Seize the Day! Father’s Day 2001
June 17, 2001
Dead Poets Society… resurrected obscure Latin phrase, Carpe Diem. Seize the Day.
- exhortation to live life to the fullest, getting the most out of every day
- if we would survey 100 people… all would agree that this is what they want
o no one wants their life to be mediocre, at least not willing to admit it.
o We want our lives to be full, yet we get so caught up in the details of our day that we don’t have time to seize the day.
- Deadlines, commitments, problems, priorities, distractions, obstacles…though we want more fulfillment from every day, it doesn’t seem w/i our grasp.
Paul believed also believed that we seize each and every day… living life to the fullest, even when life is its hectic self.
- This was this what Philippians was really about… living the abundant life, full of joy, in the midst of life’s many ups and downs.
- In fact, one of the greatest stories of a man “seizing the day” takes place in Philippi.
While Paul & Silas were preaching in Philippi, they raised a bit of ruckus and wound up in trouble with the city officials.
- these officials ordered them to be stripped, beaten, & thrown in the inner jail.
- The jailer put them in a dungeon and placed their feet in stocks.
- Around midnight, while praying and singing worship songs out loud so everyone could hear, a mighty earthquake b/g to shake the foundations of the jail. The doors flew open and everyone’s chains came loose.
- The jailer panicked, knowing that as the one responsible for guarding them from escaping, he would likely be put to a slow, painful death.
- So he took out his sword and prepared to take his own life… when Paul called out to him, “Don’t harm yourself! We are ALL here!”
o Paul, Silas, and all the other prisoners listening to them
This must have blown him away. He had no doubt been intrigued by all the worship coming from Paul and Silas… even though they had just been beaten and bound.
- Now they had a chance to escape, but they didn’t
- The guard realized that these men truly had something in their lives that was sadly lacking in his own.
- Seizing the moment, he blurted out, “What must I do to be saved?”
- Paul replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved—you and your whole household.”
- Realizing that he had already lost his life and gained it back, the jailer had nothing to loose. He took Paul and Silas out of the jail to his own house!
- And, before the night was through, the jailer and his family had all committed their lives to Jesus and had been baptized in His name.
This guard seized a moment… and from that moment his life was changed. From this anonymous guard’s life, we can draw four vital steps, which can lead a man from a place of distance from the Father to a place of intimacy.
1. Take Spiritual Inventory:
- Like the Philippian jailer, every man needs to ask himself, “where do I stand spiritually?” “what is my relationship with God?”
- the salvation of the jailer’s household began with his own realization that he was spiritually empty and needed something more in his life.
- So… he asks Paul, “what must I do to be saved”.
- VAN SAUN PARK! Sitting on park bench too tired to go out. YESTERDAY with Matthew!
2. Find Your Purpose… come to a renewed understanding of what our purpose is.
- In just a few minutes, the jailer found a whole new purpose in life… knowing God. An hour earlier he was so afraid of what would happen to him if Paul/Silas had escaped that he was about to kill himself.
o NOW, he was risking his life taking them to his house!
o He was motivated by something entirely new. To know Jesus.
o He just had to take them to his family that they would know Jesus too!
- We need to reevaluate what we see our purpose in life is.
- IRS. Like them or not, they know their purpose for existing:
o ’76 IRS Handbook: “During a state of national emergency resulting from enemy attack, the essential functions of the Service will be as follows: Assessing, collecting, and recording taxes.”
o While the rest of us panic, they’ll be about doing what they always do, taking our money. They know their purpose.
- What is your purpose in life?
- To be a good husband, a good father, provide for family, do your job well?
- Those are 2ndry. What is your primary purpose in life? That reason from which, at the end of your life, you will be able to judge whether you’ve lived life to the fullest or not.
Paul gives us the answer in Philippians… we’ve already discussed it. That is, to KNOW CHRIST… to make Him that One thing which our lives are centered around.
- everything else will flow from that… even the salvation of his family.
- We’ve all seen, men, how much better were are at being husbands, dads, and sons, when we are walking in deeper intimacy with God.
- He’s not merely another column in our spiritual house, but is the foundation. If that foundation is missing, every in our life becomes shaky.
3. Be willing to make adjustments
- Just hours ago, the jailer had literally thrown Paul/Silas into the jail in shackles… even though they were bruised & bloodied. HEARTLESS!
- And now, immediately after his salvation, we read in vs. 33 how be b/g to wash their wounds.
- He could not free P/S… they were still prisoners. But through his encounter with God, he changed the way he would treat them… showing dignity and compassion.
o We need, as men, go out of our way to treat people around us with dignity and compassion.
o This will be a church that has MERCY etched into our hearts. We are called to continue the ministry of Jesus as individuals and church.
o DANNY called (wife just died, he and kids living in abandoned bus)… I was reminded to walk in compassion after complaining.
Perhaps you need to make some changes in your life
- perhaps you realize that while you have purposed to set walking in intimacy with Jesus as your ultimate purpose in life, you continue to let the “tyranny of the urgent” lead you off in other directions.
- Then Seize this Day to make whatever changes you need to make in your life to ensure that you are living each day purposefully toward your goal of knowing Him more and more.
How do you do this? You know. But there are 3 aspects I’d like to share:
A. You start with prayer… coming before the throne of grace in confession for those things, which have gotten in between you and intimacy with Him.
a. Pride, unbelief, neglect of family, love of things, gossip, envy, temper
b. You give those things to the Father in confession and receive His forgiveness and move on renewed in your commitment to Him.
c. Again, as Paul said, “forget what is behind and move forward toward the goal of Jesus”
B. Dying to self. There may be certain areas in your life, which you may need to lay to rest.
o John 12:24-26 says, “Truly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”
a. Wheat fields everywhere in Tajikistan… you see people working all day separating the wheat from the chaff.
b. For a wheat seed to grow, you know what has to happen? It has to die. When the wheat is first harvested, its shell is very hard, making it impossible for water to get inside, which would quite literally, bring the seed to life.
c. Like that wheat seed, our exteriors can often be thick and tough, keeping the Spirit from giving us new life.
d. We begin the process of dying to self, as we make our deepest passion, walking in deeper fellowship with Him.
e. What do you need to die to? Certain shows on TV, unhealthy relationships, whatever.
C. Breaking up the Fallow Ground (hard, ungrowable ground).
a. Any farmer will tell you that its not enough for the seed to die, the ground itself needs to be prepared.
b. Seeds found in Egyptian tombs… they are dead but haven’t grown.
o I planted grass seed over the bare spots. They just didn’t grow. I needed to turn over the soil. Before the ground can receive the seeds, it needs to be broken up and made soft.
o Jer. 4:3 says, “Break up your fallow ground and do not sow among thorns. Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, and take away the foreskins of your hearts.”
§ Melody Green’s biography of Keith turned me on to a great article written by Charles Finney called, “Breaking up the follow ground”. I think it is what inspired his song…
§ “My eyes are dry, my faith is old, My heart is hard, my prayers are cold. And I know how I ought to be, alive to you and dead to me. Oh, what can be done with an old heart like mine? Soften it up with oil and wine! The oil is you, your Spirit of love, please wash me anew in the wine of your blood.”
o Hosea 10:12, “Sow for yourselves in righteousness; reap in mercy. Break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord till He comes and rains righteousness on you.”
§ For us to grow, it isn’t enough that we, by a mere act of our will, choose to die to ourselves (though it may start that way… choosing to die to those things making us hard s/a bitterness and unforgiveness.)
§ Remember, God doesn’t say to Hosea, “make yourself righteous so that your soil can be broken up”.
§ Rather, “If you want to plant your seeds, begin to seek me with all your heart. This will reap righteousness and mercy, which will cause the ground to soften and the seed to grow.”
1. Spiritual Inventory; 2. Find Your Purpose; 3. Be Willing to Make Adjustments; and…
4. Like the jailer, to seize the moment, we need to learn to live in the moment
- Paul knew that a good past was not in itself enough to guarantee a meaningful future.
- He says “whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss b/c of Christ.
o “My reason for living is to know Jesus, and whatever happened yesterday, good or bad, is now ancient history.”
- I will live for Jesus today! That means to let go of what is behind you… those people you’ve hurt, those who have hurt you, whatever mistakes you may have made.
- Bruce Springsteen’s Glory Days: about the guy who can’t quit thinking about all the fun he had back in high school. He says, “Time slips away and leaves you nothing but boring stories of Glory Days.”
o Many people zero in on one good period of time in their life—and spend the rest of their days reliving the past.
o Whether it was high school or college, or any other special time, It’s always a temptation to live in the past… whether it was good or bad.
WHY? It’s easy to live in the past and it is easy to dream away the future.
- It is a real challenge, however, to face the present, b/c it means we can no longer allow ourselves the luxury of saying, “one of these days I’ll do something about my temper… my commitment to God… my health, my responsibilities to my family.”
John 11: Jesus’ good friend Lazarus died. When Jesus arrived at the tomb, Laz had been in the grave for four days. Laz’s sister, Martha, came to Jesus and spoke that classic phrase used by so many of us… especially those who tend to live in the past. IF ONLY!
- Jesus, if only you had been here my brother would not have died.
- Jesus said to Martha, “your brother will rise again.” Martha began dreaming about the future and said, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.”
o She knew that Jesus had the power in the past, she knew that he would have power in the future, but she wasn’t quite sure about the present. Jesus said to her…
o Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; 26 and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"
- Martha’s reply was, “Yes Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God.”
o By this confession she was saying, “not just yesterday, not just tomorrow, but today I believe that you are the Christ.”
o It was at this moment that Martha began to face the present and put her faith in to action… AND Laz came walking out of the tomb.
In order Seize the Day, we must face up to the present… putting our lives completely in His hands… asking for help not only in fulfilling our ultimate purpose in life… to be lovers of Christ… but also asking Him right now for whatever you need today.
- WHAT DO YOU NEED FROM JESUS RIGHT NOW? Moms, Dads…
- Facing the present means that we choose to live life as it comes to us day by day. Not in the past, not in the future, but right here and right now.
- The time to Seize the Day always the same. Right now.
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Conclusion: A young soldier and his commanding officer got on a train together… sat across from a very attractive woman who was traveling with her grandmother.
- as the soldier and commander were engaged in conversation, the soldier and young woman kept eyeing one another… the attractive was obviously mutual.
- Suddenly the train went into a tunnel and the car b/c pitch black. Immediately two sounds were heard: the “smack” of a kiss, and the “whack” of a slap across the face.
- The grandmother thought, “I can’t believe he kissed my granddaughter, but I’m glad she gave him the slap he deserved!
- The commanding officer thought, “I don’t blame the boy for kissing the girl, but it’s a shame that she missed his face and hit me instead.”
- The young girl thought, “I’m glad he kissed me, but I wish my grandmother hadn’t slapped him for doing it.”
- And as the train broke into the sunlight, the soldier could not wipe the smile from his face.
- He had just seized the opportunity to kiss a pretty girl and slap his commanding officer and had gotten away with both!
- Now that guy knew how to Seize the Day!
Similarly, we must take every opportunity that comes our way to fulfill our deepest purpose in life… to be sons and daughters of God.
- It’s not going to happen yesterday, so must forget the past. We can’t wait till tomorrow b/c tomorrow might not come.
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