Life: If It Only Came With Instructions

How to Handle the Rat Race of Life Part 1

Morning Worship Service - 1/29/06

 I. Review

(Illustration: Make sure to bring to the pulpit a calendar and the palm pilot)

è Folks, how many of you keep one of these or something like it in one form or another?

Ä These are by far a great tool for all of us in order to help us be somewhat organized in our lives. They come in all shapes and sizes, and in fact they even come computerized.

è Now while these little tools can be great for organizing our lives, how many of you at times just feel like throwing it in the garbage, along with all the responsibilities that are listed in it?

Ä Folks, I don’t know about you, but there are times where my schedule can get completely crazy. In fact, this week was just one of those weeks.

(Illustration: using powerpoint, put together a list of what happened during the week)

è How many of you have had weeks that look at crazy as this?

 

- Folks, the busyness of life is something that we all must deal with. And this morning, as begin to look at the life instructions of Christ, the Lord really burdened my heart to start with this issue of our busyness.

Ä You see, it’s the busyness of life that oftentimes leads us on a downward path where we will eventually find ourselves overcome and defeated by some issue in life.

(Illustration: Can I be transparent with you this morning and tell you that the busyness in my life this week was used by Satan in order to bring about defeat in a certain area of my life.)

Ä Satan loves to use the busyness of our lives as a weapon against us, and so I firmly believe that we need to some life instructions in order to help us pull back the reigns and slow our lives down a bit.

- So, if you would join me and turn with me over to Matthew chapter 6 in your Bibles - or our life’s instructional book.

 

II. The Instructional Manual

A. Christ Can Relate to Our Busyness

- Now remember based on the groundwork that we have laid over the last several weeks, we have determined that the focus for our search for life instructions in this instructional manual is going to be the instructions that Christ shares with us in the first four books of the New Testament.

Ä Now the reasons that we determined to narrow our focus to these particular instructions had to do with

ü an instruction that God himself gave us over in Matthew 17

ü It also had to do with the fact that Christ was deity, which meant that we could have complete confidence that his instructions would always be truth and therefore completely reliable, dependable, and unable to lead us away from truth.

 

ü Finally, we took the time to look at the fact that we should concentrate on Christ’s instructions because he can relate to everything that we go through, and give us the advice as to how to get through it correctly.

Ä And folks, when it comes to having a busy and hectic schedule, guess what? Christ can relate and understand our dilemma.

ü During his time, Christ was one of the most sought after men alive.

ü People were constantly in demand of his time, energy, and  wisdom.

ü Christ was really the most desired speaker of the day, and therefore his schedule was consistently booked with speaking engagements every day that would last for hours at a time.

- So folks, Christ understood what it was like to be busy, and that is why in Matthew chapter 6, He gives us a little bit of instruction in order to know how we can slow our lives down a bit.

 

B. Christ’s Instructions

- Now this morning, I want us to do something a little bit different. You see I want to make sure that we don’t miss Christ’s instructions to us in the verses that I would like for us to consider together. So to help insure that we don’t miss it, I have put the passage that I would like for us to consider up on the screen behind me, and I am going to ask you to help me read this passage.

Ä You’ll notice that on the screen you will see words that are in yellow and words that are in white.

Ä In just a minute we are going to start reading I would life for you guys to read the words in yellow, and I will read the words in white.

è Do you think that we can handle this?

(READ Matthew 6:19-23)

- Folks, I’m not sure if you realized it or not, but the words you just read are the instructions that Christ would have us to know and understand in order to help us deal with the busyness of life.

- And according to his instructions, if you want to slow your life down so that you are not overwhelmed and defeated by the busyness of life, than IT REQUIRES US TO HAVE A SINGLE AND CORRECT PURPOSE OR VISION FOR LIFE.

 

- So this morning, as we consider these verses a little more closely with the time that we have remaining, we are going to see Christ share with us

ü the two possible purposes or visions that we can have for life

ü which of the two possibilities he would have us to adopt for our lives

ü why having this one correct purpose can help us deal with life’s busyness.

 

1.) Life Purpose Possibility #1

(READ Matthew 6:19)

a.) Possibility #1 Defined

- Folks, the first possibility that Christ mentions here is the purpose which most of the world has for life: and that is LIVE YOUR LIFE IN ORDER TO STORE UP TREASURES ON THIS EARTH.

- And it is as a result of this purpose for life - which the majority of this world has, and the fact that we live in one of the wealthiest countries in the world, that has led to us living in one of the busiest countries as well.

Ä People schedule their day timers and palm pilots with the purpose of storing up more and more treasures on this earth.

Ä And since skies the limit when it comes to treasures of the earth in America, there are a lot of extremely busy people trying to fulfill this purpose.

 

b.) Possibility #1 Explained

- Now folks, over the next few minutes you may consider what I am about to do to be more meddling than actual preaching, but I’d like for us to consider some real life examples of what the treasures of this earth may be that we can schedule or lives around in order to obtain.

- You see, I think when we see the word “treasures” here we automatically picture a couple of different things in our minds - mainly dealing with material things and money. But I believe that storing up treasures on this earth can really look like a lot of different things in our lives.

Ä And my basis for saying that comes from another passage that I would have us turn to. It’s not necessarily instructions of Christ’s, but instead they are comments that explain his instructions more.

(READ II Timothy 3:1-5) 

- Folks, found within these verses are three separate phrases, each of which describes a way in which you and I can fill up our calendars in order to try and obtain certain treasures.

? “Lovers of Themselves”

- Folks, because of the fact that you and I can naturally be a lover of ourselves - or basically proud and selfish, it means that we can fill our schedules with activities in order to try and store up treasures for ourselves on this earth.

ü our job                                    ü our family

- Those are just a couple of ways that I thought of that, because I can be a lover of myself, I seek to store up treasures for myself.

è How do you store up treasures for yourself?

� “Lovers of Money”

- Folks, because of the fact that you and I can naturally be a lover of money - or material things, it means that we can fill our schedules with activities in order to try and store up treasures of things on this earth.

ü money                                  ü homes

- Those are just a couple of ways that I thought of that, because I can be a lover of money, I seek to store up treasures of things on this earth.

è How do you store up treasures of things on this earth?

? “Lover of Pleasure”

- Folks, because of the fact that you and I can naturally be a lover of the pleasures of this world, it means that we can fill our schedules with activities in order to try and store up as many pleasures as possible on this earth.

ü vacation                   ü toys                          ü retirement

- Those are just a few of ways that I thought of that, because I can be a lover of pleasure, I seek to store up treasures of pleasure in my life.

è How do you store up treasures for yourself?

 

c.) Possibility #1 Rejected

- You see folks, in life you and I can live our lives by one of two purposes according to Jesus. One of them being that WE LIVE OUR LIVES IN ORDER TO STORE UP TREASURES ON THIS EARTH.

Ä Which means that we fill our calendars and palm pilots in order that we might get more and more in these different areas of life.

Ä And since we live in one of the most treasured countries on this planet, this purpose for life will not help us in any way to slow our lives down at all, but instead it leads to many adding to the fact that we find some of the busiest people on the planet right here in America trying to store up as many treasures on this earth as possible.

- That is why, when it comes to this option or purpose, we find Christ’s clear instruction as the beginning of verse 19.

(READ Matthew 6:19a)

- Folks, Christ’s first part of his instruction here is quite plain and clear. His give us a very obvious prohibition to making this a purpose for our lives.

Ä Christ understands that a person who lives their life with this purpose will never be content, because no matter how much you have, there is still more treasures to be had. Therefore your life just gets busier and busier to try and maintain the treasures you do have, as well as obtain even more.

Ä However, Christ takes the time to give another reason why we shouldn’t make this our life purpose. (READ Matthew 6:19)

è Folks, the fact of the matter is that we can all lose our jobs, there is always going to someone better than our kids, our money can get stolen, our homes can be destroyed, our vacations can be ruined by bad weather, our toys can grow old and break down, and our retirement can be completely lost.

è The treasures of this earth can be so very temporary, and if that is the purpose for our lives, than obviously we are going to have a hard time finding happiness, and we will spend more of the time we don’t have to replace the stuff that we already spent our time at obtaining in the first place.

- Now folks, in all of my meddling this morning, please don’t misunderstand me as saying that it is wrong to have a good job, to own a nice home, to provide for your families, to take vacations, to enjoy life, and to plan for the future.

Ä Scripture makes it very clear that we have responsibilities and that we are to work, and at times work very hard, in order to meet the responsibilities of this life.

- However, if the purpose of your life is to do all that you can in order to store up treasures in as many of these areas as possible, with the idea of stockpiling them in order to show your great wealth, than according to Christ’s instructions, you have the wrong purpose for your life, and it needs to be changed.

- Now if you are sitting here this morning and you are wondering whether or not storing up treasures for yourself on earth is the  purpose for your life, let me encourage you to do a little activity when you get home today.

Ä I would encourage you to take out your day timers, palm pilots, or calendars, and just flip through the last couple of months as well as the next couple of months, and take note of the activities that you have scheduled.

Ä And as you look at those activities, determine how many of them are activities where the sole purpose is to store up treasures for yourself on this earth.

Ä And as you look at those activities, and if you determine that the majority of your activities are scheduled with this purpose or storing up for yourself treasures on earth, than according to your schedule, that’s your purpose

- And Christ tells us that it needs to stop.

 

2.) Life Purpose Possibility #2

- Now one of the things that I enjoy most about the teachings of Christ is the fact that so many times in His instructions to us, He will instruct to not do one thing, but when He does that, He also instructs us to replace that negative activity with something positive.

- And here in Matthew, Christ instructs us concerning one particular life purpose that He does not want us living our lives by; but then He goes on to give us another life purpose that He would like to see take the place of the other one.

(READ Matthew 6:19-20)

a.) Possibility #2 Defined

- Folks, in response to the first purpose possibility that a person can choose to live their lives by, Christ gives us another first possibility that He whole heartedly endorses and instructs us to live our lives by. And that is LIVE YOUR LIFE IN ORDER TO STORE UP TREASURES IN HEAVEN.

 

a.) Possibility #2 Explained

- Now as with the first life purpose possibility, this life purpose needs some further explanation in order for us to truly understand what are the treasures in heaven that Christ is talking about that we should be pursuing.