The Dash
DRIVEN BY ETERNITY Finale
What does it mean to be focused on that which is most important…
We started this series several weeks ago asking a simple question… “what are you driven by?”
We had a funeral yesterday for Dorothy Hicks… Mother in Law to John Alpers, Bill and Dave Alpers brother…
Since I have been here I have performed almost 20 funerals…
And I am reminded every time of this question… am I driven by eternity…
For each person… as I perform their funeral… I look at something…
The Dash
The dash embetween the date of their birth and the date of their departure from this earth…
Looking at the dash – what was in that dash?
How did they live?
Did they die before their body did? Giving up on life?
Were they selfish… were they God centered? Were they giving?
What is the dash of their life… and then I always think… what is the dash in mine? I still have a chance to change that dash… how will I live? Will I be driven by eternity…
Over the past several weeks we have been in discussion over this series about what it means to be driven by eternity… I needed to remind us this mornign of those discussions and do what I call a “Thread Service”
Where we look at the thread of what God is saying to us as a church… we can’t just go from service to service… and miss the point… we must hear and do what God is speaking to us…
We are asking what it means to be Driven by Eternity… is the focus of our life being lived where our dash will glorify God or be about us…
Define Driven: It is the force by which we move forward. It is the focused thing we given attention to that drives us, moves us, forward in life… What gives you meaning? Force… strength… reason for living? What are we driven by…
THE REAR VIEW MIRROR
1 Peter 2… 9 But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are a kingdom of priests, God’s holy nation, his very own possession. This is so you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.
Driven by eternity is about our focus, like the rear view mirror and the windshield… where do you spend much of your focus… looking ahead… but why do we often try to drive backwards… for there is a reason the rear view mirror is smaller… it is meant to give a reference point for safe travel, to know what was… but we are meant to drive forward… not in reverse…
DRIVING FORWARD
In John 8 Jesus, after forgiving the women of her past, and compeling her to drive forward into her future… He says… 12 Jesus said to the people, "I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t be stumbling through the darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life."
Why are we given this forgiveness and calling in the kingdom of God… why are we sanctified…
This is so you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.
Why we live, move, and breath…
Sanctified: Set a part for a holy purpose… consecrated… a holy nation… with purpose… so we can show others the goodness of God!
WRECKING THE ROOF
Ultimately we have to change our thought process… and our focus. What is our center point for how we approach church?
What do I mean?
Is our centerpoint about us – an internal focus
OR
Is it about others – external focus.
Mark 2: 1 A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. 2 So many gathered that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. 3 Some men came, bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them. 4 Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on.
THE CHURCH IS ONLY THE CHURCH WHEN IT EXISTS FOR OTHERS
THE GRAVEYARD
Finding the purpose of Palm Sunday: Dead to sin, Alive in Christ
Romans 6:1-11
1 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?
The purpose for which Christ entered the world… He was Driven by Eternity…
Sin: What is it? That which seperates us from a just and righteous God.
o Patrick Morley’s book “Walking with Christ in the Details of Life.” It is a book of meditations that includes one called “Revival: The Gospel of Addition.” In it, he said the following, “The American gospel has evolved into a gospel of addition without subtraction. It is the belief that we can add Christ to our lives, but not subtract sin. It is a change in belief without a change in behavior… A changed life is one that has added Christ and subtracted sin, that attracts a world weary of worn-out words. Obedience is the proof.”
Paul is talking in Romans 6 about the purpose for which Christ died… the destruction of sin… but our role to play in living the life that is now before us… how must we now live? How must we be driven by eternity?
4 Important Steps – to make Jesus’ triumphal entry in your life
1. Entering the graveyard
2. Identify the Marker
3. Leaving the graveyard free… with that freedom >
4. Become Driven by Eternity
1. enter the graveyard… the Death of self…
a. 1 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?
This is the message God is obviously saying to us… Sunday night series on jonah… tonight in Chapter 2 – from the flat of your back in life are you ready to look up… what must God do to get your attention?
Walk with God… let your old self die… and be reborn…
Suffering and Struggle:
a biblical perspective to Maturity in Christ
Matthew 8 and Mark 1
Life is full of struggle… suffering…
It is simply a part of life. But struggle is not always a bad thing… in fact it is the pressure of life that shows the true nature of what is inside each of us…
When the pressure of life comes… what comes out?
Things to remember when dealing with struggle:
1. God is not indifferent: God is concerned about what is happening TO us, but He is more concerned what is happening IN us.
Arthur Matthews was serving as a missionary in China when the Communists took control. He spent years in house arrest with his wife and daughter, and his writings show what it’s like to embrace the plan and purposes of God in suffering.
"An escapist generation reads security, prosperity, and physical well-being as evidences of God’s blessing. When He puts suffering and affliction into our hands, we misread His signals and misinterpret His intentions."
2. Suffering Alerts us about a bigger problem.
For in life, it’s not what happens to us that determines if we will win or loose: it’s how we REACT to what is happening to us.
Swindol: Life is 10% situation, 90% attitude.
3. Jesus has overcome… God will never allow us to go anywhere He hasn’t been before us.
In John 16:33 Jesus said, 33 "These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world."
Easter’s Simple Conversation
John 15
9 "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command.
1. First – there is a difference between
relationship and fellowship…
Defining the Contract: A contract involves two parties agreeing on a focused intent. The two parties in this contract are you and God. If you are like most of us you don’t sign a contract without knowing ahead of time what you are signing. So what is this contract of freedom?
God Offers: God offers a contract to us. He knows we are all in debt in this life, that debt is sin. Sin is living life our way vs. God’s way. We cannot pay this debt on our own. God has already paid and signed His portion of this contract. John 3 verse 16 says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (See also John 1:12).
2. Second there is a difference between
regret and repentance…
Regret is just being sorry for something…
Repentance is a desire to make it right and the undesirable action to be gone…
Back to your contract to freedom today…
Our Response: In John 8 verse 32 Jesus says, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." Also in John 15 verse 14 Jesus said, “You are my friends if you do what I command.” When we sign this contract, we will find freedom from our sin, and we are committing to walk with God and learn what it means to learn what it means to know and apply the Bible.
3. Lastly – Become a friend of God or we chose to sin… live life our way… we make the choice…
Have you ever had a friend you could always count on? Wouldn’t it be nice to have a friend with real influence? Not only influence but wise… and with resources, with money? Who genuinley cared about your life… who helped you… as long as you were His friend…
John 15:4
13 Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command.
Poured Out … ready to be poured out
Coming to church ready to be the church
Colossians 3: 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
BUT, they all have the same purpose…
To receive from a source outside themselves of some kind of liquid to be poured out for the benefit of others…
We are all like teapots – different in look – but we all have the same purpose… to be poured out.
BEING FILLED… to teach, admonish, and worship
NO LIMITS
Watch and Pray
1. Put the world in God’s hands…
2. PRAYING FOR GOD’S WILL:
3. Living Awake – and on purpose – with eyes wide open!
40 Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. "Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour?" he asked Peter. 41 "Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak."
QUESTION: Do you believe prayer can change the world?
No Excuses: In God We Trust
Knowing and Obeying / Hearing and Doing
Read Psalms 24: 1 through 26: 12
Knowing the ways and commandments of the Lord is not the same as keeping His ways and commandments (Psalm 25: 1 0). We struggle, not to know, but to obey. It is not light that we are lacking these days, but life. Truth that is not translated into obedience is like brightness to a blind man.
One outstanding preacher made the comment that the hard¬est congregation to preach to is not made up of unbelievers, but of people who have heard the truth over and over again but refuse to obey it.
AND HEAR THIS CHALLENGE: We can be educated beyond the level of our obedience, and so live in a realm of theoretical brilliance but practical ignorance, filled with knowledge but lacking wisdom.
HERE’S THE CHALLENGE OF GOD’S WORD: God’s blessing always accompanies obedience. God’s strength is readily available to those who trust and obey.
A HARVEST OF GENEROSITY
OUR SOURCE AND SECURITY
ADDING BEAUTY
Deep Love with God and with Humanity (A simple Gospel)
Mark 12:
Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?"
Jesus answers… 29 "The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: ’Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ’Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these."
The Gospel of Jesus Christ can be summed up in this saying… Love God, Love People.
Our First Love: (Love God)
Our Second Love: (Love People)
Finally, the last couple of weeks we discussed
REAL REVIVAL
REAL CHANGE
The need for personal revival… and the call of God’s word to change… for the sake of the Gospel…
Driven – the force by which we move forward…
What is your Drive? What are you driven by…
What will be the dash in your life… what you will be known for…
That person was driven by _____________!
What will be said of you?
That person… she really knew how to complain…
She really was selfish…
OR – I have know idea who that person is…
He was a grouchy person…
Or will it be said of us… that person, they love God, and they loved people… ARE YOU DRIVEN BY ETERNITY…
