Living A No Regrets Life
One Month To Live (week 7)
QUESTION – does anyone here like to watch movies? DO – you have a top ten list? you have an all time favorite? NOW – my all time favorite movie came out in 1995 it was produced and directed by Mel Gibson who also starred in the title role. The movie - ‘Braveheart.’
The story is based on the life of William Wallace who lived in the late 1200’s.
In A.D. 1280 Edward I of England, known as "Longshanks," occupies much of Scotland, and his oppressive rule there leads to the deaths of William Wallace’s father and brother. AFTER – their death Wallace leaves Scotland to be rasied by His uncle. Years later, he returns and finds that his countrymen continue to live under the harsh thumb of Longshanks’. HOWEVER - Wallace is intent on simply living as a farmer and avoiding involvement in the ongoing "Troubles." HE – quickly rekindles a romance with his childhood friend Murron after showing her the carefully preserved flower she gave him as a child, and the two marry in secret. A little later on Wallace beats up a group of English soldiers attempting to rape her. IN RESPONSE - the village Sheriff publicly cuts Murron’s throat before Wallace is able to save her. Wallace is enraged – he returns to the village as if to surrender – BUT INSTEAD - with the assistance of his fellow villagers, slaughters the entire English garrison.
NOW – for years the Scots have been looking for a true leader, one whose motives are their freedom not self interests. AS – his legend spreads, hundreds of Scots from the surrounding clans volunteer to join Wallace’s militia. Wallace leads his army through a series of successful battles against the English, including the Battle of Stirling and sacking the city of York.
AS – the movie progresses Wallace experiences: victory and defeat – love and betrayl… A BETRAYL – that leads to him being brought to London to be tried for high treason.
I want to show a clip from that movie. Wallace is in prison awaiting his execution when Princess Isabelle comes to see Him…
“Every man dies. Not every man really lives.”
INCREDIBLE MOVIE… (yeah I know you want to go home and watch it again)… AND THOSE – words… MAN - they are so true. I MEAN – there are over 6 billion people who are living in this world right now… BUT - how many are alive? HOW MANY – are ‘really’ living?
AND LET’S – bring the question closer to home… THERE ARE – about 150 people in this room right now - who are living (150 hearts are beating, 150 bodies breathing in and out)… BUT – the question is, how many of us are really alive? HOW MANY OF US – are LIVING FULLY the life God created us to live? HOW MANY OF US – are actually experiencing the abundant life that Jesus bought for us on a blood stained cross 2000 years ago?
UNDERSTAND – God’s intention for us (His children… created in His image and recreated in His Christ) is LIFE! A life of:
• Inexpressible and glorious joy
• Peace beyond understanding
• Joy in the midst of hardship
• Hope that is living
• Perfect love that drives out ALL fear
• Where our deepest hungers are satisfied and our thirsty souls quenched
•
YES – God’s intention for us is life! IS – for us to be ALIVE! Fully Alive! Abundantly living! BUT – those intentions are opposed. AND - Jesus (God in the flesh) could not have made that truth any clearer then he did in John chapter 10.
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full… - John 10:10
IN – his amazing and life impacting book (Waking The Dead)… John Eldredge asks this question;
Have you ever wondered why Jesus married those 2 statements? Did you know he spoke them at the same time? I mean, he said them in one breathe. And he has his reasons. By all means, God intends life for you. But right now that life is opposed. It doesn’t just roll in on a tray. There is a thief. He comes to steal, kill and destroy. IN – other words, yes, the offer is life, but you’re going to have to fight for it because there’s an Enemy in your life with a different agenda.
There is something set against us.
We are at war…
CS Lewis in Mere Christianity, put it like this, “There is no neutral ground in the universe; every square inch, every split second is claimed by God and counterclaimed by satan.
QUESTION – what do you think about those words? Do you believe them? Do you think they’re true? OR – do you think CS & John are being overly dramatic for the purposes of writing a book? I MEAN - does the bible ever talk about this war stuff? YEAH – you bet it does… IN FACT - even a quick read of the Bible is enough to convince anyone that war is the central theme of God’s activity.
• IN EXODUS – God goes to war to free His captive people
• THEN – there’s war to get to, get into and then later to keep the promise land;
WAR – is all over the OT. AND UBDERSTAND – this war theme did not end back in the BC’s… JESUS SAID, in Matthew 10:34; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. IN FACT – Jesus’ birth involved a great battle in heaven.
1A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. 2She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. 3Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads. 4His tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that he might devour her child the moment it was born. 5She gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter… 7And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. 8But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven… 17Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to make war against the rest of her offspring—those who obey God’s commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus.
- Revelation 12:1-5,7-8,17
UNDERSTAND – the birth of Christ was an act of war, IT – was an invasion. THE - Enemy knew it that’s why he tried to kill Jesus as a baby. AND – if you really think about it, the whole life of Christ is marked by battle and confrontation.
• JESUS – kicks out demons with a stern command
• HE – rebukes blindness, leprosy and disease and they flee
• HE – commands a storm to chill out and it does
• HE – confronts the Pharisees head on, time and again to free God’s people from the chains of legalism
• IN – a loud voice HE wakes Lazarus from the dead.
• HE – descends to hell, wrestles the keys of death and the grave from Satan and leads a train of captives free
• AND – when He returns He will mount a horse of war, with His robe in dipped blood armed for battle (Rev 19:11-15)
UNDERSTAND – war is not just one of the many themes in the Bible. It is the backdrop for the entire Story, IT’S - the context for everything else. God is at war. QUESTION – what is GOD fighting for?...
HE – is fighting for us (for you and for me)… HE’S – fighting for our freedom. HE’S – fighting for our restoration. HE’S – fighting for us to be fully alive!
NOW – you may be wondering why and I am spending so much time on all of this war talk… FIRST – because it’s true. I MEAN – Paul says to us in Ephesians chapter 6 that right now, at this very moment, we are in a battle. A BATTLE (not against flesh and blood, not against people)… BUT - against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms… (6:12)
THE SECOND REASON – for all of this war talk is because …UNTIL - we come to terms with war as the context for our days - we will misunderstand life… AND - misinterpret 90% of what happens around us, and to us.
LET ME – try to explain… WHEN – we see this huge gap between the life God ‘seems’ to promise us in Scripture and the life we ‘actually’ live…
• WE – will either think, that God intentions for us must not be abundant life after all.
• OR WE – we will feel that the reason for the gap is that we are weak and are simply blowing it..
WORSE YET – when we fail to see war as the context of our lives… we begin to accept and say some really awful things about God… THAT – 4 year old girl being molested by her daddy – that is God’s will? THE – ugly divorce that tore you family apart, that child who died at birth – God wanted that to happen to…
THE WORLD – in which we live is a combat zone, a violent clash of kingdoms, a biter struggle unto death. I’M SORRY – if I’m the one to break the bad news to you: BUT - you were born into a world at war, and you will live all your days in the midst of a great battle, involving all the forces of heaven and hell played out here on earth.
WHERE – did you think all this opposition was coming from?
TODAY – is the 7th and final week of our OMTL series for weeks. A SERIES – where we are asking that life clarifying question, ‘what would I do if I only had one month to live’ AS – we trying to BOTH figure out, and live, a life that really matters.
AND UNDERSTAND – the reason I wanted to do this series in the first place is because I want everyone of us - to ‘really’ live before we die.
NOW PERHAPS – back on March 23 when we kicked this OMTL thing off, you had high hopes that this series would be just the thing that would enable you to live the life you’ve always wanted. MAYBE – you even joined a Challenge Group and on April 1, you were all jacked up when you started reading this book… ABOUT – where God was going to take you in the next 30 days.
BUT - things didn’t turn as you had hoped… QUESTION – why has it been such a struggle? WHY – didn’t you achieve all you wanted? Is it because you are bad, weak and sinful? NO – it’s because you have an Enemy who has declared war on your life. AN ENEMY - who opposes God’s intentions for you. You are not weak, there is just someone against you who is stronger…
LISTEN – before He promised us life, Jesus warned that a thief would try to steal, kill and destroy it. QUESTION – if Jesus said that (and He did) - how come we don’t really think that the thief actually steals, kills, and destroys? AGAIN - you will not understand your life… YOU – will not see clearly what has happened to you or how to live forward from here, unless you see it in the context of a battle. A war against your heart…
JUST – a few more words Eldredge and we’ll move on…
You are not what you think you are. There is a glory to your life that the Enemy fears, and he is hell-bent on destroying that glory before you act on it… The story of your life is the story of the long and brutal assault on your heart by the one who knows what you could be and fears it.
OKAY – there are only 2 main in your notes: What God has taught us and What we need…
What God Has Taught Us…
OKAY – what I want to do for the next few minutes is REMIND you of what God taught us each week during the OMTL series. HE – has taught us some amazing and incredible things. AND – don’t forget that you can hear all of these messages on our web site.
Week One - The Easter Door
MAN - Easter Sunday flat out rocked at 2413 S Goldenrod. AND ON – Resurrection Sunday we talked about how God’s intention for us is life, life in all of it’s fullness… BUT HOW – something keeps getting in the way… THERE IS – a wall between us and God, A wall of sin and guilt.
• Guilt for the time you lost your temper.
• Guilt for the day you lost control.
• Guilt for the years you lost your priorities.
• Guilt for the hour you lost your innocence.
• Guilt for
• Guilt for
One guilty stone after another. AND – after awhile that wall gets pretty big. AND – it keeps us distant from God, separates us from Him… CAUSES - us to be afraid of Him. CHECKOUT - what God said about this wall through the prophet Isaiah 700 years before His Son put on flesh. Your sins are the roadblock between you and your God. – Isaiah 59:2 (CEV)
DO YOU – see the picture those words paint? THIS WALL – is a roadblock between you and God. BETWEEN YOU – and the life God created us to live. BETWEEN YOU – and a life that is new, full and abundant. BUT LISTEN - the Good news of Easter is that our: guilt/sins/mistakes/ and our failures are no longer the final word about our lives…! UNDERSTAND - God through the death and resurrection of His Son (defeated death, conquered sin, paid our debt in full) KNOCKING DOWN the wall and OPENING UP for all of mankind the door (The Easter Door) back to God and life…
UNDERSTAND because of His Resurrection - the door to: forgiveness is open (if you are in Christ your sins are forgiven)
The door to restoration is open (Understand God wants to do more than forgive your sins, HE – wants to restore you); God knew what he was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love him along the same lines as the life of his Son. The Son stands first in the line of humanity he restored. We see the original and intended shape of our lives there in him. – Romans 8:29 (Msg)
Week 2 - Living The Dash
ON MARCH 30th – we filled in a tombstone like the one that is in your notes this morning
with our name, the date we were born and then the year 20___ because we don’t know when that day is… Let’s do that again. YEAH – I know it’s kind of creepy.
THE TRUTH IS – your life is like a vapor. SCRIPTURE SAYS – you are a mist that a appears for a little while and then vanishes. Our lives go by so quickly, like thread on a fast moving needle. YOU – can’t control your birth or your death but you can control how you live your dash.
QUESTION – how are you living your dash? Are you living the dash, knowing fully who you are and why you’re here? OR – are you dashing to live, hurriedly spending precious time chasing things that will not really matter in the end? REMEMBER – what Jesus taught us in the parable of the talents on March 30.
1. Our Life Is A Incredible Gift From God
2. God Is Coming Back To Settle Accounts With Us
3. God Is Coming Back To Reward Us
Week 3 Live Passionately
On April 6th as we began looking at the 4 principles of the OMTL lifestyle we surveyed a portrait of Jesus living His life on this earth with great passion. AND – no one ever lived with more passion than Christ.
IN – week 3, we uncovered the power, the fuel – that enabled Jesus to consistently live with such great passion. THAT POWER – came from 2 things; what Jesus knew and what He did.
QUESTION - what did Jesus know?
• HE – knew who He was… The Christ the Son of the Living God
• HE – knew where he was going? Back home to the Father
• HE – knew His purpose (why He was here)… Jesus – had a vision for His life… To defeat sin, conquer the grave, fulfill God’s plan, finish His work and bring God’s people back home.
AND - what did Jesus do? HE – constantly maintained His connection to the Father. Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. – Luke 5:15,16.
(TIM/LAURIE) - What do we know?
We know who we are ‘children of God’ (who are we?)
• We know where we are going? To the world we have always dreamed of living in. Where are we going? “Where going home!” How long will we be there? Forever.
• We know why we are here – to do the good things God planned for us to do long before we were born and to accomplish the mission He gave us in this world
AND… - what can we do – we can constantly maintain our connection with the Father. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. – John 15:5
LISTEN – through the power of what we know and what we do – we can live a life of passion…
Week 4 - Love Completely
ON APRIL 13th – we learned that God’s love for us (His ‘tattered, torn and stained rag dolls) is: unfailing, enduring forever, unconditional, no strings attached, radical and complete.
AND – what should our response be to such radical love… REALLY let God love us completely and then go out and love other (tattered, torn and stained rag dolls) with that same love. REMEMBER – the Holy Spirit inspired sequence of 1 John 4:19, We love because He first loved us.
Week 5 - Learn Humbly
MAN – did we learn some AWESOME stuff on April 20th. SPECIFICALLY – we learned 4 ways to make the principle of learning humbly a reality in our lives.
FIRST – Learn From Your Struggles (got any?)
LEARN that… I am not, but I know I am… UNDERSTAND – my struggles are intended to teach me that..
• I am not the center of anything
• I am not in control
• I am not the solution
• I am not all powerful
• I am not all knowing
• I am not calling the shots
• I am not holding it all together
• I am not the maker
• I am not the savior
• I am not God
But I know God… I know I Am.
SECOND – Learn From Your Failures… (got any?)
Learn that I am not perfect but I follow Someone who is and He HAS forgiven me
THIRD – Learn from what you don’t know
Learn that – I don’t know everything but I can learn more
FOURTH – Live For An Audience Of One
LISTEN – if we are ever going to live humbly we need to break free from our addiction to the approval of other people - and strive to really live your life for God’s approval only… FOR - an audience of one.
WEEK 6 - Leave Boldly
FINALLY LAST WEEK – God taught us that a bold leave, that leaving behind a life that counts when the right-hand date on our tombstone is filled out… is not about how you live the final moments of your life… BUT RATHER – on how you have lived ALL the moments of your life. A BOLD LEAVE – comes from living a great life. AND – a great life is all about building our lives on and with the right things. ON – eternal things, things that last. LIKE PAUL SAID – in 1 Corinthians 3, each one should be careful how He builds… AND – the kind of life that leads to a bold leave… (do you want a bold leave) is build on 7 things…
Faith – The Foundation Of A Great Life…
Purpose – The Cornerstone Of A Great Life…
Commitment – The Power Great Life…
Service - The Expression Of A Great Life…
Love - The Heartbeat Of A Great Life
Together - The Strength Of A Great Life
We can’t do it alone and God never intended that we do it alone.
Gratitude - The Compulsion Of A Great Life…
If we are out of our mind it is for the sake of Christ… For Christ’s love compels us… – 2 Corinthians 5:13,14
Testimony
AWESOME – thanks Jimmy… It’s been a great 7 weeks… AND THOUGH – the series concludes today, I’m convinced that it’s God’s desire to see this philosophy of a OMTL lifestyle not only continue, but to grow in our lives… I PLAN – on wearing this reminder band long after today. BECAUSE – whenever I look at it… IT REMINDS ME – that there is still to make my life count! There’s still time to live passionately, love completely, learn humbly and leave boldly.
WHICH – brings us to the final point in your notes…
What We Need (Ruthless Trust)
THIS - past Tuesday I was sitting at my desk working on my message trying to figure out what I was supposed to say as we wrap this OMTL deal up and take it home, AND – as I sat there a thought came to me about something I had read in one of Erwin McManus book’s called ‘Soul Cravings’ – I went to my bookshelf to grab the book because I was a little cloudy on exactly what I had read. I know it had something to do with our dreams. How as little kids we tend to dream big dreams (we dream of being a sports star, a rock star, a doctor, the president) and back then we really believe that we can become those things… BUT - somehow as we grow bigger our dreams grow smaller and we settle for a life less than what we are.
WELL - the book wasn’t on the shelf, I must have loaned it out… SO – I headed over to Life Way… NO – luck, they didn’t have it. Barnes and Nobles was just a few stores down in the same shopping center so I decided to look there. COOL – they had the book… AS - I grabbed it, I noticed a book from another one of my favorite authors, Brennan Manning (on the shelf next to it)… I took both books over to a table and began looking through them… IT – didn’t take very long to figure out that though an awesome book and a cool thought (dreams and dreaming bigger) Soul Cravings was not the book I needed for this weeks message. TO – be honest I was kind of bummed out.
SO – I picked Brennan Manning’s book… AND WITHIN – minutes, I knew that this was the book I was supposed to pick up. YOU SEE – this book talks about the very thing we need in order to live fully the life God has for us… IT – talks about the one thing that we need to make the OMTL lifestyle a reality in our lives… IN FACT – without this ‘one thing’ the OMTL to live lifestyle is nothing more than a cool idea. The books title - Ruthless Trust…
HERE’S – the first paragraph of the book;
This book started writing itself with a remark from my spiritual director. ‘Brennan, you don’t need any more insights into the faith,’ he observed.
‘You’ve got enough insights to last you 300 years. The most urgent need in your life is to trust what you have received.’
WOE…. That last sentence hit me like a freight train… THOSE – 14 words alone, were worth the price of the book.
IN – the few moments we have remaining I want to talk about 4 areas where you I need to trust what we have received.
We Need Ruthless Trust In Our Salvation…
NOW – for most of us this is a hard thing to REALLY do… TO – trust in our salvation. TO TRUST – that because of Christ and our surrender to Him we are free off any guilt, shame, sin or failure. TO – trust that IN HIM, though our sins were as red as crimson they are now white as snow! QUESTION – do you have ‘ruthless’ (unrelenting, unyielding, uncompromising) trust in your salvation?
HEY – have you ever heard that passage from Isaiah 55… where God says;
my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. – Is 55:8,9
RAISE – your hands if you’ve heard those words before? OKAY – another question, do you know what the context is for God’s thoughts being higher than ours?
MAN – you are soo going to love the context… CHECKOUT – Isaiah 55:6,7
Seek the LORD while you can find him. Call on him now while he is near. Let the wicked change their ways and banish the very thought of doing wrong. Let them turn to the LORD that he may have mercy on them. Yes, turn to our God, for he will forgive generously. – Is 55:6,7
WE – need RUTHLESS (unrelenting) trust in our salvation. GOD – ‘in Christ’ has forgiven us generously… all the way, 100%, completely! DURING – my time in before the throne I was jamming on a song ‘you are God alone’ – and when I heard this 6 words describe God I thought about His Forgiveness… Unchangeable, unshakeable, unstoppable that’s what you are!
15Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. 16But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life. 17Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen. – 1 Timothy 1:15-17
We Need Ruthless Trust In Our Adoption
Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son.
– Eph 1:4-6
NOW – I know something about adoption…
God loved us and chose us…
God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family…
I would say that, while there are times when it is good to go to God a ragged beggar might go to the King of Kings. BUT – it is vastly superior to approach God as a little child would approach his or her daddy.
We Need Ruthless Trust In God’s Plan For Us
For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. – Eph 2:10 (NLT)
Ruthless Trust quote, page 5 (paragraph 3&4)
“Clarity is the last thing you are clinging to and must let go of. I have never had clarity; what I always had is trust. So I will pray you trust God.” – Mother Teresa.
We Need Ruthless Trust In God’s Power
Everything on earth, shout with joy to God! Sing about his glory! Make his praise glorious! Say to God, "Your works are amazing! Because your power is great, your enemies fall before you. All the earth worships you and sings praises to you. They sing praises to your name."
Come and see what God has done, the amazing things he has done for people. He turned the sea into dry land. The people crossed the river on foot. So let us rejoice because of what he did. He rules forever with his power. He keeps his eye on the nations, so people should not turn against him. Psalm 66:1-7
YES – we have an enemy who is opposing God’s intentions for us…
BUT – our God is BIGGER and BADDER!
HE IS – not just a king but the King of kings
I know whom I have believed,
and am convinced that he is able
to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.
– 2 Tim 1:12
