A little girl asks her mother, “Mommy, why do you cut off the ends of the meat before you cook it?” The girl’s mother goes on to tell her that she thought that it adds flavor by allowing the meat to better absorb the spices, but perhaps she had better ask her grandma since she had learned it from her. So the little girl finds the grandmother and asks, “Grandma, why do you and mommy chop off the ends of the meat before you cook it?” Her grandmother thinks a moment and says, “I think it allows the meat to stay tender because it soaks up the juices better, but why don’t you ask your Nana because after all, I learned from her and she’s always done it that way.” The little girl is getting a little frustrated, but climbs up in her great-grandmother’s lap and asks, “Nana, why do you cut the ends off of the meat before you cook it?” Nana answers, “I don’t know why these women do it, but I did it because my pot wasn’t big enough.”
How many times do we walk through life blindly, without knowing the purpose for the way that we live our lives? One more illustration…
One of golf’s immortal moments came when a Scotsman demonstrated the new game to U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant. Carefully placing the ball on the tee, he took a mighty swing. The club hit the turf and scattered dirt all over the President’s beard and the surrounding vicinity, while the ball waited placidly on the tee. Again the Scotsman swung and again he missed. Our president waited patiently through six tries and then quietly stated, “There seems to be a fair amount of exercise in the game, but I fail to see the purpose of the ball.”
President Grant made a statement that could be true about many lives. It could be true about many lives in this room this morning: There seems to be a fair amount of exercise…but I fail to see the purpose. How many of you have much activity with little or no progress? For all the busyness in our lives I have to ask “are you getting anywhere from it?” “Are we getting anywhere from it?” "Is there a purpose for it all?" Purpose gives meaning to our lives. It gives one the ability to say, “I know why I’m doing what I’m doing!”
I want to ask you this main question. Are you living or are you just existing? There is a difference; there is a big difference. Webster’s defines living as “vigorous, alive and full of life.” Existing is defined as “to have being.” How many of us are existing? So many of us wake up, go to work or school, keep house, whatever the case. They go about their business, but they have no real sense of purpose in their lives. Their happiness and fulfillment of their life depends largely on circumstances and achievements. If they were completely honest, they would admit that inside, they are empty. I am not saying that we all have to live lives of liberality, and a new, wild change every day of our lives, however we can learn to live lives of stability and have that vigor and livelihood rather than being content with just “being.” The inspired word of God gives us three ways to accomplish this.
I. Carpe Diem…Every diem of your life!
If you surveyed one hundred people, probably most of them would say this is what they want for their lives: No one wants life to be mediocre. We want our lives to be full. We want everything we can get out of every day, but what are we willing to do about it? We are wrapped up in deadlines, and commitments, problems and priorities and it just doesn’t always happen. There are ways to seize the day, every day of your life and fortunately, the apostle Paul had this to an art and wrote his plan down in Philippians 3.
The first thing that you notice about Paul in Philippians 3 is that he knows his sure-fire purpose for his life. Have you figured out the purpose for your life on this earth? A good example of this, like it or not, is the IRS. They know their purpose for existing. In the IRS handbook it says, “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.” So while we all panic, they will be doing what they always do…taking our money. But, they know their purpose. Here’s an easy question. What is the primary purpose of an ink pen? To write, of course. A 95 dollar, 24-karat, gold-cross pen that is out of ink is pretty to look at, but is a failure as a pen. It doesn’t fulfill its purpose. When it comes time to endorse your paycheck, you’ll bypass the solid gold pen and go for the 29-cent Bic that works.
Just as the pen, we will fail unless we know our reason for living. Paul says his reason for living in verse 10: "I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship in sharing in his suffering, becoming like him in his death, and so somehow to attain resurrection from the dead." Simply put, Paul’s reason for living was to be like Jesus, should this not be our reason for living also?
The second thing we need to do, to seize each and every day, Paul says, is to forget the past and press on to our heavenly goal, taking one day at a time. Verse 13 says, “One thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
On New Years Day in 1929, Georgia Tech was playing California in a postseason game. Late in the second quarter, Roy Regals recovered a fumble for California, and in his excitement became confused and ran the wrong way. After racing 65 yards, he was finally tackled by his own player at the 2-yard line. California attempted to punt from deep in their own end zone, but the kick was blocked and Georgia Tech scored a safety. In the lockers at half time, Regals sat in the corner with his face buried in his hands, crying. The coach didn’t make his usual halftime speech, but before the team went on the field in the second half, he said, “The starting team goes back on this half.” The whole team left except for Regal who had his face still in his hands. “I can’t do it coach, I’ve ruined the game, and I’ve ruined the team.” The coach said, “Get up Regals. The game is only half over, you belong on the field.” Through Jesus, our game is only half over. God is willing to forget about the mistakes of the first half and to press on toward our goal. He expects us to forget them, also. Isn’t it great to know the God, who in Isaiah 43:25 says, “I am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more." If the Lord God can forget our past, then why can we not do the same?
II. Live in love, and love to live!
When asked what agape was, a certain little boy said, “Oh, that’s the fish we have that always fights with our goldfish!” We’re not talking about a fish, here, we’re talking about unconditional, Godly love, and even more than breath, we need it to live.
We have all heard, numerous times, I’m sure, 1 Corinthians 13. But do we really put it to practice? And, do we really consider it a thriving aspect of living. God does. “If I speak in tongues of men, and angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.” God made us as beings to be dead without love. The time we stop loving is the time we stop living.
We can adapt these first few verses to our world today. "If I win the Texas lottery, and don’t have love, I’m nothing." I’m a rich nothing, but still, I’m nothing. "If I have the greatest family in the world, but don’t love them, I’m nothing. If I have the newest top of the line sports car, but love only that car…I’m nothing. I’m dead." Without love, without agape, I have no life in me. I merely exist.
We have all heard the phrase, “love isn’t something you feel, it’s something that you do.” Love is an attribute of God himself; it is the essence of what God teaches. 1 John 4:8, “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” This is not a simile, “God is like love”, this is a metaphor “God IS love”, and it is the essence of what God is. Love is an unselfish service to others. It is evidence that you care about someone. Verse 13: “These three remain: faith, hope, and love, but the greatest of these is love.” Faith is the foundation and content of God’s message. Hope is the attitude and focus, but love is the action. When faith and hope are in line, you are free to love completely because you understand how God loves, and through this we can achieve a much higher standard of living.
III. Stop worrying and just hand it over…your life, that is.
I have recently read that a dense fog that covers a seven-block area of a city is composed of less than one normal eight-ounce glass of water. It is, though, divided into billions and billions of drops. So little an amount of water can create so much gloom, and can even cripple an entire city. Worry and anxiety are like that. Just a small amount can settle on you like a great cloud of gloom and can keep you from enjoying your life.
We must learn that worry and anxiety are not parts of our being, and especially are not parts of vigor and livelihood. God did not create us as beings of worry. He created us as beings of faith and happiness. Dr. E. Stanley Jones, one of the greatest missionaries to India, has a beautiful passage in his book, Transformed By Thorns. He writes: “I am inwardly fashioned for faith, not for fear. Fear is not my native land; faith is. I am so made that worry and anxiety are sand in the machinery of life; faith is the oil. I live better by faith and confidence than by fear, doubt and anxiety. In anxiety and worry, my being is gasping for breath-these are not my native air. But in faith and confidence, I breathe freely-these are my native air.” Studies by Johns Hopkins University Doctors say, “We do not know why it is that worriers die sooner than the non-worriers, but that is a fact. But, being simple of mind, an answer is easily gathered. We are inwardly constructed in nerve and tissue, brain cell and soul, for faith and not fear. God made us that way. To live by worry is to live against reality.” Fear deteriorates the quality of our lives and even destroys us physically. We are not designed to live under fear, anxiety, and worry. Faith breathes life and joy into our bodies and in this we find complete wholeness.
Jesus tried to change our focus from fear to faithfulness when he says in Matthew 6:26: "Look at the birds of the air: they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.”
So how do we change our focus from worry to faith? How do we keep from being worrywarts? How do we solve this dilemma that we live with every single day of our lives? In my opinion, the answer lies in one of the shortest, most compelling sentences in the Bible. John 5:30, Most of you, if your Bible is equipped with it, will notice we are in the red letters here. These are the exact words of Jesus Christ, our powerful Lord and savior right here: By myself I can do nothing. Jesus said that! Every person he ever healed, every miracle he ever performed, every step he took was not by trusting who he was as the Son of God, but by depending on his Father’s strength and guidance. If Jesus could of himself do nothing, how much can we of ourselves do nothing? We go through every day relying on our own abilities, and our brains and wits, and our own resources and in the big picture, we of ourselves are doing nothing and living nothing. It is time that we stop worrying and learn to hand over our lives. The life I live is not my own, but it is a gift from my almighty Father. Why should I not turn over to him what is rightfully his? Why should I not make the most out of this one life he has given me before it is over and gone FOR GOOD? If we could learn to do this, every problem that we have would be so much easier to fix, and the best thing is, the problems we do have will not drive us over the edge. It is time to stop telling God how big my problems are and to start telling my problems how big my God is.
Through these things we can learn how to stop just existing and start living. God did not create us as beings to just plop down on the earth and do our time, and go back to whence we came. He created us as living creatures to live our lives to the fullest, but to do it his way. I want you to dig down deep and ask yourself, how empty is my life? Am I living or existing? Am I giving God 100% of every day that he has given me on this earth? If you have any doubts toward any of these questions, you have some talking to do with your Father in heaven. We are here for you, and we are here to pray with you, and to pray for you.
