Don’t Waste Your Life
The Purpose Driven Life, part 1
David K. Flowers (Rick Warren)
Wildwind Community Church
October 14, 2007
I don’t know about you, but I hate wasting my time. I especially hate it when others waste my time. The older I get, the more this bothers me, maybe because the older I get the less time I have available to waste! What about you? By show of hands, did anyone get up this morning and come here because you are convinced we’re going to waste your time for 90 minutes? Was anyone just looking for a way to kill an hour or two so you figured this is as good a place as any?
How about the other way around. Did you come here this morning hoping, and maybe even believing, that it WOULDN’T be a waste of time? Did you come here expecting that the time would be time well-invested? I’ll bet most of you did. Church is a lousy place to waste time anyway, isn’t it? If you’re not really interested in the topic, then you have to sit there all that time in a room with a bunch of other people, try to stay awake or find a comfortable and non-obvious way of sleeping, sit on hard metal chairs (here at Wildwind), and just generally not have any fun at all. So you may not be a time-waster at church, but what about other areas of life? Are you using your time in the best way possible? Are you wasting time? What does it mean to use our time wisely? That question matters, because your time is your life. When you waste time, you waste your life. And when your time is done, so are you!
Ephesians, 5:15-17.
“Be careful how you live, not as fools but as those who are wise. Make the most of every opportunity for doing good in these evil days. Don’t act thoughtlessly, but try to understand what the Lord wants you to do.”
Now notice, it says, “be careful how you live”. The opposite of careful is what?…careless. It says, don’t be careless. Literally in the Greek here it means “don’t stumble through life; don’t just drift through life”. Think it through, know what you’re here for, know your purpose and it says there, “make the most of every opportunity, be wise” and then it says, “try to understand what God wants you to do”. If I would ask you to be honest, how many of you would say, you really would like to know what God wants you to do with your life? How many would say it? I think most of us, if not all of us. Well, you’re in luck…because starting this week, we’re going to look intently for 40 Days at what God wants you to do with your life. It says “don’t be foolish, be wise. Know what God wants you to do with your life”. We’re going to look at the five purposes that God has created you for and it’s going to be quite a journey. In other words, we’re going to look at how you can avoid wasting your life. You only have one of them!
To get us started, I just want us to think about three important questions of life. What does God want? What does it take? Why should I do it? We’re going to look at these today.
First, what does God want from you? Well, when you read through the whole Bible, you can summarize it in a couple of words. He wants your whole life. He wants my entire life. There is not a single verse in the Bible, not one, that says you can be a Christian and live your life any old way you want to. It’s just not there. God wants all of you. He doesn’t want 10% of you, He doesn’t want 50% of you, He doesn’t want 99% of you – He wants all of you. C.S. Lewis once said, “The only thing Christianity cannot be is moderately important”. If it’s really true, then it deserves everything you’ve got. If it’s not true, you shouldn’t be here right now. It’s either true, and that should determine the rest of your life, or you should just chuck it and go do whatever you want to do.
There are always a lot of people sitting on the fence. Sometimes it’s because they say, “Well, I don’t know what God wants me to do”.
Deuteronomy 10:12 (NCV)
(12) …this is what the Lord your God wants you to do: Respect the Lord your God, and do what he has told you to do. Love him. Serve the Lord your God with your whole being…
A lot of people try to sit on the fence. They say, “Well, I’ll serve God in my spare time”. It’s like I have this pie – I have my social life, and I have my career and I have my sex life, you know I have my family life and over here I have my spiritual life - as if your spiritual life is one part of the pie. Wrong. God’s the whole pie. He wants the whole pie to be under His control. He wants your whole being. (We’ll discuss this more next week when we talk about worship.)
There’s this myth in our society that says you can do it all, you can have it all. The truth is that you can’t. Here’s the fact:
Matthew 6:24 (NIV)
(24) "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.
Notice Jesus doesn’t say you “should not” serve God and money – He says you “cannot” serve God and money. He says it’s impossible. What’s He talking about? He’s saying it is impossible to have two number one priorities in your life. You’re always going to have a No.1, and everything else is going to be 2,3,4 and 5. You can’t have two number one priorities.
Now there are a lot of things besides money that can push God out of First Place in your life. Work, play, sports, hobbies, friends, school, dating, family, even church work, right? Jesus says you can’t serve God and something else at the same time.
So the question here is “what’s going to be First Place in your life?” Is building your career going to be the No. 1 goal in your life? Is the No. 1 goal in your life raising your family? Is the No. 1 goal of your life going to be saving for retirement? Is the No. 1 goal of your life going to be maintaining your good health? Will it be having fun? You see, all of those things are good. In fact, God created them. And God approves of every one of those things, except when any of them are in First Place. God says,
Deuteronomy 5:7 (BBE)
(7) You are to have no other gods but me.
And whatever is in first place in your life is your god. And any time you have something in your life that’s No. 1 that’s not God, that’s called an idol. A huge portion of the Old Testament in the Bible is God dealing with people who are continually worshipping idols. Most of us don’t bow down anymore to poles of wood and stone, but our idols are all the things we place #1 in our lives before God.
Have you been trying to live a part-time Christian life? The first question of life is –what does God want? He wants all of you. And any time you sit on the fence, you lose. What does God want? He wants all of you.
Question #2 – What does it take?
What does it take to not waste my life? What does it take to become all that God wants me to be? Well, I’m going to say it in one word. It’s a very unpopular word. We really don’t like this word. But it’s the word “discipline”. Proverbs 10:17 says, “Whoever practices discipline is on the way to life”. You cannot be a disciple without discipline. The two words go together - disciple and discipline. You can’t be a disciple of Jesus without discipline.
Now, what is discipline? That’s easy. Discipline is delayed gratification. That’s all it is. Delayed gratification. Discipline is doing the difficult thing now, in order to enjoy the benefit later. Now some of you don’t even need this definition, because you’re incredibly disciplined. Some of you are very disciplined in your work, your career. You plan your day, you’re always on time, you’re conscientious in your work habits. Some of you are very disciplined in your physical workouts. You never miss a physical workout. It’s in your routine, in your schedule. Some of you never miss a favorite T.V. show. And of course, many people never miss a meal!
No one can say they are without discipline. Everyone is disciplined in some areas. You know where you’re disciplined? In the areas you want to be. The things that are important to you, you get done. What if you were as disciplined in having a daily quiet time as you are in never missing a meal? What if you were as disciplined in serving others as you are in getting up and going to work everyday? What if you were as disciplined in attending church as you are in watching that favorite T.V. show that you never miss?
You know, there’s another word for discipline . It’s the word “habits”. Habits are simply disciplines and you are the sum total of your habits. Tell me what you do habitually, and I’ll tell you what your character is. If you habitually tell the truth, you have integrity. If you are habitually faithful to your spouse, you are a faithful person. It’s what you do over and over and over without even thinking. If it’s a habit, it’s a part of your life and your whole life is designed, shaped, controlled, developed by your habits. And if you want to change your life, all you have to do is change your habits. Now one of the major goals of 40 Days of Purpose is to help you develop some new spiritual habits.
Hebrews 12:1
Let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily hinders our progress.
There are two things that limit your potential in life. There are two things that waste your life. And He says, “You’ve got to let go of these things”. One of them is “sins” and the other is “weights”. Now, you know what sins are…breaking one of the commandments of God. But what’s a “weight”? Well, a weight is something that’s not necessarily wrong; it’s just not necessary. Have you thought of that? There’re some things in life that are not necessarily wrong; they’re just not necessary. A weight can be all kinds of things. It could be a relationship, it could be an expectation, it could be an activity, it could be a club, it could be a memory that you refuse to let go of, it could be a fear, it could be a job. There are a thousand, or hundred thousand different kinds of weights. And the Bible says, “to grow, I must learn to say no”. You can’t say, “yes” to everything. You have to say “no” to some things. You have to say “no” often to good things in order to have time for the best things. You have to say “no” to things that are not bad. In fact, they’re quite good, but you say “no” to them because you cannot do it all and have it all. And one of the reasons we have a hard time letting go of activities is we tie our identity to them. But if you are serious about fulfilling your purpose in life, you have to make space for God in your life. And if you’re going to make space for God in your life, you’re going to have to cut some stuff out. And I’m not just talking about sin, I’m talking about some good stuff.
My friends, I’m concerned about you. You can’t keep adding things to your schedule. Most of you who I know personally – you’ve just got way too much going. And we’re getting ready to add three new habits to your schedule. A daily devotional reading of about 15 minutes a day, which will help you understand God’s purposes for your life; a weekly meeting in a small group for six weeks that will help you understand God’s purposes for your life; and a weekly verse to memorize that probably will take you about five minutes, which will help you understand God’s purposes for your life. I’m telling you right now as your Pastor who cares about you; you need to decide right now what you’re going to cut out before you start 40 Days of Purpose. You can put so many irons in the fire that you put out the fire.
Your life’s already overcrowded, but not everything in your life is of equal value. So you need to ask, “What am I going to stop doing?” Any time you take on a new activity in your calendar, any time you take on a new habit, a new skill, a new commitment you should say, “What am I not going to do?”
Now, there’s another discipline I think you might consider as we get ready to go into this 40 Days and that’s the discipline of putting first things first. A good example is found in Luke 10:40-42. It talks about a couple of friends of Jesus, Mary and Martha, who are sisters. Jesus had come to visit at their home. And the Bible says, “Martha was distracted by her many tasks”. Let me stop there. Do any of you identify with that phrase? Martha was distracted by her many tasks, running around cleaning and fluffing pillows and dusting and making dinner. And she came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her to help me.” You see, Mary had gone and just sat at the feet of Jesus. But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you’re worried and distracted by many things”, “but there is a need of only one thing” and Mary has chosen the better part. What’s He talking about? Jesus said, “If it comes down to spending time with me, or washing the dishes, there’s no competition”.
Let me ask you, do you find yourself like Martha? Do tasks on your to-do list distract you from focusing on God? Is your life so busy, you don’t have time to stop, even for 40 Days and focus on God? You will live an average of 25,550 days. That’s what the average person lives. Don’t you think it would be smart to take 40 of those days to figure out what you should do with the rest of them? I think so. I think that’s pretty wise. You get distracted by tasks, but as you know, not every task is of equal value. The best use of your life is to invest it in that which will outlast it. I will be talking to you about this a lot more in some other series we’ll be doing this year.
Notice the phrase there, “Mary has chosen the better part”. Look at that word “chosen.” There’s a choice here. You say, “Dave, I just can’t get it all done”. You’re right. But you know what? It isn’t all worth doing. You don’t have to do it all. Nobody’s holding a gun to your head, saying you have to do it all. God doesn’t expect you to do it all. A lot of things in your “all” are self-imposed and they’re really not mandatory. You just do them – out of expectations or other things. You’ve got the time. You’ve got the time to grow spiritually. Do you want to make the time? Will you make the time, make the choice? Will you, like Mary, choose the better part?
Psalms 39:6
“All our busy rushing, ends in nothing”.
That one ought to go on the dashboard or the mirror. “All our busy rushing, ends in nothing”.
Proverbs 10:27
“Reverence for the Lord adds hours to each day”.
Put God first, and God says, “I’ll bring everything else into focus.”
So what does God want? He wants all of you, every part of you. That’s what he wants. What’s it going to take to grow? It’s going to take discipline. You can’t be a disciple without discipline.
Question #3: Why should I do it?
Why should I make the effort to grow spiritually? Why should I let go of some things to make time for God in my life? Well, there are many benefits and we can spend the rest of the day just talking about those. But even if there were no benefits at all, right here on earth I can tell you the reason why you ought to do it in two words – the Cross. Because of the Cross. Jesus gave His life completely for you and He expects your life in return.
Romans 12:1
“Brothers and sisters, in view of all we have just shared about God’s compassion, I encourage you offer your bodies as living sacrifices, dedicated to God and pleasing to Him”.
It cost Jesus to die for you and it’s going to cost you to live for Him. But He deserves it, because you would have no destiny if it weren’t for the Cross. You would have no destiny. But because of the Cross, you will live forever and you owe Him your life.
People matter to God. It’s far more important than anything else on your to-do list – the eternal destiny of people, including your own! Now I urge you, don’t miss out on the next 40 days. If you’re not in a group, see Brent after church and get into one. If you don’t have the time, make the time.
2 Corinthians 6:1
“We beg you, please don’t squander one bit of this marvelous life God has given us”.
You ever wanted to be a part of a miracle? Well now’s your chance. The very first verse we read today was this “Make the most of every opportunity you get”. God has given you a great opportunity in the next 40 Days…don’t let it pass by. Don’t sit on the fence. Don’t watch from the sideline. Would you pray with me?
Father, would you open the eyes of our hearts so that we can see our spiritual need. May we see that we will be actually be happier, more at peace, and better off by doing whatever it takes in these next 40 days to realign our lives and allow you to show us your purposes for us. God crush our excuses and reveal them to us as the lies they are. Please give us spiritual eyes to see and spiritual ears to hear. In the name of Jesus – Amen.
