CHRISTIAN CHALLENGE SERMON X: TIME FOR CHRISTIANS TO REVIEW LIFE’S GREATEST DISCOVERIES
Life Review is a technique used in geriatric counseling to help us regain a positive self-image and reestablish a sense of self-worth as we advance toward the goal of going home to be with the Lord.
Emotional health is linked to spiritual health. The two combined also can affect one’s physical well-being. Spiritual maturity promotes emotional stability which, in turn, empowers Christians to deal with life’s trying times and troubles in a manner that contributes to healthier lifestyles.
On the other hand, if the “cares of this world” get you down so that your mind is filled with negative thoughts and your actions betray your profession of faith in Christ, your physical health will deteriorate at a much faster pace than is normal for your age and stage in life.
Of special interest to me recently was a test administered to me along with a very thorough assessment of my physical, mental, emotional and spiritual state of being, the outcome of which would determine my age based on appearances as opposed to my actual chronological age.
As it turned out, I am so glad I volunteered for this particular “exercise in futility” inasmuch as the “experts” concluded that, whereas my chronological age is in fact 85, my biological age appears to be, at least on paper, sixteen years younger.
Now, folks, that is the kind of test result I like. To keep me humble, though, two days after I received this good news, I had to undergo surgical procedures to treat skin cancer. Fact of the matter is: We never know from one day to the next what life will throw at us.
Thus we have learned to take it one day at a time – and that is a good thing. Jesus taught His followers to do just that --- Matthew 6:25-34 . . .
Rather than approach this particular lesson (from the Sermon on the Mount) in terms of planning for the future . . . setting goals and establishing priorities . . . seeking directions for becoming mature Christians, suppose we look at it from this perspective: Having already attained a certain age and level of maturity, now is the time to review life’s greatest discoveries - made during our lifetime of seeking, finding and living out God’s will to the best of our ability. Let’s review:
We became seekers in the spirit of Isaiah 55:6 - “Seek ye the Lord while He may be found; call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake their ways and the evil doers their thoughts. Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them - and to their God, for he will
freely and abundantly pardon.”
We became seekers saved by grace in the spirit of Psalm 34:4 - “I sought the Lord and he answered me. The Lord delivered me from all my fears. The Lord saved me from troubles, and His angel encamps around all of those who revere Him.” And now as mature Christians:
We are seekers who sought and found the Lord, and the Lord became the top priority of our lives in the spirit of Matthew 6:33 - “Seek FIRST His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” What a challenge we faced as we began our Christian journey! We were to submit to the “reign and rule of the Lord” and live in obedience to Him! This we have done and will continue to do for the rest of our lives.
That said, my focus today is: not on His command . . . on His commendation. You are to be commended for having sought and found the Lord, for having lived a worthy Christian life, for having given your utmost for his highest - deserving of our
Lord’s “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
You discovered that, by making the right choices in life, you had no need to worry incessantly and unnecessarily about all the things that must be provided in order to sustain life. You trusted God to provide.
Yet, you never hesitated to do your part. With the guidance and help of the Lord, you labored to provide for yourself and your family. God’s providential care and daily presence in your life made you keenly aware of where God was at work in and through others, and you joined God in the work that He was doing.
Through the years, you devoted yourself to God . . . country . . . family . . . the tasks at hand - whether at home, on the job, in the community. You did this because you realized that the Lord expects His people to accept responsibility for making a living as well as for making a life, but that He wanted you to do so within the context of priorities – Jesus first, Others second, Yourselves last!
Folks, the greatest lesson we have learned and applied during our Christian pilgrimage is: Put God first in all that we do or even think about doing. Ask: Will what we are about to do: be in keeping with God’s Will? . . . be pleasing to our heavenly Father and bring Him glory? . . . help and not harm others? . . . be in the best interests of one and all?
Why, it never occurs to mature Christians to think that Jesus advocated a shiftless, thriftless, thoughtless attitude toward life! We just instinctively know. We naturally accept as fact that our Lord was forbidding a grossly exaggerated “freaking out” over potential disasters that may or may not happen.
Don’t you just love Mark Twain’s take on grossly exaggerated anxiety: “I’m an old man, and have known many problems in my life, most of which never happened.” Which is not to say big problems will never occur, but is to say, “I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it”. Meanwhile, today I’m okay and I’ll be ready for come what may tomorrow and all of the tomorrows of life.
It’s not exactly like we are “as free as birds”, and it is not to suggest that birds do not work; for example, a sparrow is said to be the hardest working of all the birds of the air; the point Jesus made is that birds do not worry. Yet, they eat. And just like God puts in the hearts of folks to feed them . . . so our Father lays it upon the hearts of caring folks, like those who participate in a downtown coop network, to see to it that poorer folks are not only fed but eat healthy.
The uselessness of undue worry is a medical fact: No one adds to their life span by worrying, but, in far too many cases worriers who ruminate (like a cow chewing its cud) are likely to cut short their time on earth.
Jesus brought home the pointless nature of disabling worry by pointing out that those beautiful Judean wild flowers that one sees everywhere over there die after a brief span of beauty, then are gathered by householders and used to fire up the clay ovens that were found in almost every home back then. Now:
If God gives such beauty to short-lived flowers, how much more ought we, the crown of God’s creation, trust God to care for His children – we who have so much to lose materially (like the short-lived beauty of a flower) but everything to gain spiritually (like “dwell in the House of the Lord forever” – His promise to kingdom dwellers)! When world financial markets nosedive, the least worried investors and folks who depend on 401k’s for retirement income, are “kingdom dwellers” . . . There is nothing to be gained by woefully worrying about things of a worldly nature we cannot control.
We have learned to trust God to provide - in some way - if not of our own doing, then by way of other means. Mature Christians, therefore, say with Paul: “I have learned in whatsoever state I find myself, therein to be content.” This is so because:
“Mankind was searching every day in quest of something new;
“But I have found the living way, the path of pleasures true.
“I’ve discovered the way of gladness, I’ve discovered the way of joy,
“I’ve discovered relief from sadness, ‘Tis a happiness without alloy;
“I’ve discovered the fount of blessing, I’ve discovered the Living Word;
“Twas the greatest of all discoveries when I found Jesus my Lord.
“I’ve found the pearl of greatest price, eternal life so fair;
“‘Twas through the Savior’s sacrifice, I found this jewel rare.”
Having found the greatest of all discoveries - Jesus our Lord, having put Jesus first in our lives, having had all “these things” of necessity added to our well-being, why worry incessantly and unnecessarily? Amen?
