Title: How to Outlive Your Life (Part One of Two)
Text: Deuteronomy 34:1-12
Thesis: What we do for God and others outlives us.
Introduction
Have you ever wondered whatever happened to someone? If you happened to have grown up in a small community and stayed there all your life and attended every high school reunion you likely have kept track of a lot of people from your past. But most of us lose track of people and occasionally their memory comes to mind and we wonder, “Whatever happened to old Whitey?”
In addition to all the social networks available to us you can find out whatever happened to someone on the web at www.weht.net.
Billy Carter was among the top ten listed this week. You remember Billy… he was the younger brother of President Jimmy Carter. If you’ve ever lain awake at night wonder whatever happened to Billy Carter you can now find out at www.weht.net.
Billy lost a mayoral race for that office in Plaines, GA in 1976, where he operated a service station. In 1977, hoping to capitalize off of his reputation as a beer drinker he launched Billy Beer which did not turn out so well. He later had to sell his house to pay the IRS for back taxes over that deal. Then in 1978 he got all embroiled in Billy Gate which resulted in Senate Hearings for his having visited Lybia. He was apparently implicated in an influence peddling scandal on that trip. He got sober in 1988 and died later that year of pancreatic cancer.
His son, Buddy Carter has written a biography of his life, Billy Carter: A Journey through the Shadows. (And now you know…)
Whatever happened to Spanky and Alfalfa and Buckwheat of The Little Rascals? Whatever happened to ole Monty Newton? As with all “whatever happened to” stories, some have lived rich a rewarding lives and others… not so much.
This morning our text could be one of those “whatever happened to” stories about the Old Testament bible character, Moses.
I. Have hope for the future of others.
The Lord said, “This is the land I promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob when I said, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’ I have let you see it with your eyes, but you will not cross over into it.” Deuteronomy 34:1-4
This past Wednesday night the children in Kids Klub learned the story of Moses’ beginnings… of being set afloat in a wicker basket in the Nile River to escape the genocide of Israelite baby boys under the age of two. The children heard the story of his being rescued by the Pharaoh’s daughter and of how his sister, Miriam, told Pharaoh’s daughter that she could find her an Israelite wet-nurse to care for baby Moses and then of how his own mother raised him in Pharaoh’s palace? Whatever happened to Moses?
If we use Moses as a good example of how we may be remembered, what can we learn from his life that might be instructive and helpful to us? When we look back over Moses’ life and ask, “Whatever happened to Moses?” what can we learn that is transferable from his experience to our experience?
Moses looked and lived beyond himself. Moses had a long view of life that embraced and blessed future generations even though he would not personally experience it.
At the end of the forty years of wilderness wandering and just prior to the Israelites moving into the Promised Land, Moses, though a very old man weighing in at 120 years, climbed Mt. Nebo. From the top of Mt. Nebo he could see the land God had promised to the Children of Israel way “back in the days” of Abraham.
Here in Colorado we are familiar with The Four Corners Monument which marks the quadripoint in southwestern United States where the states of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah meet. It also serves as the boundary between the Navaho and Ute Nations. Despite the claim that the actual Four Corners is located between 2.3 and 3.0 miles to the west… most recently surveyors in 2009 claim the monument is 1,807 feet east of where modern day surveyors would place it. At any rate we go with the original 1875 survey. So officially, you can actually plant one foot in Utah, one foot in Colorado – stoop over and plant one hand in Arizona and the other in New Mexico and be in all four states simultaneously.
From that little “X Marks the Spot” place tourists can get a 360 degree panoramic view of vast expanses of the states of Utah to the northwest and Colorado to the northeast and the states of New Mexico and Arizona to the southeast and southwest.
Those original surveyors looked out over an expanse of land that would be inhabited by others... their platting marked the places others from generations to come would live.
Years ago my parents vacationed in Colorado when I was in college. And since that trip my mother has often remarked, “I sure would like to live in Colorado.” When Bonnie and I moved to Colorado the conversation came up again and she hinted, “I sure would like to live in Colorado.”
That day on Mt. Nebo Moses looked out over the expanse of land before him and thought, “I sure would like to live in the Promised Land… but it was a land where he would never live but a land that was to be inhabited by others in future generations. Moses’ life was not just about Moses… his life was about making a future that would be inhabited by others.
The thought of living life in the present in anticipation that others will be blessed in the future is a beautiful way to live and a meaningful way to be remembered.
Conclusion
In a sermon posted on PreachingToday.com, Kevin Miller told a story about his father who was a very successful business man. When his father became a follower of Christ he made some major changes in his life, among them, he began to tithe his income. And as he grew in Christ he began to be increasingly but quietly kind and generous.
When his father passed away they dressed him in his favorite navy blue blazer and a Land’s End tie for the public viewing. That evening a lady approached Kevin and said, “You don’t know me, but I was in a bad marriage with an abusive husband and I needed to get out to save my life. But I didn’t know what to do or how to support myself. Your dad paid for me to go to junior college and get a degree so I could make a living as a dental hygienist. He paid for the whole thing, and nobody knew about it. Your dad literally saved my life.” (Kevin Miller, Financial Contentment, PreachingToday.com, March 24, 2008)
Kevin Miller reflected on the possibilities… What if my dad had continued to build a legacy of loving money and died with a lot of money? He would have died with a lot of money, but not a lot of love. And one thing for sure, the Miller family knows he left behind a self-sufficient woman whose life was transformed by his kindness.
For Kevin Miller’s father it was about living in such a way that at least one person’s future was brighter and better because of him. For Moses it was about living in such a way that a whole lot of other people would benefit from his life after he was gone.
One way to outlive your life is to:
Live in a way that demonstrates we want others to be blessed in the future by the way we live in the present… remembering that what we do for God and others outlives us.
