The Life We Live 

INTRO.- The life we live, i.e. the Christian life, is different from the way most folks live. HAVEN’T YOU NOTICED?

ILL.- An old miser had very few friends. Just before he died he called his doctor, lawyer and minister together around his bedside. He said, "I have always heard you can’t take your money with you, but I am going to prove you can."

"I have $90,000 under my mattress. It’s in 3 envelopes of $30,000 each. I want each of you take one envelope now and just before they throw the dirt on my conffin you throw the envelopes in."

Well, the three attended the funeral and each threw his envelope into the grave. On the way back from the cemetery, the minister said, "I don’t feel right about this. I must make a confession to you. I needed $10,000 badly for a new church we’re building, so I took out $10,000 and threw only $20,000 in the grave."

The doctor then spoke up and said, "I don’t feel right either. I too want to confess. I am building a hospital and I took $20,000 and threw in only $10,000."

The lawyer spoke up and said, "Gentlemen, I’m surprised at you! I’m shocked! I’m ashamed of you! I just can’t believe what you did! I don’t see how you hold out that money! WHY, I THREW IN MY PERSONAL CHECK FOR THE FULL $30,000!"

What’s the moral of that story? Most people are greedy but some people are worse than others!

I Tim. 6:9-10 "People who want to get rich fall into temtpation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs."

Greed is the way of the world! "Greed is good!" That’s the motto of our world!

The sad thing, however, is when people who claim to be Christians are greedy! That’s really bad, because if anybody ought to be unselfish, it should be Christians!

The Christian way of life should be different! It should be one of loving others, caring for others, sharing with others!

The Christian should be different in other ways.

ILL.- A man said, "I’ve been watching that mechanic for the last 15 minutes. There’s a man who really knows his business. He didn’t spill a drop of oil on the ground. He put the hood down gently and wiped his fingerprints off. He wiped his hands off before getting in the car. He spread a clean cloth over the seats and when he drove off he was extremely carefully before pulling into the street." Another man, "WELL, SURE, THAT WAS HIS OWN CAR."

Generally, the way of the world is self-centeredness. It’s every man, woman and child for themselves and I’m watching out for myself!

ILL.- Actress Shirley McClaine who is not one of my favorites once said, "The most pleasurable journey you take is through yourself. The only sustaining love involvement is with yourself. When you look back on your life and try to figure out where you’ve been and where you’re going, when you look at your work, your love affairs, your marriages, your children, your pain, your happiness - when you examine all that closely, what you really find out is that the only person you really go to bed with is yourself. The only thing you have is working to the consummation of your own identity..."

In other words, she is saying, "REALLY, THE ONLY PERSON WHO MATTERS IN MY LIFE IS ME!" And if that isn’t self-centeredness then I don’t know it is!

But the Christian person is different from that! THE CHRISTIAN’S LIFE DOES NOT REVOLVE AROUND HIMSELF OR HERSELF! They think of others!

Phil. 2:3-4 "Do nothing about of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. EACH OF YOU SHOULD LOOK NOT ONLY TO YOUR OWN INTERESTS, BUT ALSO TO THE INTERESTS OF OTHERS."

The Christian is not selfish. He/she cares about others.

The Christian is different in other ways.

ILL.- Marilyn and Gary were playing golf one day and Gary said, "I’d move heaven and earth to break my 110 score."

Marilyn replied, "TRY MOVING HEAVEN, HONEY. YOU’VE ALREADY MOVED PLENTY OF EARTH TODAY."

ILL.- A church suddenly stopped buying pencils from a certain office supply. The manager called the preacher to ask what the problem was. The preacher, "We ordered some pencils from you to be used in the pews for visitors to sign their visitors’ card." "Well," the manager said, "Didn’t you receive them from us?"

The preacher replied, "Oh, yes, we received them all right, BUT YOU SENT US SOME PENCILS STAMPED WITH THE WORDS, ’PLAY GOLF NEXT SUNDAY’!"