12/06/09 | Tim Schaaf

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Estimate that the average person accomplishes only 10% of his or her potential in their lives.

Author John Powell … this 10% is just a taste / appetizer of the deliciousness of being alive.

“His heart is only 10% alive with love, his mind embraces only a small part of the thoughts, reflections and understanding of which he is capable.”

Yes or No: (From HOLY SWEAT by Tim Hansel)

-          Have you ever pushed any area of your life to its limits, only to realize that there was probably more to life than you previously thought?

-          Can you recall the last time you felt unique, fully alive, reaching for all your potential?

-          Do you sometimes think of Christianity as a nice but, at times, unrealistic religion?

-          Is your idea of the good Christian life still limited to getting a gold star for attendance or knowing all the words to a printed prayer?

-          Is your idea of risk putting a fish symbol on your car?

-          Is your idea of Christian maturity being on three committees at the same time?

-          Have you ever asked yourself whether or not your Christian activity is really the same as experiencing the fullness of Christ?

-          Have you ever risked it all and lost-and still thought it was worth it because it brought you into a deeper relationship with God?

 

(not just Christianity…but all of life)

-          Have you ever been somewhat bored by it all?

-          Have you ever felt you’re just going through the motions?

-          Is your life a dull habit or an acute fever?

-          Have you ever felt like you are missing something?

1.  Is Your Life a Gift From God?

A.  Being Alive Is A Miracle

Birth and Body

"If you set the small belt that offers the precise conditions necessary for human life against all the rest of the planet—against all the earth's surface that is desert and ice, rock and ocean—you realize exactly how limited our life-sustaining environment actually is. More important, you realize how simple it is to step beyond it, how easily we can break through the thin web of life that supports the delicate human organism.

"And if you set that band of life against the enormity of the solar system, or of the Milky Way galaxy, or of the unknown reaches of the universe, we as a species occupy a niche far smaller than a tiny tuft of wildflowers sheltered by a small boulder atop an otherwise barren mountain peak that harbors in that single tuft the only life on an entire planet of barren mountain peaks.

"This is what, at some level, science and religion both are trying to tell us—how infinitesimally small the scale of human life is against the scale of the cosmos . . ." (p. 5). - Peter Stark Last Breath: The Limits of Adventure (2001)

We Are Fragile

e.g. car and road safety - 1 in 200 risk of dying on the roads! So driving at no more than 30 mph in built up areas is a good idea due to the dramatic risk of death if hit faster. 95% live if hit at 20mph, 90% die at 40mph. Also wear seat belts, pay for proper maintenance, and buy the safest car you can afford.

-also health measures, smoking in public bans is good as it will lead to less premature death. Form of Russian Roulette – 50% will die prematurely loosing ave of 16 years of precious God-given life. In country after country smoking bans have led to dramatic drops in the rates of heart attacks – 17% in Scotland for example in one year. Christians should support the provision of good health care and also simple social changes that can make massive impact by saving lives. Especially in developing world eg lack of clean water.

Odds of Dying

Shark Attack 4 (out of 57 total attacks)

Contact with hot tap-water 26

 Lightning 47

 Contact with hornets, wasps and bees 66

 Intentional self-poisoning 5,462

B.  Life is a Gift From God

Every aspect is held together by God.

This is called “Providence”

Heidelberg Catechism #27

What do you understand by the providence of God?

Providence is the almighty and every present power of God by which he upholds, as with his hand, heaven and earth and all creatures, and so rules them that leaf and blade, rain and drought, fruitful and lean years, food and drink, health and sickness, prosperity and poverty – all things, in fact, come to us not by chance but from his fatherly hand.

#28

How does the knowledge of God’s creation and providence help us?

We can be patient when things go against us, thankful when things go well, and for the future we can have good confidence in our faithful God and Father that nothing will separate us from his love.  All creatures are so completely in his hand that without his will they can neither move nor be moved.

C.  Faith Is True Life, and It Is Also a Gift from God

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. ” (John 10:10, ESV)

 “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. ” (Ephesians 2:8–10, ESV)

-          How rare anyone on Paul’s time would have seen a true “workmanship” / masterpiece / poiema

-          It would be the highlight of a lifetime

-          Never forgotten

The unexpected gift of God is that somehow you and I … messed up people like us … we become God’s workmanship.

- His Sistine Chapel or Mona Lisa

How … or better … WHY???

2.  Jesus’ Life Was a Gift

[TS] The only way we’ll tap into life at its fullest is to get beyond ourselves.

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. ” (John 10:10, ESV)

A.  Unexpected

B.  Betrothed / Before They Came Together

Shocked, Betrayal

C.  Prophesied

Mat 1:23 // Isa 7:14

““Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us). ” (Matthew 1:23, ESV)

“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. ” (Isaiah 7:14, ESV)

 It  was a gift from God that He had prepared people for Jesus long before He was born.

Why does prophecy matter?

- Before Jesus … to give hope.  God revealing His plan.

- After Jesus … to give affirmation.  This wasn’t random; God was in control of it.

Isa 11:2-3             "The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him— the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord— and he will delight in the fear of the Lord. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears;"

Isaiah 11 v.6-9    "The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The infant will play near the hole of the cobra, and the young child put his hand into the viper’s nest. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea."

Isaiah 53:4-5,

"Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed."

• Atonement
• The Cross
• Peace with God

“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. ” (Romans 5:1, ESV)

 

[TS] The life and death of Jesus show that grace can get anywhere in life.

-          If it can start for the world unexpectedly in a manger

-          Then where could it start for you?

“Those who believe in God can never, in a way, be sure of Him again.  Once they have seen Him in a stable, they can never be sure where He will appear or to what lengths He will go, to what ludicrous depths of self-humiliation H will descend in His wild pursuit of man.  If holiness and the awful power and majesty of God were present in this least auspicious of all events, this birth of a peasant’s child, then there is no place or time so lowly or earthbound but that holiness can be present there too.  And this means that we are never safe, that there is no place that we can hid from God, no place where we are safe from His power to break in two and recreate the human heart because it is just where He seems most helpless that He is most strong, and just where we least expect Him that He comes most fully.” –Frederick Buechner

3.  Is Your Life a Gift To God?

A.  Joseph In Our Story

- It was his duty and delight to fulfill his vows and spend his life with Mary.

1) Duty

Tough, workman like mentality

Give me the job and I’ll do it well.

ILL – Obama at West Point.

-          Not a lot of applause or facial reactions

-          That’s not necessarily criticism of the president.  The West Point mentality to war is “give us our orders and I’ll get the job done.”

2) Delight

He seemed to love Mary

I could imagine how afraid he was that he’d lost her

How grateful he was for God stepping in so that he could have Mary back.

[TS] It’s odd that the Bible is more clear about Joseph doing his duty than about his emotions for Mary.

B.  Us … Is My Life / Your Life lived as a gift to God?

There are three ways you can live your life. You can waste it. You can spend it. Or you can invest it. We call those who waste their lives foolish. We call those who spend their lives average. We call those who invest their lives leaders. – Rick Warren

Life In General

Story – Tim Hansel

-          Fall

-          Struggle

-          Choosing Joy

“Life is a mystery to be lived, not a problem to be solved.” – Anonymous

With Jesus, Knowing God’s Providence, We Can Embrace EVERYTHING Life Throws At Us

 “Let us look at our lives in the light of this experience [in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10] and see whether we gladly glory in weakness, whether we take pleasure, as Paul did, in injuries, in necessities, in distresses.  Yes, let us ask whether we have learned to regard a reproof, just or unjust, a reproach from friend or enemy, an injury, or trouble, or difficulty into which others bring us, as above all an opportunity of proving how Jesus is all to us, how our own pleasure or honor are nothing, and how humiliation is in very truth what we take pleasure in.  It is indeed blessed, the deep happiness of heaven, to be so free from self that whatever is said of us or done to us is lost and swallowed up in the thought that Jesus is all.” - Andrew Murray, Humility: The Beauty of Holiness, page 83.

Money

Preliminary sales data showed that Americans spent $10.66 billion on Black Friday 2009 (the day after Thanksgiving). That’s up 0.5 percent from the same date in 2008. (Source: USA Today)

What Will Be the Effect Of Your Life?

Because my life is a gift from God, my life will be lived as a gift to God … and you’re the one who will benefit.

Pick one way to give your life as a gift to God

Pick one way to give your life as a gift to the world.