The Blessed Life
Part 4 – The Sacred Life
I. Introduction
There are debates about whether luck exists. People try to look for explanations for unusual results. Statements like “The planets aligned for you today or today was just your lucky day” are uttered when a person has no explanation. I don’t know about you, but I am not really interested on waiting for planets to get in some formation or for one particular day! I mean am I only allotted a few “lucky days” in life? I prefer guarantees! So I am completely convinced that a much better way to live is to live blessed! You can rely on luck if you like. I choose to rely on God.
So, we began this series by stating that there are 4 ways we must live in order to step into a blessed life. The first is to live a generous life. If you claim to be a follower of Christ you should be the most generous person on the planet. As you respond to needs in generosity we are guaranteed blessings. We must also live a shared life. It as we share life with others that we find we are blessed because we are not designed to live alone! Then in the last message I challenged you to live a sacrificed life. Take stock of your life and see if following Christ is actually costing you something! Remember if it doesn’t cost it doesn’t count! You will not be blessed unless your life is marked and stretched by sacrifice!
So today, I want to wrap this series up by stating that in order to be blessed you must live a sacred life!
II. Background
Just a quick refresher that reveals God’s desires to bless us! In Genesis 5:1-2 that I read to you last week we discovered that from day one of man’s life on the planet God reveals that He desires to bless us.
Duet. 28:6
6You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.
So as we done each week, I want you to say this with me so that I know we are in agreement . . . “The Generous Life is a Blessed Life. The Shared Life is a Blessed Life. The Sacrificed Life is a Blessed Life! The Sacred Life is a Blessed Life!”
You will recall that I read to you the example given to us by the New Testament Church in Acts 2. We get a glimpse into the sacred aspect of their lives when we are told in verse 46, “Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts.”
These early believer’s lives were sacred lives. Every day, their pursuit of Jesus played a significant part in their normal activities.
There was no compartmentalization of their lives. Their “Jesus life” spilled over into their everyday life.
I want to remind you of two key passages of Scripture that I believe most modern Christians have failed to live up to or embrace and work out the implications into their lives.
The first is Romans 12:1, “So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering.” (We know this as present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable before God, which is your reasonable – expected – service.)
The second is Colossians 3:17, “Let every detail in your lives—words, actions, whatever—be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way.”
Our lives become sacred when every detail in our lives . . . sleeping, eating working, action . . . become holy and are offered to God.
Here is the challenge. . . the average American Christian and most of the ones sitting in this room right now only view and handle their church life as the sacred part of their lives.
III. Sacred Lives
I want to spend a few moments illustrating for you how most of us live!
Most of us confine Jesus to 9:15-10:30 or 11:15–12:30 on Sunday each week.
We restrict Him from invading other areas of our lives. Most of us have no more of Jesus’ influence in the daily part of our lives than we did on the day we accepted Him as savior!
Use 4 boxes –
a. Church
b. Marriage/Dating
c. Work/School
d. Public/Private
We don’t mind Jesus invading our church life. In fact, if He doesn’t we will look for a new church. If we don’t feel Jesus in that church it is because that church is dead. If you can’t show me the Jesus I want to see the way I want to see Him then I am out of there. So we want Jesus in that box of our lives.
However, once the last amen is said we want to separate Jesus from the other areas of our lives. We try to leave Jesus in the church box while we move on to the other boxes of our lives. The church area is the sacred area!
So that means in the marriage/dating box . . . since it isn’t a sacred area, we can act any way we want to our spouse. We just treat them like dirt. Manipulate them. Abuse them. Take them for granted. Walk away from them. Deal with them selfishly instead of selflessly like Jesus commanded. Don’t get me wrong at church in the sacred box I will treat them with respect. I will submit. I will honor. In the car . . . well that is a different story. That is the wrong box. On dates we can touch, behave any way we want with anyone we want because Jesus has no jurisdiction in this arena of my life. Only the church box is sacred.
If some of you would allow your marriage to become sacred or your dates to become sacred they would be much more blessed. Some of you desperately need to invite the Jesus you have been worshipping so hard in this “box” to come inhabit this box. Some of you need to apply the same truth you embrace in here into your relationships. By the way, the same is true of parents/kids. If that area is sacred you can’t treat each other any old way! If you want to see how these areas are to be sacred go back and read Ephesians 5 and see how husbands and wives lives are to be sacredly lived. Go read Ephesians 6 and see how parents and children who allow Christ to invade their lives should behave and live.
The same happens in the work/school box. Since this isn’t the sacred part of my life I can clock in late, stop accomplishing anything 30 minutes before time to leave, steal from my boss, do private business on his dime, get paid to play solitare, surf facebook, and mistreat coworkers! I can sluff off on my grades or belittle classmates because this is a different box than the sacred one.
We see it in the public/private box too. In the public box we act all holy. We are Mr. or Mrs. Perfect (Glow in the Dark) Believer, but in private Jesus has no authority. In private, since this isn’t the sacred area of my life my thought life can be out of control, addiction can rule the roost, anger, hate, prejudice, apathy, a loose tongue can all run rampant through my private life because that isn’t within the sacred confines of my life.
May I submit to you today that what must happen in order for our lives to be blessed is to understand that our entire lives are sacred. There is no separation of life and Christ. (Place all small boxes in big box marked sacred.)
Here is the truth that we must not only amen, but must also embrace. When we keep Jesus out of certain areas of our life we very publicly announce to world and to Jesus that He isn't Lord, but rather an add on that we can take or leave depending on whether it is convenient or not.
If Jesus hasn't invaded every part of your life, then He hasn't invaded you life!
I remind you that Jesus invaded every area of the lives of the disciples. He showed up where they were fishing and where they were collecting taxes. He showed up in their homes and even dealt with their mother-in-laws, brothers, sisters. He invaded their public lives to such a degree that He even got involved in whether they were faithful to pay their taxes. He didn’t just deal with them at church!
What is sacred about your life? Is the only sacred thing about your life the 1 hour you are in this building? If so, then you won’t be blessed you will be confused! How do I know this? Because a double minded man is unstable in all his ways. You want guarantees? I guarantee you that if you don’t treat every area of your life as sacred you will be double minded and your stability will be lost! If you don’t allow every aspect of your life to be affected by the LIFE CHANING –NOT JUST CHURCH LIFE CHANING – power of Jesus then you will stand and watch others being blessed beyond measure. You will be the one who is standing on the side criticizing those who are being blessed!
Paul states that living a sacrificed, sacred, all in life is only reasonable. This is what is expected. This is what makes sense.
Some of us just flat out need to repent because the only part of our lives that is sacred is our church life. There are blessings that God has promised will overtake every area of your life. That cannot happen if the sacred doesn’t envelope every nook and cranny of your life! Is your life segmented or sacred!
William Booth by all standards was a great success. His legacy continues even though he died in 1912! The impact of the Salvation Army which he birthed in an attempt to help the poor and the neglected is still felt and even seen today. You see it every time one of the bell ringers continues to carry on his mission. What was the secret to his success? He would point you to the moment when at the age of 15 he vowed “God should have all there was of William Booth. However, his daughter Eva would later add, "That wasn't really his secret - his secret was that he never took it back."
He was a living sacrifice. He had discovered how to live The Sacred Life!
D.L. Moody said it like this, “The world has yet to see what God can do with and for and through and in and by the man who is fully and wholly consecrated to Him.”
Think about all that we have seen God do through men. Think about the greatest miracles, messages, or acts of faith and then think one moment what more could be done through them and us if their lives were wholly sacred!
