MAKE THE MOST OF LIFE

Psalm 90:12; Eph 5:15-17

In 2004, the country singer Tim McGraw had released a song which became the number one country song that year entitled, Live Like You Were Dying. Watch the video and carefully listen to its lyrics:

He said I was in my early forties, with a lot of life before me
And one moment came that stopped me on a dime
I spent most of the next days, looking at the x-rays
Talking bout' the options and talking bout' sweet times.
I asked him when it sank in, that this might really be the real end
How's it hit 'cha when you get that kind of news?
Man what did ya do? He said
I went skydiving
I went rocky mountain climbing
I went two point seven seconds on a bull named Fu Man Chu
And I loved deeper
And I spoke sweeter
And I gave forgiveness I'd been denyin'
And he said some day I hope you get the chance
To live like you were dyin'
He said I was finally the husband, that most the time I wasn't
And I became a friend, a friend would like to have
And all of a sudden goin' fishin, wasn't such an imposition
And I went three times that year I lost my dad
Well I finally read the good book, and I took a good long hard look
At what I'd do if I could do it all again
And then

This song was about a man in his forties who had been diagnosed with a life-threatening disease. When it dawned on him that he didn't have much time left to live, he decided to live life to the fullest. He went skydiving, mountain climbing, fishing and bull riding. Then, he also decided to improve his relationships with other people most especially with his wife and kids.

Think about the message of this song. What if you were the one who was told that you only have few more months to live? How will this change your life? How will your priorities or activities change? Believe it or not, God wants all of us to be conscious of the fact that life is so short and fragile. If you examine the initial texts we have read; in Psalm 90:12, Moses was asking the Lord for wisdom, so he can maximize his remaining days. While in Ephesians 5: 15-16, the apostle Paul was exhorting the Ephesian believers to live wisely, so they can "redeem their time" or seize their opportunities while they were still alive. Evidently, the bottom line is: we cannot afford to waste our life. Instead, we need to make the most of it.

With this as our basis, I am starting a new series entitled, Live As If You Are Dying. You might think this is so morbid. Why do we even have to talk about death or perceive life as if we are dying? But this is a more realistic perspective about life. I really believe it would make a difference in the way we live if we are reminded constantly that life is short, and there's the danger of living our lives without meaning. There are many people who die every day and their lives go largely unnoticed. You definitely don't want to be one of them.

Someone has suggested that in order to avoid this tragedy, you can start thinking of your own tombstone. You see, a typical tombstone will have two significant dates and a little dash in between. The two dates are the date of birth and the date of death. Both of these dates for the most part, you have no control whatsoever. In between these two dates is the little dash. That dash is usually the one spelled out when the tombstone epitaph is written. The dash describes for everyone who you were during your lifetime or probably how you have lived. With this, you have a great deal of control. Now, if you have a chance to write your tombstone epitaph, how would you write it? How would you describe your life? How you have lived?

The reality is: we only have one dash to live, and this dash is really short. James reminded the early believers about this truth:

Can you notice how life is described? It is not a vapor or a mist. You see them early in the morning when you wake up. But as soon as the sun rises it vanishes right away without even a trace behind. Because of this, we cannot afford to waste our life. We must do our best and have a full life. The question is: what can we do to ensure that we can have the most of life? This morning, allow me to give you some specific suggestions on how you and I should live our lives so you can make the most of it. Here are my three suggestions:

I     LIVE FOR THE RIGHT MASTER:

To have the most out of life, we must begin by asking the questions, why are we alive? What's the purpose of our existence? If you search the Bible for answers, Colossians 1:16 is one the verses where you have to start with:

Every one of us should begin with the most basic truth that we are all created by God and for God. Now, let's think about that for a moment. Clearly, you and I should never forget that it is God who is the source of our life, and he alone can lead us in experiencing a full life. Let me illustrate this: here in church, we have an Anklung instrument. This is made of bamboo and every Anklung has a note. You see, if you are not familiar with this, you can take one of them and think of it as useless. But then, the one who invented it knows that if one is use together with the other Anklungs, you can create a very beautiful music out of it. Only then, will you appreciate it.

Same is true with us, if we live our lives away from our Master, our Creator; we will never know the real meaning our lives. There are many people who have struggled with the idea that they need to have a Master in their life. We all want to be independent, doing the things we want and enjoying the things we like. But, we do this for our own personal disadvantage. We cannot move away from our design. We will never appreciate life away from it just like you will never appreciate an Anklung away from the other Anklungs.

God, being our Creator has given us His Words so He can guide us in our life. We must treat God's Word as our manual for living. The Bible says:

The problem is when we take God's Word for granted or when we literally ignore God because we would rather put ourselves ahead of our master. This would be a great tragedy especially if we have already known Jesus as our Savior. I hope you would all understand that once you received Jesus, then you stop living for yourself. You have to start living for Christ. If you don't do this, you will absolutely waste your life. This is the reason why Jesus had often given this challenge to the people who were around Him:

Take note, if you think there is a full life away from Jesus Christ, you are seriously mistaken. Jesus is explicit; you will only find the real, meaningful life in Jesus Christ. Live for Him and not for self and when you die there will surely be no regret. Paul defined his life in this way:

Remember, death can only be considered gain if you have lived for Christ.

II    LIVE WITH THE RIGHT MOTIVATION:

Let's go back to our main texts for the second suggestion. Both Moses and Paul agree that wisdom is necessary for anyone to make the most of our opportunities in life. Ephesian 5:17 qualifies for us what it means to be a wise man. Evidently, a wise man is a person who understands the will of God. Therefore, the right motive in life is to make sure we always live in God's will.

Why is it important that we live our lives according to God's will? Well, since our lives are really short, we don't want to be wasting our time in the things that don't matter. We should do our best to channel our time and energy on God's will. Do you want to know what God's will is? Here are some specific verses that talks about God's will:

A. Saved - To know Jesus as Savior

B. Spirit-Filled - To seek the Spirit's control in our daily life

C. Sanctified - To live in a pure and holy life

D. Submissive - To obey the authorities placed over us

E. Suffering for His Sake - To suffer because of your faithfulness in serving Christ

F. Saying Thanks - To maintain an attitude of gratitude

We can never go wrong in life if we commit ourselves to doing God's will. This is very much connected to the first point. If you know who your Master is, you should be committed in doing those things which will bring honor and glory to Him. No wonder the apostle Paul puts our utmost motivation in these words:

III   LIVE FOR THE RIGHT MOMENT

Last but not the least; we also need to emphasize the truth that we need to maximize our opportunities today and not assume that tomorrow is still available for us. This is your life, right here, right now.

How many of you are struggling at the present because you are still stuck in your past failures - failed relationships or failed ventures or failed pursuits? Perhaps, some of you are still nurturing some past hurts from people who have wronged you that all of these are keeping you to move forward. I really hope that you won't let your past interfere with your present pursuits. I am reminded with Paul's words about his past:

We need to follow Paul's example. Let's learn to forget the past. Somehow, with whatever happened in the past, the best thing to do is to learn from. Hopefully, our past have made us better people.

Then, there's also another error we need to avoid. There are people who love to say, "Someday, I will serve God or I will spend time with my kids." Unfortunately, that someday might not come. We all need to wake up and realize that this is life, not yesterday, and not tomorrow. Going back to our text in verse 16, we need to seize our opportunities today, not someday.

This truth could be perfectly illustrated by David. Remember, when he took the challenged to fight Goliath. He was just in the battlefield because he was sent by his dad to bring supplies for his brothers. There he heard Goliath blaspheming God and inciting the Israelites to a one on one fight. To make the long story short, though David was not a member of Israel's army, but because he cannot tolerate the blasphemies and intimidations of Goliath, he volunteered to fight him. He could easily made excuses not to fight. But he took the risk and seized his opportunity. Without any doubt, that event helped to bring him to the throne. Will you be willing to do the same? Take the risk and make your life count today.

Beloved, we have to be conscious of the fact that we don't have a lot of time left for us here on earth. Let's spend every day thinking it might be our last. Let's not waste the day, instead let's use it serving the right Master, giving Him our highest praise, and honor.