Sermon Cloud

Introductory Statement

A look at some tombstones from around the world shows what I mean:

Here lies the body of Samuel Crane...He ran a race with a passenger train...He got to the crossing and almost across...Sam and his car was a total loss...Sam's spirit now tolls his knell...That Sam is on his way to well...If he only took time to stop look and listen...He'd be living now instead of missing

Here lies an atheist...All dressed up,...And no place to go

Or this lady's from the Chapel Cemetery in Chapel Hill, NC:  I was Carolina Born...and Carolina bred...and here I lay...Carolina dead!

Or this one from Round Rock, TX:  I Told You I Was Sick

There's definitely a story behind this one: Here's to Johnny quite a guy...Very sad he had to die...All was well could not be better...Till he wrote my girl a letter.

Benjamin Franklin had his life in perspective: The Body of B. Franklin, Printer...Like the Cover of an old Book...Its Contents turn out...And Stript of its...Lettering & Guilding...Lies here.  Food for Worms...For, it will as he believed...appear once more...In a new and more elegant Edition...corrected and improved...By the Author

And finally, the author of The Raven, Edgar Allen Poe has just one word for his epitaph: "Nevermore"

Now, I know what you're thinking. Talking about tombstones and epitaphs is a great way to honor our mothers on Mother's Day. Bear with me, though. You'll see that our topic for today really is quite fitting for a special day like today.

You see, these epitaphs each have stories behind them. The lives lived by the people buried in the graves beneath those tombstones were each unique stories. What if you had the chance to see what people thought of the story of your life? What if you could step outside of your own life and know what others thought of you after you had died - without really having to die? What if you could see what people really wanted to put on your epitaph after you died?

That very thing happened to a man named Alfred in the 19^th century. Alfred was a pacifist by temperament but an adventurer by nature. In 1866 at the age of thirty-three, he patented the process of creating dynamite. He thought the invention would end all wars, thinking that knowledge of its explosive power would make people think twice before going into war. He was wrong. It wasn't too long before this explosive device that was intended to be used for peace wound up being used as a violent instrument of war, wiping out thousands of people.

When Alfred's brother, Ludwig, died in 1888, the local newspaper mistakenly published Alfred's obituary. In that obituary, he was referred to as "the merchant of death."

Few people have the opportunity to see first-hand how they will be remembered. Alfred did. And he wasn't happy with what he saw. Not wanting to be remembered as the merchant of death, he decided to do something about it. He changed the direction of his life. Eight years later when he died in 1896, friends and relatives were shocked to read the directions in his sealed will.

Alfred left approximately 94% of his worth to the establishment of five prices for "those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind." These prizes became known by Alfred's last name, and the Nobel Prizes have been awarded every year since 1901 to the leaders in the fields of physics, physiology or medicine, literature, chemistry, and peace.

Alfred's name is now forever associated with peace, not death. Reading his own epitaph involved only a small amount of Alfred's time - it was only for a short moment in the grander scheme of things -  but it has had great consequences.  The moments of your life might not seem particularly spectacular to you, but in God's perspective, every moment in tie counts. And it is a special gift on loan to us.

Each one of our lives is a story that is being written. The events, opportunities, mistakes, passions, relationships, failures - the whole combination of the things that makes the human experience is a story that is being written with your life. And each story in this room is different. And at the same time, God is writing a story. He's been writing His story since the before time began. God's desire is that His story will intersect with our own stories and that He will write His own story with our lives. And as He writes His story with our lives, the hope is that our stories will intersect with other people's stories and that God will be welcomed to re-write their stories, too.

All of creation is God's. Even our lives. He has given us our lives to us on loan. In other words, we're simply managers of the estate we've been given. While God entrusts us with His assets, we don't own them. And He wants us to use those assets in ways that write God's story here in God's creation.

When you view your life as not your own - as a life that is on loan from God - you see your experiences, your abilities, your successes and even your failures...everything as part of your story. And God sees everything about you as a gift that can be given to benefit others in His name and for His eternal purposes.

Since this life we have is on  loan from the Father, our presence here is only temporary. The letters to the early churches found in the New Testament constantly remind us of this fact. In Hebrews Ch 11, the author has described this huge example of past believers and how they followed God.  He closes his description of this "cloud of witnesses" by saying in verse 13, "All these people were still living by faith when they died.  They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance.  And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth."    The people discussed in this passage in Hebrews knew this world was not their home. 

In his letters to different churches, Paul uses this same language: in 2 Corinthians 5:20, he says that "we are therefore Christ's ambassadors."  We are representatives of our true home with Christ.  In Phil. 3:20, he puts it more clearly: "But our citizenship is in heaven."  The apostle Peter calls us "aliens and strangers in the world," (1 Peter 2:11).

The point is that this is a temporary home.  This body we have been given: pimples, asthma, cellulite, illness, aches & pains, broken bones & broken hearts - everything about us - will one day be gone.  And we will have a new life in eternity with the Father.  That is a day we should all look forward to! But looking forward to eternity isn't the only thing we need to be doing. Our life is loaned to us for a reason. And God wants us to use it in a way that gives Him glory here and now.

Several years ago, a man named Jim Elliot was called by God to preach the message of Christ to a violent South American tribe called the Auca people.  He kept a pretty detailed diary of his thoughts and prayers in the days leading up to their contact with the Aucas.  He knew that coming in contact with these people could very well cost him his life.  In one of his entries, he wrote these words, "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose." Jim Elliot knew that this world was not his home.  He could stare death in the face with boldness and confidence because his priority was his true home in eternity, not simply the day-to-day life of mortality.  He was murdered by the Auca people.  His wife, and the wives of the other missionaries who were killed continued to stay.  They dedicated their lives to reaching the Auca people.  How could someone do that?  How could a woman with children have the grace and the love to share Jesus with a people who murdered her husband?  It can only be because she had her eyes on the line...on eternity.

What do I mean by keeping her eyes on the line? Well, when we talk about things like ‘eternity' and ‘forever,' it's a pretty difficult concept to grasp.

Pin and line illustration

Our lives now determine our lives in eternity.  So, since this world is not our home, live for the line, not the dot.  Do you see how short-sighted it is to only be living for this life; to try to store up as much as you can right now?  Whatever you gather together for your life on earth, the dot, will eventually wind up in the junk heap.  Things done for treasures in eternity will last for eternity. Everything we do needs to be done with the hope of eternity firmly planted in our minds.  It should be the lens through which we view this world.  We are living for a better home, not just this one. And we want as many people as possible joining us. Not because we want to look around and pat ourselves on the back for what we've done, but because we'll bring glory to God as we call attention to Him, His work, and His story. That's living for the line, not the dot.

Moms understand this concept of living for the line, not the dot, don't they? When a child first enters your family, you have all of these hopes and dreams and plans for the little one. You want to raise a godly child. But you know that won't happen overnight. The baby can't do anything without your help and the years of praying, helping, and raising your child are all done with the line in mind. And you know that you won't see the results of your labor for a very long time. Your parenting isn't just effective in the present, but it also impacts the future. You're helping to shape a person that will most likely go on after you have already passed away. You could focus on the dot the whole time, but I've seen most parents keep some aspect of the line in their mind.

God wants you to make an investment.  He wants all of you - yes, including your money.  If we live for the line, though, we can make the sacrifices He wants from us because we know there will be rewards.  Yes, some of those rewards will be in heaven, but there will also be rewards here on earth by seeing God's Kingdom advanced through various ministry efforts.  Investing in God's Kingdom doesn't cost...it pays!  Don't get me wrong - it's not always easy.  Jesus never said it would be easy.  He didn't preach the health and wealth gospel that you hear on some TV stations.  You know the ones I'm talking about - those who say if you send in $10 a week God will bless you and make your bank account full of thousands of dollars.  The only people with full bank accounts are those who are receiving the money!  Don't be fooled into thinking that God will eliminate all of your hardships and make everything all easy from here till eternity.  The book of James says very clearly that times of testing and hardship are used to refine you and purify you - again, with the line in mind, rather than just the dot.

So what does it mean to live for the line? What does that look like? Well, it looks a lot like a story that Jesus told one time. If you have your Bibles with you, turn to the Gospel of Luke, beginning in 10:30. If you don't have your Bible with you, you're welcome to use the one in the pew in front of you. Luke 10:30 is found on page 902 in that Bible. As we come to this passage, we find that Jesus had sent out 72 of his disciples, casting out demons and proclaiming the name of Jesus Christ. They had just returned from their ministry efforts quite excited about what they had seen. The leaders of the Jewish people were concerned about what Jesus' ministry meant to their power. So they began to follow him. They didn't do it with the same intent as Jesus' disciples. They were following him so they could find an opportunity to trip him up and discredit him. One time, a teacher in the law stood up and asked Jesus, "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" Of course, he wasn't really interested in such an inheritance, but he wanted to trip up Jesus. Jesus asked the man, "What does the Law say?"

"Well, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind." And "Love your neighbor as yourself....but...who is my neighbor?"

And Jesus replied beginning in verse 30. Read Luke 10:30-37

Remember that a Samaritan was treated as an outcast in Jewish society. But it's this outcast who had the line as his focus. All of the other people - the priest, the Levite, anyone else who would have passed by - they all saw what was immediately ahead of them. Their focus was on the dot. And when your focus is on the dot, all of your emphasis is on yourself and no one else. The Samaritan, however, had the right perspective. And he did all he could - even giving a large amount of money - to help this complete stranger. He could have given a little bit of help and gone about his business, but he went to extremes to help him. And that's what a person who lives with the understanding that our lives are on loan does. There's no need to hoard up things because this world is not our home. We cannot let our calendars or our wristwatches dictate our lives because this world is not our home. And in the end, it will be worthless.

Do you know how much Confederate currency was worth after the US Civil War? It was hardly worth the paper it was printed on. What would you have done if you were a Northerner living in the South and all you had was Confederate dollars when the war was coming to an end? You knew the Rebels would eventually be defeated. You didn't know when, but you knew what the end result was destined to be. What would you do?  Do you take the Confederate money you've been using here in the South and hold on to it, hoping the Northern banks will accept it after the war is over?  Or do hold on to a portion of your Confederate money while cashing in the rest of your money for Union currency?  Immediately after the war, US dollars would go a long way when you've returned home.  We are foreigners, Yankees, if you will, in a hostile land.  We don't want to keep investing our resources into things of this doomed kingdom when we could be investing in the treasures of heaven.

We need to keep our focus on the line and use our time, efforts, and resources with that in mind. And as we keep the line in focus, we start to see things the way God sees them. We start to see our possessions and time as tools to share the love of Christ to the world around us. What would happen if instead of trying to get top-dollar for your trade-in the next time you buy a car, you donated it to a single mom to help her with her transportation needs? What if you went across the street and sat with your neighbor who can't get out very often, sacrificing your time and energy? What if you found some way to pour more resources - time, energy, money, and possessions - into impacting other people?

This week, I challenge you to really look into your heart - and also your checkbook and your calendar.  Those are usually pretty good indicators of where your emphasis is. Are you living for the line of eternity and pouring your resources into that?  Or are you chasing after the wind, living for the here and now.  Are your investments in things that will wind up in the junkyard, or are you investing in people and the Kingdom of God?

Remember, this world is not our home. We've been given this life on loan to participate in God's story. So live your life for the line!

Some of you might hear stories like the one about Jim Elliot, who gave up his life so others could hear about this guy named Jesus and think, "What's that all about?  Why would someone do that?"  I encourage you to investigate Jesus.  Look into His life.  Look into the lives that have been changed through His power.  You can read about him in the Bible, or find someone you know is a Christian and ask that person about Him.  I know there are a number of us here who would be excited to share what He has done in our lives.