OMTL - 5
Our theme through the month of July has been- One Month to Live - Thirty Days to a No-Regret's Life.
Review - We have considered two principles so far:
A. Live Passionately!
B. Love Completely!
C. Learn Humbly!
Let me remind you of something you almost certainly would like to forget: You are mortal!
With Dad’s death in February, I have sensed my mortality more powerfully than ever before. The curious part of it all, is that I do not sense it as a threat or with fear. The inevitable appointment with death is clearly on my mind often, but it serves to remind me of the importance of LIVING TODAY so as to leave behind a legacy and to lay up treasure!
∙ If you truly had just one month to live would you be confident that you were leaving behind a legacy that would live on?
∙ Would you be confident that you had stored up a rich treasure in Heaven?
Today my talk is about the important decisions we must make -every day- to intentionally prepare ourselves to Leave Boldly!
TEXT - John 12:23-28
The Gospel of John is written to show us the purpose and power of Jesus’ life. Using stories of miracles and confrontation, John carefully makes his case for the divinity of Christ and for the great salvation that is ours when we put our trust in Him. Nearly one-half of John’s Gospel is devoted to the final week of Jesus’ earthly ministry, as the conflict with the religious establishment was reaching a critical point. But John wants us to know that Jesus did not end up on the cross by accident, or to think that He somehow miscalculated the strength of His opposition and got Himself killed. The Lord knew the plan of God and that He walked through the days leading up to the Cross courageously, ready to leave boldly.
(READ text)
It is not just Jesus that lived with such purpose, such a high calling! We are called to live with the same sense of mission. There is a cross for each of us, and if we are willing to die on it, there is resurrection life, too!
Go back and read v. 25 and 26 with me again:
"The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me." (John 12:25-26, NIV)
How do we live so we can leave boldly, with a legacy that outlasts us and a treasure laid up to greet us?
1. Pay attention to the core!
Every wheel must have a hub to be useful. The outer edge rotates around that hub which holds it all together.
What is the center of your life? Who are you at the core of your being? Answering that question may not be as easy as you think, for we are complex creatures of many, many layers, aren’t we?
Some of us have not dug down to the core of our being for a long, long time.
∙ It could be that we are afraid of things we have hidden away there; memories of past sins, hurts, failures, disappointments, long lost dreams, idealism of our youth - just to name a few.
∙ It might be that we are accustomed to living superficially.
Superficiality is an epidemic among Americans!
A pop star died from a drug overdose and the news channels obsessed on the story for days.
Many people can’t face life if they have a zit!
A bad hair cut sends some into depression.
Others will go without life’s basics just to drive an impressive car.
With all the distractions that our entertainment cultures offers us, we can go days, even months, without thinking a deep thought. In some homes, the TV goes on the moment the first person awakens and blares away until the last person goes to bed. A steady stream of noise and images keeps us entertained. I believe many use the television as a kind of narcotic!
Ill. Yes, I know about that. Some evenings when my brain won’t allow me to disengage, when I am wrestling with some challenge here in the church, I turn on the TV - not to watch a specific program, but simply to be distracted. I surf from channel to channel - afflicted with viewer ADD, much to my wife’s irritation!
Some people can’t even drive to the grocery store without flipping on the radio in their car.
If you ask some to sit quietly for even 10 minutes, they become agitated, with obvious signs of emotional distress.
One of my favorite authors is Richard Foster, whose book, The Celebration of Discipline, opened my understanding of Christianity in a whole new way. His opening lines in that classic are:
Superficiality is the curse of our age. The doctrine of instant satisfaction is a primary spiritual problem. The desperate need today is not for a greater number of intelligent people, or gifted people, but for deep people. The disciplines of the spiritual life call us to move beyond surface living into the depths. They invite us to explore the inner caverns of the spiritual realms. They urge us to be the answer to a hollow world.
If you want to leave a solid legacy and lay up treasures in Heaven, you must assure that the core of your life is solid; that the place from which you live is aligned with the will and purposes of God.
If we allow them, many things will move into center place of our lives replacing God:
family, work, pleasure seeking, another person, sports, competition, reputation, sex, pursuit of youth....
but none of these can withstand the pressures that will inevitably come our way! And without Christ at the core, when illness strikes, old age comes, our kids rebel, our job ends, our spouse decides to leave - we will disintegrate; coming unglued because, to use Jesus’ metaphor, our life was not build on the Solid Rock. I love The Message’s translation of that familiar passage.
“These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundational words, words to build a life on. If you work these words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who built his house on solid rock. Rain poured down, the river flooded, a tornado hit—but nothing moved that house. It was fixed to the rock. “But if you just use my words in Bible studies and don’t work them into your life, you are like a stupid carpenter who built his house on the sandy beach." (Matthew 7:24-26, The Message)
The best way to know what’s at your core is to listen to what you say. What fills up your conversations?
Jesus said, "Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him." (Matthew 12:34-35, NIV)
If we want to be ready to leave boldly, with a legacy that outlasts us and a treasure laid up to greet us, we must:
2. Work for character, not achievement!
Many people can do what you do, but no one can be who you are meant to be. With the passage of time, our achievements fade in importance. Our character lasts. In case you’re don’t what I’m talking about, character is ‘who you are.’
Ill. I saw this up close over the year that traveled out to my Dad’s bedside. Gradually, the cancer that eventually ended his life took away his abilities to do the things he had done, to father his children, to tend his gardens, to care for his beloved farm. In those last four months, when he was helpless, I saw only who Dad was, not what he had done or could do.
That is a terribly grim picture for the person who has not cultivated a rich inner life, who has not built character. It is why many become bitter, miserable people with age. They lose the meaning of life as they have lived it because they no longer can do anything and they have never learned to be anyone!
Ill.- About 15 years ago, I heard Charles Colson speak in Boston. He was special counsel to President Nixon, as close to power as anyone can be, in on virtually every decision made in the Oval Office of the White House. He said something like - “Almost nothing we did in those years has any real importance today, 20 years later, except perhaps the trip to China which changed US-China relationships completely.”
If a person who is making huge decisions for the most powerful nation on earth can come to such a conclusion, what will you or I feel as we look back over our very ordinary lives?
Unless, we have focused on character, on who we are, more than what we do!
We are not on our own in this, disciple. God is intensely involved in shaping our lives. In Jeremiah’s prophecy, there is this vivid statement.
READ Jeremiah 18:1-6
God always working to shape you and me! Pastor Kerry Shook writes in the book that many of us are reading about the process. In chapter 25, he talks about the methods God uses to transform us from sinners to saints.
∙ God uses the problems of life. Sometimes they are like sandpaper smoothing away the rough edges. Sometimes they are like a jackhammer chipping away chunks. It hurts! But, if we are putting ourselves in His hands, those problems have a purpose.
∙ God uses the pressures of life. Many valuable things come from great pressure. The fossil fuels that make our modern lives possible would not exist without tremendous pressures of the earth that turn the organic matter of the world into oil and gas. Diamonds are just ordinary carbon that is subjected to tons and tons of pressure and heat that produce a stone that is a gem! God uses pressure, too. He’s working! Listen to what the Bible says: "For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers." (Romans 8:29, NIV) "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will." (Romans 12:2, NIV)
∙ God uses people in our life. That person you just can’t stand, may be a gift from God! That person you ignore because they are as smart or as cool as you, might be the very person that God is waiting to use to bring about a life change. That person you want to hate, is a person that causes you to fall desperately on God’s strength so you can forgive her.
If we ant to be able to leave boldly, with a legacy that outlasts us and a treasure laid up to greet us, we must:
3. Focus on people, not tasks!
In Luke 10 there is a story that I do not like all that much because it always convicts me and, because I am naturally a task-oriented person, makes me ask a lot of questions.
"As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!” “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”" (Luke 10:38-42, NIV)
As I was reading that passage this week, I realized something I’d never noticed before. You know what comes right before this story? The story of the Good Samaritan! With a double punch, Luke tells us - Focus on people! Build relationships!
It is said so often it sounds like a cliche and yet so many of us still forget! Our agenda’s become more important to us than the people we think we are serving.
Imagine a Mom scolding a child for getting dirty, forgetting the importance of play. Clothes are meant for wearing, not just decoration.
Imagine a Dad with a yard so carefully manicured that no one can play in it. What’s the point of that?
Imagine a person consumed with his work to the point that he forgets the family he is working to support.
All those things and more are not hard to imagine because they happen to us!
It’s not our house that is important, it is our home. It’s not how high we climb that will be remembered, but rather who we brought along or on whom we stepped on the way up!
I close today where I started - you are mortal. Are you living so you can leave boldly, with a legacy that outlasts you and a treasure laid up to greet you?
VIDEO - The Bucket List
How do we live so we can leave boldly, with a legacy that outlasts us and a treasure laid up to greet us?
4. Prepare to meet my Maker! TODAY.
There are two parts to that -
First, there is the issue of your faith in Christ.
Friend, you’ll never be good enough for God on your own.
There will never be a time when you get all the guilt erased, the accounts balanced with your efforts. But God has completely provided for your forgiveness, to settle the debts. He did it at the Cross, when Jesus died for our sins. Will you believe and receive, right now?
Then, there is the importance of living obediently.
I close with a passage that is full of promise.
"If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward." (1 Corinthians 3:12-14, NIV)
PRAYER -
Lord, I pray that You would shift our focus from an obsession with this present life and help us to begin follow You with our whole heart. I pray that You would help us, Lord, to surrender ourselves to You; giving you access to the deepest parts of our souls.
May You be the center, the core.
Lord, I pray for those who are going through a dark time in their life that they would see that You have a purpose. Use the problems, the people, the pressure of life, to build character.
Lord, I pray for those who don't know for sure if their name is written in Your book, that right now in the silence of this moment that they would get it settled by praying an honest and simple prayer of surrender.
Amen
Friend, if that’s what you want to do, then pray this way:
Jesus, I want to learn to love You. I ask You to wipe the slate clean and give me a fresh start. I ask You to write my name in Your book. I want to follow You. I want You to be my Center, my Hope, my life from now on. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
Jerry D. Scott 2009
all rights reserved
with thanks to Pastor Kerry Shook