It is such a nice evening out i feel like i’m living in a postcard picture. There’s not a cloud in the sky except over towards the horizon… all those sky colors, singing, as if they were calling to something or someone. The humidity is dissipating while this day comes to a close. The deck overlooking the Ockluhwahhah River faces slightly west, just enough to catch the last of the day when the sun is on its way to brighten some other place on the planet. The world of night sounds is alive and well …. it would seem what lives across the river in the woods won’t be ignored this late afternoon … if you listen carefully, you can faintly hear the conversation going on between the creek and the river at the intersection where the smaller one meets the larger other, singing softly, like someone speaking at a distance and you can’t quite make out what they’re saying, you only know there is a dialogue going on. The greater includes the lesser. When the breeze picks up the old oaks and pines occasionally groan against the inclination to change, but the more they stay the same the more they change, i doubt they care much really. Our owl pair have returned briefly … i heard them earlier calling after each other … they disappeared for a while, maybe they went on vacation or something … our own cricket tribe is calling to us through the cracks under the floor boards of the deck, maybe they’re prophesying of coming rain or maybe just singing because it’s dark and it’s time to sing. i reckon it seemed a safe place to live … everybody’s gotta live somewhere, right, even crickets. Such a beautiful sunset. And for the grand finale of the day, there’s supposed to be a full moon tonight. God is absolutely brilliant, isn’t He?
i’m Social Porter and this is Outposts. Our topic tonight is based on Philippians 3:7-14, all for Jesus, all i am and have, and ever hope to be. We have forgiveness for the sake of Christ’s blood; the Lord hears our prayers for the sake of Jesus, and God no longer remembers my sins for the sake of the reconciling work of Jesus, the Christ of God. All for Jesus, all i am and have and ever hope to be.
Luke 15:13, “And not many days after the younger son gathered all his stuff together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.” Psalm 53:1, “The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.””
Many years ago there was a young man who grew up in a rural community. At an early age, as a joke to prove there was no God, he prayed the sinner’s prayer with a street preacher, then he jeered in the man’s face and called the man a fool for believing God, threatening the man with violence if he ever spoke the name of Jesus in his presence again. In his foolish youth, he thought he was being tough. How little he knew.
He was not one for deep thinking much, but more known for his living in the moment, often not thinking of the consequences of his actions. He was bright and creative and enjoyed the work of his hands, even as a child. He was a good kid but he sure wreaked havoc on his parents. More than likely he suffered from ADD, and had it been our current day, i’m pretty sure his parents would have given him over to drug therapy … but that’s not what happened, instead they put him to work to keep him busy. Once, his dad was so upset with his son’s inability to focus and a very very active imagination, that he threatened to send him to reform school himself. Eventually, the young man found identity with rebellious people who introduced him to drugs, alcohol, carousing, stealing, and all other late-night mischief. Sometimes the young man took LSD and amphetamines just to slow down enough to do life. You know, in most all places, not much good happens after about 11pm, so the young man took to living his life after 11pm, it seemed exciting.
When he graduated from high school, which was a miracle in itself, straight away he joined the Navy. Of course, there he met other young men comparable to himself, and he sank deeper into a drug and alcohol dependent life of growing loneliness and despair.
While in the Navy, he became heavily involved with LSD and heroin users, gladly becoming one of them, for in his mind he simply wanted to be part of something. Eventually, during a night of partying, he took too much of his drugs of choice, and he died. His friends, if you could call them that, left him out behind the house, gathered all their stuff which would identify themselves and left him. God had a different plan though for the next morning he breathed again after many hours of being a grey-blue corpse. His so-called buddies were frightened upon seeing him but soon they were getting loaded again and all was forgotten.
Eccl4:10, “But woe to him who is alone when he falls, For he has no one to help him up.”
Months later he had a party at his apartment, and once again, he overdosed on heroin. That was Thursday evening. Sunday morning he drew a breath for the first time since Thursday; he woke up pale, cold, hungry, and naked laying on a mattress in the bedroom … his house was cleaned out, everything was gone. His furniture was gone, the pictures were gone … his quote-unquote friends had stolen everything – the stereo, the TV, all the music, the pots & pans & silverware, all his clothes except his military uniform, and all the food from the kitchen; they even took the toilet paper and light bulbs … the house had been swept clean and wiped down. Seeing the large bruises on his chest he thought maybe he’d been beat up. He got dressed in the only clothes he had and walked down the street to see a buddy, who jolted in fright when the door was opened. The buddy told the young man that he had died on Thursday night….no pulse, no breath, just grey-blue, and dead. The man said they had beat on his chest to make his heart pump, but nothing helped, so they cleaned up the house, laid the body on the bed and left. Slowly, it dawned on the young man who was far from home and family, he had been dead for three days. It didn’t even cross his mind that the Lord, in His mercy, prevented his death … again.
Luke 15:17-18, “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.”
Oddly enough, after that, the young man lost interest in hard drugs, after all he had been dead twice because of drug overdoses and something just clicked in him. Of course though, that didn’t change his drinking habits for he was just carrying on a four generation family tradition of substance abuse and alcoholism. One night, a year later, he had been on another drinking binge, and walked into the military barracks dorm. He staggered into the room, and upon closing the door behind him he noticed he was alone in the room. For the first time in his young life, he became aware of such a sad place in his heart it was unbearable. From over his right shoulder, in the late night, alone in the room in the dark, he heard someone whisper, “Why don’t you give your heart to Jesus and ask Him into your life?” For some reason he didn’t think it was an odd thing to think, it actually seemed reasonable, so he got on his knees, asked Jesus for forgiveness and to please take over. Suddenly, it was as if 1000 pounds was lifted off his back. He got into bed, and for the first time in years, he rested, i mean he really rested.
Now here’s where this testimony gets odd. He woke up in the morning, refreshed and new to the world that was bright and clear, and didn’t remember he prayed that prayer for two years. !BUT!, over the course of the two years following that night, he stopped drinking, he stopped doing any and all drugs, he stopped chasing girls and changed all his friends. He stopped being doggedly rebellious and began speaking without profanity, not because of some legalistic morality, but because he was consciously choosing. Something was different. Before he got out of the Navy, he realized he was a new man, he had come to realize who it was who spared his life and delivered him from death and hell’s gate. It was Jesus.
When the time comes, for many people, many times we just need a firm foot provided so we can set our foot against it in order to find the necessary purchase to change direction … life and destiny can easily change with the turn of our foot to a different direction.
Ultimately, it is the foot of the Savior, who in His mercy, provides us a pivot point…even when all our closest, most relied on friends have gone, Jesus gives us His firm hand to grip to. From the days of the young man’s rebellion to his time of knowing Jesus, he counted all his past as a huge waste. All dreams of possessions and wealth ebbed out of his mind and heart, all dreams of being famous, noteworthy, validated and important he abandoned and chased after Jesus with all his heart. The young man had gone from a prodigal, rebellious, hard-hearted son … from a slave of sin and satan to becoming a brother and servant of Christ! This was another first in his life in that the right person was in control of his life, Jesus first and last, he felt like he had a point and a purpose. Going back to his old life was no longer an option. You know, as long as going back is an option, we are still snared in our addictions.
Philip3:7-10, “But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ–the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. i want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.”
i was that young man many years ago, the sorriest lost sheep you ever saw. When Jesus became obvious to me, i was like a homing pigeon and my only instinct was to go home. Those were terrible days of self-loathing, confusion, and chaos, i was chained to the deliciousness of sin. Before Jesus i had no clue what to do, how to act, what to say, or where to go. i just breathed with every day and mindlessly went forward with no plan about tomorrow. But standing here now, many years later, i see the hand of the Lord all through my life. By way of my rear-view mirror, i easily recognize the Lord speaking to me as a child, defending me when i was just so ignorant, and believe me, i was ignorant of most everything, in fact, i was ignorant to the point i died twice. Let me make a note here that the root of the word “ignorance” is the word “ignore” and i completely ignored everything that was wise, honest, and good.
i see the vision of God playing in me even before i ever thought about Jesus, i had God dreams and God ideas even as a child and didn’t know it was the Lord who was working. i remember my cousin telling me the gospel story once, and his voice was like someone murmuring at a distance … i just couldn’t hear it. It is easy to see now that when i prayed with the man to receive Jesus and then made fun of him, i believe God took me seriously and pursued me with all of Heaven in His wake to bring me home. Galatians 6:7, “God is not mocked.” This is to all the desperados and traitors out there …. you can come home, it’s time to come home, Jesus is waiting just for you with open arms. There is always room for the humble repentant to come home, and there is no pit deep enough that the saving hands of Jesus can’t reach you.
Robin Mark wrote a song, the lyrics are “Jesus, all for Jesus, all i am and have and ever hope to be. All of my ambitions, hopes and plans, i surrender these into Your hands. For it’s only in Your will that i am free, Jesus, all for Jesus, All i am and have and ever hope to be.”
Philip3:13-14, “But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
That is the truth – i do not think of myself as having arrived, but like Arthur Burt once said, “i have not arrived, but i can assure you i have left.”
It is not possible that i can sit across the table from everyone and ask, so i’ll ask your conscience to reflect my words, leaving your own heart to answer the question: Do you really serve Christ, or is it more that you merely enjoy hearing, you enjoy singing, and enjoy telling others you go to church and tithe? When you are in the great congregation at your church and you stand to sing, do you know why you stand or is it because that’s what everyone else does, or maybe because it’s what you’re told to do?
What is your story of how you met Jesus? What have you done with the gifts and the fruit of your relationship with the Lord? Inventory is a good idea sometimes, and we must be honest about our inventory, take the truth of ourselves to the Lord, and let Him heal our wounded conscience and make our hearts well again. Think about it.
Some, i fear, do not serve Christ in what they do, they just go about it all as a part of the general routine of their existence, you know, it’s the legitimate thing to go to a place of worship … therefore they go.
Some, i fear, give service in a party spirit. They serve and they think it is Christ they are serving—but in fact it is their own denomination or group. They’re in love with their brand, and the Lord is over on the side somewhere. Many of them would be almost vexed to hear of the Lord being honored among any other sort of Christians! They hope there will be a revival, but they would like it to be pretty nearly confined to the walls of their own church group. That’s called serving a clique, not Christ. Where do you stand? Are you all for Jesus, all you are and have, and ever hope to be?
What is your testimony? Do you have one developed? Can you tell about the time you met Jesus and He changed your life, or is it just a general tale with no definition, no defined beginning? Some say, “oh, i’ve always just been this way.” If you belong to Jesus, then somewhere along the line you had to choose. No one becomes a child of God because their parents were, or that somehow, they’ve defined themselves as a “good person”. i must admit i find it disturbing when someone says they can’t think of a time they’ve ever repented and asked Jesus into their lives, that they have just always been like they are, however that is. Take the time to write down your testimony; it’s important to know about your life with Christ from it’s beginning.
Drive carefully this week; watch out for your neighbor. Ask the Lord in your prayer time to open your eyes to know Him more, after all, where would you be without Jesus? Have a great and prosperous week. Go with God.