OMTL - 6
So today, I’m wrapping it up. We’ve made it, exploring the subject...
One Month to Live - Thirty Days to a No-Regret's Life.
Review - Four principles:
A. Live Passionately!
B. Love Completely!
C. Learn Humbly!
D. Leave Boldly!
I hope that by now you have figured out that this series is actually about preparing you to LIVE! My prayer is that you have a lot of living yet to do. (I’d much rather celebrate life events than lead funerals.)
Our goal in this series was to point out the principles
that God’s Word says will lead us to lives that are full of good things,
that will help us to be the people God wants us to be, and
that will lead us to carry out His will here in this world.
I cannot think of anything more tragic than coming near the end of life and realizing that it’s been largely wasted on things that don’t matter much. I don’t know who said it first, but it is worth remembering:
“Your life is a gift from God. What you do with it is your gift to God!”
(Repeat that with me making it first person. MY life is a gift from God. What I do with it is MY gift to God.)
One of the most quoted words of Jesus is found in John 10:10.
∙ "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." (NIV)
∙ "The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life." (NLT)
God has a plan for your life, which you will find when you follow Christ Jesus. What kind of life does He propose for you - “full, rich, satisfying!” That’s great, right? But don’t forget the other part of what He said. The Devil has a plan for your life, too! Look at that text again and really see what he has planned - “steal, kill, and destroy!” You get to choose!
Will it be God’s plan to live or the devil’s plan to die?
Some people look at their lives and wonder,
“What choice do I have? It feels like someone else in charge of my life.
Jerry, don’t you believe that God rules everything?”
Yes, I absolutely believe in an all-powerful, all-knowing God. I am convinced by Scripture that His purposes prevail, and yet, I also know that He has given you and me the responsibility and privilege of choice.
He holds out the offer of faith, but we must choose to receive it.
He offers us the strength to overcome temptation, but unless we choose to live by faith, we will not experience the victor’s life.
Remember the story of God’s people being called out of Egypt where they were slaves? The whole story is a great lesson about the interwoven aspects of God’s power and the choices of people. Consider these examples:
a. Moses was called at the burning bush. He resisted, making excuses. God kept patiently working with him until he choose to take the mission of leading Israel out of Egypt.
b. At the final plague that fell on Egypt, the death of the first-born in each household, God offered the Jews a way to be spared the judgement - the Passover lamb. The effectiveness was guaranteed by His promise if each household head would exercise faithful obedience and make the choice to sprinkle the blood of the lamb on the doorposts of their homes!
c. When the Jewish people were ready to enter the Promised Land the first time, God gave them His word that He would be with them, but He gave them the choice to enter. They did not and they became nomads in the Sinai for an entire generation! Years later as they came once again, this time they choose faith and took possession of God’s promise.
Joshua, by then their leader, after Moses’ death, put this challenge to them:
“Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, ...
But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:14-15, NIV)
As we wrap up this series, I want to underline the importance of choosing to LIVE TODAY, of making the choices now that you might make if you had just one month to live! I’ll be using the word - LIFE - to help us remember the choices. By making it into an acrostic - you know that is, right? - it’s when we each letter of a word to form the first letter of new words.
If you want to find the life that Jesus promises first of all, make the choice to Love!
OK - so you might think that’s not news. Don’t tune me out just yet. I know that we talk about LOVE so much you may think it’s an over-worked concept, but the truth is that love is foundational, the basic of our Christian life. Jesus said that the whole holy requirement of God is encapsulated in two commands: Love God and love others!
It sort of like good health. Most of us could extend both the quality and length of our lives with two simple choices: healthy diet and regular exercise! But we ignore the basics and spend $thousands on medical care later in life to correct problems caused by eating chips, drinking soda, and sitting around!
The Christian life centers on love!
∙ We spend thousands on big programs designed to bring people to church, when what we really need to do is just love them in practical ways.
∙ We look for big name preachers to tell us how to bring the passion back to our relationship with God when what we really need to do is love Him whole-heartedly and in a consistent way.
In our personal lives we live with anxiety, broken relationships, and stress - much of which would be largely eliminated IF ONLY we would love in the radical, unselfish way that Jesus taught.
So many think that love is somehow accidental. We even talk about ‘falling in love’ like we would fall into a hole or a ditch. Some seem clueless about how they have ‘fallen in love.’ It’s not just chemistry. It is a series of choices. You spent time with her. You share long conversations with her. You enter into confidences with her.” That’s how we ‘fall in love.’ Love is a choice.
Loving God involves our emotions, but does not start nor end with them. Loving God is, first and foremost, a reflection of worship and devotion expressed in how we live. We cannot ignore the disciplines of corporate worship, of daily meditation and prayer, of obedience to the holy will of God taught in the Scripture and then say, “I love God!”
TEXT - Ephesians 5:1-10
"Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving.
For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a man is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient. Therefore do not be partners with them. For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.
Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord." (Ephesians 5:1-10, NIV)
If you want to find the life that Jesus promises, second,
make the choice to have Integrity!
Integrity basically means to be whole, to be the same all the way through. Living with integrity means that we will make what we say believe and how we live line up. Some people are very good at compartmentalizing their lives.
They have a Sunday church-going personality, a family at home personality, and a work personality. And they wonder why they are stressed, why what they learn on Sunday doesn’t transfer into how they live on Monday.
A person who lacks integrity is frustrated and frustrating. They cannot experience the peace of God because His peace flows from wholeness. The Hebrew word, “shalom” which we often see translated or used as “peace” actually means ‘to be whole, complete, and sound.’
A person with integrity does not have to be calculating how to respond, for he responds from the honest core of who he is.
A person with integrity does not have to try to remember what story he’s told, for all his stories come from the same place.
A person with integrity does not have to lock God out of certain areas of his life because he has given ALL of himself - his loves, his sexuality, his speech, his career, his family - to the Lord!
Disciple - Jesus says, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’" (Mark 12:30, NIV)
Now, that’s integrity!
If you want to find the life that Jesus promises, third,
make the choice to be Forgiving!
Nothing will sap your passion for life, your joy of the Lord, even your physical strength like bitterness, hatred, and unforgiveness. These are toxic emotions that we cannot hang onto if we want to be healthy!
Forgiveness is a choice to turn to God's Spirit and seek His help in subduing Self. We make the choice to surrender our pain to God. We invite Him to enter into our lives with wisdom, peace. And, forgiveness is complete when we accept that ultimately - here or in eternity - God will act justly!
When we release that person who has disappointed us to God's court, we find freedom from the anger, hatred, and bitterness that often accompanies disappointment. Jesus, when teaching his followers about prayer, reminded us to pray like this: "Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” Let me hurry to remind you what He said a minute later: “But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins." {Matthew 6:12, 15}
Related to this subject of forgiveness is acceptance of life, others, and the will of God. In a sense, there are times when we need to forgive God. (Yes, I know that I just shocked some of you.) Of course, God is perfect and doesn’t really ever need our forgiveness, but sometimes it feels like He does. Don’t overthink my point here. Track with me.
(Let congregation answer.)
Does God always act in a way we like?
Does God always answer our prayers in the way we want Him to or in the time frame we think He should?
Is the hand of God always perfectly obvious to us so we know exactly what He’s doing with us or to us?
Do people get bitter or angry with God? YES!
That is the context in which I suggest we need to learn to ‘forgive’ God.
We must learn to let Him be God, to trust Him, even when we can’t see what He’s up to.
Remember that line from two weeks ago: “There is one God and I am not Him!” Say it often and mean it.
Reinhold Neibuhr penned the Serenity Prayer that has been made well-known through 12 step recovery
programs like AA.
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time; Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him forever in the next.
Amen.
If you want to find the life that Jesus promises, fourth,
make the choice to be Enthusiastic!
Do you know where that word comes from? It is made up of two Greek roots - En -meaning as it appears ‘in,’ and Theos - meaning ‘God.’ An enthused person has God within!
Again, let’s not make the mistake of making this silly or superficial. Just because you jump around like a clown or dance like a cheerleader, does not mean you’re enthusiastic. Genuine enthusiasm means that the Spirit of God in us makes us care, really care, about others and about doing God’s will. We’re passionate about it.
Let me tell you a story from my life this week. I’ll call the man, Bob, though that’s not his real name. Bob (not his real name) is a strong man, a hard-working man who makes large machines accomplish amazing tasks, a man's man who knows about calloused hands and sweat. He isn’t outwardly emotion and many would not, at first, anyway - label him as ‘enthusiastic,’ but I saw that he is for God, the Holy Spirit lives in him.
I was talking with him this week and he asked about the church, our Christian school, and my life in general. It was obvious he wasn’t just ‘making conversation.’ He really cared! As we talked, I told him that some students would not be able to return to Good Shepherd because their parents had overdue accounts for tuition. We talked about little more about the economy and how hard it was for some. Then, without warning, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a blank check. He laid it on a step and wrote a check for $2500! "Help some of those Christian people out with this." Bob cares! He is enthused!
The Bible speaks to our need to be enthused where we read:
"Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people."
(Colossians 3:23, NLT)
Would you keep your lawn the same way if Jesus Christ lived next door?
Would you work in the same way if Jesus Christ were your immediate boss?
Would you spend money on the same things if Jesus Christ were keeping books for you?
Enthusiasm touches our lives practically. Hopefully, thinking about it in that way helps you to better understand the Word’s directive: "Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit." (Galatians 5:25, NIV)
The Message says "Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives."
As I close, I want to recap it:
If you want to find the life that Jesus promises,
make the choice to Love, to have
Integrity, to be
Forgiving, and to be
Enthusiastic!
Remember when I started I talked about how God led His people out of slavery? In a great act of mercy, He offered to keep them from the plague of death that was going to fall in Egypt. He made full provision, but they had to believe and act to receive His mercy for their families! When they sprinkled the blood of the Passover lamb on their doorposts, they were saved!
Christ is our Passover Lamb! He died on the Cross, spilling His blood for the sins of the world. He offers you and me full forgiveness and says He will save us from death and give us abundant life - but there is a choice of faith. We have to believe God loves us and receive His promise in order to enjoy the benefit.
Will you do that today?
If you’re here and you want to really LIVE - with Love, Integrity, Forgiveness, and Enthusiasm - it begins with a new birth, being born - by faith into God’s family. You can make that choice today as I close in prayer.
PRAYER
Jerry Scott
copyright 2009 all rights reserved
(With thanks to OMTL resources)