Question: What are the primary objectives God has given you in this season of your life…. and what are you doing to fulfill them?
This morning I want to talk about sharpening the leading edge of our lives.
> I believe every one of us in this room has a unique calling… a unique part to play in God’s purposes… it may involve your role in formal ministry, informal ministry, your impact in the community or marketplace, as well as parenting.
· Council – agreed that our highest priority in this coming year is that of helping cultivate new levels of maturity at every level of our fellowship.
· This involves a need for focus…A concern I have is a tendency to perpetuate a life of unrealistic ideals that simply produces feelings of guilt and failure. Our desire is to cultivate a maturity in our lives and leadership that’s not about working harder but working smarter.
· Image of PLOW… and the ground is the potential ground we’ve been given to impact… and the plow is our means to succeed in making that impact.
· I believe each of us has a calling to sharpen the leading edge / plow of our lives.
Towards that end I want to hear God’s Word to us from the book of Hebrews… and draw some practical challenges.
Hebrews 12:1-3 (NLT)
· (Context…. Faith and perseverance… chapter 11 is a list of heroes of the faith.)
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily hinders our progress. And let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us. [2] We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from start to finish. He was willing to die a shameful death on the cross because of the joy he knew would be his afterward. Now he is seated in the place of highest honor beside God’s throne in heaven. [3] Think about all he endured when sinful people did such terrible things to him, so that you don’t become weary and give up.”
Climax is keeping our eyes on Jesus… which we’ll come to in receiving communion this morning… but I want to catch some other elements we find here.
Begins with an inspiring image of our lives… that of living our lives before a crowd of witnesses.’ A picture of stadium …surrounded by this testimony of lives that have gone before us.
An actor would act with double intensity if he knew that some famous dramatic master was sitting in the stalls watching him. An athlete would strive with double effort if he knew that a stadium of famous Olympic athletes was watching him. It is of the very essence of the Christian life that it is lived in the gaze of the heroes of the faith who lived, suffered and died in their day and generation. How can a man avoid the struggle for greatness with an audience like that looking down upon him? (Barclay)
“So let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us.”
race = goal / direction / forward motion
William Barclay-
“In the Christian life we have a goal. The Christian is not an unconcerned stroller along the byways of life; he is a wayfarer on the high road. He is not a tourist, who returns each night to the place from which he starts; he is a pilgrim who is for ever on the way. … and it would be well if, at each day’s ending, we were to ask ourselves: "Am I any farther on?"
“set before us” – I believe each of us in this room have a race set before us…. and winning that race involves defining our focus, and then diminishing our hindrances, and developing our support.
1. Defining our focus
Our basic commitment is to discover and do the will of God. In this we find meaning for all our activities. This involves faithfulness to God in general… but also includes our individual purposes within what God is doing.
Each of the lives listed fulfilled a specific calling… This picture is one of lives that were given a part to play.
True of each one of us…
"For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." Eph. 2:10
"For it is God who works in you, inspiring both the will and the deed for his own chosen purpose!" Phil. 2:13 (NEB)
1 Peter 4:10 (NIV)
Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.
> God has prepared, inspired, and gifted every one of us to be a part of His purposes.
How do we discover our particular callings?
What are the primary objectives God has given you for this particular season in your life?
Such purposes will include …
· A sense of calling that unfolds
UNFOLDS… from time with God… where we hear Him in our hearts / spirits… prompts us
Jesus at the end of his ministry and life says, “Father…I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. (Jn 17:1-2,4)
How could Jesus talk about a "completed" work? His three year ministry seems painfully brief. One prostitute at a banquet was given forgiveness and a new life, but many others still ply their trade. For every withered muscle that flexed into strength, hundreds remain crippled.
The blind, maimed and deceased abound through-out the country. Yet on that last night, with many urgent human needs unmet and useful tasks undone, the Lord has peace.
The answer lies in the words: "the work you gave me to do." Jesus did not meet all the human needs he encountered-many urgently desired by family and friends, and by others along his path. But he completed the mission his Father gave him.
-Charles E. Hummel-Freedom From Tyranny of the Urgent: Page 23+
> Jesus fulfilled his mission through listening to the Father, discerning the words to proclaim and the healings to perform. To do this our Lord reserved time alone with the Father.
> Many of us may not have a sense about such a calling..
I think we just haven’t taken the time to listen… or to sift what we have sensed.
A close friend of Mother Teresa, Mercedes Wilson, said the words Mother Teresa often said to her were: "You cannot do what I can do. I cannot do what you can do. Listen to God. Be like a pencil, sensitive, writing down what he gives you to do."
The Lord’s promptings and priorities are at hand… to reach out to certain people… old friends or family… new needs around us… people we know we’re to influence … which may include those at our workplace…or children at home. Maybe you’re just seeking to know God…. and the prompting and priority right now is that of believing and turning your life over to God.
· A sense of grace (God’s favor) to fulfill it
It may take time to sense God’s grace and favor… but I believe we will experience some sense of God’s favor when we serve in the capacity he’s called us into.
Romans 12:6-8 (NIV)
We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.
God isn’t calling you to do what you’re destined to fail at. He’ll provide the favor you need.
G. W. CARVER ACCEPTED A PAENUT OF GOD’S UNIVERSE TO WORK WITH
George Washington Carver , an early American inventor, once asked God to tell him about the universe. According to Carver, the Lord replied, "George, the universe is just too big for you to understand. Suppose you let Me take care of that." Humbled, he replied, "Lord, how about a peanut?" The Lord said, "Now, George, that’s something your own size. Go to work on it and I’ll help you." When Carver was done studying the peanut, he had discovered over 300 products that could be made with that little bit of God’s universe.+
· A sense of satisfaction in the accomplishment
“For the JOY set before him…”
"Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your Master’s happiness!" Matt. 25:23
I think we can taste the joy even in the process.
· Chariots of Fire – Eric Liddel When I run I feel God’s pleasure.”
· Easy? > NO – Christ ENDURED the cross. Liddel felt pain when he ran… but mixed with a sense of satisfaction in the accomplishment.
2. Diminishing our hindrances
“let us strip off every weight that slows us down,”
… refers to the Greek custom of stripping off clothes to run unencumbered. The image would represent anything that would hinder his readers from winning their race.
What might hinder us in running and winning the race set before us?
I can think of a lot of things in my life… patterns, habits, tendencies… all which hinder me.
I think of my calling to lead us as a community into the future.
· Admin partner… to help me focus
· De-clutter from the past
· Change patterns re time management for the sake of my children
· Relational patterns to be more effective at empowering others
· Patterns in eating and exercise to be more effective in terms of health
These are hindrances that need diminishing.
Often it’s simply a matter of priorities… choosing between the urgent and the important.
We live in constant tension between the urgent and the important. OUR GREATEST DANGER IS LETTING THE URGENT THINGS CROWD OUT THE IMPORTANT ONES.
Heard story of a lighthouse keeper who worked on a rocky stretch of coastline received his new supply of oil once a month to keep the light burning. Not being far from shore, he had frequent guests. One night a woman from the village begged some oil to keep her family warm. Another time a father asked for some to use in his lamp. Another needed some to lubricate a wheel. Since all the requests seemed legitimate, the lighthouse keeper tried to please everyone and grant the requests of all. Toward the end of the month he noticed the supply of oil was very low. Soon it was gone, and the beacon went out. That night several ships were wrecked and lives were lost. When the authorities investigated, the man was very repentant. To his excuses and pleading their reply was, "You were given oil for one purpose - to keep that light burning!"
“strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily hinders our progress.
What might be keeping you from fulfilling your priorities in life?
3. Developing our support
Heb 3:13 - “Encourage each other every day, while it is called today and beware that none of you becomes blind and deaf to God through the delusive glamour of sin.”
Hebrews 10:24-25 - “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another--and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”
Prov. 27:17 - As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.
> Who’s in your life to help sharpen you? Support you? Help you succeed?
Conclusion
Life is not a 100-yard dash, but a long distance race. No one knows just how long it will be. It can suddenly be cut short, as we have often seen, but its very uncertainty requires that we run it as if it will last a long time, being prepared to keep going no matter what happens.
So we are challenged - “don’t become weary and give up.”
The two verbs used at the end of this verse, “grow weary and lose heart,” are both used by Aristotle of runners who relax and collapse after they have passed the finishing post. The readers were still in the race. They must not give way prematurely.
Are you wearied? I want to encourage you… you can win the race set before you… as you define your focus, diminish your hindrances, and develop your support.
And one factor above all will make this possible - To us fix our eyes on Jesus.
In Christ the power of priorities and perseverance are no longer simply good concepts for life… they become a living presence. … the presence of Jesus. He is at once the goal of our journey and the companion of our way; at once the one whom we go to meet and the one with whom we travel.
COMMUNION
