For those of you who weren’t able to make it last week because of the lovely weather we had, we began a series called, "Your Bucket List." Which I borrowed from a movie which came out about a year ago called The Bucket List. In the movie two very different men, one a wealthy business man, the other a mechanic, meet in a hospital room where they discover they have cancer and only a year left to live. Together they come up with a bucket list of all things they want to do before they...kick the bucket. And since they only have a year left they put everything else on hold and head out across the world to complete their dream or wish list before they die. They do things like go skydiving, race a dream car on raceway, go halfway around the world to see the pyramids in Egypt, and the Taj Mahal in India among a few places. However during their journey they discover there are more important things in life than just having fun completing a wish list. While the bucket list was a good idea, it didn’t help them prioritize the things that really matter in a person’s life. Things like faith and family and friends.
Last week we began our New Year with a challenge to begin your own bucket list. Imagine you found out tomorrow you only had a year left to live. Let’s say, by the end of this year, 2009, you would meet your Maker. What would you like to accomplish before leaving earth? Perhaps another way of looking at it is, what regrets would you have if you didn’t do them before you die? This bucket list we are making isn’t just an exercise in listing all the fun or cool things you always wanted to do but never got around to. Rather your bucket list is about listing the things which really matter, which will make a difference before the end of your life. Your bucket list is really about your priorities.
Again this week you have two yellow sheets of paper in your bulletin to begin thinking about and writing down your bucket list (they use a yellow sheet of paper in the movie). One sheet is for your benefit to take with you, while the other sheet is for you to jot down a couple items from your bucket list and drop them in one of these buckets on your way out. I will share some of these on Sunday morning so we can get an idea of what others are thinking about.
Let me read a couple from last week for you: [Read a selection of bucket list ideas]
This week we are looking at the bucket list priority of faith. Let’s watch this clip from The Bucket List.
[Play clip of Edward and Carter having discussion over faith while riding in Edward’s airplane].
It’s an interesting conversation isn’t it? Having faith versus "we live, we die and the wheels on the bus go round and round." Is faith irrational or even necessary? Because a lot of people seem to get by just fine without faith.
1. God is revealed in Creation (v. 19-20)
The movie clip began with Carter looking out over the beauty of the polar caps, the stars shining brightly and his comment was, "it’s really one of God’s good ones." It’s interesting that while one man looks at the stars and sees God’s handiwork which supports his faith, the other just sees the same old stars he’s seen hundreds of times and doesn’t think twice about it. It doesn’t give him any reason to think that God exists let alone to have faith and make it a priority in his life.
In fact he seems to say that faith is too much of a stretch? It is too giant of a wall to leap over.
The Apostle Paul apparently didn’t think it was, and he made it very clear in our passage this morning when he wrote:
NLT Romans 1:19 For the truth about God is known to them [those who reject God] instinctively. God has put this knowledge in their hearts. 20 From the time the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky and all that God made. They can clearly see his invisible qualities-- his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse whatsoever for not knowing God.
Paul is saying, God has revealed himself in Creation. He has made himself plain or evident including his attributes and qualities to every person on earth through his Creation. Whether someone grew up in the remote jungles of South America where no Christian missionary has ever been, or on Antarctica, or on Manhattan Island in New York City everyone is able to see Creation and know the Creator. Creation is so well put together, how does a migrating bird know how to come back to the exact same spot after thousands of miles of travel? Or even better, how does a monarch butterfly, which was born in Mexico, return to the same territory as its parents in Michigan? Everything is so precise and well designed it reveals an intelligent designer who is smart enough and powerful enough to create everything to work together perfectly, from the expansive universe with galaxies and solar systems down to the microscopic level of things we didn’t even know existed until recently, like quarks. We are discovering new aspects of Creation all the time.
King David picks up on this in Psalm 19:
1 The heavens tell of the glory of God. The skies display his marvelous craftsmanship. 2 Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make him known. 3 They speak without a sound or a word; their voice is silent in the skies; 4 yet their message has gone out to all the earth, and their words to all the world.
In recent years with the introduction of the theory of evolution people have found more sophisticated arguments to explain away the need for a Creator by suggesting that we are really here by genetic mutations and random chance over millions of years, but even if evolution worked, 16 billion years (the supposed age of earth) isn’t enough time to create such complex life forms as human beings. It can’t explain how complex relationships in something like your eye, which requires over 30 different parts working together at the same time, could somehow simultaneously have evolved at the same time. But even if we accepted evolution (which I personally do not), what caused that? What caused the Big Bang? Where did it all begin? Who put it into motion? No matter what great arguments people can come up with, ultimately they are without excuse because the Creation itself reveals a Creator. Even if we had nothing else to go by, no Bible, no direct revelation or experience of God to his people we have enough, in God’s eyes, to put our faith in him. No one can say, I didn’t know. Or I didn’t realize there was a God. There’s no huge wall to jump over, it’s right there in front of us. It’s a choice we make. Some choose to walk through that door and others do not.
Which is why I love Carter’s response when Edward says, "I just can’t get my head around it," and he says, "maybe your head is in the way." Sometimes our knowledge can get in the way of faith in what God has been plainly revealed. Don’t get me wrong, knowledge is good thing, I wouldn’t have a bachelor’s degree and Master’s degree if I didn’t believe that, but it can be debilitating to our faith if we allow it. I believe it’s why Jesus said:
"I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children (Mt. 11:25)."
Even a little child can get it, whereas a college professor may not.
2. Without belief in God we follow our own path (v. 25)
Even if faith isn’t a leap is it really necessary? Can’t we get through life just fine without it?
The problem is, when we reject God, what path are we left to follow? Whatever path seems right to us! Listen to what Paul says happens people reject God in v. 25:
NLT Romans 1:25 Instead of believing what they knew was the truth about God, they deliberately chose to believe lies. So they worshiped the things God made but not the Creator himself, who is to be praised forever. Amen.
When faith isn’t a top priority in our life, or if we reject any belief in God or Jesus because it seems like sugar plum fairy theology, what can happen? Paul’s answer; people naturally begin following their own path and eventually begin worshipping the Creation, the things God made, rather than the Creator.
The truth is we will worship something. We might worship ourselves, our looks, our abilities, our position or status, our knowledge and having all the answers to the questions, or even more likely our desire for self-fulfillment, having my desires met, doing what I want to do because that’s what selfishness is, it is worshipping myself. We could worship another person, becoming infatuated to the point everything revolves around them. In the movie you discover one of the things Edward worships is money. He began making money at 16 and never looked back, and he had everything money could buy. His life, his priorities, revolved around making more money. Of course he’d been married three times and didn’t have any close relationship with anyone including his own daughter. We could worship entertainment (television, ) or sports or sports teams (did you need to watch all 35 bowl games?), hobbies.
All of these are part of God’s creation and can be good for us to use or even enjoy, but not to be put as our top priority in life. The place God is rightfully meant to take.
You could say, "So what’s wrong with following our own path?" "Who cares if we worship something else, at least I get what I what."
When we follow anything other than God’s path we begin heading down a dangerous road. First, it can lead to self-destruction. It leads to broken relationships. Marriages get destroyed, families are torn apart. Addictive behaviors. Inappropriate sexual behavior. In other words pain, anger, abusiveness. All of these results come from us choosing a path apart from God. Paul writes that God lets us do what we want even if he knows it leads us down that path because we have free will, we aren’t puppets, but unfortunately it also means we experience the natural consequences of our actions. It’s not God’s fault, it’s our own fault for choosing that path.
Second, when we reject God, we lose that moral compass which may lead us down the path of doing things which are considered detestable to God. As Paul says, things which are "shameful" "vile and degrading." In other words, sin.
3. God’s anger is against sin (v. 18)
We don’t talk about it very often but the Bible says God’s anger, or God’s wrath as most translation have it, is against all sin and wickedness, which includes our own.
Romans 1:18 "The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness,"
That’s pretty strong language. I know we like to talk about God’s love for us, which he does, but we can’t forget that God gets angry over our sin, not just because he knows it harms us, but because God is holy, pure.
Before we start feeling all self-righteous because of our faith in God. Look at how Paul begins the next chapter:
NLT Romans 2:1 You may be saying, "What terrible people you have been talking about!" But you are just as bad, and you have no excuse!
Paul was trying to remind us that we have all sinned. We cannot shake our finger at others. We are all in the same predicament.
4. By Faith we are made right with God (v. 16-17)
Is faith important? Jack Nicholson’s character Edward says something interesting at the end of the clip, he justifies his lack of belief by saying, "if I’m wrong I win." I suppose he means that if he’s wrong and it turns out there is a God after all then he wins because God will somehow let him into heaven. But Carter’s response was only part of the story when he said, "I’m not sure it works that way." Unfortunately, he didn’t elaborate on what he meant by that, he didn’t share what the Apostle Paul shares with us. He responded like many of us might, "I just have faith."
17th century French mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal actually argued the opposite:
"Belief is a wise wager. Granted that faith cannot be proved, what harm will come to you if you gamble on its truth and it proves false? If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation, that He exists."
I don’t think faith is like making a wager, I think that misses the point of faith, it’s not about hedging your bets, but the helpful part of what Pascal said is that if you have faith and are wrong you don’t lose anything because you just die and that’s it. But if your faith is proved to be right you live a better life on this earth and live eternally with God rather than eternally separated from God in the other place.
Paul was very explicit in saying that faith is the most important priority for us because it is only by faith in Christ that will be made right with God and be given the gift of life (v. 16-17).
Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes-- Jews first and also Gentiles. 17 This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, "It is through faith that a righteous person has life."
The only way we are made right with God is by faith in Jesus Christ, trusting that he paid the penalty for our sin and waywardness by his death and that we have life because of his resurrection. Without faith we don’t have life now or eternally, period.
NIV Hebrews 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
You might be wondering, what does this have to do with my bucket list? Well...what place does faith in Jesus Christ and living God’s way take on your bucket list? How will you grow in this area your entire life? As you create your bucket list this should be a top priority.
