DON’T WASTE YOUR LIFE
Original Outline by Rick Warren—Saddleback Church
You can also find this sermon at www.praiseag.org - visit "The Path" sermon finder and click on the "40 Days of Purpose" series.
Don’t Waste Your Life
Preparing for 40 Days of Purpose
Ephesians 5:15-17
INTRODUCTION:
Have you ever taken the time to read bumper sticker theology? People will tell you a lot about themselves and what they believe about God by what they stick on their bumpers. Please forgive the rudeness of this first example; I once read a bumper sticker that said “Life Sucks.” How many of you would guess that person not only got out on the wrong side of the bed and is having a bad day everyday, but they also don’t think much about God. This individual certainly has not found the abundant life Jesus has offered to all who believe in Him.
Another bumper sticker offered a very different perspective on life; it read, “Life is too precious to waste.” You might expect to find this one on the back of some cars in the parking lot; how many of you would like to have something like that on your car? One might think a person with such a statement on their car sees life as a gift from God. But how do you keep from wasting your life? How can we keep our days from getting tossed into the trash? How can we not end up not wanting to put that “other bumper sticker” on our cars instead?
• Ephesians 5:15-17 (NLT)
[15] So be careful how you live, not as fools but as those who are wise. [16] Make the most of every opportunity for doing good in these evil days. [17] Don’t act thoughtlessly, but try to understand what the Lord wants you to do.
Three weeks ago we ended 2004. As we looked at the New Year that lay before us I used these verses from Ephesians to remind us three important realities about the time given to us in our lives. We are each given only 24 hours per day, 168 hours per week, and 8,760 hours per year. As hard as you may try, you can’t add time to a single day. How we use the time given to us is important.
If we are going to make wise use of our time then it is important for us to remember [1] we need to use our time wisely; [2] our time is limited; and [3] our time is for God. Now for those of you who are afraid I saved time this week and plan to preach the same message all over again, rest assured this is not a rerun!
Take a moment and underline or circle some words from these verses in your Bible. First notice the word “CAREFUL.” The Bible says, “be careful how you live.”
Let me ask you a simple question, what is the opposite of careful—CARELESS. Don’t live your life carelessly. Literally the Bible is telling us not to stumble through life or just drift aimlessly. God wants us to think about our lives and understand why we are here. Do you know what your purpose for living is—have you even given it any thought?
The Message Bible puts it like this, “Don’t live carelessly, unthinkingly” (Ephesians 5:17). Don’t overlook the word CAREFUL!
• Haggai 1:5 (NIV)
Now this is what the Lord Almighty says: "Give careful thought to your ways.
You don’t have to take my word on it; you’ve got God’s word! God wants us to be careful how we live our lives.
Second underline or circle the words, “Make the most of every opportunity” and “understand what the Lord wants you to do.” How many of you can honestly say you want to live your life to the fullest? How many of you want to know what God expects of you—you really want to please God with how you live your life?
This is your lucky day. I promise this will not be a waste of your time. You can be assured as we begin a 40 day journey to discover what God wants of your life will be worth the effort. Through this 40 day adventure we will look at the 5 purposes God has created us to live for; I promise it will be an exciting time of discovery. You don’t want to miss out on it!
But today we are going to get ready for this journey by looking at three basic questions of life. It’s important to ask good questions, but it’s even more important to have the right answers, so we’re going to take some time to find the correct answers too.
None of us want to waste our lives. No one wants to come to the end of their life and look back upon a life full of regret. If we are going to keep from wasting our life we need to ask these three questions: What does God want? What will it take? And why should I do it?
1. What does God want?
What does God want from you? If you’re going to keep from wasting your life you need to know something that is foundational: you are not a cosmic accident or the result of evolutionary chance. You are designed and created by God.
Because we are created by God it’s important to know what God expects of us. Think about it—the creator designs the purpose or His creation—the invention doesn’t decide what it is made for.
Let me tell you in three words what God wants: God wants YOUR WHOLE LIFE. God wants everything there is about you with nothing held back.
There is not a single verse in the Bible, not one, that says you can be a Christian and live your life any old way you want to. It’s just not there. God wants all of you. He doesn’t want 10% of you, He doesn’t want 50% of you, He doesn’t want 99% of you—God wants all of you.
• Romans 6:13 (NLT)
Give yourselves completely to God since you have been given new life. And use your whole body as a tool to do what is right for the glory of God.
Circle the word “completely” and circle the word “whole body”. It should be all of you.
o C.S. Lewis once said, “The only thing Christianity cannot be is moderately important”. If it’s really true, then it deserves everything you’ve got. If it’s not true, you shouldn’t be here right now. The only thing Christianity cannot be is moderately important. It’s either all, or nothing. If the claims of Christ and the Christian church are true then we should give it everything we’ve got. If it’s all a lie then why bother, lets find something better to do with our lives.
Are you willing to give your all for God, but you’re just not sure what He expects from you? I’ve got good news! God hasn’t kept His purpose for your life a top secret file; it’s not classified information. God has made it knowable!
• Deuteronomy 10:12 (NCV)
This is what the Lord your God wants you to do: Respect the Lord and do what He has told you to do. Love Him. Serve the Lord your God with your whole being.
Notice first God says, “LOVE HIM.” If you give your all to God without love then it adds up to nothing. We have not given God all our lives until we also give Him our love. God does not want us to give Him our live out of duty or obligation. Above all else God wants our lives filled with love.
How can we show our love to God? “Serve the Lord your God with your whole being.” Here again a half hearted commitment won’t do. We are to give ourselves completely to God; He wants our “WHOLE BEING.”
Some people try to sit on the fence. They say, “Well, I’ll serve God in my spare time,” or “I attend church and give my offerings; what more can God ask?”
o It’s like our lives are a pie cut into pieces—we have our social life, our career life, there’s our family life, our personal life. At some time we all think about retirement life, and don’t forget our sex life. Then there’s another piece of the pie we call our spiritual life. We may cut the pie of our lives into many different pieces and some pieces may be cut bigger than others. Folks God’s not interested in just having a piece of the pie; God wants the whole pie.
If we don’t give God 100%, if we just offer God a piece of the pie then we haven’t given God what He wants.
• Matthew 6:24 (NIV)
No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
I want you to circle the word “CANNOT” in your Bibles. Jesus doesn’t say you “should not” serve God and money – He says you “cannot” serve God and money. In other words, IT’S IMPOSSIBLE TO DO BOTH!
None of us can have two number one priorities in our lives. We will always have a #1 priority, and everything else is going to be #2, #3, and #4 and so on. God will either be number 1 in our lives, or we’re just fooling ourselves to think we love God when other things are crowding Him out of our lives.
Money is not the only thing that can push God out of First Place in your life. Work or our ambition can push God out. Entertainment, fun, sports, hobbies, husbands, wives, family or friends—any of these and more can take God’s rightful place of being number one in our lives.
I’m sure each of us would say we want God to have His rightful place and be number one in our lives. I doubt if any of us would ever say we have put other people or things ahead of God. While we won’t come out and say God isn’t number one in our lives, we are willing to make excuses for how we respond to God.
o Lord, I love you, but . . .
o Lord, I will follow you anywhere, but . . .
o Lord, I want to read my Bible, but . . .
o Lord I want to be at church to worship, but . . .
Jesus had some people come to Him with excuses for why they couldn’t follow Him in Luke 9. On the surface their excuses sound valid; these are legitimate reasons—maybe even better than our excuses! “Lord, first let me go bury my father.” Another said, “Lord I will follow you, but first let me go back and say good-by to my family.”
Essentially they were both saying, “Lord I’ll make you number one in my life, but let me first go do this or that.” We are quick to do the same thing. Unfortunately, you can’t say “LORD” and “ME FIRST.” It’s a contradiction. Jesus is either Lord of ALL or He is not Lord at all.
So here’s a question for you to consider: WHAT EXCUSE DO YOU KEEP GIVING TO GOD FOR PUTTING YOURSELF FIRST?
Let’s stop making excuses and admit we have not made God number one in our lives. Let’s be willing to confess our sin of pride or whatever other sin it may be and give ourselves completely to the Lord.
Guess what! When we get beyond all our excuses and give ourselves without any reservation totally to the Lord, then we are ready to start really living. When God is first in your life, He’ll take care of everything else.
• Proverbs 3:6 (Living Bible)
In everything you do, put God first, and he will direct you and, crown your efforts with success.
How many people do you know who want to be successful? Everybody does! The only way to real success is to put God first in your life.
Have you been trying to live a part-time Christian life? Have you only given God a part of your time? Has God not been number one in your life?
The first question of life is WHAT DOES GOD WANT? The choice is yours. You can give yourself completely to God, or you can decide to only give the Lord a slice of the pie. Regardless of how big the piece of the pie you give God, any time you sit on the fence, any time you hold back on God everything, YOU LOSE. What does God want? Well, He wants all of you.
2. What does it take?
What does it take to not waste my life? What does it take to become all that God wants me to be? What does it takes to develop myself to my fullest potential?
Well, I’m going to say it in one word. It’s a word we don’t like; it’s very unpopular. We cringe when we hear this word. The word is “DISCIPLINE”. If our life will not be wasted and filled with regret then it must be a disciplined life.
Jesus has called us to be His disciples, to follow Him giving God all of our lives. You cannot be a disciple without discipline. The two words go together - disciple and discipline. If you are going to be a disciple of Jesus you must live a disciplined life.
• Proverbs 10:17 (God’s Word)
Whoever practices discipline is on the way to life.
Being disciplined is worth it! Discipline brings life. Discipline keeps us from living a wasted life.
Someone may ask, “what in the world is discipline?” It’s simple really; two words tell you what it is. DISCIPLINE IS DELAYED GRATIFICATION. That’s all it is—delayed gratification. Discipline is doing the difficult now, in order to enjoy the benefit later.
o Some of you don’t need this definition, because you’re already incredibly disciplined. Some of you are very disciplined in your work or career. You plan your day, you’re always on time, and you’re conscientious in your work habits. Some of you are very disciplined in your physical workouts. You never miss a physical workout. It’s in your routine, in your schedule. Some of you are disciplined about not missing a favorite T.V. show, and should something interfere with it then we’re quick to record it so we can watch it later.
We are all disciplined in one way or another. Do you know what area of your life you are disciplined in? You are disciplined in the areas you want to be. The things that are important to you, you get done.
What if you were as disciplined in having a daily quiet time as you are in not missing a meal or taking your vitamins? What if you were as disciplined in serving others as you are in getting up and going to work everyday? What if you were as disciplined in attending church as you are in watching that favorite T.V. show that you never miss?
You know, there’s another word for discipline – we like this one a little bit better, so you can use this one instead if you like. It’s the word “HABITS.” Habits are simply the disciplines of your life. Tell me what you do habitually, and I’ll tell you about your disciplines. Disciplines are the habits you do over and over and over without even thinking about it.
Some of us have good habits and others have bad habits. Put another way some of us lead disciplined lives and others live an undisciplined life. But how many of you know we can change our habits. Instead of being undisciplined we can be disciplined.
Changing our habits is really simple—replace one habit with another. Making the change requires discipline. The hard part of changing your habits is you have to think about it; in other words, the new habit isn’t a part of who you are until you do it without thinking about it.
Now one of the major goals of 40 Days of Purpose, which we’re going to begin next week, is to help you develop some new spiritual habits. How many of you have found it’s easier to break a bad habit when someone else is doing it with you.
• 1 Timothy 4:7 (Living Bible)
Spend your time and energy in the exercise of keeping spiritually fit.
Keep spiritually fit. Just like there are exercises you can do that will keep you physically fit, you can exercise spiritually. We would all be quick to point out the benefits of the spiritual exercise of prayer and Bible study. We would all agree regular church attendance is beneficial to our spiritual health. However, let me mention two spiritual exercises we might not think of.
The first is the spiritual exercise of LETTING GO. If we are going to be spiritually fit we must learn the discipline of letting go. Letting go simply means you let go of things because you know you can’t adding things to your schedule without letting go of something else. (Some of us try to make BUSYNESS a spiritual exercise, but trust me on this one—piling on more and more activities will only lead to exhaustion and not spiritual health.) We have to learn the exercise of letting go!
• Hebrews 12:1 (NLT)
Let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily hinders our progress.
This is the spiritual exercise of letting go. We learn to “strip off” and remove certain things from our lives. What does God want us to learn to let go of?
We are to remove two things: WEIGHT (we’re not necessarily talking about a diet) and SIN. These are two things that hold you back. Weight and sin are two things keeping you from being all that God wants you to be. Two things limit your potential and rob you of spiritual health—weight and sin. These are the things that waste your life.
God says, “You’ve got to let go of these things; strip them off”.
Most of us know what sin is—sin is breaking God’s commandments, it’s disobeying what God has said. Sin is “missing the mark.” We can’t get rid of sin on our own; we need God’s help. But when we “let go” of our sin—when we repent and turn to go the other way, God forgives us and gives us a new start!
But what about weights—what are they? Well, a weight is something that’s not necessarily wrong; it’s just not necessary. Have you thought of that? There’re some things in life that are not necessarily wrong; they’re just not necessary.
A weight can be all kinds of things. It could be a relationship, it could be an expectation, it could be an activity, it could be a club, it could be a memory that you refuse to let go of, it could be a fear, it could be a job. Thousands—even hundreds of thousand different weights can hinder our spiritual health. We need to learn the spiritual discipline of letting go of the weights that hold us back.
To grow, we need to learn to say, “NO!” We can’t say, “yes” to everything. Often we will even have to let go and learn to say “no” to good things in order to have time for the best things. If we are going to give ourselves completely to God, then we have to make space for God in our lives. That means we are going to have to cut some stuff out. We have to let go of some good stuff, not sin, just good stuff if we want to be spiritually fit.
Next week we begin a 40 day journey in which we want to add three new habits or spiritual disciplines to your schedule. [1] A daily devotional reading of about 15 minutes a day, [2] a weekly meeting of about an hour in a small group for six weeks, and [3] a weekly verse to memorize that probably will take you about five minutes. For the 40 days I’m asking you to add about 2 hours and 45 minutes a week to your already busy life. Why do we want to ask you for this time? We don’t want you to waste your life; we want to help you understand God’s purpose for your life.
I’m telling you right now as your Pastor who cares about you; you need to decide right now what you’re going to cut out before you start 40 Days of Purpose. You can put so many irons in the fire until you put out the fire. If you burn the candles at both ends, you are not as bright as you think you are. So you need to ask, “What am I going to stop doing? What will I let go of?”
o Maybe you’re going to need to give up and hour a week of T.V. during 40 Days. You can sit at home and watch “Friends,” or you can to a small group and make some new friends. I don’t know which one you’d rather do. If you say, “watch ‘Friends’” you’ve got a problem. Maybe you need to go to bed 15 minutes earlier during 40 Days, so you can get up 15 minutes earlier to do your daily reading. You just can’t keep just adding stuff on. Maybe you need to cut back on your physical workout to make time for your spiritual workout for 40 Days. One day your body is going to die, but your spirit is going to live forever. The Bible says, “Take the time and effort to work out spiritually so you remain spiritually fit.”
If you are going to be spiritually fit you need to learn the spiritual exercise of letting go. There is one more exercise I want to teach you.
The second exercise for spiritual fitness is KEEPING FIRST THINGS FIRST. Some of you are going to get off to a great start, but then your old habits are going to slow you down. You may find yourself caught by the routine of life and miss out on what God want to teach you through the 40 days of purpose.
Ultimately it all comes down to our choice. Do we want to make God our number one priority? If so then we have to keep first things first. We can’t stop just because old habits got in the way; we need to make a fresh start each day to honor God because it all comes back to our daily choice to do what God wants.
You say, “Pastor, I just can’t get it all done”. You’re right, and neither can I! But let me let you in on a little secret – it isn’t all worth doing. You don’t have to do it all. Nobody’s holding a gun to your head, saying you have to do it all. God doesn’t expect you to do it all. How much of what you think you have to do are really just self-imposed expectations?
If you want to learn the discipline of keeping first things first, then write down these next two scriptures. They would be good for you to memorize this week.
• Psalms 39:6 (NLT)
All our busy rushing, ends in nothing
That one ought to go on the dashboard.
• Proverbs 10:27 (Living Bible)
Reverence for the Lord adds hours to each day.
That one should sit next to the alarm clock!
So you want to keep from wasting your life and being filled with regret. We have three questions to answer. [1] What does God want? He wants all of you, 100% nothing held back. [2] What’s it going to take? I’ll tell you what it’s going to make God #1 and not waste your life. It’s going to take discipline. We’re going to have to work on some spiritual exercises to be all God wants us to be.
Now the last question:
3. Why should I do it?
Why bother? Why should I go to all the effort? It’s my life why can’t I just live it the way I want. Who’s to say my life has been a waste if I live to please myself? Eat drink and be merry right?
Let me tell you why you should want to give your life completely to God. Let me tell you why you should live a disciplined life. Two words: THE CROSS.
• 2 Corinthians 5:15 (NIV)
He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and was raised again”.
Jesus lived His life with a single goal in mind. He lived to die. Through His death we are reconciled to God. His death paid the penalty for our sin.
• Galatians 2:20 (NIV)
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
The life lived separated from Christ is a wasted life. Through the cross Christ enables us to really live. Jesus has provided life to the fullest!
• 2 Corinthians 6:1 (MsgB)
Companions as we are in this work with you, we beg you, please don’t squander one bit of this marvelous life God has given us.
Will you waste the life Christ offers you? Will you throw His gift of love away? What will you do with your life in light of the Cross?
