Message delivered near end of 2003 after several disasters. When reflecting on the loss of life we question why something like that should happen.
Luke 13:2-5Our wonderment shouldn’t be at others have perished but rather that we haven’t been snuffed out from our sins.
And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” ESV
Our lives are in God’s hands. We hang by a slender strand of God’s Grace.
Job 1:20-21When Job’s house collapsed and killed his children Job worshiped. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord.
Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” ESV
As Job says later:
Job 12:10God has all our lives in His hand.
In His hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind. ESV
1 Sam 2:6
The Lord kills and brings to life; He brings down to Sheol and raises up. ESV
Deut 32:39
See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god beside me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand. ESV
When we live though the night it is because of God’s grace.
James 4:13-16
Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. ESV
Life is not about accumulation. It isn’t about getting stuff.
Luke 12:16-21
And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.” ESV
This night your soul may be required of you.
Possessions aren’t comforting on your death bed (if you’re sane).
Matthew 16:24-25It is possible to waste your life
Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. ESV
This culture is geared to making you waste your life in retirement.
So then, what does the unwasted life?
Phil 1:20-21
as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. ESV
The unwasted life is a life that in everything puts Christ on display as supremely valuable.
How?
Phil 3:7-8By experiencing Christ as such a treasure that everything else in our life is as nothing.
But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ. ESV.
Money, food, and all other things are given so that you can enjoy and live with them in such a way that it is obvious that they are not your treasure but that Christ is.
We treasure Christ above all things.
That is life, now what about death?
How do you magnify Christ in death?
John 21:18-21
Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.” (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, “Follow me.” ESV
Peter was probably crucified upside down and it was planned as a way of glorifying God.
Phil 1:21
For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. ESV
Phil 1:23
I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. ESV
If death is to be gain in your life then Christ must be more precious than everything you leave behind.
The essentials of life that is not wasted are:
- Knowing in your heart that life and death are gifts given to you in order that you might use them to display the supreme worth of Jesus Christ.
- You must develop and display a supreme valuing of Christ above all things.
- The value you place on Christ is most clearly seen by what you are willing to gladly risk or sacrifice in order to have more of Jesus.
2nd Corinthians 12:8-10
Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. ESV
The passion of Paul’s life was any life or death that makes Christ more vivid for the world to see.
Will you work for the bread that perishes? Will you waste your life or will you see Christ as the treasure that He really is?
1 Peter 3:15This scripture will be active when we are sold out for Christ.
but in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; ESV
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