Essentials Of My Best Life Series

-Restigouche

Valley Church NOTES - 10/22/2000

Living My Best Life - Part 1

Essentials of My Best Life

Pastor Bill Jewett

October 22,2000

Many of us don't live like we know how live:

o We have to learn as we go

o We pick up negative ways of coping with life

o We get angry at the wrong times

o We worry about things that don't really matter

o We handle relationships poorly and wonder why we can't get along with others and can't figure out why we don't have many close friends

o Countless people get involved with drugs and alcohol because they lack a sense of purpose in their lives

Jesus teaches us what is important (Matthew 22:36-40). I've appreciated the person who asked the question of Matthew 22:36: "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?

Jesus answered, "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.' This is the first and most important command. And the second command is like the first: 'Love your neighbor as you love yourself.' All the Law and the writings of the prophets hang on these two commands." (Mat 22:36-40 NCV)

FOUR ESSENTIALS TO LIVING MY BEST LIFE

1. Christ - My Eternal Source of POWER & SECURITY

One New Year's Day, in the Tournament of Roses parade, a beautiful float suddenly sputtered and quit. It was out of gas. The whole parade was held up until someone could get a can of gas. The amusing thing was this float represented the Standard Oil Company. With its vast oil resources, its truck was out of gas.

Often, Christians neglect their spiritual maintenance, and though they are "clothed with power" (Luke 24:49) find themselves out of gas.

In a seminary missions class, Herbert Jackson told how, as a new missionary, he was assigned a car that would not start without a push. After pondering his problem, he devised a plan. He went to the school near his home, got permission to take some children out of class, and had them push his car off. As he made his rounds, he would either park on a hill or leave the engine running. He used this ingenious procedure for two years.

Ill health forced the Jackson family to leave, and a new missionary came to that station. When Jackson proudly began to explain his arrangement for getting the car started, the new man began looking under the hood. Before the explanation was complete, the new missionary interrupted, "Why, Dr. Jackson, I believe the only trouble is this loose cable." He gave the cable a twist, stepped into the car, pushed the switch, and to Jackson's astonishment, the engine roared to life. For two years needless trouble had become routine. The power was there all the time. Only a loose connection kept Jackson from putting that power to work.

J.B. Phillips paraphrases Ephesians l: 19-20, "How tremendous is the power available to us who believe in God." When we make firm our connection with God, his life and power flow through us.

Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

-- Benjamin Franklin.

n My Need - Who Can I Trust?

A Japanese attack on Hawaii is regarded as the most unlikely thing in the world, with one chance in a million of being successful. Besides having more powerful defenses than any other post under the American Flag, it is protected by distance.

Taken from the book At Dawn We Slept by Gordon Prange. Written on Sept. 6, 1941 by journalist Clarke Beach.

My people have done two evil things: They have forsaken me-the fountain of living water. And they have dug for themselves cracked cisterns that can hold no water at all!

(Jer. 2:13 NLT)

If our greatest need had been information, God would have sent us an educator; If our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent us a scientist; If our greatest need had been money, God would have sent us an economist; If our greatest need had been pleasure, God would have sent us an entertainer; But our greatest need was forgiveness, so God sent us a Savior.

Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him. By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive.

(Jn 7:38-39 NIV)

F.B. Meyer wrote about two Germans who wanted to climb the Matterhorn. They hired three guides and began their ascent at the steepest and most slippery part. The men roped themselves together in this order: guide, traveler, guide, traveler, guide. They had gone only a little way up the side when the last man lost his footing. He was held up temporarily by the other four, because each had a toehold in the niches they had cut in the ice. But then the next man slipped, and he pulled down the two above him. The only one to stand firm was the first guide, who had driven a spike deep into the ice. Because he held his ground, all the men beneath him regained their footing. F.B. Meyer concluded his story by drawing a spiritual application. He said, "I am like one of those men who slipped, but thank God, I am bound in a living partnership to Christ. And because He stands, I will never perish."