Ecclesiastes 1:4-8 GN)\xa0 \u201cThe sun rises and goes down... the wind blows round and round and back again.\xa0 Every river flows into the sea... [then] the water returns to where the river began and starts all over again.\xa0 Everything leads to weariness\u2026\u201d

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3.\xa0 Life seems unfulfilling.

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(Ecclesiastes 1:8-10 LB)\xa0 \u201cNo matter how much we see, we're never satisfied; no matter how much we hear, we're not content.\xa0 History merely repeats itself.\u201d

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4.\xa0 Life seems uncontrollable.

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(Ecclesiastes 1:15 GN)\xa0 \u201cYou can't straighten out what is crooked; you can't count things that aren't there!\u201d

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How do you connect meaning to life?\xa0

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1.\xa0 Why am I alive?

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(Jeremiah 20:18 TEV)\xa0 \u201cWhy was I born? Was it only to have trouble and sorrow, to end my life in disgrace?\u201d

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Video \u2013 Everybody Loves Raymond Clip 1

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(Proverbs 16:4 GW)\xa0 \u201cThe Lord has made everything for his own purpose.\u201d

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2.\xa0 Does my life matter?

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(Isaiah 49:4 NLT)\xa0 \u201cMy work all seems so useless! I have spent my strength for nothing and for no purpose at all.\u201d

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Survival level

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Success level\xa0

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Significance level

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\xa0Which level are you living in?\xa0

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(Psalm 139:16 LB)\xa0 \u201cYou... scheduled each day of my life before I began to breathe.\xa0 Every day was recorded in your book!\u201d

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\n(1 John 5:12)\xa0\u201cWhoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.\u201d\n

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3.\xa0 What is my purpose?

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(Psalm 89:47 NCV)\xa0 \u201cWhy did you create us? For nothing?\u201d

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Video \u2013 Everybody Loves Raymond Clip 2

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(Acts 17:26-28)\xa0 \u201cFrom one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.\xa0 God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.\xa0 \u2018For in him we live and move and have our being.\u2019\u201d

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(Colossians 1:16 MSG)\xa0 \u201cFor everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible\u2026everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him.\u201d

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(Proverbs 9:6 MSG)\xa0 \u201cLeave your impoverished confusion and live!\xa0 Walk up the street to a life with meaning.\u201d

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(2 Corinthians 4:16-18)\xa0 \u201cTherefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.\xa0 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.\xa0 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.\u201d

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Live life in view of eternity.

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(Deuteronomy 30:19)\xa0 \u201cThis day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life\u2026\u201d