The Problem

• What do you think is a man's greatest need? His need to be significant.
• The difference in men is how we go about satisfying our need to be significant.

A Man's Highest Hope

• If you were a really great man, what would be the most you might expect from history?
• A man's ultimate desire is for immortality. We want something to survive us.
• How we decide to answer the two questions, "Who am I?" and "Why do I exist?" is a choice between two time lines: one that's eighty years long and one that lasts forever.

Inappropriate Ways of Finding Significance

Consider some common ways the world defines significance.

• Fame: A Few Short Memories. When we try to answer the question, "Who am I?" in terms of fame and worldly accomplishment, we select an identity that quickly fades.
• Possessions: Unsatisfied Eyes. We all use possessions to send signals that we are significant. The most fleeting significance comes from things.
• Power: What's His Name Again? Men who achieve significant positions of responsibility and authority in life run the great risk of identifying themselves personally with the position.

If you think a person can find lasting significance through the pursuit of fame, possessions, or power, play the game of tens.

• Name the ten wealthiest men in the world.
• Name the ten most admired men in America.
• Name the ten top corporate executives in America.
• Name the last ten Nobel Prize winners
• Name the last ten presidents of the United States

Or try another version.

• Name your ten best friends
• Name ten family members who love you
• Name the ten most memorable experiences of your life
• Name ten people you think will attend your funeral

The Self Gratification/Significance Distinction

• Significance is not possible unless what we do contributes to the welfare of others.
• If I make helping others my practice, a state of significance results.
• The difference between self-gratification and significance is found in the motive and attitude, not in the task.
• Accumulating wealth, power, influence, and prestige are self- gratifying, but will not satisfy a man's need to be significant in any lasting way.

Being a Doer

• "Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like." James 1:22-24
• In your search for significance, have you sought a purpose for your life by studying the Scriptures?

Faithfulness

Today Europe is a post-Christian continent. Why? What would have happened in Europe if, in each generation after the Reformation, there had been a handful of faithful men who had Luther's courage to be doers of the word?

If you are not experiencing the full measure of significance you desire, answer the following questions.

• Am I trying to win the rat race?
• Am I pursuing significance or self-gratification?
• Am I disillusioned with materialism?
• Have I been looking for significance in inappropriate ways?
• Am I a talker or a doer.
• Am I searching Scripture regularly to discover God's purpose for my life?
• Am I a cultural or a Biblical Christian?