The True Estimate of Life
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Introduction
Introduction
I want you to take note of two very important Bible verses this morning…First, turn in your Bibles to James 4:14 and also to Philippians 1:21...
Let’s see what these verses have to say to us this morning:
14 Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
This verse is based upon:
1 Boast not thyself of to morrow; For thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.
Life is uncertain! It’s unpredictable! There is a veil over tomorrow!
We can’t see ahead for even one day!
Because we have no guarantee of tomorrow, we need to make each day count for Christ. If you have never asked Christ to be your Savior and trusted Him to take you to Heaven, you need to make that decision now. If you are a Christian, then serve the Lord each day and do the will of God in your life.
James 4:14 says that life is even a vapour! It’s here and gone! God knows the sand that is left in the hourglass of our lives and honey, it is running out and will be empty one of these days, probably sooner than we think!
Don’t waste your life, invest your life in the things that are eternal!
What is your life the verse says...
The Bible tells us what life really is...
21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
Life is Christ! Nothing else...
“To me to live is...” What? (Christ)
When thinking about this, I couldn’t help but think people today put a lot of other things there instead of Christ…Looking in our Bibles, with the help of the Lord this morning, we are going to look at three false estimates that people make of life...
I-Things
I-Things
Turn in your Bibles to Luke chapter 12...
15 And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.
Covetousness is wanting something that doesn’t belong to you…The 10 Commandments forbid it.
It’s sort of a possessive jealousy. It’s a sin of the heart that leads other sins like stealing and adultery. The Lord tells us to watch out! Or take heed! To be on guard against covetousness!
Why is it we need to be on guard? Because “…a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.”
We have a lot of people that are living for “things” - Their entire lives are consumed with “things”...
The Lord tells us that this way of thinking is foolish! That’s why He tells the story of the man building a bigger barn to hold all his stuff...
16 And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully:
17 And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits?
18 And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods.
19 And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.
20 But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?
21 So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.
A lot of people think the good life is relaxing, eating, drinking, and being merry, but listen to me this morning, before we know it, God will call us all to the judgment seat!
He will require our souls of us, and we must give an account of how we lived!
People who define their life by what they posses and enjoy will be called fools!
To measure your life by “things” is a false estimation!
II-Theories
II-Theories
21 For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.
God in His wisdom saw to it that the world would not know Him by the wisdom of this world.
The Lord does not expect people to respond to Him through their own wisdom because He knows that they cannot do this.
It is not through philosophy, intellectual understanding, science, or human wisdom that salvation comes to a man. In fact, the carnal reasoning of this world tends to be a stumbling block instead of a stepping stone in turning to Christ.
The arrogance that men have toward Jesus and His Word tends to reveal their foolishness.
* How will a man know God when he denies His existence?
* How will a man know God when he mocks the Bible and labels it as trash?
* How will a man know God if he is unwilling to yield to God’s authority and truth?
* How will a man know God if he is too busy to listen to what the Lord has to say to him?
People are ignorant of the Lord in our day because they have let their schedules, their suppositions, and their stubborn wills shield them from the working of God’s grace in their lives. Paul wrote, “The world by wisdom knew not God!” In essence, their wisdom made them ignorant.
22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
The fact is once a man rejects the truth of God in Jesus, he will fall for anything foolish, and trust far more feeble and fanciful systems than what he rejects from God.
We are seeing that in our day!
What a tragedy to go through life and not know the Lord.
Hey! God wants us to KNOW Him!
10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;
The first step to a knowledge of the Lord is a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul cries out in this passage, “That I may know Him!” If a man wants to really know God, he must begin with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul did not say, “That I may know about Him.” Paul wanted to personally know Jesus Christ. Do you have that same passion?
People build their lives today around their philosophies, by their wisdom, by their knowledge, but without God, it means nothing at all! It is a false estimation of life to pour everything you have into your education, your philosophy, your wisdom, but leave God out of it!
III-Thrills
III-Thrills
6 But she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth.
The context of this verse is speaking instruction as to how the church is to help or reject widows that need financial help, etc…The Bible tells us that the church-helped widows must be “blameless”, but this verse applies to much more than just widows...
The word “pleasure” in this verse means to live a wasteful, sensual, prodigal life.
One scholar says that it means, in our, terminology, to live fast. We would say she was living in the fast lane.
Now, our world has no problem with this kind of pleasure. They do not condemn living in the fast lane.
To be clear, it’s not wrong to have pleasure in life but this pleasure is fleshly pleasure, that is, it is forbidden pleasure. Many pleasure pursuits are forbidden by God and just because it is enjoyable does not mean it is acceptable.
The life lived for mere pleasure and ease is no life at all. It is a living death, whether lived by a young widow or anyone else.
It is a false estimation of life to live for self and all you can get in any way to satisfy your self-indulgent desires!
People waste their time in pleasure, satisfying the appetites of the flesh! They are as good as “dead” to anything in life that is worthwhile! They are dead to anything godly!
This reminds me of the church at Sardis...
Revelation 3:1 (KJV 1900)
1 ...thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.
Many things in the world of the flesh are said to be alive but God sees them differently. He sees them as death. The death is both spiritual and physical, for this fleshly lifestyle if hard on the physical as well.
People that live for thrills, or pleasure have a false estimation of life!
Conclusion
Conclusion
To close this morning, the Bible tells us what the one true estimate of life is...
21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
This is a tremendous statement!
People wonder what the purpose of life is today and what they are here for. The Christian knows the answer to those questions. We have a purpose for living and that purpose is to glorify Christ and live for Him, not for things, not for theories, not for thrills! To live is Christ!
Paul continues and says, “to die is gain!” - that word gain, literally means profit!
Christ is to be our life and we are to live our lives for Christ. We are to be consumed by and controlled by the Lord Jesus Christ.
Philippians 1:21 is a valuable test of our lives. “For to me to live is *blank* and to die is *blank* .” Fill in the blanks yourself.
“For to me to live is money and to die is to leave it all behind.”
“For to me to live is fame and to die is to be forgotten.”
“For to me to live is power and to die is to lose it all.”
No, none of these will work!
If we are going to have joy in spite of circumstances, and if we are going to share in the furtherance of the Gospel. “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain!”
That is the true estimation of life!