We are thinking about how we, as believers, can “Get In The Game” for God and live lives that count for Christ. We said we can know we’ve “Got Game” if we: Go for the gold; Aim for excellence; Make the commitment; & Expect God to work.
In “going for the gold,” we need to live our lives with “our eyes on the prize,” knowing that one day we will give an account to Christ. We’ve talked about “Aiming For Excellence” - making living live like Jesus our aim in life. We talked about how Jesus calls us to deny ourselves and take up our cross.
Now today, I want us to think about the need for each of us to “Make The Commitment” to give up our lives in order to gain our lives.
One of the most popular board games of all time is called “The Game of Life.” It was first introduced in 1860. That’s over 150 years ago!
The “Game of Life” is played very much like real life. At the beginning of the game, each player must choose what path he or she is going to take in their journey through life. They choose whether they are going to go to college or go out and get a job. As the game goes on, each player spins the wheel and moves his car the number of spaces on which the spinner stops. The space where your car lands gives you directions on what to do. On some spaces, you MUST follow the directions. On other spaces you only have to follow the directions if you want to. Just as in real life, you have many choices along the way, but what happens to you in the “Game of Life” depends on the choices you make. At the end of the game, the player with the most money wins. Is that true in real life? Do you think that when life is over, the one with the most money wins? Today we will see what Jesus had to say about that.
(READ VERSE 35)
Jesus makes it clear that there are two attitudes toward life which are possible, and you can have only one or the other:
1. We can choose to live life for ourselves - v. 35a
That is, we can hoard it, clutch it, cling to it, grasp it, try to get hold of it for yourself, take care of yourself, trust yourself, see that in every situation you are first and live with your major concern being, ‘What’s in it for me?’
That is one way to live, and millions are living that way today. But notice what Jesus says about a life live this way. It is a life that, ironically, is lost. The reason being that the things of this world which promise to satisfy and fulfill, never do.
“You will find that (if) you have everything you want, you will not want anything you have.” - Ray Steadman
Unbelievers do not have a choice on how to live. Without a relationship with Christ, they have nothing in their lives that will bring to them what their heart craves. Only a personal relationship with our creator fill the hole that is found in the heart of every person in this world.
“God has created each of us with a thirst that only He can quench. French philosopher Pascal called it a God-shaped vacuum in our hearts that only He can fill. Or as Augustine put it, ‘Our souls are restless until they find their rest in Thee.’ Man is perpetually seeking. To whatever degree we don’t know the unseen and eternal realm; we seek answers in the seen and temporal. We look for eternal answers among temporal things. But we discover that they
cannot provide them.” - Dan Stone
Many don’t realize Christ is the answer they seek and settle for life lived on a far lower level than their Creator intended for them to know.
“The great danger facing all of us . . . is not that we shall make an absolute failure of life, nor that we shall fall into outright viciousness, nor that we shall be terribly unhappy, nor that we shall feel (that) life has no meaning at all – not these things. The danger is that we may fail to perceive life’s greatest meaning, fall short of its highest good, miss its deepest and most abiding happiness, be unable to tender the most needed service, be unconscious of life ablaze with the light of the Presence of God – and be content to have it so – that is the danger. That someday we may wake up and find that always we have been busy with husks and trappings of life and have really missed life itself. For life without God, to one who has known the richness and joy of life with Him, is unthinkable, impossible. That is what one prays one’s friends may be spared – satisfaction with a life that falls short of the best, that has in it no tingle or thrill that comes from a friendship with the Father.” - Phillips Brooks
This is why we pray for the salvation of our lost friends. And it is why it we, who have a life-changing relationship with our Creator, Jesus Christ, must commit ourselves to the second choice Jesus speaks of.
2. We can choose to live life for our Savior - v. 35b
We can choose to focus on a growing love relationship with Christ and seeking to bring others into a love relationship with Him, too. True joy is experienced as I focus on knowing Christ and making Him known.
“The greatest use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it.” - William James
There are only two things that we can take with us into eternity:
A. Our personal love relationship with our Savior;
B. Others who have a personal love relationship with our Savior.
We must become distracted temporal things and forget we have been saved to live on the highest level for things of eternal significance.
John Ortberg addresses this in an article, “Taking Care of Busyness,” where he says, “For most of us, the great danger is not that we will renounce our faith. It is that we will become so distracted and rushed and preoccupied that we will settle for a mediocre version of it. We will just skim our lives instead of actually living them.”
Sadly, that is where too many American Christians are - so distracted and rushed and preoccupied that we settle for a mediocre version of the adventure with God that the Christian life is supposed to be - the adventure of knowing Christ and making Him known. We must not allow the preoccupations of our culture to become our priorities.
That’s why we must daily choose to live for the Savior. And that is why I need to be involved in the life of a local church. Since knowing Christ better and making Him known to others is the mission of the church, doesn’t it make sense for me to seek to find meaningful involvement in a local church? Besides, fellowship with likeminded believers can help me resist the distractions of this world that threaten to drag me down to a life of mediocrity.
“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. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your
attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you . . . In this way we are like the various parts of a human body. Each part gets its meaning from the body as a whole, not the other way around. The body we’re talking about is Christ’s body of chosen people. Each of us finds our meaning and function as a part of his body. But as a chopped-off finger or cut-off toe we wouldn’t amount to much, would we?” - Romans 12:1-2; 4-5 (The Message)
“The fruits of the Holy Spirit are, it seems to me, largely fruits of sustained interaction with God. Just as a child picks up traits more or less simply by dwelling in the presence of her parent, so the Christian develops tenderheartedness, compassion, humility, forgiveness, joy, and hope through ‘the fellowship of the Holy Spirit’ – that is, by dwelling in the presence of God the Father and Jesus Christ His Son. And this means, to a very large extent, living in a community of serious believers.” - Robert C. Roberts
Conclusion: May our church be a community of “serious believers.” Believers who are serious about making the daily commitment to live for the Savior as opposed to living for self; believers who are seeking to live life as our Creator intended - for things of eternal significance.
One survey showed that in one year Americans spent 16 billion dollars for amusements, 10.5 billion for alcohol, 5 billion for tobacco, 2 billion for travel, 325 million for cat and dog food, 304 million for chewing gum, and 76 million for lipstick. During the same period, the total given for foreign missions by all Protestant churches of the United States was said to be only 145 million
dollars - less than half of what Americans spent on chewing gum. If these figures are only reasonably accurate, isn’t it evident to you and me now that people are lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God? This trend can only be turned around by Mark 8:35 Christians.
Before the song in the musical, “Godspell,” it was Richard of Chichester, who said, “Day by day, dear Lord, of Thee three things I pray: To see Thee more clearly, To love Thee more dearly, To follow Thee more nearly.” May this be our daily prayer, as well.
