Vision for Living Sermon Jan 16am
Vision for Living: Taking Care of the Gift of Life
Prov 3:5-10
INTRO: Man talked with George W. Truett. “I’d give up everything to be able to feel about the Lord like I did when I was 16 years old.” Somehow, I don’t think he did a very good job of taking care of life.
Life is a gift. Every life is a gift. The life that a woman carries in her womb is a gift. The child you take to school is a gift. The boy or girl that you teach in SS is a gift.
Almost instinctively we know that we’re to take care of that gift. Sanctity of Life Sunday reminds us of that, but we already know it. However, it’s not just someone else’s life—your life and my life is a gift, and the Bible teaches that we are stewards of this life.
1 Cor. 4:1
Let a man regard us in this manner, as servants of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God.
1 Peter 4:10
As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
Now when I talk about stewardship, I’ve discovered that there are 3 stages of growth for most of us.
(1) Stage when we don’t know what stewardship means.
(2) Stage when we think we know what stewardship means. (It’s about the money!)
(3) Stage when we discover what stewardship means…It’s about life.
The word steward meant keeper or manager of the house, or overseer of an estate, the one who employed servants, catered at banquets, represented the master in business dealings. There is a book telling of the reign of Queen Anne of England. It lists all of her chief officers and servants with the salaries and responsibilities of each office. The chief steward leads them all. He was an honored and trusted officer or servant. The position demanded great intelligence, initiative, and integrity.
Some people used to say that it mean keeper of the Pig Sty, and grammatically that has been disproved. However, if you look at the condition of the typical teenage bedroom, it gives one second thoughts. That may have been closer to the truth than we want to admit.
The book of Proverbs is a collection of the wisdom of the greatest-most enduring culture in history. It is wisdom revealed by God and tested by life. And early in this book is one of those passages that says really everything that needs to be said about taking care of life. It’s Prov 3:5-10, and I want us to look at together this morning.
There are Four Admonitions that the writer gives us which I want to call your attention to. There are really more than that, but these are the ones that are most important, I believe.
If you want to take good care of the gift of life:
I. Trust the Lord…
This verse is one of MB’s favorites to quote to me, and quite frankly, it is one of my favorites to hear her quote, too.
Proverbs 3:5-6
It’s not commending anti-intellectualism. It’s a rebuke of self-sufficiency. It’s an anti-dote to worry. Self-sufficiency and worry are to ways to ruin your life. Oddly both off them are distortions of good qualities that have been impacted by the Fall of Man. It’s good to accept responsibility, but responsibility without humility, leads to pride and self-sufficiency. You lean on yourself or your own money or your education or your connections…
There are probably some of us that need to take a careful look at who or what we are leaning on…Way back when Michael Jackson was still just one of the Jackson Five, he did a song called “Lean on Me.” It was very popular, but I remember a preacher asking the question, “He’s 12 years old and he wants the whole world to lean on him? What would I be leaning on? He doesn’t even shave?”
ILL: Illustration of Trusting in the Lord.
Trusting in the Lord is also the anti-dote to worry. Worry can ruin your life. It can ruin your marriage. It can ruin your kids.
Ill:
The word translated “trust” in verse 5 means “to lie helpless, facedown.” That’s such a powerful picture isn’t it? Because there are times when we don’t understand and we aren’t able…and we feel weak…and we lie face down…totally trusting God to do something that we cannot do ourselves.
Sometimes we have to trust God with the mysteries of life that we cannot understand. Sometimes people say, “If I can understand, I’ll trust,” but the better way is to say, “I trust, so that I can understand…”
II. Acknowledge the Lord
The word acknowledge comes from that Hebrew word “Yada” which can be translated “to know.” It speaks of a deep intimate awareness of something or someone. It’s the word used in the Old Testament to speak of sexual relations, such as Genesis 4:1 when it says “then Adam knew his wife Eve and she conceived…”
So when the Bible says “In all your ways acknowledge Him…” this is no mere nod of the head like you would do when you casually recognize someone’s presence in a crowded room. This verse speaks of a real awareness…a deep understanding.
To Acknowledge him is to know him, have an intimate acquaintance with him. It is not simply an intellectual awareness of God’s existence but an awareness of the awesome reality of God’s presence.
If we want to take care of the gift of life, then we are in all of our ways acknowledge God. What does that mean?
1. It means Put God first. Know that He is the Lord. Never enter into a classroom without in your heart remembering, “Jesus is Lord of my life.” Never accept any award, any recognition without knowing “Jesus is Lord.” Always ask yourself, “Does the decision I’m about to make violate the reality that Jesus is the Lord? Am I about to do something that I wouldn’t do, if I was completely submitted to the Lordship of Jesus Christ?”
2. Give God the Glory. In all things we acknowledge our need for God, and that whatever success, achievement or wealth we have comes from Him. In Acts 12, the Bible tells how Herod the King was giving a speech to the people of Tyre and Sidon…and the people kept crying out, “It’s the voice of a god and not of a man!” (Now, I don’t know what Mrs. Herod was doing, but I can imagine that when she heard it she was going, “You’ve got to be kidding.”) But Herod, well Herod seemed to enjoy it just fine…and the Bible goes on to say:
Acts 12:23
And immediately an angel of the Lord struck him because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and died.
3. Discern God’s presence. One of the big problems in Jeremiah’s Day was that the people stopped caring about the presence of the Lord. They stopped acknowledging His presence. They lost the ability to discern His presence…and no one noticed. Not even the so-called holy people.
Jeremiah 2:6, 8 (NASB)
6“They did not say, ‘Where is the LORD Who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, Who led us through the wilderness, Through a land of deserts and of pits, Through a land of drought and of deep darkness, Through a land that no one crossed And where no man dwelt?’…8“The priests did not say, ‘Where is the LORD?’ And those who handle the law did not know Me; The rulers also transgressed against Me, And the prophets prophesied by Baal. And walked after things that did not profit.
Listen…The way you acknowledge God is to develop your spiritual intuition so that every situation you come into, you are asking, “Lord, where are you? What is your desire? What are your wishes?” When Elijah was in the cave, he discerned the still, small voice of the Lord even in a gentle breeze.
Philip. 4:5
Let your forbearing spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near.
ILL: Shirley M. watching Television…Bad show…Her dad came into the room. Totally changed the situation, the emotions…
I’ve often wondered: How different would we be if we discerned the Lord’s presence every where we went. In all your ways Acknowledge Him.
· (Fear) the Lord
What does it mean to fear? It does not mean to fear as in run away from…It means to fear as in revere. Sometimes I hear people say “You don’t need to fear the Lord…I’m not afraid of God. Why should I be?” Yet what I notice is that people who insist that you don’t need to fear the Lord usually don’t reflect the character of the Lord. On the other hand, those who seem to have the marks of closeness have a greater sense of fear and reverence. And sometimes it makes me think that the people who say “We should never fear the Lord say that because they have never been in the presence of the Lord.
Who is that has the most healthy fear of electricity? It’s someone who has survived being hit by lightning. When we were in Colorado over Christmas, we read everything we could in the Denver Post about the Tsunami. One group of scientists talked about how powerful Mother Nature really is compared to man…but, of course, they refused to go one step farther and face the question of “Who controls “Mother Nature?”
When Peter was on the Mount of Transfiguration and he saw Jesus transfigured, so that everything that had always been on the inside of Jesus came shining through to the outside, and it was overwhelming. Moses appeared and Elijah appeared…and the Bible says that:
Mark 9:5-6
Peter said to Jesus, "Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters--one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah." 6(He did not know what to say, they were so frightened.)
So the point is: Never forget who God is. Never forget that our God is a consuming fire; that He is a Holy God. Never forget that He is an awesome God and that it is a frightening thing to fall into His hands.
One of the dangers in life…is drifting away from the Lord. For most of us the danger of drifting is much greater than the danger of departing. Most of us aren’t going to depart, but what a danger there is for drifting…
Who needs to worry about drifting? Young people need to worry about drifting…etc.
Senior Adults should be concerned about drifting…what a tragedy to have come so far…to have won so many great battles…yet come to the golden years…the years that ought to be the best years of service for the Lord…but instead they drift.
Have you ever read the story of Asa? What a great victory! Yet in the last days of his life…he didn’t seek the Lord…
But it’s not just at the book ends of life that drifting is a danger…It’s also the people in the prime of their life that need to worry about drifting. It was in the prime of his life that David began to drift…And that’s what led to his moral collapse with Bathseheba…
Drifting is so deadly…so subtle…so unexpected…so undetected…
You can’t take care of the gift of life if you are drifting…
So what’s the antitode? It’s the Fear of the Lord…That’s what makes you shun evil.
When you fear the Lord, it will keep you from drifting. Let me show you how.
(1) You fear the Lord too much to neglect reading the Bible…(What if God wants to say something to me… and I am not there to hear it?) And that daily communication keeps you in touch. It’s like an anchor.
(2) Prayer is the same way…I Fear the Lord and want to make sure that I’m not out of touch.
(3) I fear the Lord so I shun Evil…
That’s how you take care of life…
· (Honor) the Lord
Part of the stewardship of life is the stewardship of Life’s Resources. God’s Word says that we are to honor God with our wealth and with the first fruits of our produce. That means that we are to give to God according to how He has blessed us financially. If we’ve received a little, we should give a little. If we have received a lot, we should give a lot.
The reason we’re to honor God in this way is because we are recognizing that life is a gift and it is a gift that God gave us. Not only is life, in general, a gift, but the Bible says that every good gift we have comes from God.
James 1:17
Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
I’ve heard parents say before about their kids, “They really aren’t ours. They are just loaned to us from God, for a while.” But, that’s true about everything. Our intelligence; our health; our strength…every thing we have that is good is a gift from God, so, in essence, we can think of it as life is something we rent for a period of time, and God is the landlord.
So, if you just think of it like that…a good way to lose favor with the landlord, is to stop paying your rent. If you don’t honor that landlord, it is only a matter of time before the landlord decides to rent to someone who will honor him with what is owed to him.
Now, that’s just a small picture of what it means to honor God out of all that He’s given us…we recognize that it all comes from Him.
There’s three things that we should note about this passage:
(1) God wants to be honored.
(2) God wants to be honored with our finances. (It’s right to sing the song, but God also wants us to sign the check.)
(3) God wants to be honored with the first-fruits. (In other words, give to God first because that’s who you honor the most.)
And in the Bible the kind of baseline-standard was the tithe…which means a tenth…and that’s to say that tithing means giving 10% of your income to the Lord through the storehouse of the church.
Tithing is an important practice to develop for a great church for many reasons. For one thing, it puts us in a position where God can honor us…individually and as a church.
1 Samuel 2:30
…Those who honor me I will honor, but those who despise me will be disdained.
Second, it is the only way that God enables a church to establish and maintain ministries that will add value to our lives and to the lives of others. In other words, there may be many things that are in your heart to do. “Wouldn’t it be great if we could do this? Wouldn’t it be great if our church had this? Did this ministry? Took care of this problem?” And the answer is: Sure it would be great…but we cannot because….because God doesn’t want us to? Or is it we cannot because we have ignored the means by which God enables us to?
But beyond that…learning to take care of life requires that we learn to take care of the resources of life. If you study the book of Proverbs, you’ll discover a lot of truth about money. In fact, I’ve discovered there are a number of themes regarding money.
1. Those who make riches their passion lose much more than they gain.
Proverbs 23:4-5
Do not wear yourself out to get rich;have the wisdom to show restraint. 5Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone,
for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle.
2. Wisdom is better than Wealth
Proverbs 16:16
How much better to get wisdom than gold, to choose understanding rather than silver!
3. Money cannot buy life’s greatest treasures. (Like Peace, love, or Integrity)
Proverbs 28:6 (NIV)
6Better a poor man whose walk is blameless than a rich man whose ways are perverse.
4. Those who honor God with their money are blessed in return.
That’s what this passage in Proverbs 3 says.
In fact, if you look carefully at this chapter, you’ll discover a number of God’s promises to us when we take care of the gift of life that He’s given us.
God’s Promise
1. He will (Lead) you.
Verse 6 says that He will make our paths straight. That doesn’t mean we’ll have an easy way, but it does mean we will know the way. Acknowledge Him. Admit your need for Him, and He will guide you!
2. He will (Restore) you.
Verse 8 says that the fear of the Lord will bring healing to your body and refreshment to your bones.
That’s not a promise that you’ll never be sick as long as you Fear the Lord. It’s not a promise of universal healing, or the claim that if someone is sick or isn’t healed it’s because they weren’t living right.
But, it’s a general observation that…in the course of the expenditures of life…when you live with a holy reverence for God, He restores your vigor. He gives you fresh health. And it’s a deep…well-spring kind of health that goes way beyond the surface.
It’s as if God fills you up again, and keeps you going.
3. He will (Prosper) you.
That’s what verse 10 is saying. If you honor God with your finances, God will prosper you. This, by the way, isn’t the only place that God makes this promise. He makes it in Malachi; He makes it in Haggai; Matthew; 2 Corinthians; Philippians, and on and on.
By the way, when it comes to honoring God, it’s not just through tithes that we honor Him. He wants us to honor Him with our songs, with our bodies, with our service, and with our resources…and ALL of it is to come from a sincere heart. God said of the Israelites, These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me.
God wants the honor in our heart to match the honor in our hymns and in our wealth. It’s not supposed to be either/or. God wants Both/And. And His promise is: Those who honor Me, I will honor…and part of that honor is with prosperity.
That’s why we’re taking the time in January, just like we will every January, to teach you the important principles of stewardship. At the end of this month, we’ll have a commitment card to tithe that you’ll have the chance to sign as a commitment to the Lord. And on February 6, the first Sunday of February, we’ll observe Prove the Tithe Sunday, where we’ll be asking every person in our congregation to bring at least a tithe of one week’s salary. At least 10% of your one week’s salary…even if you don’t normally tithe, and even if you don’t normally give, we’re asking that on this Sunday, you join the rest of our entire congregation as we just do what God says when He says, “Test me in this.” Now, I realize that to do that even once, may take some planning, some adjustments, and some prayer. Maybe a lot of prayer! So I want to ask you, even now, to start making your plans for it.
Great churches excel in giving. The reason they can do great ministries; get involved in helping people; spread the gospel, do missions; feed the poor; and improve their communities is because people in those churches are committed to tithing. I believe God wants First Baptist to become one of those great churches. We can sense a new spirit blowing through our church…we’ve talked about the practice of learning to obey the Spirit promptly. Let’s make sure that we’re also excelling in this area, too. Let’s obey the Spirit promptly in our finances…and let’s trust God that as we do…He will supply all of our needs according to His glorious riches.
Life is a gift. It’s a great gift and this is the way you take care of that gift. You trust the Lord, You acknowledge the Lord, You fear the Lord, and You Honor the Lord. Eternal life is an even greater gift, and the same God that gave you life on this earth, wants you to have life in heaven for eternity. This is a good life; that is an even better life: A much better life.
You have a choice to take it, and you can do that by just giving your life over to Jesus Christ. In just a minute we’re going to sing and while we do if you need help in knowing how to get your life aligned with God, there will be ministers and counselors here at the front to assist you with that.
There are some of you who are Christians, and God is leading you to become a member of our church. Can I just say that we aren’t planning to be a mediocre church. We’re not planning to be a lukewarm church. We aren’t planning to be a dead church. We’re going to be an on-fire church, an obedient church, an excited church, an evangelistic church, and a growing church—spiritually and numerically. And you know why that’s such a big deal to me? Because that’s the kind of church I need. It’s the kind of church my family needs. It’s the kind of church that I need in order to take care of the gift of life that God has given me. I can’t take care of life if I’m in a church full of people who couldn’t care less about that. I need a church that’s always ready to obey the Spirit promptly. And if that’s the kind of family that you need, we’d like you to be a part of this family, too. So in just a minute, when we sing, would you also just make your way to the front? Let’s begin right now…from this day on…to take care of the sacred gift of life.