Title: Making It Count
Date: 2009-02-01
Reference: Romans 12: 3-8
"God owns it all. This is God’s world. It is God’s money. Our loved ones belong to God. The time we live is on loan to us from God. I find it comforting to know God has measured out a span of time for us to live. The Psalmist spoke for all of us when he said: “My times are in your hands.” I have always believed life and death issues are in God’s hands. Just last week Jim Hall left church and shared a quote he had come across. The quote said: “Here is a test to see if your work on earth is done. If you are still here, it isn’t.” The very next day Jim had a serious accident and has been in the hospital since. As I visited him after surgery, I reminded him of his quote and urged him to get well..because God still has something for him to do. John Wesley once said: “For 87 years I have sojourned on this earth, endeavoring to do good.”
I have never worried about the length of my life as much as much as what my contribution will be. I want to make a lasting difference, an eternal difference, for God in the time I have to live. As Christians we are called to put our lives on the line, and to make life count for the Kingdom. We all want to live lives fully committed to Jesus, wholeheartedly dedicated to communicating His love, truth, grace, and saving power.
Today is the 6th Baptism this year. Each time we dedicate a child we symbolically give the child back to God and ask God to use his or her life. As they grow, we challenge our children to be open and willing to go through any door God may open for them in the future.
During the recent Christmas Season many watched the classic: “It’s a Wonderful Life.” In the story, remember how Angel 2nd Class Clarence takes his charge George on a sight seeing tour of George’s hometown. George had been thinking his life was insignificant and the people he loved would be better off if he had never been born. Clarence said to him: “You have been given a great gift, a chance to see what the world would have been like without you.” George’s children of course are not there. His wife was lonely and alone. His old boss was a convict because George wasn’t there to stop him from accidentally committing a crime. In a profound scene George is looking at the tombstone of his younger brother he had saved from drowning when they were children. George explains to the angel: “My brother is not dead. He went to war and saved the life of every man on a troop transport.” Clarence replies: “Each and every man on that ship died. Your brother wasn’t there to save them because you weren’t there to save your brother.” The reality of George’s wonderful life began to sink in. Clarence reminds him: “Strange isn’t it.. One life touches so many other lives. There is power in a life lived well for God.”
As Christians we want to leave this world a little better than we found it. And to know, that even one other life has breathed easier because we lived is to have succeeded.
No one of us is able to determine the length of our lives. We make decisions, daily, which determine the width and depth of life. God wants to use each and everyone of us to make a positive difference in the world. Again, what matters is not the duration of life but the donation. Not how long we live but how we live.
The Bible says: “Teach us to number our days and to recognize how few they are and help us spend them as we should.” Elizabeth Kubler Ross wrote several books on death and dying. In one of her books she wrote: “It is only when we understand that we have a limited time on earth that we will learn to live life to the fullest.”
I was glad Rick Warren was asked to pray for our new president at the inauguration. A few years ago Pastor Warren wrote a best seller entitled: “A Purpose Driven Life.” In his book he noted how each of us is uniquely shaped. How when we become a Christian we receive spiritual gifts from the Holy Spirit, to use in ministry. We are all different and we all have our own special passions for the things we feel strongly about. We use these passions for God’s glory. Each of us has natural talents and abilities given by God to be used for God. Our personalities are unique allowing us to function in unique ways. We all come from different situations and backgrounds. God custom made each of us to prepare ;us to serve Him in this world. We are not placed on earth just to take up space and entertain ourselves. God fashioned us to make a difference, to make life count. We are put here to give something back and not just to consume.
As we learned from our reading: “A body is made up of many individual parts each with it’s own use. There are many of us, but we each are part of the other. God has given us different gifts to use. If we can prophesy we should do it. If we can serve others we should serve. If we can teach we should teach. If we can encourage others we should encourage. If we can give we should be generous. If we are leaders we should do our best.
God will reward us in God’s own time.
I read about an elderly missionary couple on their way home from a life time of service in Africa. They were on the same ocean liner as President Theodore Roosevelt who was returning home from a Safari in Africa. The couple watched in awe at the fanfare given the President and his entourage when the ship docked in New York. A band was playing, an honor guard present. The mayor was there with a key to the city. Reporters were there to chronicle every detail. Meanwhile the missionary couple slipped quietly off the ship and found a cheap apartment. They were in poor health and living on a small pension. The husband could not get over the homecoming the President received while their decades of service had gone without notice or reward. He didn’t feel God was treating them fairly. His wife suggested he pray. A short time later there was a huge difference in his attitude and demeanor. He explained: “God said simply, you’re not home yet.”
We should make a difference for God with our lives and through our giving and efforts. The first hand to reach out to people in need should be the hand of Jesus. We are that hand. Today the Epiphany Team is sharing Christ in the Prison system. We are here praying for them while the team is doing this important ministry. As important as it is, prison ministry is not something all of us are called to do. We are all called to be faithful wherever God plants us.
As we seek to make life count we should be very attentive to God’s leading. We must keep listening. God speaks to us daily through the Bible, the counsel of Godly people, through God directed circumstances, and through the witness of the Holy Spirit. God speaks. We just don’t always listen. We are distracted by the clamor of other things calling for our attention. We must learn to carefully listen.
My favorite Bible verse is from the book of Psalms. ”Be Still and Know that I am God.”
It’s helpful to start and end each day with a simple prayer for God to help us listen to all God would say to us, through every area of communication.
As we listen we keep surrendering to God’s will for our lives. The New life, the Christian life, the Exchanged life we’ve been talking about is not based on a one time commitment. A Christian life requires constant commitment. A relationship with God is not static but dynamic effecting everything we say and do. Many persons have the idea Christianity is like a vaccination - one shot and we are good for life. In the historical sense, I have surrendered my life to Christ. I clearly remember that day. I am still surrendering, day by day, moment by moment.
In making life count we are called to sacrifice. Sacrifice is giving up something you love for something you love more. Following Christ is not always convenient. We will be called upon to inconvience ourselves from time to time.
A Christian is a person who has made a commitment to God. Many have made promises to God: “Get me through this and I will be more faithful.” These promises are often made by desperate hearts not changed hearts. God always does His part but we don’t always follow through. To make a commitment is to make an agreement. We fulfill the agreement even when circumstances change and difficulties arise. In the Spiritual realm, commitments we have made are not subject to review or re negotiation. We honor the commitment we have made. Again each of us is unique. We have dozens of abilities and gifts we don’t even know about because we have not fully committed our time to God and tried them out.
Until we commit our life and get involved in ministry we may not know what we are really good at. God created each and every one of us to have a ministry in the church and a mission in the world.
We seek to make a difference. In small and great ways we want to make a lasting difference for Christ with our lives. God calls us to do our part in making this world a better place for all of us.
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