I taught the boy teens this past Wednesday, this is the text from my lesson, a lot of which was built around the Lecrae song "Don't Waste Your Life"
I know a lot of people out there are scared they’re going to die, some of them think they'll be living in the sky, while I’m here living, I have to ask what am I here for?
waste my life? No I have to make it count. Christ is real so what am I going to do about everything in these verses.
Lets turn here. Luke 12:15-21
15And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.
16And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully:
17And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits?
18And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods.
19And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.
20But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?
21So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God
Let’s pretend that someone said they had decided to deposit 86,400 pennies into your account each morning, starting the following Monday morning. That’s $864 a day, seven days a week, fifty-two weeks a year But with one stipulation; you must spend all that money that same day. No balance will be carried over to the next day. Each evening the bank must cancel whatever sum you fail to use.
You’d probably spend the weekend planning what you would do with the money. If you were to start figuring; $864 times seven equals over $6,000 a week times fifty-two. That’s almost $315,000 a year that you have available to you if you’re diligent to spend it all each day. Remember, whatever you don’t spend is forfeited.
Enough pretending now Let’s Get Serious Every morning Someone who loves you very much deposits into your bank of time 86,400 seconds of time—which represent 1,440 minutes—which, of course, equal twenty-four hours each day.
Now you’ve got to remember the same stipulation applies, because God gives you this amount of time for you to use each day. Nothing is ever carried over on credit to the next day. There is no such thing as a twenty-six hour day . From today’s dawn until tomorrow’s dawn, you have a precisely determined amount of time. As someone has put it, “Life is like a coin. You can spend it any way you want to, but you can spend it only once.”
Paul said if Christ isn’t resurrected then we wasted our lives, that implies that our life is built around Jesus being alive.
For that reason, everyday we should live to show the world why Christ is more than everything you'll ever try.
Better than pretty women and sinning and living to get a minute of any women that you admire.
We are created for Him, out of the dust he made us for Him, elects us and he saves us for Him, He made us so we could bless Him and to the world confess his resurrection .
I know I’ve got life, matter of fact better man I know I got Christ
but how often do we take the time to share that with others who may not have Christ, do we feel that tug when we meet someone that they might not have salvation, or do we just fly through the meeting without thinking about their eternal life.
A young and successful executive was traveling down a neighborhood street, going a bit too fast in his new Jaguar. He was watching for kids darting out from between parked cars and slowed down when he thought he saw something. As his car passed, no children appeared. Instead, a brick smashed into the Jag's side door! He slammed on the brakes and backed the Jag back to the spot where the brick had been thrown. The angry driver then jumped out of the car, grabbed the nearest kid and pushed him up against a parked car shouting, “What was that all about and who are you? Just what are you doing? That's a new car and that brick you threw is going to cost a lot of money. Why did you do it?”
The young boy was apologetic. “Please, mister, please, I'm sorry but I didn't know what else to do,” he pleaded. “I threw the brick because no one else would stop” With tears dripping down his face and off his chin, the youth pointed to a spot just around a parked car. “It's my brother,” he said. “He rolled off the curb and fell out of his wheelchair and I can't lift him up.” Now sobbing, the boy asked the stunned executive, “Would you please help me get him back into his wheelchair? He's hurt and he's too heavy for me.”
Ashamed, he hurriedly lifted the handicapped boy back into the wheelchair, then took out a linen handkerchief and dabbed at the fresh scrapes and cuts. A quick look told him everything was going to be okay. “Thank you and may God bless you,” the grateful child told the stranger. Too shook up for words, the man simply watched the boy push his wheelchair-bound brother down the sidewalk toward their home. It was a long, slow walk back to the Jaguar. The damage was very noticeable, but the driver never bothered to repair the dented side door. He kept the dent there to remind him of this message:
Don't go through life so fast that someone has to throw a brick at you to get your attention! God whispers in our souls and speaks to our hearts. Sometimes when we don't have time to listen, He has to throw a brick at us. It's our choice to listen or not.
Remember, Christ hung on the cross, He died for the young and the old
and Heaven knows how many souls are going to hell or to heaven and we have to go and get them
The devil can't handle us if we stand together
Livin' n driven given a vision fullfillin the commission he handed us
What commission?
Mar 16:15 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.
That’s the commission, to spread the gospel to all people.
Jim Elliot was a martyred missionary in 1956. He was a passionate Christian who journaled many of his thoughts and prayers. One such entry addressed his concern about impact. He wrote, “Father, make of me a crisis man. Bring those I contact to decision. Let me not be a milepost on a single road; make me a fork, that men must turn one way or another on facing Christ in me.” His impact continues on even though he died over fifty years ago at the age of twenty-nine.
It also illustrates that life isn’t easy just because you are serving God, or that you will have a long life.
But God is there to help us with our burdens.
Matt: 11:28-30 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
29Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
30For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
John Newton said “I compare the troubles which we have to undergo in the course of the year to a great bundle of sticks, far too large for us to lift. But God does not require us to carry the whole at once. He mercifully unties the bundle, and gives us first one stick, which we are to carry today,and then another, which we are to carry tomorrow, and so on. This we might easily manage, if we would only take the burden appointed for us each day; but we choose to increase our troubles by carrying yesterday's stick over again today, and adding tomorrow's burden to our load, before we are required to bear it.”
William Carey an English Baptist missionary and a Reformed Baptist minister, known as the "father of modern missions." Carey was one of the founders of the Baptist Missionary Society. As a missionary in the Danish colony, Serampore, India, he translated the Bible into Bengali, Sanskrit, and numerous other languages and dialects. After he was well established in his pioneer missionary work in India, his supporters in England sent a printer to assist him. Soon he was turning out portions of the Bible for distribution. Carey had spent many years learning the language so that he could produce the scriptures in the local dialect. He had also prepared dictionaries and grammars for the use of his successors.
One day while Carey was away, a fire broke out and completely destroyed the building, the presses, many Bibles, and the precious manuscripts, dictionaries, and grammars. When he returned and was told of the tragic loss, he showed no sign of despair or impatience. Instead, he knelt and thanked God that he still had the strength to do the work over again. He started immediately, not wasting a moment in self-pity. Before his death, he had duplicated and even improved on his earlier achievements.
Suffer Yeah do it for Christ if you trying to figure what to do with your life
if you make a lot of money hope you doing it right
because the money is Gods you better steward it right
stay focused if you aint got no ride
your life aint wrapped up in what you drive
the clothes you wear the job you work
the color your skin naw we Christian first
people get to living for a job make a lil money start living for a car
get em a house a wife kids and a dog when they retire they living high on the hog
but guess what they didn't ever really live at all to live is Christ that's Paul I recall
to die is gain so for Christ we give it all he's the treasure you'll never find in the mall
Your money your singleness marriage talent and time
they were loaned to you to show the world that Christ is Divine
That's why it's Christ all the time
my whole world is built around him
I refuse to waste my life he's too true to chase the temptations of the world.
here’s my gifts and time cause I'm constantly trying to be used to praise the Christ
He's truly raised to life then this news should change your life
and by his grace you can put your faith in place that rules your days and nights
The story is told about a group called themselves fishermen. There were many fish in the water all around this group. In fact, the whole area was surrounded by streams and lakes filled with fish. And the fish were hungry.
Week after week, month after month, and year after year, these who called themselves fishermen met in meetings and talked about their call to fish, the abundance of fish, and how they might go about fishing. Year after year they carefully defined what fishing means, defended fishing as an occupation, and declared that fishing is always to be a primary task of fishermen.
Continually, they searched for new and better methods of fishing and for new and better definitions of fishing. Further they said, “The fishing industry exists by fishing as fire exists by burning.” They loved slogans such as “Fishing Is the Task of Every Fisherman.” They sponsored special meetings called “Fishermen’s Campaigns” and “The Month for Fishermen to Fish.” They sponsored costly nationwide and world-wide congresses to discuss fishing and to promote fishing and hear about all the ways of fishing such as the new fishing equipment, fish calls, and whether any new bait had been discovered.
These fishermen built large, beautiful buildings called “Fishing Headquarters.” The plea was that everyone should be a fisherman and every fisherman should fish. There was one thing they didn’t do, however—they didn’t fish.
In addition to meeting regularly, they organized a board to send out fishermen to other places where there were many fish. The board hired staff and appointed committees and held many meetings to define fishing, to defend fishing, and to decide what new streams should be thought about. But the staff and committee members did not fish.
Large, elaborate, and expensive training centers were built to teach fishermen how to fish. Over the years courses were offered on the needs of fish, the nature of fish, where to find fish, the psychological reactions of fish, and how to approach and feed fish. Those who taught had doctorates in fishology, but the teachers did not fish. They only taught fishing. Year after year, after tedious training, many were graduated and were given fishing licenses. They were sent to do full-time fishing, some to distant waters which were filled with fish.
Many who felt the call to be fishermen responded. They were commissioned and sent to fish. But like the fishermen back home, they never fished. Like the fishermen back home, they engaged in all kinds of other occupations. They built power plants to pump water for fish and tractors to plow new waterways. They made all kinds of equipment to travel here and there to look at fish hatcheries. Some also said that they wanted to be part of the fishing party, but they felt called to furnish fishing equipment. Others felt their job was to relate to the fish in a good way so the fish would know the difference between good and bad fishermen. Others felt that simply letting the fish know they were nice, land-loving neighbors and how loving and kind they were was enough.
After one stirring meeting on the necessity of fishing, one young fellow left the meeting and went fishing. The next day he reported that he had caught two outstanding fish. He was honored for his excellent catch and scheduled to visit all the big meetings possible to tell how he did it. So he quit fishing in order to have time to tell the other fishermen about his experience. He was also placed on the Fishermen’s General Board as a person having considerable experience.
Now it’s true that many of the fishermen sacrificed and put up with all kinds of difficulties. Some lived near the water and bore the smell of dead fish every day. They received the ridicule of some who made fun of their fishermen’s clubs and the fact that they claimed to be fishermen yet never fished. They wondered about those who felt it was of little use to attend the weekly meetings to talk about fishing. Imagine how hurt some were when one day a person suggested that those who don’t go fishing are not really fishermen, no matter how much they claimed to be. Yet it did sound correct. Is a person a fisherman if, year after year, he never goes fishing?
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