So..Why Am I Here. Patrick M.

Graham Central Baptist Church 5/5/2019

Every once in a while, especially when we get discouraged, we ask ourselves, “Why Am I here?, Why Am
I here when I should be dead?, and Why am I still here? These are legitimate questions, that millions
have asked themselves over the course of history. Anyone else ever ask this?

Read Phillipians 1:21 – 30

1. Why Am I Here in the first place?

There is a Dr. Seuss Poem that I just love:

If you’d never been born, then what would you be?

You might be a fish or a toad in the tree.
You might be a doorknob or three baked potatoes.
Worse than all that, you might be a wasn’t.
A wasn’t just isn’t. He just isn’t present.
But you—you are you. Now isn’t that pleasant?
Today you are you, and it’s truer than true
That there’s no one alive who is you-er than you.
Shout loud, “I am lucky to be what I am!
Thank goodness I’m not just a clam or a ham
Or a dusty old jar of gooseberry jam.
If I am what I am, and it’s a great thing to be.
If I say so myself, happy birthday to me!”

a. Because God wants you here.

i. God has created you to be you and not somebody else.
ii. God has a purpose for you and that is to be a child of God, to have
fellowship with God, to be God’s woman or man here in this place, right
now.
Read Genesis 1: 26-28
26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the
fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every
creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created
he them.

28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth,
and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every
living thing that moveth upon the earth

iii. You are a special creation of God; you are a blessing of God. You are
more than a fish or a toad or a clam, you are the very image of God. Woman or
 man, young or old, happy or sad, you are here because God wants you to be
here. You are here because God put you here.

On the other hand, we may wonder at times what God has in mind with us. Humanity often doesn’t
seem so wonderful. Read the newspaper, turn on the TV. Human beings are as mixed up as they can be

 We are struggling human beings.

 We do not have all the answers.
 Why should we be any different from the Apostle Paul who admitted his own struggles.
 We are not called to know everything or be everything.
 It is enough to be who we are, the special child God created us to be. It is enough to believe and
follow the Lord Jesus and to allow ourselves to be used to glorify God.
 Be glad you are not a fish or a toad or a clam or a ham but the person God made you to be.
“Who am I?” I am God’s Child. “Why am I here?” To be just who I am.

2. Why did I survive a tragedy or potential tragedy?

The great evangelist Dr. Billy Graham was asked this question: I escaped with only
minor injuries from a bad car wreck a few months ago. Did God have something to do with this, like
one of my friends says, or was I just lucky? I've never thought about questions like this before.

Your friend is right; you weren’t “just lucky,” but God was watching over you and taking care of you. The
Bible says, “Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life” (Psalm 138:7).

The real question, however, is this: Why did God spare your life? Was it simply so you could go on living
the same way you always have? I’m afraid many people in your situation end up doing exactly that, but I
pray this won’t be true of you.

Jonah was in a tragedy, Joseph was in a tragedy, Paul, and so many others.

Proverbs 3:5 - Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own
understanding.

God spared you for a purpose, and the most important thing you can do is to seek that
purpose and dedicate your life to it.

Isaiah 48:17 Thus saith the LORD, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I am the LORD thy God which
teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go.

3. Why Am I still here?

Dr. Graham was asked this question also:

Q: I'm old and sick and stuck in a nursing home now, and I don't understand why God even keeps me
alive. I'm tired of living and I want to go to Heaven -- the sooner the better. Is it wrong for me to ask
God to take me?

His Answer?
Don't feel guilty, then, about asking the Lord to take you to Heaven. But don't make that your only
prayer! As long as we're on this earth, God has His reasons for keeping us here, and we should ask Him
to show us what they are.

Read Psalms 92: 12-13

The Bible says, 12 The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.

13 Those that be planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God.

14 They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing;

No, you may not be able to do everything you once did, and you may find that frustrating; I sometimes
do. But God isn't finished with us until He takes us home. I often think, for example, of the countless
people who have prayed for souls over the years (and continue to do so). Many were elderly and infirm,
but countless thousands have come to Christ because of their prayers.

In addition, ask God to help you be a witness of Christ's love and peace to those around you. The Bible
says, " 10 For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is
the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe. (1 Timothy 4:10).

So…..Why are we here? Why were we rescued? Why are we still here?

Phillipians 1:6 Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will
perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:

As was written in Pastor Alan’s parent’s kitchen, “We’re not in Heaven yet”. So, if we’re not in Heaven
yet, that means that God still has plans for us, we just need to be confident that He which began a good
work in us, is still working.