Sermon Tone Analysis

Beyond Sunday part 3

As for me, my life has already been poured out as an offering to God.

The time of my death is near.

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful.

“POURING OUT YOUR LIFE BEFORE A GREAT GOD”

And now the prize awaits me—the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on the day of His return.

And the prize is not just for me but for all who eagerly look forward to His appearing.

(Johnson Bible College Homecoming)

INTRODUCTION

Good Morning, Southpointe!

We are in the last message on Beyond Sunday.

I want to ask you a very important question about Beyond Sunday, Are you being pour out like a cup of water into a thirsty Soul?

We been talking about living our lives not just in church and around our Christian’s friend but living beyond Sundays.

You can tell a lot about people by what they choose to put on their own tombstone.

Thomas Jefferson had written on his headstone declaring that he was the author of the Declaration of Independence and founder of the University of Virginia but doesn’t even mention that he had been the third President of the United States.

Daniel Webster had written on his headstone has just five words: “The Gospel - A divine reality.”

Those words speak volumes about his priority.

Winston Churchill reads, “I am ready to meet my maker.

Whether my maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.”

Not all writing on headstone communicate faith.

The tombstone of author Robert Keats reads, “Life is a jest and all things show it.

I thought so once but now I know it.”

In Crafton Vermont, there is a tombstone that reads, “Gone home below.”

I like one preacher’s writing on his headstone: It reads simply, “Gone to another meeting.”

But My favorite is, “Here lies Solomon Pease.

Pease is not, here only the pod.

Pease shelled out and went home to God.”

If you were going to write your own what would it say?

How would you sum up your life in a sentence?

“Faithful unto death”?

“My family came first.”

“He cared.”

“She shopped until she dropped”?

I used to think I wanted mine to read, “He preached the truth in love.”

But in studying for this sermon I’ve changed my mind.

I think I would like for it to read: He preached the truth in love and lived beyond Sunday!

The tombstone of the Apostle Paul could read, “Poured out liked a drink offering.”

When he came to the end of his life and looked back he summed up his journey by writing:

As for me, my life has already been poured out as an offering to God.

The time of my death is near.

Paul was referring to :

Paul was referring to where God’s people were commanded to pour fermented wine over the grain offering and the meat offering.

As that sacrifice burned it presented an aroma that was pleasing to God.

There was one significant difference between the drink offering and the meat offering.

After sacrificing an animal, a portion of the remaining meat could be eaten.

(It had some benefit for the priests.)

"These are the sacrifices you are to offer regularly on the altar.

Each day, offer two lambs that are a year old,

one in the morning and the other in the evening.

With one of them, offer two quarts of choice flour mixed with one quart of pure oil of pressed olives; also, offer one quart of wine as a liquid offering.

This is where God’s people were commanded to pour fermented wine over the grain offering and the meat offering.

As that sacrifice burned it presented an aroma that was pleasing to God.

where God’s people were commanded to pour fermented wine over the grain offering and the meat offering.

As that sacrifice burned it presented an aroma that was pleasing to God.

There was one significant difference between the drink offering and the meat offering.

After sacrificing an animal, a portion of the remaining meat could be eaten.

(It had some benefit for the priests.)

There was one significant difference between the drink offering and the meat offering.

After sacrificing an animal, a portion of the remaining meat could be eaten.

(It had some benefit for the priests.)

But once a drink offering was poured out, there was no retrieving it from the ground.

There was no physical benefit to the presenter.

The drink offering was a demonstration to God that they were totally giving up something of value to Him, with no intent of ever recovering it.

Living beyond Sunday!

When the Apostle Paul came to the end of his life and looked back he wrote, “My life is poured out like a drink offering to God.”

That’s a legacy that all of us who want our lives to count for the Lord Jesus that we want to be said about our lives.

We are good at let our lives drip out, little by little, while retaining a safe amount for our own consumption.

But our divine challenge is to take our selfish ambitions, our personal pride, our most vital energies and, like Mary’s alabaster jar of expensive perfume, pour them out with reckless abandon in sacrifice to Him.

Are we willing to go beyond the norm of religion and live beyond Sunday.

If we’re willing to passionately pour out our most precious treasures as a drink offering, then our great God promises to honor our ministries and reward our efforts in the end.

Jesus assured us,

If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it.

But if you give up your life for My sake, you will save it.

The Apostle Paul was Exhibit A of that truth.

He poured out his personal ambitions as a drink offering to God.

If you had met Paul prior to his conversion I don’t think you would have liked him much.

He was highly ambitious, egotistical, radical, and ruthless.

Paul wrote in

.

We put no confidence in human effort,

though I could have confidence in my own effort if anyone could.

Indeed, if others have reason for confidence in their own efforts, I have even more!

I was circumcised when I was eight days old.

I am a pure-blooded citizen of Israel and a member of the tribe of Benjamin—a real Hebrew if there ever was one!

I was a member of the Pharisees, who demand the strictest obedience to the Jewish law.

I was so zealous that I harshly persecuted the church.

And as for righteousness, I obeyed the law without fault.

Paul wrote in : “…If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.”

If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.”

Paul had all the credentials to be a rapidly rising superstar in the Jewish political arena.

But he gave up his personal ambitions when He met Jesus.

He said,

I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done.

Paul was a driven, type A personality.

He had all the credentials to be a rapidly rising superstar in the Jewish political arena.

(He could have been the Barack Obama of his day.)

But he gave up his personal ambitions when He met Jesus.

He said, “But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.

What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things.

I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ” ().

Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.