We’re beginning a new three-part series today on Simple Living.
Why this topic?
First of all, the Bible teaches simple living. So from that, we know it’s important.
Secondly, complicated living is killing us. It’s keeping us from experiencing life the way our Creator meant for us to enjoy it. Too much of the time we’re anxious and worried. We’re exhausted and stressed out. We don’t know which way to turn so we don’t do anything. We become apathetic and depressed when we have so much that ought to make us enthusiastic and happy! We frown when we ought to be smiling. We’re down when we have so much to be up about. That’s why we’re going to talk about biblical solutions for remedying this situation. This is the time of year for vacation so we’re going to slow down and catch our breath by re-emphasizing what God says about practicing a simple way of life.
Don’t be afraid of this series. Just because we’re going to be talking about simple living doesn’t mean that we’re going to be advocating selling your car and buying a horse and buggy – although that thought may have crossed your mind lately with the high price of gasoline. We’re not going to be talking about living without electricity or raising all of your own food. We’re going to place emphasis on the attitudes and actions of simplistic living that will restore our vigor for life – things that will re-energize us!
Speaking of simple living, my niece likes those Chicken Soup books and she’s got me reading some of them. I read a story recently from one of them about a woman whose husband died, who met a man who lost his wife and after a while found out they were a good match to get remarried to one another. Even their teenage children agreed they should get married. While they were excited about their upcoming marriage, they realized that they didn’t need any more crystal vases, blenders, toasters, etc., so this was their invitation: “Phil, Richard, Karen, and Allison – and John, Matt and Steve request the honor of your presence at the marriage of their Mother and Father. Because they are combining two households, they already have at least two of everything. So please, no presents! Reception and garage sale immediately following the ceremony!” (Chicken Soup for the Golden Soul)
We could look to several different places in the Word of God on the subject of simple living but we’re going to finish something we started back in February of 2007 – a year and a half ago. Back then we went through the first three chapters of Paul’s letter to the church at Ephesus. This month we’ll be looking at the final three chapters in that letter.
Our series back then was, “Be Contagious.” We talked about the contagious aspect of God’s grace! And we talked about things like: “Amazing Grace in Simple Terms;” “No Perfect People Allowed;” and “The Church Has Left the Building.” [The church is the huddle and when we leave here we’re getting out into the game.] [If you weren’t here for those messages I encourage you to read them on the Internet.] Paul builds a solid foundation on the spiritual wealth of the Christ follower in the first three chapters of his Ephesian letter. We are rich “in Christ” because of God’s amazing grace!
In the second half of his letter, which we’ll be grabbing hold of this month, he writes about maintaining a way-of-life based upon the spiritual wealth that God has given us. Those of us following Christ are spiritually rich and God’s Word teaches us how to act like it.
You say, “I wouldn’t know how to act like a rich person.” Well, imagine that someone gave you a huge sum of money. What do you imagine doing in response to the gift? You think about quitting your job and going on vacation full time. Or you think about all the things you’d buy and the places you’d go. You think about the family members and friends you’d give money to. You think about that big fat check you’d write to Pathway Church!
Of course that’s just a dream.
We’re not financially rich enough to fulfill those fantasies but spiritually we are rich enough to lavish some great gifts on other people! That’s the theme of the Ephesian letter in the Bible. Every single, solitary follower of Christ is spiritually rich! How spiritually rich are we?
In Christ, (that’s the key, we must be “In Christ.”) God has given us every spiritual blessing in the heavenly world. Ephesians 1:3b (NCV)
Circle that entire verse of Scripture. This is phenomenal information! If you’re not “in Christ” I’d be thinking about making a faith commitment to Him today! If you are “in Christ” you’re spiritually rich!
That’s the kind of thing God wants us to remember in the first half of the Ephesian letter.
Then, in the second half, the stuff we’re going to talk about this month, he tells us how to spend our spiritual capital. And this time it’s no fantasy. We have been given this enormous spiritual treasure “in Christ” that is ours to translate into spiritual spending.
And what is so thrilling is that getting to these spiritual riches is not a complicated process. Sharing them is not a complicated process. It is simple the way the Bible breaks it down. We who follow Christ have all these riches to share with simplicity.
SIMPICITY MAXIMS
ACCEPT OTHERS SIMPLY
…I urge you who have been chosen by God to live up to the life to which God called you. 2 Always be humble, gentle, and patient, accepting each other in love. 3 You are joined together with peace through the Spirit, so make every effort to continue together in this way. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, and God called you to have one hope. 5 There is one Lord, one faith, and one baptism. 6 There is one God and Father of everything. He rules everything and is everywhere and is in everything. 7 Christ gave each one of us the special gift of grace, showing how generous he is. Ephesians 4:1-7 (NCV)
God’s simple plan for our relationships with others is to “accept each other in love.” Circle that phrase in verse 2. God simply tells us to “accept each other in love.”
We, on the other hand, try to make all of these complicated formulas for acceptance. Our human nature isn’t always ready to receive others and welcome them into our spheres of friendship until they’ve jumped through the arbitrary hoops we’ve set up for them.
“I’ll accept them if they have the same opinions I have, or if they always do what I want them to do. If they have the same color of skin or they’re in the same class of society…” We could go on ad nauseum.
God says acceptance is based on one thing alone: love. That’s simplifies it. God loves me and shared His grace with me even though I don’t deserve it. And now He calls upon me to, well, reconsider verse two, “Always be humble, gentle, and patient, accepting each other in love.” God is gracious and gentle and patient with me because of His love for me – and I am to turn around and act humble, gentle, and patient with others – not because they always deserve it – but because I am imitating God. I don’t have to have rules for whether or not I show love to other people. I simply love them like God loves me. God has made it simple for us.
Queen Victoria, one of the most ceremonial of British monarchs, was once at a diplomatic reception in London. The guest of honor was an African chieftain. All went well during the meal until, at the end, finger bowls were distributed for everyone so that they could rinse their fingers after the meal. The guest of honor had never seen a British finger bowl, and no one had thought to brief him beforehand about their purpose. So he took the finger bowl in his hands, lifted it to his mouth, and drank its contents – down to the very last drop.
For an instant there was breathless silence among the British upper crust and then they began to whisper to one another. All that stopped instantly as the Queen, Victoria, silently took her finger bowl in her two hands, lifted it, and drank its contents! A moment later, 500 surprised British ladies and gentlemen simultaneously drank the contents of their own finger bowls.
It was “against the rules” to drink from a finger bowl, but on that particular evening Victoria changed the rules.
Always, always, always remember that RELATIONSHIPS ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN RULES!
Our flesh is always trying to focus selfishly inward and the Word of God is constantly encouraging us to unselfish displays of the grace of God that has been given us.
The first MAXIM for a SIMPLE LIFE, and all of the peace and joy that comes with it, is to ACCEPT OTHERS SIMPLY – SIMPLY ON THE BASIS OF LOVE.
Secondly,
SERVE OTHERS SIMPLY
11 And Christ gave gifts to people—he made some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to go and tell the Good News, and some to have the work of caring for and teaching God’s people.12 Christ gave those gifts to prepare God’s holy people for the work of serving, to make the body of Christ stronger.13 This work must continue until we are all joined together in the same faith and in the same knowledge of the Son of God. We must become like a mature person, growing until we become like Christ and have his perfection.
16 The whole body depends on Christ, and all the parts of the body are joined and held together. Each part does its own work to make the whole body grow and be strong with love. Ephesians 4:11-13,16 (NCV)
The list of spiritual gifts here is only partial. Listings of other spiritual gifts may be found in Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12 and 1 Peter 4. There are somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 spiritual gifts listed in all. Here Paul lists the church leadership gifts of apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastor-teachers. But the application he makes in verse 16 is what we want to zero in on right now.
16 The whole body depends on Christ, and all the parts of the body are joined and held together. Each part does its own work to make the whole body grow and be strong with love.
Circle, “each part does its own work.” That’s pretty simple. When you become a follower of Christ you have work to do. You have service to God and others to carry out. But not to worry. God gives you the spiritual gifts that enable you to go to work. He gives you the tools.
Many Christ followers mistakenly believe that they have nothing to offer. Nothing could be further from the truth!
Dr. Bill Bright of Campus Crusade for Christ told the story of a famous oil field called Yates Pool: During the Great Depression this field was a sheep ranch owned by a man named Yates. Mr. Yates wasn’t able to make enough on his ranching operation to pay the principal and interest on the mortgage, so he was in danger of losing his ranch. With little money for clothes or food, his family (like many others) had to live on government subsidy. Day after day, as he grazed his sheep over those rolling West Texas hills, he was greatly troubled about how he would pay his bills. Then a seismographic crew from an oil company came into the area and told him there might be oil on his land. They asked permission to drill a wildcat well, and he signed a lease contract. At 1,115 feet they struck a huge oil reserve. The first well came in at 80,000 barrels a day. Many subsequent wells were more than twice as large. In fact, 30 years after the discovery, a government test of one of the wells showed it still had the potential flow of 125,000 barrels of oil a day. And Mr. Yates owned it all. The day he purchased the land he had received the oil and mineral rights. Yet, he’d been living on relief. A multimillionaire living in poverty. The problem? He didn’t know the oil was there even though he owned it.
If you are a Christ follower, the day you received Christ you were spiritually gifted by God to go to work in ways that would bring glory to Him, help to others, and give you a peace of fulfilling your purpose.
Many Christians live in spiritual poverty. They are entitled to the gifts of the Holy Spirit and his energizing power, but they are not aware of their birthright.
Without going into an extensive explanation of spiritual gifts right now, let’s just say that you have three responsibilities concerning those gifts. Discover your gifts – every Christ follower has at least one. Develop your gifts, and deploy your gifts.
It’s the deployment of spiritual gifts that our Scripture text is talking about. The whole body, the body of Christ, the church, grows stronger as each person does his or her work. How do we know what work we’re supposed to do? It’s simple. We do what God gifted us to do. I’m a pastor-teacher because that’s one of the spiritual gifts God gave me. Any glory for the work goes to Him. It’s His gift. I’m just putting it to use.
Some of you have been given gifts of hospitality, giving, administration, service, teaching, mercy, faith, helping evangelism, encouragement, etc. If you’d like to take our TEAM Ministry test sometime to see what spiritual gifts you might have, feel free to ask me about it. TEAM stands for "Together Everyone Achieves More."
That’s what the Bible is talking about here. The simple plan is not for one person to do all the work in the church, not even for just a handful to do it, but God’s simple plan is for every individual member of the body of Christ to have a job to do – a job that corresponds with his or her spiritual giftedness.
When you do the things God gifted you to do you don’t have to worry about other what other people do. You get to experience the peace of mind of knowing that you’re doing what God wants you to do because you’re doing what He gifted you to do. Simple.
Rick Warren has said in his book “Purpose Driven Life” that there are 2 main problems when thinking about spiritual gifts. One is called “gift-envy”. This means that we compare our gifts to others. In doing that, we might feel tempted to feel jealous of others or feel dissatisfied with what God has given us. The second problem is “gift-projection”. This happens when you expect other people to have your gift, do things as you do them and to feel the same way you do about that subject with the same passion.
Both of these errors complicate what God established as a simple process: discover, develop and deploy the spiritual gifts that He has given you and don’t worry about other people’s gifts.
First maxim of simple living: Accept others simply. Just love people.
Second maxim: Serve others simply. You don’t have to be a great theologian or scholar. You don’t have to be rich and famous. Just go to work using the spiritual riches God has given you through the Holy Spirit.
Thirdly…
PRACTICE SIMPLE CONVERSATION
29 When you talk, do not say harmful things, but say what people need—words that will help others become stronger. Then what you say will do good to those who listen to you.30 And do not make the Holy Spirit sad. The Spirit is God’s proof that you belong to him. God gave you the Spirit to show that God will make you free when the final day comes.31 Do not be bitter or angry or mad. Never shout angrily or say things to hurt others. Never do anything evil.32 Be kind and loving to each other, and forgive each other just as God forgave you in Christ. Ephesians 4:29-32 (NCV)
We were driving home last weekend when our youngest daughter put in a CD that she knew Deb and I would enjoy hearing – The Carpenters Greatest Hits.” When Karen Carpenter and her older brother Richard first started singing, one of the critics that covered the band referred to her as "Richard’s chubby little sister." And that comment demoralized her. From that moment on, every time she looked in the mirror, she said to herself, "I’m Richard’s chubby little sister." And she started taking drugs to lose weight. And she became bulimic and anorexic. Those critical words ate at her on the inside. And she died of heart failure at the age of 32. What a tragic example of someone who was conquered by the careless words of another person.
There are so many good pieces of advice in our Scripture. They’re all simple.
“Say what people need – words that will help others become stronger…Don’t be bitter or angry or mad. Never shout angrily or say things to hurt others.”
We were asleep in our son’s apartment the other night - it must have been 2 or 3 in the morning - when we heard this loud thumping, and angry voices yelling. The couple in the next apartment was having fireworks after the fireworks. The Bible says we don’t have to live that way. There’s a better way to communicate. Better than saying things we later regret - things that hurt and cut and bruise hearts and minds.
Never do anything evil. 32 Be kind and loving to each other, and forgive each other just as God forgave you in Christ.
Simple stuff.
You might think that simple things won’t make a difference but they will.
Jack Eckerd, founder of the Eckerd Drug Store chain, was successful because he knew the value of simple things. He spent most of his time in his stores talking to employees and customers. That’s where he learned that simple things make a big difference. He called it the “lesson of the red rubber balls.”
One day, he noticed that a display of red rubber balls was completely full. The big red rubber balls were not selling. He asked his top-level management why this was the case, and of course, they had no idea. (Top-level people rarely understand bottom-level problems.) So, he asked one of the clerks why she thought they were not selling.
Without hesitation she explained what should have been obvious. “Children are the ones who want red rubber balls. The balls are displayed on the top shelf where the children can barely see them, much less get their hands on them.” The red balls were moved to the lower shelf and soon sold out. Simple changes make a big difference!
Do you need to make simple changes in your conversation? Are you accepting others simply? Are you serving others simply? Commit yourself to making changes toward simplicity. If you’re in Christ you are spiritually rich enough to pull it off. If you’re not in Christ make that faith commitment to Him today. It’s simple.
