The Great Life: Finding Life
June 22-23, 2002
Matthew 10:37-39 (New International Version)
37“Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; 38and anyone who does not take his cross a nd follow me is not worthy of me. 39Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
INTRODUCTION: This is the Gospel of our Lord?
When we finish reading the gospel lesson, the reader will say, “This is the Gospel of our Lord.” And the congregation responds, “Praise to you, O Christ.”
There are some Sundays, and this would be one of them, where I think instead of saying, “This is the Gospel of our Lord and ending with a period, it would be more accurate to use a question mark, “This is the Gospel of our Lord?”
I am glad these verses weren’t for last Sunday on Father’s day. Talking about family division might deal with the dysfunctional family issues of our day, but does not sound like gospel or good news to our ears. Yet in these difficult verses from Jesus where he says things like to save your life you must lose it, there is good news.
Jesus is not trying to shock us, he seeks to save us. The issue isn’t tolerance, it is the truth of what ultimately makes the great life. He invites to discover the core of finding life and at the core are 3 life building truths in Matthew 10:38-39.
The Core of Finding Life
LIFE BUILDING TRUTH 1. CENTER my life on God as priority number 1 in my life. Jesus says in Matthew 10:39, If your first concern is to look after yourself, you’ll never find yourself. But if you forget about yourself and look to me, you’ll find both yourself and me. -- (Msg)
According to research commissioned by the Weather Channel, 1 in 5 viewers of the Weather Channel watches for at least 3 hours at a sitting. The company calls these people "weather-involved." Can you imagine that? I mean, if you watch the Weather Channel three hours a day, you need to get a life!
Jesus says if anything comes between you and God, we need to get back to the core of life the center of life. This means worship. This means God as priority #1. Most Christians understand this, and so Satan comes in with a sneak attack. We know we should worship, and he throws the bait of worry right at us, and we so easily bite into it and worry.
When worry becomes the center of life or even when it attacks on the fringes, we are in trouble. When worry replaces worship or even shifts our worship, God is knocked off-center in our lives, and there is trouble ahead. How can we keep God in the center, especially when worry comes? Look at Paul’s advice in Philippians 4:6-7, 6Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. 7Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life. -- (Msg)
Pastor Peterson and I are both committed to leading people to worship God in their daily lives. Pastor Peterson was telling me one day that when he was driving this guy around Chicago, the man just broke in worship and praise to the Lord, singing songs of praise. I thought that was great, and then told him when I used to drive people around Chicago, they would break out in prayer.
Folks, what’s guiding your life – worship of God or worries of life? And so the question to ask ourselves is What do I want to be the center of my life? ________________________
Jesus’ challenges us to center our lives on God as priority #1.
LIFE BUILDING TRUTH 2. COMMIT to get to love more than got to love. I saw a Peanuts cartoon with Lucy saying to Charlie Brown, "I hate everything. I hate everybody. I hate the whole wide world!"
Charlie Brown says, "But I thought you had inner peace."
Lucy replies, "I do have inner peace. But I still have outer obnoxiousness" And are those the ones, the people with outer obnoxiousness that are the most difficult to love?
We understand God’s call to love other people, and often we see that as duty that I’ve got to do. Similar motivation for flossing your teeth, paying your taxes, and taking your vitamins. It’s something you know you have to do, but you really aren’t excited about it. It’s more duty than delight. And we are challenged by Jesus’ words in Matthew 10:38, If you don’t go all the way with me, through thick and thin, you don’t deserve me. -- (Msg)
And when Jesus is asked the greatest commandment, the greatest principle for living life. We hear the answer in Matthew 22:37-40, 37Jesus answered him, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38This is the greatest and most important commandment. 39The second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as you love yourself.’ 40All of Moses’ Teachings and the Prophets depend on these two commandments.” -- (GOD’S WORD)
Yet hearing that answer, it to often feels like another duty that is heaped on top of us instead of the invitation to finding the real joy and power in living life each day. Have you ever asked yourself the question in your message outline, Why do I love? __________________________________
When I say I have got to love, the motivation is guilt. It is something I ought to do, need to do, but am not wild about loving the Lucys of the world with their outer obnoxiousness. When I get to love, I realize the motive is grace, it is responding to the love God has shown to us through Jesus. Love motivated because God loves to love people, even outer obnoxious ones like me.
I learned this from a theologian named Albert Outler who was asked near the end of his life what he had learned over time, and replied, “I would tell people, ‘You’ve got to love. You’ve got to love.’ Now I have grown to realize this, ‘You get to love. You get to love.’”
God in His grace sends His son to die for us because of His love and desire to be in a relationship with us. And yet He does even more, instead of just zapping us and taking us to heaven as soon as we believe, He gives us opportunities to get to love people with inner peace and people with outer obnoxiousness. So why do you love? Got to or get to? Guilt or grace?
LIFE BUILDING TRUTH 3. CONTRIBUTE my life to touch others for Christ. Losing a million dollars and saying it was the best thing that ever happened to you, makes just as about as much sense as Jesus words here in Matthew 10:38-39, 38If you refuse to take up your cross and follow me, you are not worthy of being mine. 39If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give it up for me, you will find it. -- (NLT)
The May 2002 issue of Fast Company tells the stories of five people who worked for Enron, the company that in 2001 filed for the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history.
One person profiled in that article was Phyllis Anzalone. She went to work for the company in 1996 selling energy supply contracts. Her personal earnings quickly went to six figures. She says, "As devastating as it was, I’m glad I did it. It was like being on steroids every day."
But when Enron went bankrupt, she lost roughly one million dollars. She says, "The whole Enron debacle was probably the best thing that ever happened to me. I was so emotionally attached to that company, and it took so much life out of me." She had to lose a million dollars to get her life back. Jesus says we lose even more if we cling to it, but if we give it up, we will find it.
Author and pastor Calvin Miller says he thinks the most vibrant missionaries he has met are medical doctors serving in lonely outposts of the Arab world. These physicians and nurses are aware that in winning a Muslim to Christ, they condemn their converts to ostracism and persecution—even martyrdom.
One doctor said to him, "How do you think I feel in longing to lead people to Christ, knowing that the moment my patients receive Christ they face a life-and-death contempt in this culture?"
"It must seem pointless," Miller replied.
"Pointless?" the doctor said. "This is the point of the gospel—the cost and consequence of receiving Christ is the entire point of ’Take up your cross and follow me.’"
Folks, those words are an invitation to contribute your life to make a difference in leading others to Christ. We make a mistake when we equate carrying our cross with a burden we are facing in life. That’s not to say there aren’t burden in carrying your cross, but instead the purpose of the burdens is not to show how great a load I can carry, but what am I contributing to lead others to Christ? Such a contribution is not based solely on the loose change of our lives that we can muster, but in utilizing how God has shaped us and gifted us for service. Peter tells us in 1 Peter 4:10, God has given each of you some special abilities; be sure to use them to help each other, passing on to others God’s many kinds of blessings. -- (TLB)
So this week ask yourself, Where am I making an unselfish contribution to lead others to Christ? ________________________________
The battler here is am I a giver or a taker? Jesus came and gave his life that we might have life, and He invites us to do the same. It’s not just a call to die on a cross, it’s a call to lead others to the cross of Jesus and the power He brings.
CONCLUSION: God has a plan for your life!
Simon Birch is a movie about a 12-year-old boy named Simon Birch who, despite his physical handicaps, and believes God has a plan for his life. Simon was born tiny and with an abnormally small heart. He was expected to die within the first 24 hours of his life. He surprises everyone, though, when he lives to be an adolescent. He is considered a disappointment to his parents and the target of many childhood pranks because of his miniature size and odd-sounding voice, Simon has every reason to question his self-worth and purpose for living. But he embraces his condition and believes that God will use him in a unique, possibly even heroic, way.
Joe, Simon’s best friend, doesn’t believe in God, and he is not the only one who doubts that God has a plan for Simon. His schoolmates mock him relentlessly, believing his assertions are one more indication of his strangeness. On one occasion his Sunday school teacher hurriedly tries to hush him so he won’t "frighten" the other children with his musings.
The small town’s forlorn pastor also doubts God could have a plan for small Simon Birch. In a poignant conversation between Simon and the minister, Simon asks, "Does God have a plan for us?"
The minister hesitantly replies, "I like to think he does."
Simon enthusiastically says, "Me, too. I think God made me the way I am for a reason."
The minister coolly states, "I’m glad that, um, that your faith, uh, helps you deal with your, um, you know, your condition."
"That’s not what I mean," Simon states. "I think I’m God’s instrument. He’s going to use me to carry out his plan." Dumbfounded by Simon’s confidence, the pastor says, "It’s wonderful to have faith, son, but let’s not overdo it." With that he waves for Simon to leave, shakes his head in disbelief, and whispers with an air of cynicism, "God’s instrument."
A short time later Simon is riding with his classmates in a school bus traveling down an icy road. Suddenly the bus driver veers to avoid a deer, loses control, and the bus plunges into an icy lake. Everyone in the front of the upright bus quickly evacuates out the door, but Simon and a handful of other students in the back of the bus are trapped as the bus begins to sink.
Simon takes charge. He opens a window and commands his classmates to climb out. Last of all, Simon escapes through the window.
In the hospital following the accident, Joe assures Simon that all the kids are all right. Simon asks, "Did you see how the children listened to me because of the way I looked?"
Joe, with tears in his eyes, replies, "Yeah."
With satisfaction, Simon says, "That window was just my size."
"Extra small," Joe utters with a smile.
A few seconds later, Simon dies, knowing that God used him. But what Simon doesn’t know before he dies is that because of his unwavering faith, his friend Joe now believes in God.
Some 20 years later, standing at Simon’s gravestone, Joe says, "I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice, not because of his voice or because he was the smallest person I ever met…but because he is the reason I believe in God. What faith I have, I owe to Simon Birch…it is Simon who made me a believer."
To discover the great life is to find life in Jesus Christ. And to find life in Him, you won’t find it in the typical places of our world. It is not found in fame, fortune or even family. It is found in faith in this one who died for us. At the core of finding life is what God has done for us and works through us to center our lives on God, to commit to get to love others, and to contribute to touch others for Christ. When you find that you find life, you find the great life. Amen.
