Live For What Lasts

Welcome to the Awakening Church podcast.

We pray this message encourages you and provides the hope and light of Jesus Christ.

Thanks for tuning in.

Well, good morning, awakening.

Great to be with you.

Uh welcome.

If you're new, my name's Ryan.

We're absolutely thrilled to have you join us today.

Hey, something that Marnie uh didn't say was that her new job is a new position.

She's a teacher.

Can we just uh yeah, and we have a lots of a number of teachers and professors here, and we just want to take a moment to honor you and pray over you.

If you are a teacher, a professor, would you go ahead and stand up for me?

Would you do that?

Just go ahead and stand.

Yes, amazing, amazing.

Thank you.

I like this service.

You guys are a little raucous too.

I like that.

Let me pray over you.

Jesus, thank you so much for these men and women who are giving their lives to shape the next generation.

As they step into a new year, may you encourage them.

Would you strengthen them?

Would you give them vision for how you want to use them on whatever campus you've placed them and the students in their classroom to be your salt and your light, your hope and grace.

And so fill them afresh, Holy Spirit, as they start a new year.

We thank you for them and bless them.

In Jesus' name, and all God's people said.

Amen.

I remember being, I should probably turn to you when I talk.

Okay.

I remember being in college, and Dr.

Howard Hendricks, affectionately known as Prof, was speaking to a large group of young, passionate, idealistic Bible students.

Prof was a legend already, living legend of the faith, has since gone to be with the Lord.

And in this moment, I'll never forget what he said.

He said this my greatest fear for you is not that you would fail, but that you would succeed in doing the wrong thing.

My greatest fear, my biggest concern for you is not that you would fail, but that actually you would succeed in doing the wrong thing.

What if you succeed at something that ultimately doesn't matter?

Like, how do you really live for something that lasts?

That matters for all of eternity?

Today we're kicking off a brand new series called Eternal, Living in Light of Eternity.

Like, how do we spend our days, the moments that we have, and leverage them for something that's gonna have eternal weight and significance.

The sermon title today is called Live for What Last.

Would you say that with me?

Live for What Last.

Perfect.

You were raucous earlier.

Let's try that again.

Live for what last.

Yes.

Jesus is interrupted by a family dispute.

We pick it up in Luke chapter 12.

Luke 12 · chapter mention

If you've got your Bibles or phones, you can open there.

It's in your notes.

Uh, it'll be on the screen behind me as well.

Luke 12, verse 13.

Luke 12:13

Someone in the crowd said to him, Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.

Jesus replied, Ma'am, I don't know if he said it quite that way.

That's how I interpret it.

Man who appointed me judge or arbiter between you.

Then he said to them, Watch out.

Be on your guard against all kinds of greed.

Why?

Because life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.

You know, I've been a pastor for two decades, and this isn't an ancient thing, this is a reality thing.

I've watched this story play out.

Inheritance, uh dividing families, tearing apart.

People wanting to get what's theirs, only to lose their family in the process.

And Jesus says something to us that we all know, but we tend to forget, don't we?

Here's what he's essentially saying: there's more to life than having more in life.

Right?

We know this.

We all fundamentally get this.

There's far more to life than having more, there's more than that promotion.

There's more than the bigger house.

There's more to life than, you know, being able to retire early or to be able to go on those trips.

Those things are fun, but there's so much more to life than having more to life.

In fact, the lie back then is the lie today.

It's simply this: having more is the key to life, happiness, and security.

We think if I could just get a little bit more, a little bit more success, a little bit more money, a little bit more, and you fill in the blank, then I'll then I'll have it.

Then I'll have made it.

Then I'll have life, like I'll be safe and secure and happy.

And here's what he's like exposing here.

It's what we call a functional belief because it's how we functionally behave, like your belief.

It's not what we say we believe, because I don't know if you would say this.

Maybe you would say this, but I think many of you would go, like, no, having more is not the key to life and happiness and security, but how I live actually shows that maybe it is what I believe.

Like how we spend our time and our energy and our money.

It reveals what we truly believe, not just what we say we believe.

Now, here's what's interesting.

Here's what I find fascinating about more.

It's what I call the paradox of our times, or the paradox of more.

You see, we live in a world where we're more connected than ever, yet more lonely.

We're more efficient.

My goodness, this is an efficient bunch too, Silicon Valley.

Yet more exhausted.

We have more experiences, can travel and do more, yet less purpose.

More stuff, more things accumulated, and yet less contentment.

Jesus says this watch out.

Be on your guard.

Life does not consist in the abundance of your possession.

There is more to life than having more in life.

And then he goes on to tell this story.

He tells them this parable.

I have no place to store my crops.

Then he said, This is what I'll do.

I'll tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I'll store my surplus grain.

I'll say to myself, You have plenty of grain laid up for many years.

Take life easy.

Eat, drink, and be merry.

But God said to him, You fool, this very night your life will be demanded from you, then who will get what you've prepared for yourself?

This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves, but is not rich towards God.

Jesus' story, the rich in my Bible, is called the rich fool.

It's the picture of the Silicon Valley success story, isn't it?

It's the guy or gal that gets in on the tech startup early before it goes, you know, IPO, and they make it.

They have some great investments, and and they they're able to retire at 40.

They're financially free.

They're able to go wherever they want to go, whenever they want to go.

They're able to buy whatever they want to buy.

They can buy a boat just for fun on a whim.

By every measurement, this is the modern success story, and yet God calls him a fool.

Huh.

Why does God call him a fool?

Let me give you a couple reasons.

God calls him a fool because the rich fool never saw beyond himself.

No other parable of Jesus has more personal pronouns.

Did you notice it?

I had it highlighted on the text.

What shall I do?

This is what I'll do, I will tear down, I will store, I'll say to myself.

Because he believed that life is fundamentally all about me.

It's all about me, it's all for me, and it all comes to serve me.

His philosophy in life was take life easy, eat, drink, and be merry.

The purpose of my life is my personal comfort, ease, and happiness.

It's interesting what the Bible calls a fool, and like how the Bible describes a fool.

God calls this man you fool.

And Psalm 14, 1 says, the fool says in his heart, there is no God.

A fool is literally just simply one who lives as if there is no God.

A fool is one who lives as if they are the center of the universe, and everything revolves around them rather than recognizing they are created by a creator, and everything revolves around the one who created them.

The rich fool lived as if there is no God.

Now here's what's fascinating: he probably believed in God.

Probably believed in a God, probably maybe even believed in the Jewish God, probably had all sorts of right beliefs, but the way he lived was all about him.

It's the temptation today, isn't it?

I believe in God, but I decide what's right for me.

I trust God, but only as far as he supports the life I have chosen.

Theologians describe sin historically as the human heart curved in on itself.

Everything bends back towards me, what I want, what I feel, what makes me happy, what serves me.

And here's what you know, because you've seen this.

It's really hard to see in the mirror, but you've seen it in others.

That the shallowest kind of life is a life turned in on itself.

Never saw beyond himself, but there was another problem why God called him a fool.

The rich fool never saw beyond this world.

The rich fool had made it, hit the jackpot, was the picture of success.

He was probably on the cover of Fortune magazine.

People were going to him for financial advice, uh strategic planning.

Maybe he even wrote the best-selling book, You Wish You Were Me.

Notice what he says.

He says, I'll say to myself, you have plenty of grain laid up for what?

Many years.

He had a five-year, he had a 10-year, he had a 30-year plan.

The belief of the rich fool was now is all that matters.

First lie, life is all about me.

Second one, now, this moment, now is all that matters.

I've made it, and so now the purpose is travel, leisure, ease, the good life.

And then something interrupts his plan.

But God said to him, You fool, this very night your life will be demanded of you.

He planned for many years, and yet he wasn't promised one more night.

He was financially prepared for retirement, but spiritually unprepared for eternity.

When I was young, girl, um, I was hoping you'd laugh, but that's uh didn't work out.

At least in my teens and my twenties.

I used to think, at the very least, act like I was invincible.

You don't think about the consequences.

You do things, you feel like, oh, nothing's gonna hurt you.

You just go, and and and boys especially do a lot of dumb stuff.

Now I I recognize and see.

I've seen firsthand all too often that life's fragile.

I'm in far less control than I really would like to think.

Life's not just fragile, it's actually fleeting, isn't it?

It used to feel like, oh, I have all the time in the world, and the older I get, it feels like just time goes by faster and faster.

But it also has given me a perspective.

It's not just fragile or fleeting, but life is actually a gift.

Like this day is a gift.

I wasn't promised one more day.

I wasn't promised that I would wake up to a new morning and a new day.

I wasn't promised the very next breath.

I wasn't promised that we'd get to be together.

Like this moment, this space, this new day is simply a gift.

And I don't know if I get the next breath, the next moment, the next day, the next week, or the next year.

See, what Jesus is trying to help us understand in living in light of eternity is that there's more to life than having more in life.

Why?

Because there's more to life than just here and now.

We spend so much time focused on just now.

Now is all that matters.

In fact, I had a buddy in our church send me this illustration.

I thought it was so helpful.

I want you to imagine that this rope is a timeline of your life.

And it's a long rope.

It's a really long rope.

It's about a hundred feet long, actually.

In fact, uh, you know.

Play, can you help me out?

There you go.

Oh, oh, did I hurt you?

Okay.

Just stretch that thing out.

Let's get this.

I mean, it goes long.

Go out the door.

Just go.

No, I'm just kidding.

You don't need to go out the door.

But this rope is a timeline of your existence.

And I want you to imagine that this rope not only just stretches to the doorway and out the door, but it goes around the world and it just keeps on going.

It doesn't stop.

It goes for eternity.

The screen part represents your time on earth.

Your days that you have on earth.

And this represents the rest of it.

The crazy part is that some of us are so focused on this green part.

We're so focused on what will I do?

How much will I make?

What can I experience?

That we just neglect all of this.

That you like you were created, and you are an eternal.

Made for eternity.

And we'll spend, and this is what the rich fool did.

We'll spend so much time and energy just focusing on making this last third awesome.

Like, how do I save up to make that comfort easy life?

You know, like I want to retire at 40, retire at 50, retire at 60.

How do I get squeeze out that last little bit and have no thought, no regard of oh my goodness?

You know what Jesus said?

He said it this way.

What good is it for someone to gain the whole world to forfeit their soul?

Like what wisdom says, and the Bible's really clear, what we do in this life matters for eternity.

What wisdom says is how do I leverage this one life?

I get one life.

How do I leverage this one life and so that it impacts and shapes and matters?

For eternity.

Jesus said to be rich towards God.

Another way to say it is to live for what lasts.

How do you live for what last?

To be rich towards God is to live for God, for others, for eternity.

To live for God, to recognize that I am not the center of the universe God is.

I was created by God, and so I actually live for Him.

My life is revolved around Him and His ways.

Like my true home is in the presence of God.

I'm gonna begin to live for you because nothing else matters, and everything else falls short.

The only place meaning and purpose and life is found in Jesus alone.

Live for God.

Live for others.

Like what I have, my time, my resources, my relationships, my finances.

Like how do I steward those?

How do I leverage those?

How do I view them instead of how do I get mine?

How do I leverage them for the sake of others?

That God has placed me here to be a blessing to others, where I just get to be a conduit of his grace that he's poured out into my life, and I just begin to dish it out to those around us.

And I live with this perspective.

Life is a gift, this moment is a gift.

Not guaranteed that next.

And so, how do I live and keep this eternal perspective?

Because we're going to spend millions and millions and millions and millions and millions and millions of years.

No wonder he was the rich fool.

This is why this is so important.

You know this.

Misplaced priorities lead to misspent lives.

When we get focused on just me and just now, it leads to a misspent life that has eternal consequences.

Will you steward right now, today, the next moments that God gives you?

Will you steward what God has entrusted you for what will last for all eternity?

My greatest concern for you in life is not that you'll fail, but that you'll succeed in doing the wrong thing.

I told the first service I wasn't planning on sharing this story, but I did, and so I'll share it with you too.

If you've been around, you've probably heard it.

But I think there's two applications to this sermon, and for some, you're in the place where you're you're like you're going like, okay, you know what, Ryan?

I am.

Like, I'm ready.

God, use my life.

Take my one life for your sake.

God, would you use me?

Would you let me be help others come to know you?

And you're like, I'm ready, Ryan.

Put me in, coach.

Ready, Jesus.

In Psalm 90, Moses ends his psalm this way, and it's we're gonna preach this entire psalm in the fall.

He says, May the favor of the Lord our God rest upon us.

May his favor rest on you.

That's my prayer over you.

And he says, Establish the work of our hands, O God.

Yes, establish the work of our hands.

That word establish, it means two things.

One to prepare.

God, would you prepare my hands this day for the work that you have for me?

May they be a part of things that really matter.

May they serve others well.

May I view all that I have as just simply entrusted by you.

That my life is just an offering back to you.

I thank you for saving me and loving me and forgiving me and helping others come to know you.

Establish the work of my hands.

It also means that word establish means to repair.

Or put right.

Because I think there's some of us that we live and we're going, like, Ryan, what's been done to me or the things that I've done, and I'm I'm like right here in my journey, and I I feel like I've wasted this part of my life.

I feel like there's I I don't think God would ever want me, God could ever use me.

I it I I think it's not it's too late for me.

Um years ago, my wife and I were at a wedding in Carmel, and um it was kind of one of our first times there, and uh it was a Friday morning, and I needed to study.

I was writing a sermon for Sunday, and so I got up early as I often do and go to a coffee shop.

I didn't know the area, so I go look up on you know, Yelp or whatnot, go to this one coffee shop.

I'm like, it's I'm a coffee snob too, by the way.

Um, but it was it was just a walk-in.

You there was no seating.

I'm like, I can't spend two, three, four hours there, you know.

So I need to find another coffee shop.

I walk down the street, I go to another coffee shop, and the vibe wasn't right that matters to me.

Like it wasn't the vibe.

I apologize.

It was kind of grandma-y-ish, and so doilies everywhere, which is cool, but it's just not my thing.

Um, and so I was like, I don't think I can like be there.

And then I go to a nut third coffee shop and it still wasn't right.

I don't know how Carmel has four coffee shops, this little strip, right?

Um bunch of bakeries, too.

Uh and so I end up at the end, and I felt like Goldilocks.

This was it.

This this shop was great.

This coffee shop was amazing.

You know it's amazing because it's packed.

It was packed out.

And so I go in there, I'm like, oh no.

But then in the middle of the shop is what you know, many coffee shops have.

They have the communal table, it's the big table with like eight chairs around it.

I'm like, it's open.

I'm like, yes.

So I go down, I sit to take my spot, I spread out my stuff, I have my computer, my Bible, which some people are like, oh, I'm not gonna sit there.

Um but I wanted to make sure, you know, now that I'm at my table, I didn't want other people to feel like they couldn't use it.

I was like, because it's packed, and so I'm kind of aware of people walking in, and well, and walked in this couple that I thought, at least I thought was a couple, and they're looking for a place to see, sit, they couldn't find it, and so um they're about to leave, and I said, Hey, you guys could sit at my table, because it's mine, I guess.

Uh, and they kind of look at each other, discuss it, and they're like, okay.

Uh, and so they sit down, and I quickly um realize uh this, they're not a couple, he's um her CPA and or no, financial advisor, sorry, and he's doing a bad job.

This is his firing.

I'm like, oh yeah, headphones in.

He gets up to go get some coffee, and she looks at me and she says, Oh, I see your Bible.

Are you a Christian?

I said, Yes, I am.

Uh and I'm a pastor, actually.

And so we we talk just a little bit.

She's like, Me too.

And then he comes back, they finished their whole conversation.

I just felt the Spirit of God like telling me, like, hey, you should probably um you need to talk to her.

And I'm arguing.

I'm like, I don't want to, I'm like studying, I'm writing a sermon for you, Lord.

Let me just be in peace.

Isn't that enough?

I don't want to talk.

Uh I'm like, I take off my headphones, I'm like, fine.

I'm like, hey, how's it going?

And she's like, actually, it's you know, been kind of rough.

I was like, oh, okay.

And then she quickly turns the conversation.

She's like, when uh, oh, I forgot this part because she asked me, she's uh she's like, are you from around here?

And I was like, well, no, I live in San Jose, but I grew up in Santa Cruz.

And she said, Okay, when you lived in Santa Cruz, did you ever go to Chip Ingram's church?

I said, Well, yeah, as a matter of fact, I did.

Um, I'm his son.

And she, I mean, it was as if, you know, a movie star like was sitting across.

She was like, oh my gosh, I can't believe I'm sitting at Chip Ingram's son's table.

And I'm like, yes, this is my table.

Um, you know, and and she's I mean, like, she was so excited.

And then the flood words came.

And she just began to spill her life to me.

That she just went through a really hard, nasty divorce.

Husband cheated and was hooked on porn, and she thought through the whole process she was gonna be able to, you know, um save the house that she raised her kids in, but she is having to sell that now to, and she was so devastated, she stared.

I mean, this is in the middle of a busy coffee shop, tears flooding down her process of feeling so lonely and defeated, and like the end of life contemplated taking her own life.

And she lived kind of in this kind of Carmel like valley area, and only one radio station came in.

It was Kfax, Christian radio.

And every morning, living on the edge, with Chip Ingram, played, and she just listened over and over every single day.

She's like, your dad's sermons that got me through that season.

And as she was talking, this refrain, it just felt like God was telling me this to tell her this, it came up, it's just over and over.

Like, like, like I need you to know that all is not lost.

There's still hope and God's not done with you.

All's not lost.

It feels like you lost everything, but all's not lost.

There's still hope, and God's not done with you.

And then I couldn't help myself.

I said, Do you know the lengths to which God went to tell you that?

She looks at me.

God sent Chip Ingram's son to four coffee shops.

Packed out this coffee shop so there was only one communal table.

That on this particular day, at this particular moment, that I was here and you were here because he longed to tell you all is not lost.

Do not give up hope.

He is with you and for you, and he will establish the work of your hands.

Right now.

For you to look at your one life and say, God's got you, God's with you.

God wants to meet you and speak to you and work through you.

And maybe this part just feels like, oh, it feels like all is not lost in sin, it's not.

I can redeem it.

And I can bring restoration and healing and wholeness.

So as we close, maybe would you just close this way?

Establish the work of my hands.

God, I long to live for what matters.

And honestly, I get so caught up with stuffed things.

I lose sight of eternity.

I lose sight of people, I get focused on me.

Would you establish the work of our hands?

Would you prepare them?

As we go from this place, would you prepare them?

As we step into our workplace, into our school with our friends, would you prepare them?

That we'd be your hands and feet, we'd bring your life, your hope, your healing.

Oh God, would you prepare them?

God, would you repair them?

We're messy.

We're broke.

We need you.

Thank you, Jesus, that you came for us.

Thank you that you gave your life for our life.

Just take my life and let it be.

Consecrated, Lord.

Take my moments and my days, let them flow in endless praise.

Take my hands and let them move.

At the impulse of your life.

Take my feet and let them be swift and beautiful for thee.

Take my voice and let me sing always only for my kingdom.

Take my lips and let them be filled with messages.

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