Title: Living in the Zone
Text: I Peter 4:7-11
Thesis: If you want a life that counts, do what you do best, as best you can.
(The idea for this message originated from a message by the same title in a series of stewardship messages written by Bryan Wilkerson, pastor of Grace Chapel in Lexington, MA, Preaching Today.com)
Introduction
Last Sunday afternoon my son-in-law, grandson and I plopped ourselves down in front of the TV and watched the Chicago Bears / New Orleans Saints playoff game. Those of us who have been fans over the years have waited a long time for the Bears to make a comeback. It has been twenty-one years since the 1985 Bears went to the Super Bowl under Mike Ditka and Jim McMahon.
This year the Bears won fifteen games and lost three… the games were often very tight and nerve racking to those of us who need a blowout in order to ward off chest pains and anxiety attacks. Bears quarterback, Rex Grossman has played rather sporadically… at times playing brilliantly and at other times not so much.
In the game last Sunday, Rex Grossman and the Chicago Bears played a nearly flawless game and defeated the Saints 39 – 14 for the NFC Championship and the privilege of going to Super Bowl XLI next Sunday in Miami, Florida. It was interesting that one of the commentators noted that Grossman played an error free game. When that happens they often say that a player is “playing in the zone.”
I don’t know that we will always have a rush but we will experience being in the zone when we are in the place God wants us to be and doing the things God wants us to do.
The first principle of being in the zone is that you:
I. Do whatever you do with urgency (or with a sense of importance).
“The end of the world is coming soon. Therefore, be earnest and disciplined in your prayers. Continue to show deep love for each other and cheerfully share your home with those who need a meal or a place to stay.” I Peter 4:7-9
Verse 7 is couched in the context of the end of the world and judgment… “But just remember, they (referring to former friends who do not follow Christ) will have to face God, who will judge everyone, both the living and the dead.” I Peter 4:5 The point Peter makes is this: Christians need to live responsibly in light of the anticipated return of Christ… time is a factor. It is another way of saying, “In the interim, as we wait for the return of Jesus Christ, we need to make sure our lives count…”
He then gives us some instruction in how we can do that…
A. Be earnest (clear-minded in the NIV) and disciplined in your prayers. The implication is that sometimes people get all caught up in “end-time talk” and forget about living in the present. He says, “Keep your balance… continue a consistent prayer life.
B. Be consistent in loving others. He says that in the interim, as we wait for the return of Christ, it is most important that we continue to live out the love of Christ. The love he speaks of is a love that covers the sins of others, i.e. it does not stir them up or broadcast them. Rather, this love covers the sins of others by forgiving them as Christ forgives.
C. Be cheerful in sharing. In the NIV, the text makes specific reference to being hospitable without grumbling. Hospitality is not intended to be the only way we cheerfully love others… it is one way of saying that as we live responsibly we make our lives count by being cheerful in sharing and caring for others.
A man was having dinner with his parents at a stylish London restaurant. The food was superb, and the setting—complete with chandeliers, crystal and silver—was unbelievably elegant. Nonetheless, when his mother’s main course arrived, she felt the need for a little salt. Trying the three silver shakers that were on the table, she discovered each contained pepper. She called the waiter over only to be told that she must be mistaken. Each table always contained two dispensers of pepper and one of salt.
A second attempt, however, showed that their table did, indeed, have three peppershakers. Horrified, the waiter immediately brought her a saltshaker. When it was time for dessert, the maitre d’ appeared, insisting that because of the oversight they choose something "on the house."
The woman protested, "It’s not that important."
"But, Madame," he replied in all seriousness, "what if you had been the Queen?"
Our text reminds us at the very onset that if we are to make our lives count, we need to approach each day with a “what if” sense of urgency… with a heart-felt desire to live responsibly because what we do is important.
One of the ways we can live responsibly and make our lives count is by doing what we do best.
II. Do whatever you do best.
“God has given gifts to serve others to each of you from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Manage them well so that God’s generosity can flow through you.” I Peter 4:10
I noted, a few moments ago, that hospitality is just one of the many, many ways we can serve God and others. There are lists of specific gifts found in Romans 12 and I Corinthians 12, as well as here in I Peter 4. I don’t believe the gifts of God are limited to those cited… what I do believe is that every Christian has at least one spiritual gift, which may be a talent, skill, or ability that God uses to do his work in the world. When we are using the gifts God gives us, when we are in the zone, so to speak, it is more than just a song sung or a good deed done or money given or a prayer prayed or a lesson taught or a note of encouragement jotted on a card or a casserole baked and delivered to a sick friend or a word of witness shared with a co-worker… it is the Holy Spirit at work within and through you.
The word of instruction is that a person manage his or her gift or gifts well…
A. Manage your gifts well. One of the most important things to remember in managing one’s gifts is to know them and use them. By that I mean, you and I can make our lives count most when we do what we do best.
As you know, I have several opportunities every year to sit down with a family and listen as they describe the life of their loved one. Recently, in preparation for writing a eulogy, I listened as they described their mother. “She was not one who wished to be a leader… She did not want to be in charge and was not comfortable in that kind of role. But she loved to help out in any way she could.” She knew herself and did what she did best.
On February 4, two teams will take the field in Super Bowl XLI. Rex Grossman will be the quarterback for the Chicago Bears and Peyton Manning will be the quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts. Lovie Smith, coach of the Bears and Tony Dungy, coach of the Colts would not think of playing either player at any other position… quarterbacking is what they do best. Lovie Smith would never move Rex Grossman to the middle linebacker position and Brian Urlacher to the quarterback position. If he did the offense would collapse and the defense would tank.
Christians best serve others and God by serving in the right place and doing what they do best. In the faith community we have different areas of interest and ability and places of service. The objective is to be in that place and do the thing or things for which God has equipped you so his love can flow through you.
B. Let God’s love flow through you.
Over the years we have heard about the Secret Santa who always appeared in the Kansas City area during the Christmas season. He revealed his identity and died soon after. He was Larry Stewart of Lee’s Summit, Missouri. For the last twenty-six years he has been doling our $100 bills to needy folks every Christmas.
In the winter of 1971, while working as a door-to-door salesman, the company for which he worked went out of business. He was desperate and out of money when he went into a diner and ordered a breakfast, which he later admitted he could not pay for. Ted Horn, who was the owner of the diner feigned finding a $20 bill under his chair and said, “Son, you must have dropped this.”
Stewart said that he said to himself, “Thank you Lord,” and made a promise to God that if he was ever in a position to do so, he would help other people.
Over the years he estimated that he had given away over $1.3 million saying, “After all, isn’t that what we are put here on earth to do… help one another?” (Santa Shares His Secret, USA Today, 12.22.06)
Larry Stewart was in the zone when he was being generous with others.
And third, it is not just when we do what we do best but also doing what we do the best we can do it.
III. Do your best in whatever you do.
[Whatever your gift, talent, or skill] “Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies.” I Peter 4::11
A. Speak as though God were speaking through you.
In a speech to jr. high school students, just six months before his death, Martin Luther King Jr. said, If it falls your lot to be a street sweeper, sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures, sweep streets like Beethoven composed music, sweep streets like Shakespeare wrote poetry. Sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will have to pause and say: ‘Here lived a great street sweeper who swept his job well.’”
It is a biblical concept… “…whatever you do, you must do all for the glory of God.” (I Corinthians 10:31) In Colossians 3:17 Paul instructs us, “Whatever you do or say, let it be as a representative of the Lord Jesus…”
B. We also do whatever we do with all the strength and energy God supplies
It was reported in the Chicago Tribune Magazine on August 4, 2002 that every day Paul Harvey’s alarm clock rings at 3:30A.M. home in West suburban River Forest. His routine never varies: He brushes his teeth, showers, shaves, gets dressed, eats oatmeal, gets into his car and drives downtown. It all takes a well-organized 45 minutes or so.
He dresses formally in a dress shirt, coat and tie, as if he was going to an important business meeting. "It is all about discipline," Harvey says. "I could go to work in my pajamas, but long ago I got some advice from the engineer for my friend Billy Graham’s radio show. If you don’t [use discipline] in every area, you’ll lose your edge." (“And now you know the rest of the story…”)
Our lives are most likely to count for others and for God if we do our best at whatever we do.
C. So we do it so God will be glorified.
A quote lifted from Leadership, Vol. 6, no. 2 states, “Badness you can get easily, in quantity: the road is smooth and lies close by. But in front of excellence, long and steep is the way to it, and rough at first. But, when you come to the top, then it is easy, even though it is hard.
Our lives count when we do what we best as best as we can do it… in ways that others are blessed and God is glorified.
Conclusion
Bonnie and I were blessed to be in Chicago last week when our two new grandsons arrived from Liberia. One of the little jobs that fell to me was installing training wheels on a bicycle and getting the bike all tuned up for Samson. It has been my tradition to give tools to my children at Christmas time so I was pleased to see that I had what I needed to attach the training wheels. But… the handlebars were loose and the tightening required a set of Allen Wrenches.
The Allen Wrench was the trademark for the Allen Manufacturing Company in Hartford, Connecticut in 1943. The actually originated in Europe and is known by a number of other names there. Essentially, an Allen Wrench is a hex-key that is used to torque headless screws.
It was a job that could only be done correctly by an Allen Wrench or hex-key. The only tool that would be in the zone was an Allen Wrench. A screwdriver could not be in the zone. A Crescent Wrench could not be in the zone. A pliers could not be in the zone. None of those tools is designed to do what the Allen Wrench is designed to do.
We are each uniquely designed by God to do the thing or things for which we were designed… and it when we are doing those things that our lives are most effective in blessing others and glorifying God.
