Stay In the Moment - Your Moment's Are Yours.
Stay in the Moment • Sermon • Submitted
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Your Moment’s Are Yours
Your Moment’s Are Yours
Intro - Thanks and story about the text for the day.
“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard. “About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ So they went. “He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’ “ ‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered. “He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’ “When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’ “The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. ‘These who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’ “But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”
Pray
[pichere]
While we were at the beach, the youth and I went through a riveting…it was riveting right?…a riveting series on drama. That was the theme for the week. The effect of drama on our lives, on others, on our faith. We were dissecting, with scripture, what we are prone to do, and what we are called to do and be.
And today, we all get a little taste of that.
We all get a little taste, because whether we want to admit it or not, we all need it! I say we need it, because if we are honest with ourselves we just love drama. We love that tension. We love looking at the things that someone else has and providing our own commentary on why they should or shouldn’t have that stuff. We love digging in the dirt to find out why someone did this or that. We play those games where we try to understand someone’s motives, or their reason for doing something, even though we don’t know the whole story. Sometimes, we even play the betrayed friend for someone else who was hurt and then draw judgement on whomever did them wrong.
And listen, we all do it! Even old Miss Clara from Andy Griffith did it! There isn’t a week that goes by that either me, or someone else speaking with me, doesn’t start going down that path of comparisson. That path of drama and sometimes gossip.
But it isn’t the gossip that I want to talk about, although that is part of it. It isn’t the bad mouthing, or the comparisons that I want us to think about, per se.
It’s the projection. The proliferation in our own hearts of this drama that fills our world!
[picofsoapopera]
I mean you can see it everywhere right? And not just in these older daytime soap operas - which by the way, I never knew were so popular until I went into the ministry. I even know some guys my age that love watching these things! But it isn’t just those shows, all of our TV experience is based off of this same type of petty dramatic tension. And listen, as a society, we watch so much TV that those expectations bleed out into our lives!
But I really shouldn’t blame this on TV. I mean, they are just giving us what we consume. And we will consume it whether we watch it on TV or not!
No it isn’t TV’s fault. You see, since the dawn of man, we have been just as, if not more, interested in the moments of others than our own!
And Abel also brought an offering—fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast. Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”
[read loosely]
This vicarious comparison, a living out of our lives in respect to the lives of others, has gone on since the dawn of time. Now part of it is biological. I mean, if you are watching someone eating a plant they picked up from the ground, and you see them pass out, you probably aren’t going to eat it, right? So a part of this is natural. But spiritually speaking, it is a real problem! We can’t allow ourselves to start down that path of comparing our moments to others, because when we do we sell short the gifts and life we have to offer!
But still we want to know about the moments of others. I think that we want to know about them - what they are doing, and what they are saying - because in our minds, it somehow informs us of how we are to act, and what is now acceptable!
And you see that in this little story from Genesis. Cain took his moments, and viewed them through the lens of another! Listen, had Cain just thought to himself, “God wants more from me,” Abel wouldn’t have been killed! But instead, Cain, by viewing his life and efforts through the lens of Abel, became jealous. He became bitter. He became envious.
Sin crouched at his door. And it eventually ruled over him.
Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Galatians 5:19
He became a slave to the flesh. A slave to the desires and tendencies of humans with no regard to God, or His ways.
He gave in to the primal instincts that seek to ruin us all.
Anger. Rivalries. Dissension. Division. Envy. Those things - things that come when we live our moments through the lens of others - they aren’t from God, and aren’t what we were made for.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
Galatians 5:22-
No we were made for so much more. Because of the great sacrifice of Christ, and the gift of the Holy Spirit, we are allowed to be so much more than primal beings! We are given access to God’s own Spirit so that we can do His work and bear those fruits in our lives!
Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. That is our calling!
But those fruits, they don’t seem as tasty sometimes as the others, right? Adam and Eve alone prove that out.
No we want to know about everything everyone else is doing! We want the dirt. We want the gossip. We want the drama!
What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.
But what we really need to want to know is Jesus. Everything else is useless! We should consider it all garbage! We should throw it all away to only know about Jesus! I WANT TO KNOW CHRIST! PAUL SAYS.
We need to say that too. Of all the things we want, we need to want to know Jesus more.
And the only way you can ever really get to that point, is to stop looking around at other people, and remember this one important fact.
Your Moment’s Are Yours
Your moment’s belong only to you. That’s it.
How many times do we overlook that idea? Seems like it is literally every day right? We have been convinced that if we just compare ourselves to others. If we could only view our moments through the lens of these other perfect moments, lived out evidently by perfect people, than our lives would be all better!
If you think I am talking crazy then please, pick up your phones, which are no doubt right by your side - by the way, a sermon for another time, but do we really need to be gotten a hold of on a moments notice? I remember, in my life party lines…anyway - but pick up your phone and unlock it and open the first app you always open at the beginning or end of the day!
[picofsocialmediaicons]
Let me help you, anyone who might be bashful, if it isn’t a game, it is probably one of those.
And when you open it, what do you see?
[picofsocialfeed??]
You see moments. And as you scroll, you see moment after moment. Pictures, memories, quotes, scripture, life events, fights; you see an endless cascade of the only real “fake news” there is!
You see all these moments that aren’t yours. You have no frame of reference for them. You don’t know the back story, and even if you did, they weren’t your moments anyway. We share our moments to the invisible masses in hopes of somehow gathering enough thumbs up, or hearts, or likes, that we might feel like we have offered this world something worthy of being offered!
And just like Cain, when we see someone get a lot of likes, or when we see someone living out our best idea of the life we have to live, we get jealous, and envious. We might even get angry!
“The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius.
“The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. ‘These who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’
Matthew 20:
It is just like our workers in the text. When we see people on social media, or in the news, or out in our lives, when we see them get more than us, or at the very least, when we see what seems to be an idyllic life we get so filled with all those bad qualities, and drama, that we start to act like these workers! We want to have more! At the very least, we expect to be given as good of a life as they have! I mean, come on, I go to church, I tithe, I pray, I help people from time to time, I read my Bible, why don’t I get that Cancun vacation? Why don’t I get those professional family pictures?
matt 20:9-It is just like our workers in the text. When we see people on social media, or in the news, or out in our lives, when we see them get more than us, or at the very least, when we see what seems to be an idyllic life we get so filled with all those bad qualities, and drama, that we start to act like these workers! We want to have more! At the very least, we expect to be given as good of a life as they have! I mean, come on, I go to church, I tithe, I pray, I help people from time to time, I read my Bible, why don’t I get that Cancun vacation? Why don’t I get those professional family pictures?
Why do they get what I want?
I bore the heat of the day, and they just came an hour ago! I have been praying for this or that for years, and they just became a believer! I have been trying to get promoted and they just got here! I have saved and saved, and they just get their parents to pay for things! I budget so we can have a date night, and they go out on dates every night, where do they get the money?
It never ends, does it? our grumbling, our jealousy, our drama, it would go on forever if only we let it, because it is the only thing that keeps us from questioning all that we are and do!
[picoflens]
But church, understand this, it seems that way because we are viewing life through the wrong lens!
God tells us that sin will be waiting for us when we do that! And what’s more, God has laid out a life that has so much more for us! But still, time after time, we come crawling back to that awful way of life, and all that drama, in the hopes that we might find some satisfaction there. In the hopes that we might find comfort.
And time after time, Jesus’ answer to us is EXACTLY the same!
“But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’
matt 20:13-15
STOP LOOKING AT THEM AND START LOOKING AT YOU!
Stop trying to find your value in light of someone, or something else, and start understanding your value to yourself and to God.
You see, Jesus clears up this whole issue right here, but we don’t listen. “I am not being unfair to you,” Jesus says! “Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius?” Didn’t you agree to the terms? When you signed on to work for me, Jesus would say, didn’t you agree to the terms of our arrangement? They were very clear!
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?
“If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple. And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
You can’t want what everyone else has and follow Christ! You can’t live your life through the lens of this world and follow Christ! You can’t value all that you can have in this life more than Christ! Even the things you do and experience, don’t think for a second that they are better or more important than Jesus!
You can’t want what everyone else has and follow Christ! You can’t live your life through the lens of this world and follow Christ! No you have to disregard what people do and think - that is what hate is getting at there - don’t hold that stuff over God! Don’t value that more than Christ! Even the things you do and experience, don’t think for a second that they are better or more important than Jesus!
No, you have to deny all of that stuff, all the drama, all the jealousy, all the bitterness; you have to move beyond it! Take it up! That is our cross to bear! The cost and terms are clear! If you want to be a Christian, then you need to understand that your life is no longer viewed through the lens of this world, it is viewed through the lens of Jesus! It is viewed with the lens of the eternal! And church, when you view your life like that you are viewing it just as God is viewing it! And church, it is almost as if I can hear God, in all of this, crying out to us all to stop with it already! Stop forcing down what this world is offering you! Stop trying to fit in to a world you were never intended to fit into! Stop trying to be like anyone other than you! I made you, had you on my mind from the dawn of time, to be different! To be set apart! To be special! To be exactly what I made you to be! So stop living your moments for other people, in their ways, and remember that your moments are yours alone!
No, you have to deny all of that stuff
EVERY PAIN. EVERY LOSS. EVERY JOY. EVERY OBSTACLE. EVERY CELEBRATION. EVERY BEGININNG AND EVERY END. THEY ARE ALL YOURS ALONE! EVERY GIFT YOU HAVE BEEN GIVEN. EVERY SONG YOU SING. EVERY JOB YOU DO. EVERY SECOND YOU HAVE BREATH! THEY ARE ALL YOURS! GIVEN TO YOU BY A GOD WHO HAS A JOB FOR YOU TO DO! AND PERHAPS MORE IMPORTANT THAN THAT, THEY ARE GIVEN TO YOU SO THAT YOU CAN SHINE IN THE LIGHT OF THE SAVIOR, AND SET YOUR HEARTS AND MINDS ON THE THINGS HE HAS WAITING FOR YOU, NOT YOUR FRIENDS VACATION, OR PERFECT LIFE! YOU HAVE A PERFECT LIFE WAITING FOR YOU, CHURCH, BUT IT CAN ONLY BE PERFECT IF IT IS LIVED INSIDE OF GOD’S PERFECT WILL!
[pichere..maybe last half of verse 15
Besides, church, there is no call or cause to be envious of others. In fact, just like Cain, if we just stop looking at them and start looking at God, we won’t be envious of them at all!
Your moments are yours. They belong to you, and are intended to be lived for God. Don’t waste a single second staring out to the world in the hopes of finding validation. God gave you life. That is the ultimate validation of your importance to this world.
Invitation
[sermon should move through several ideas. Drama. Wanting what others have. Keeping up with the Jones’. Viewing our moments as a comparison with the moments of others (most important). Allude to social media a bit; the way it makes us think we deserve something more than what we have, or at least, makes us want what other people have more than we want what God has given us. (use that in sermon) “Are we envious because God is generous?” “Would we feel guilty if God had given to us more than others?” Move sermon from the negative consequences to the positive implications. (Test your own work should be in there somewhere). ]
[Celebrate our moments being ours because God trusts us with the moments we have....]
Greg Laurie Thermometer and Thermostat analogy…use it. good stuff.
God knows that what we can give through out moments can be world shaking if we would make the best use of them. Even in their smallness, our moments, when viewed as ours alone, can make all the difference in someone’s life, and if you change one life, you change the world!