Amen. Welcome again, everyone. We're so glad you're here with us today.
Everybody connecting with us online, welcome. We're so glad to have you here. If you're with us in person, in your bulletins today, we have this bulletin insert. We put that up on the screen already, the QR code that you can scan for CFR, but we've got it in your bulletin inserts here for you as well.
There are just some great benefits to doing your giving through a giving fund. He mentioned some of those, like you get the money on deposit that is earning interest, it's helping churches, and you're maximizing your tax deductions. They don't charge any management fees for that fund. So it's a great way for you to give. If you scan that QR code, you can go to CFR, and if you have any questions, you can contact them with any questions that you might have.
But I just wanted to let you know about that generous offer from Darren Key and his family to be able to give $100 for everybody that sets that up. So I want to encourage you to take a look at that and consider doing your giving through that CFR giving fund.
We are starting a new series today. Can you believe it? We were in Exodus from April till last Sunday. We did a long series straight through the book of Exodus. If you missed any of those, you can go back and catch them. They're archived on our YouTube channel, so you can go back and listen to them there.
But we are picking up today with a series leading into November in our celebration of our 50th anniversary as a church. This church has had a huge impact here in the community and around the world for over 50 years now. And we're so excited to be able to celebrate that.
Today we start a series called "A Life Well-Lived" because a lot of what we're going to be doing and celebrating our 50th anniversary is looking at the impact of the people's lives over those 50 years that have invested in Lakeshore Christian Church and the ministry God has called us to and the difference that is made, not just for the here and now, but for eternity.
And you, in your life, can have a life that impacts not only the present but also eternity if you invest well the life that God gives you.
When Beethoven passed away, the great composer, he was buried in a churchyard cemetery. A couple of days later, the town drunk was passing through the cemetery and he heard a strange noise over by the grave that Beethoven was buried in. So he walked over and started trying to listen, and there was strange music coming from the grave, and it scared him a lot. So he ran and got the pastor at the church and he got the pastor out there to listen.
The pastor leaned down and he began to listen, and it was just unrecognizable music coming from the grave. So he ran and got the town local detective to come out and check on this and investigate what was going on. When the detective got there, he bent his ear down to the ground at the grave there and he listened for a moment. He said, "Oh, that's Beethoven's ninth symphony, but it's being played backwards."
He said, "That's puzzling." Then he listened a little longer and he said, "Well, there's the eighth symphony, and it's backwards too." And it's most puzzling. He said, "But he kept listening. He said there's the seventh, and there's the sixth, and there's the fifth." Finally, the realization of what was going on dawned on him, and a crowd had gathered. He said to the crowd, "Nothing to be worried about, that's just Beethoven decomposing."
I'm sorry, I've been waiting to use that joke for a long time. It might be a dad joke, I know that, but I wanted to connect it to what we're talking about in this series on a life well-lived.
We all know Beethoven has that legacy of all the music that he composed, but even that passes away. What is it that we can invest our lives in that will last forever? What is it that we can do that really matters the most with the lives that God has given us?
Because God only gives us one life. Hebrews 9:27 says this: "Just as people are destined to die once and after that to face the judgment." You only have so much time. That's why with our graphic for this series we've got the hourglass with the sand running through, right? You only have so much time, and we don't know how much it is. We don't know in advance. We're not told exactly how many days we're going to have.
So how do we best use the days that we have? You combine that with what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 4:2. He says, "Now it is required that those who've been given a trust must prove faithful." We must prove faithful.
So we need to know that this life God has given us, He has given it to us as a trust, and He wants it to be used well with the time that we've got because we're going to be held accountable for how we use the life that He's given us. He's going to evaluate how we handle this life and the resources that He's entrusted to us with our time and our talents and our resources. What did we do with the time that we had?
So in this series we're beginning today, we're focusing on how to invest our lives in order to get the best use of the life that we're going to have. And that's what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 4:2. It begins with this first message: it all starts with developing an eternal perspective on life.
As we live it, we need to live every day of life with an eternal perspective, looking at everything about our lives through the lens of eternity. I want to pick up with a response Jesus gives to a question while He was here on this earth doing His earthly ministry. He would often speak to the crowds, and many times people in the crowd would have a question for Jesus.
This time in Luke 12, if you'll turn there with me, we're going to spend some time here in Luke 12 beginning with verse 13. Open up your Bibles there in the New Testament: Matthew, Mark, and then Luke. You can pull it up on your smartphone or tablet.
In Luke 12, beginning with verse 13, here's what happens: Someone in the crowd said to Him, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me." Jesus replied, "Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?" Then He said to them, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed."
And then He tells them why that's a big deal: "Life does not consist in the abundance of possessions." I want to stop there for a minute because that one statement goes directly into the health of our lives. I hope we've come to consider that in a past life. This is not what happens.
You just stop there for a minute. So Paul, by every individual in the world, especially here in America, is influenced by this idea that life consists, it may, it's made up of, it's all about the abundance of our possessions. That's how we look at life. That's how we look at people. That's how we measure people, and sometimes even measure their worth, is by the abundance of their possessions.
If that's the case, it changes how we think about life. It changes how we make decisions about life. It changes how we want to pursue certain things in life, on choices that we need to make that we consider the most important choices. Greed is one of Satan's most potent weapons against Christians and against the cause of Christ and the work of the church.
He doesn't have to get us to deny Christ at all as a church to fail as a church, to fail as individual Christ followers. He doesn't have to get us to deny Christ. All he has to do is put more trust in stuff than we do in God and the things of God and the eternal things of the kingdom of God. That's all he has to do to get us off track.
That's all he has to do to keep us from accomplishing the good stuff that God wants us to accomplish while we're here, is to get us to think more highly of stuff than we do the things that matter most in eternity.
So in this series, I want us to develop a godly attitude toward what matters most in life. So He continues in verse 16. Let's pick up there again here in Luke 12. He told them this parable.
Now remember, a parable is an earthly story. He tells about an earthly situation, but it always, in a parable that Jesus uses, is teaching a more eternal concept and meaning about life. So that's what a parable is. He's telling a story, but it's a story with a purpose, with a moral, with a teaching element to it.
He told them this parable: "The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.' Then he said, 'This is what I'll do: I'll tear down my barns and build bigger ones. There I will store my surplus grain, and I'll say to myself, 'You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy, eat, drink, and be merry.'"
Now some of you are old enough, like me, to remember that Dairy Queen pulled that right out of Scripture and used it as an advertising slogan for Dairy Queen: "Eat, drink, and be merry at Dairy Queen." It was a slogan they used for years to promote the idea that that's how you're going to enjoy life, as you come to Dairy Queen, you get your ice cream or whatever you get there, and life's going to be great.
But it's an approach, it's a philosophy of life, it's a way of thinking about life that life is really about getting to the place where you can take life easy and eat, drink, and be merry. Isn't that the goal of almost every individual in America today? Work hard for a certain number of years to finally get yourself to a place that you can now take it easy and eat, drink, and be merry.
It's all going to be good then if you could just get there, if you could just reach that point where you can take life easy. If we're talking about taking life easy, mainly what we're talking about is having enough money and things in place financially that we can now take life easy.
If that's really the goal of life, then that has nothing to do with eternity. You can accomplish that goal and be far removed from God. You can accomplish that goal and make no significant impact on eternity for the kingdom of God. That goal is not evil, but it's the wrong goal for people who believe in God, who trust in Jesus as Lord and Savior.
It's the wrong goal for your life and for my life to think, "I just want to finally get to the point that I can take life easy and eat, drink, and be merry."
So here's this guy in the story. He's talking to a crowd that's listening to the story, and what they're picturing is this guy that's already rich, and then he gets blessed with even more. Everybody hearing the story at this point in the story would have thought, "Man, that guy's got it made! He is so successful. I wish I could have life like that!"
As they heard that story, that's what they're thinking. That may be what you thought too. "Boy, I'd sure love for Jesus to be able to say that about me." Wouldn't that be great if that was the end of the story? You might think that would be the ultimate goal, but Jesus is telling a story with a lesson, with a purpose, to get us to think about something that we may not think about when we hear the first part of the story.
So the story doesn't stop there. Verse 20 says, "But God said to him, 'You—what's that word? Fool!'" We don't like hearing that word. We tell people not to say that to people, but in this case, God says to this person that he's a what? Fool!
Oh, but he's rich! He could build bigger barns and store up all his surplus, and he could just take life easy. Now, what makes him a fool? It sounds like he figured it out. It sounds like he's reached the goal. It sounds like he's accomplished everything we're told in America you're supposed to do and accomplish with your life, doesn't it?
Why is he a fool? Well, he says, "This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you've prepared for yourself?"
So Jesus throws into this story this unexpected plot twist. The guy seems to have everything set for life except one thing: what's going to happen? He's going to die that night. That day, and all the barns and all the grain and all the stuff is left for somebody else. It doesn't benefit him at all at that point.
Now, it might benefit other people, but it won't benefit him at that point. And then Jesus adds this: "This is how it will be for whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God."
Then Jesus said to His disciples, "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. For life is more than food and the body more than clothes."
He's not saying you don't have to spend any time or effort or energy on food and clothes. That's not what He's saying. Don't take Jesus' words and twist them around. Notice what He said: "This is how it will be for whoever stores up things for themselves."
Is that what He says? No, that's not what He says. See, that's the mistake we make. Jesus is not condemning the idea that you take care of the needs that need to be taken care of, and even if you have the ability to have nice things, He's not condemning that.
What He's saying is it's wrong to store up things for yourselves while at the same time you're not being rich toward God. That's the problem.
What happens in a society that makes life all about the accumulation of stuff is people begin to take sides against each other: the haves and the have-nots, right? The top two percent and the rest of us, right? We divide it up as if anybody that does have a lot is evil.
That's not ever what's taught in Scripture. Never once does it say that people that have a lot are evil people. They may be, but it's not based on how much stuff they have. That's got nothing to do with whether they're evil or not.
What Jesus is saying, what God is saying, is what makes the difference for them being the people God wants them to be and not being the people that God wants them to be. It's not whether they have a little bit or they have a lot; it's whether or not they're rich toward God with what they have.
That's what divides people and how God sees the impact of their lives. He wants us to be faithful with little, but He wants us to be faithful with much. That means some people will have what little and some people will have what much. That's part of how life works.
The key is not measured by how much you have but how faithful you are with what you have. That's what's important to God in the kingdom of God.
So I want to close here these rest of the time that we've got with three big mistakes that this guy makes in the story. Okay? I want you to really pay attention because I don't want us to make these mistakes.
So I'm not going to reveal the mistakes; I'm going to give us a step with each mistake to help correct the mistake. Okay? We're going to look at the mistake and then the step we can take to keep us from making that mistake because Jesus tells the story to keep us from making these mistakes.
So we need to know what they are and then know how not to make those same mistakes that this guy made in the story.
All right, the first mistake is this: he received God's blessings but he did not give God thanks for the blessings.
Notice this terminology: "my grains, my barns, right? myself." It's only me. "I worked hard, I invested well, I did the right things, I made the right financial choices, so I put myself in this great position of having all this stuff."
Now, it's true we do need to make good financial decisions to be good stewards of what God blesses us with, but he leaves out the fact that he needs to be thanking the one who blessed him with this stuff.
When we're having an eternal perspective on life, it means we acknowledge that the source of life and everything good in life is who? It's God.
So if we are blessed in any way, no matter what way in life, that means God should be the one we thank. James says this in James 1:16-17: "Don't be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. Every good and perfect gift is from where? Above, coming down from whom? The Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows."
Every good thing, every perfect gift is from who? God the Father, everyone. So we need to get an eternal perspective on any good thing that we have or any good experience that we're able to enjoy. God is the source of any and all of the good things in our lives.
Now, it doesn't mean we don't play a role, right? We do. We are presented as an universe cornered as if there's nothing to take care of. But God is the one who enables and allows us to enjoy that.
I know the economy is tough right now. It is. People are hurting. People are struggling. Inflation is really taking a bite out of every paycheck today. There's no doubt about that.
But comparatively, in the world population, everybody in this room and listening online, most all of us would still be in the upper one-third of the world's wealth comparatively speaking. We are truly a blessed people.
Even those of us living on what America calls the poverty level are living above the level of at least a third, but at least a third of the world's population. Even at the poverty level in America, we are truly a blessed people.
We don't see it that way because we believe we've been deceived by the idea that life consists in what? The abundance of our possessions. And I don't have as much as somebody else has. So that means my life is not good, and I don't have what I need to have because somebody else has more, newer, bigger, better than I do.
But for every person that has more, bigger, better than you do, there's a hundred thousand people in the world, hundreds of thousands of people in the world who don't have what you have and would love to have what you have.
But the opportunities you have and the choices you have that you can make that they don't have. You see, it's about having an eternal perspective.
We get too focused on the here and now, the temporary things of this world. We don't think enough about the things that matter the most.
So here's the step we need to take to keep from making that mistake. We need to acknowledge that God is the source, that we own nothing and He owns everything. Psalm 24:1 says, "He owns all the stuff and all the people who are there to manage the stuff." He owns it all.
So if we have any of it, whose stuff do we have? God's. So it's not ours anyway. So if He allows us to have some of His stuff, we should be thankful for that.
We should be grateful that He's allowed us to have some of His stuff to manage. And the most tangible way we can express gratitude to God is to handle that stuff that He blesses us with the way He wants it to be handled.
That's the most tangible way to say thank you to God for allowing us to have His stuff to manage. It's that we decide to do it in a way that honors Him. And He teaches us clearly in His word some of His will for how we manage that stuff.
Matthew 10:8, He said, "Freely you have received, freely what? Give." Everything you've received, He gave it to you freely. So He wants us, if we're going to manage that stuff well with an eternal perspective, He wants us to be willing to give freely.
2 Corinthians 9:7, He told the church there, He said, "So, not only does He want us to be willing to be generous, but to do it cheerfully as generous people."
There are people that the world might consider generous that are not very cheerful about it. They're doing it just for tax write-offs or just for some other reason, right? It's not really because they're happy to do it. Or they need some good PR, so they'll make a donation. So they get some press and get some good PR out of it.
But God wants us to be generous people with a cheerful attitude. And you can't have a cheerful attitude with the wrong perspective on stuff, as if life consists in the abundance of your possessions. If that's what life is about, then you can't be cheerful about sharing that with anybody else.
But if that's not really what life is all about, then maybe we can be generous and be happy about it. We can take joy in it if we understand that's not what life is all about.
Remember in the series on Exodus, when they were building the tabernacle, you can go back and catch this, but in Exodus 36, a couple of weeks ago, we talked about this, where the people who received the offerings for the tabernacle said to Moses in Exodus 36, beginning in verse 5, "The people are bringing more than enough for doing the work the Lord commanded to be done."
Then Moses gave an order, and they sent this word throughout the camp, "No man or woman is to make anything else as an offering for the sanctuary." And so the people were restrained from bringing more because they had already had more than enough to do all the work.
You see, they weren't thinking that their life consisted in holding on to the stuff. And when there was a need for the work of the things of God, they gave freely more than enough to do the work that God had called them to do.
So, the statistics are really kind of sad in the American church, where giving has gone down significantly over the past 20 years. On average, most people are giving less than 2% of what God gives to them back to investing in the work of the kingdom of the church. Many not giving anything. That's part of what brings the average down.
And yet, we say we're grateful to God. And we love God. Well, don't make this foolish mistake. Remember that we need to acknowledge God is the source of all of it anyway. We don't own any of this stuff. And God wants us to manage it in a way that shows our gratitude to Him.
And part of how He has demonstrated He wants that to be managed is through generosity with what He's given us.
Well, the second mistake this guy makes is this: he planned for the future without considering the will of God. He thought he was in control of his own future.
So, he made his plans on what he was going to do with all the stuff. "Well, I've got more than I can put in my barns right now. I don't know what I'm going to do." He thought, "Oh, here's what I'll do. I've got a plan. I'm going to build bigger barns to put all my stuff in. And then, because I've got so much stored up, then for the rest of my life, I can take it easy. I don't have to work hard anymore. I don't have to get up and take care of the farm anymore. I can just take life easy and eat and drink and be merry with the stuff that I've accumulated into my big barns that I'm going to build."
You realize he didn't get to build a single barn? He didn't get to take care of the farm. He didn't get to tear down a single old barn or build a single new barn. That was his plan. That's what he thought was going to make his life good. That's the plan he thought was going to take care of all of his needs.
But he didn't even get to start on this project, on this plan. You know why? Because he thought he was in control when he wasn't. He thought he could make things happen the way he wanted them to happen when he doesn't have that authority or that control to do that.
And neither do you, and neither do I have any authority or control over the plan that we might make for our lives. I was talking with someone just this week at the office here, a young couple, young in their marriage, and they were telling me plans for their marriage. And I love hearing those plans. I think it's great. God does not condemn making plans at all. In fact, He tells us it's good to do that.
But we have to understand when we make plans that we don't actually control everything. But I always love it when young couples have this plan about, you know, in this many years, we're going to buy a house. And then this many years, we're going to have a child. And then this many years, we might have another child. We've planned on it. We're going to have two or whatever number they've got, right?
And they've got this plan and even all of it timed out. And I try to be encouraging to young couples, but I almost always laugh a little bit when they tell me those plans. At least inside, I'm laughing.
Because I know you don't really control that. It's good to have a plan. Nothing wrong with having a plan. But you have to plan with this step in mind. This is the step for this second problem.
You plan not only acknowledging that God is the source of everything you've got, but relying on God's providence in your plan. You rely on God. You rely on God's providence in your plan.
God's providence means ultimately He's the one in control. Now, we make choices on a daily basis, but He is the ultimate one over all things. He controls the things that even if we think we have control, He controls the things that even we understand we don't have control over.
And here's what I've learned the more I've lived life. In reality, I don't really have control over anything. Not really. Because I can make a plan. In fact, I make plans all the time. Our staff here at the church and our elders, our leadership team, we plan already. We're planning way ahead. We planned for Christmas months ago, right? And what we're going to be doing at Christmas here at Lakeshore. We've been planning that for months now.
We make plans ahead of time. But here's what I know. They can change radically, dramatically, all at once. Some of you will remember this if you were here at the time. Entering into the end of 2019, heading into 2020, we had this vision and this plan, 2020, God's vision for the future of the church.
And we started on the plan in 2020. And then all of a sudden they called us and they said, "You know what just happened? There's a pandemic. Everything has to shut down." You know what? Who was really in control? We weren't. We had a plan.
But everything had to shift immediately when that news came out. We didn't want it to. We didn't like it. But we had to deal with the reality that things had changed. Reality had changed.
So you have to know that you have to acknowledge that God is the source and then you have to rely on God's providence when you're making the plans for your life.
I love what James says about this. James is such a practical book, but in James 4, beginning with verse 13, here's how he says it: "Now listen, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.' Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes."
Thought I'd give you a little pick-me-up today. What is your life? You're just a what? A mist! When you spray a little spray bottle, the little misting bottle, you know, you spray it, it's there for how long? Just a minute, not even a whole minute, right? Just seconds. It's sprayed out into the air, and then it's gone. That's really what our lives are like compared to that eternal perspective we need to have.
So he says, "You're a mist that appears for a little while, then vanishes." Instead of planning that way, you ought to say, "If it is whose will? The Lord's will, we will live and do this or that."
As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is what? Evil in the eyes of God. We don't even know in just a moment everything in life can change. One phone call, one traffic accident, one day at work where you walk in thinking everything's great and they say, "We're downsizing." Your spouse comes home and says, "I don't want to be married anymore." Your child says, "I'm moving out. I don't want to live under your rules anymore. I'm out of here."
Just a moment, and everything you thought life was going to be like is radically changed. You know why? You don't get to control it. You're not in control, and neither am I.
So what we need to do is say, "I'm going to plan the best I can with this knowledge and the perspective of eternity, but I acknowledge the fact that God is sovereign. He's really in control."
So I'm going to plan with the understanding that I'm going to plan with the understanding that I'm going to plan with the understanding that if the Lord wills, if this is what God's will is, if this is what God wants, that's the plan we're going to follow.
But if God wants something different, what you're acknowledging is He's in control. We'll adjust to what God's will is in our lives. We will do that as our plan.
Now, you can go overboard with this. Some people try to sound really spiritual. They'll be sitting at the dinner table and they say, "Would you pass the salt, please?" And you say, "Well, Lord willing," right?
Well, it's true. You might not get to pass the salt unless the Lord is willing, but yeah, it can get that minute if you want to do that. But it's a reminder that we don't get to control that. God's in control.
But if we think life consists in the abundance of our possessions, we try to cover all the contingencies, don't we? That's how we ended up with things like insurance, savings accounts, investments.
But here's the problem: those things aren't evil, and God never said not to do those things. He does say to plan for the future. He says it's smart to put some back. He teaches that in His word, so He's not saying don't do those things.
But do those things with the understanding that God is still in control, even when you do those things. That that's not all that life consists of, and you shouldn't put all your hope in those things.
And that's why so many people, when it comes to being generous and supporting the work of the church, here's the approach they take: "Once I cover everything else, if anything is left over, then I will be generous and support the church."
You know what? Satan's going to make sure happens: you don't have any left over. You're never going to have any left over.
Here's something you need to know about the world: it will help you spend all of your money and even money you don't have. It will gladly do that for you.
So if the plan is, "After I cover all the other stuff, then I'm going to be generous," then Satan loves your plan because you're never going to be influential in advancing the work of the kingdom of God through your resources that God put in your possession when you follow that plan.
It will never work to support the work of the kingdom of God with that plan. You know why? Because it's not God's plan.
God's plan is, remember the plan is not God's plan. It's not God's plan. It's not God's plan. Remember the Old Testament is foreshadowing everything for the new covenant He's establishing with us.
In the Old Covenant, He established this plan for how He wanted His work to be supported with the stuff that they would need to have to do the work God wanted them to do through their giving.
There's a term that's repeated over and over again in Scripture, and it's the term "first fruits." Now, what does first mean? First! There you go. Some of you are sharp; others, I'm not so sure about. It means not second, not third, right? Not fourth, not after everything else.
First fruits means the first fruit that is produced that comes in. Now remember, in the Old Testament and that covenant promise He made with Israel, they were an agricultural society. They raised their crops and they raised their herds.
So every year they depended on the harvest that year. Now, they could save some back, but they didn't have preservatives and freezers and all the stuff we've got now. So they were very dependent one year to the next on the harvest that was coming in that year for their survival.
And in order to demonstrate that they acknowledge God as the source and acknowledge their gratitude to God, then the first part of the crops—remember when crops, some of you've never farmed, but what happens is some of the harvest starts coming in at the beginning of the season of the harvest, and then there's more that comes in after that if the harvest does well.
The idea of first fruits was as soon as you produce some crops, the first things that are produced are brought and given to God so that you have to trust Him for the rest of the harvest.
He was teaching this idea of trusting God, realizing God is the source, showing gratitude to God through the giving of the first fruits of the harvest. The tithe was not supposed to be at the end of paying everything else. You give your tithe. The tithe was ten percent off the top from the first things you get.
You give back the tenth off the top before you use the rest of it for anything else. That's a principle God was teaching in the Old Covenant, and we're trying to do this with a plan that is a worldly plan, an earthly plan, a man-made plan instead of following the principles of God.
When we say, "If I have to do this, I'm going to do it. If I have anything left over, then I'll give," that's not putting God first. It's not honoring God with the first fruits. It's not trusting God for the rest when we do it in that order.
Now, God's grace is amazing, and it's wonderful, and He still loves us, and He still blesses us tremendously, but it's not His plan for how He wants us to have the right perspective on life.
You see, an eternal perspective is a perspective that God is in control of everything for eternity. I can trust this God for what I need, so we are to put God first.
Well, there's a third mistake this guy makes in the story that Jesus tells us: he trusted in his possessions and he did not acknowledge the sovereignty of God. His whole focus was on this life, on this earth, and this earth: "Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die."
And he talked like, "Well, that would be it then. I mean, once you die, you die. That's it. So let's just focus on this life. Let's just get all we can accumulate so we can finally not have to keep working so hard, and we can finally eat, drink, and be merry and relax and enjoy life and, you know, enjoy retirement and all that stuff."
And then we die anyway. I see this meme all the time: "What you work for this many years to retire at this age and only have this many years to enjoy life," as if that's all there is.
That's not an eternal perspective, friends. It's far from an eternal perspective to think that way because even when you die, what happens? You live for eternity. You are a living soul in a temporary body, but you, the person, will live forever one place or the other: heaven or hell, with God or separated from God, one or the other.
An eternal perspective means we realize that our time here is like a what? A mist. We're just here for a little while. But we also understand not only is our time here a mist, but our time as a living soul is eternal.
We have both of those perspectives with an eternal perspective. And here's the part of that perspective: what we do here determines the rest.
I want you to catch that. I want you to understand that. I need to remember it all the time. What we do here determines the rest of our eternal existence. What we do with the life God has given us here impacts eternity, and it impacts eternity not just for us but for the people God wanted us to impact and influence and make a difference for in the world. It impacts them too.
So instead of "Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die," it's "Be a good steward with what we have now, looking forward to eternity with God." That's the eternal perspective that He wants us to have.
So how do we offset these mistakes? We acknowledge God's the source, right? That was step one. Step two is to rely on God's providence. He's the one ultimately in control.
But this third step is simple: invest your life, your talents, your resources with eternity in mind, not just with "tomorrow we die" in mind.
So that we're making choices all along the way in this life, thinking of eternity, not thinking of just the life here on the earth. It's hard because so much of life here on the earth is in front of us all the time. It's hard to keep the eternal perspective.
But it's not wise to keep investing in that which is destined for destruction, is it? Even in this world, we don't invest that way when we know it.
If there's a building that's for sale, but you know it's on schedule to be demolished and that the land is unusable, would that sound like a great investment for you to go buy that building? No, of course not.
Well, guess what? Every building, every house, every car, everything of this world is destined for what? Destruction. Every bit of it is destined for destruction.
Does that sound like your best investment of your time, your resources, your talents, your training? It's to invest in those things that are destined for destruction.
That's why Jesus went on in Luke 12, verse 22. He says this: "Therefore, since I've given you this story to listen to, I tell you, don't worry about your life, what you'll eat, or about your body, what you will wear. Life is more than food. The body is more than clothes. Consider the ravens. They do not sow or reap. They have no storeroom or barn, yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than the birds."
Who of you, by worrying, can add a single hour to your life? Boy, we need to hear that over and over again, don't we? Worry is not going to help you. Worrying about that stuff is not going to help you.
Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest? Consider how the wildflowers grow. They do not labor or spend, yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.
If that's how God closed the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow, it's thrown into the fire, how much more will He clothe you, O you of little faith?
And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink. Do not worry about it, for the pagan world runs after all such things. Your Father knows that you need them, but instead, here's the approach: "Seek first His kingdom, and then these things will be given to you as well."
Seek what? First, what? His kingdom. Is He saying those other things aren't important? No, that's not what He's saying. He's saying that should not be the driving force of your life.
Seeking after those things should not come first. What should come first is what? The kingdom of God. You seek the good of the kingdom of God first.
Then you manage all the other stuff, and God makes sure you have what you need. That's the plan God has for your life. Seek first the things of the kingdom of God. Make that the highest priority of your life.
He says the pagan world runs after all those things. The pagan world just means the world that does not acknowledge God, God's sovereignty, God's rule over our lives. That's the pagan world.
Of course, they're going to run after those things first. Why? Because that's all they think there is to life. And they're going to give their lives to those things.
But He's saying it shouldn't be that way for the children of God because you know you have a God who takes care of you. And there are more important things for you to invest your life in. Things that really last. Things that really matter, not just for the here and now, but for all eternity.
Invest in those things. You still take care of the other things. God's going to make sure you have your needs met. But put the things of the kingdom of God first because those are the eternal things.
Now, it's a matter of where we set our hearts, right? In 1 Timothy 6, beginning with verse 17, he said, "Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant or to put their hope in what? Wealth, which is so uncertain. But to put their hope where? In God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment."
Does God want you to enjoy the stuff of this world that He created? Yes, absolutely. But the way you do that best is with an eternal perspective. You enjoy it understanding that it's not going to last. It's temporary.
So you don't put all your hope in that. You put your hope in the things that will last. He said, "Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, to be generous and willing to share. And this way they will lay up for themselves treasures, treasures for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age," right? Eternity.
That perspective, that eternal perspective for the coming age so that they may take hold of life that is truly life.
Oh, it's when you're truly living. It's when you can understand the things that matter the most. The things that really are the most important things are eternal things.
That means what you invest in will last. When you invest your time, your training, your talents, your resources into the eternal things of the kingdom of God, then you're making the best investment you can make.
Now I want to close with this. As your pastor, I really believe this or I wouldn't be your pastor. I don't know of a more worthy cause to which you can invest your time and your talents and your resources than the support of an ongoing ministry of a church like Lakeshore.
I don't know of a better investment you can make anywhere in the world than to invest in the work and the ministry. I don't know of a better investment you can make anywhere in the world than to invest in the work and the ministry of this church.
A church that faithfully preaches and teaches the gospel of Jesus Christ straight from God's word just as God revealed it. A church that pours into its youth, the generations coming behind us, to give them the most important thing, which is a foundation and faith in Christ.
A church that is caring for hungry and hurting people. A church that's helping to heal and restore and strengthen marriages and families. A church that has concentration. A church that's been sending out others to serve all over the world.
A church that has been able to impact this community and the whole world through the connections of those that we've sent out and the ministries that we partner with. Friends, those are all eternal things.
Those are all things that are going to matter when we stand before our Creator. And He asks us to give an account of what we did, how we invested our lives while we were here.
Lakeshore is not the only church doing that. I'm so thankful for churches all over the world that are working toward accomplishing those good things that God has called us to do, being the people God has called us to be as the church.
You want to look for something to do well with your life? Invest it in the things that matter the most. It begins with surrendering it all to the one who is the source of it all. And you do that through His Son, Jesus.
Let's pray.
Father, we thank You. We thank You that You've challenged us, that Jesus has challenged us through teaching this lesson, this parable, to remember to focus on the things that really matter, to get that eternal perspective back into our hearts and our minds so that we don't waste days and hours and minutes and seconds of our lives on things that don't really matter in the end.
Help us to remember that You are the source of all good things. And that in response to what You've done for us, especially in the fact that You give us Your Son, Jesus, I pray for those who might need to respond out of the gratitude of their hearts to accept Your offer of grace and forgiveness, that they would come out of a grateful heart to come and surrender their lives to You and give their lives over to You, knowing that as a Father that loves us the way You do, You will take care of Your children, that we can trust in You.
Trust You with everything because it's Yours anyway. I pray that any who need to make a decision today, that today they would take those steps in response to Your love and Your grace and Your provision for them.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
We're going to stand and sing. We invite you to come up front while we're standing and singing today. You have a decision you need to make.
Ready to have a seat, please. We have a couple of prayer requests, especially we want to share. Just come on up. Did you say it's your uncle, Junior? She's asked for prayer, had a stroke, and is going through a real battle with that, just praying for his healing and restoration of his health.
And then Tammy, come on up, asking for prayer for your sister, right? Yeah. Things start piling up sometimes as things happen like that. I do want to... The prayer support of the church is important when someone's trying to get back on track with the Lord like that.
So let's pray together for these needs.
Father, we just thank You that we can come to You in the name of Jesus and offer up these prayer requests. We know we can come boldly to Your throne of grace, not because of who we are, but because of who Jesus is and we belong to Him.
And so we know when we come to You, You hear our prayers and You answer them in a way that's best according to Your plan. So we pray for Your will to be done on earth in these circumstances and all the other needs of our church family.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
God bless you. Thank you.
At this time, Dr. Ed's going to come and lead us in a time of communion around the Lord's table.
. . . . . . . . . . . .
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for helping out with the Trunk or Treat. There are a lot of people out there and a lot of other good things going on.
We are excited about celebrating our 50th anniversary as a church this month, and especially the weekend of the 16th and 17th. We've got special services lined up for that. We hope you can come and be a part of that.
We'll be remembering the history of the church, but also all that God has done through the faithful work of the people of this church and looking ahead to all that God still has called us to do as a church.
So we hope you can all come and be a part of that celebration. Now, let's stand together. Today, we're going to close out with a word of prayer.
Father, You are such a gracious God in providing every good and perfect gift. We know every good thing we have in this world has come from You. We acknowledge that. We thank You for that.
We ask You to help us then to be good stewards of those things You've entrusted to us. We thank You for providing for our needs. We pray for continued provision, but we pray for continued good stewardship on our part as You provide.
Thank You for all that You've done through Lakeshore and continue to do even today. We pray for Your continued work and impact for all eternity through this church family.
In Jesus' name, amen.
on Oct 27, 2024
