Response Goal: Individuals prompted by the Holy Spirit will think about questions designed to help them begin to write their Life Sentences on purpose.
REPENTANCE POINT {paradigm shifts or changes in our thinking}: With a single sentence, your friends and family will summarize your entire life. What will the sentence be? This is your life sentence. If people will summarize your entire life in a single sentence, try to influence that sentence. Each man or woman has the opportunity to affect his or her legacy. You and I are the authors of our own “Life Sentences.” The next step for most of will be to decide to live life on purpose.
PATTERN: DEDUCTIVE TEXTUAL – EXPOSITORY
Introduction:
Everyone should get a “Life Sentence” for Christmas. Don’t panic! I don’t mean a life sentence prison term. I mean a single sentence that will summarize his or her life. Keith Drury introduced me to this concept. The author, Claire Booth Luce popularized the "Life Sentence" idea. She observed that ultimately history summarizes a person’s life in a single sentence.
Historians sum up an entire life up with a single sentence – a headline of sorts. For example, who was Andrew Johnson? “He was the only (rather, first) President to be impeached.” Or, who was Jimmy Carter? "He’s the former president that builds homes with Habitat for Humanity."
Friends and family summarize whole lives with one sentence, too. I hear these Life Sentences all the time at funeral homes. “He was such a kind man.” “She loved children.” “He loved to go fishing and hunting with his buddies.”
You can find Life Sentences in the Bible too. The Bible sums up the lives of Israel’s ancient kings by saying, “He followed the Lord like his ancestor David” or “He failed to follow the Lord like his ancestor David.”
Jesus came to earth knowing he would have a Life Sentence, too. In Luke 19:10 he said, “The Son of Man has come to seek and save that which was lost.” Peter summed up Jesus’ life with this sentence; “He went around doing good” (Acts 10:38).
Jesus launched his work with people with another sentence after he read the following prophecy from the book of Isaiah.
Text: Listen to these sentences.
The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me,
because the LORD has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners,
to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor
and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,
and provide for those who grieve in Zion--
to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor.
After Jesus read that passage, he summed up his life with a short sentence. “Today this passage has been fulfilled.” In other words, “This Scripture is about me.”
Jesus came to earth with a mission, and he fulfilled it. He determined what his Life Sentence would be and lived to make it a reality.
Thesis:
We will write our own Life Sentences – either on purpose or by accident. Our Life Sentences can be like Jesus’ Life Sentence, “He went around doing good,” if we live to make it so.
Key Question:
How can we write our own Life Sentences on purpose like Jesus did?
I. First, to intentionally write our own Life Sentences, we must determine who we will help.
A. Each of us needs to ask himself or herself, “Who am I here to serve?
Every business has a clear idea about who their target customer is. Male or female? Young or old? White collar or blue collar? Educated or non-educated? Politically conservative or politically liberal? Every business has to answer the question, “Who is our target market?”
B. We need to ask, “Who am I here to serve? Who will I do good to?”
Isaiah tells us exactly who our target market is. He said, “The spirit of the Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners.”
C. Every Christian’s “target market” is the afflicted, the broken hearted, the captives, the imprisoned. Where do we find these people? Everywhere! When it comes to human misery, race, economics, or social standards make no difference. In any neighborhood, in any state or country in the world, you will find hurting people.
People who are lost and hurting matter a great deal to God. Jesus once compared it to a man who owns a hundred sheep and loses one. Jesus said, “Will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go look for the one who has wandered off?” (Matthew 18:12)
Susanna Wesley, John Wesley’s mother, was asked which of her 17 children was her favorite. She said, “The one who is sick until he gets well, and the one who is gone until he returns.”
D. Our Life Sentences must include the persons we will help.
II. Second, to intentionally write our own Life Sentences, we must decide what we will say to the people we want to help.
A. Jesus’ message is good news. It has the power confront a life destroyed by sin and transform it into something new. No matter how negative a situation may be, Jesus offers hope.
Isaiah tells us that Jesus preaches good news, proclaims freedom and release, and announces the year of the Lord’s favor.
Our message to the people we help is a message of hope – if we remember to deliver it that way. Larry Norman, a Christian musician, does a routine about a Christian trying to witness to someone. He says, “Have you heard the good news?” The man says, “No what’s the good news?” The Christian says, “You’re going to hell!” There’s a long pause, then the man says, “Then, what’s the bad news?”
We must remember that simply saying there is a problem is not the same as solving a problem. Many people feel utterly helpless about their circumstances in life.
B. Our Life Sentences must include the persons we will help. Our Life Sentences must deliver Jesus’ message of hope.
III. Third, to intentionally write our own Life Sentences, we must find out what we will do for the people that we want to help.
A. When we set our hearts on hurting people, and look for ways to inject hope into their lives, we will find a way to help them in practical ways. It all comes down to finding a need and filling it. It’s an old formula, and it still works.
Robert Schuller built a great church based on the principle: find a need and fill it.
Isaiah said that Jesus would comfort mourners, provide for the grieving, replace ashes with a crown of beauty, as well as, give gladness to the mourning and an attitude of praise to those in despair.
B. Jesus found needs and met them. His loving acts healed broken lives. He forgave the woman caught in adultery and gave her freedom from her sexual addiction. He set the demon possessed free to live for God. He gave sight to a man born blind.
C. In the book of Acts, the first Christians worked for racial and social harmony. They fed the poor, the orphans and the widows. Christians still build houses and hospitals, orphanages and soup kitchens.
D. Our Life Sentences must include the persons we will help. Our Life Sentences must deliver Jesus’ message of hope. Our Life Sentences must describe the needs we will fill with God’s help.
CONCLUSION:
When Jesus came into the world, he knew what his Life Sentence would be and he lived to make it a reality.
God wants each of us to write our own Life Sentences too. Our Life Sentences must include the persons we will help. The Bible and Jesus’ life help us define our market — we’re here to help hurting people.
Our Life Sentences must deliver Jesus’ message of hope. The Bible and Jesus’ life tell us how to do it —we’re to inject hope into the lives of those in despair.
Our Life Sentences must describe how we will help hurting people. The Bible and Jesus’ life tell us how to help others — we find a need and fill it.
REPENTANCE POINT: How should we change?
What will your Life Sentence be? With a single sentence, your friends and family will summarize your entire life. What will the sentence be? This is your life sentence.
What’s my point? If people will summarize your entire life in a single sentence, try to influence that sentence. Each man or woman has the opportunity to affect his or her legacy. You and I are the authors of our own “Life Sentences.”
NEXT STEPS: What are the first steps in this REPENTANCE POINT {paradigm shift or change in our thinking}?
So what about you? What would your life sentence be if your friends wrote it today? Are you satisfied with this? If not, what must change to earn a different life sentence? What must you do to write a different one? The next step for most of will be to decide to live life on purpose.
RESPONDING TO GOD: What can we do right now?
Think about your answers to the following questions –
1. Are you writing your Life Sentence on purpose or by accident?
2. What will your Life Sentence be if you keep writing it as you have been?
3. What do you want your Life Sentence to say?
4. What will you do to make it a reality?
