Sermon Central
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The Dash - Driven By Eternity Finale Series
Contributed by David Rumley on Apr 16, 2009 (message contributor)
Summary: The Dash is the line between our birth and death, it is what speaks of who we were... what does your dash say? This is the finale for a series called "Driven by Eternity" that works at connecting the dots from each of the several sermons in the series.
The Dash
DRIVEN BY ETERNITY Finale
What does it mean to be focused on that which is most important…
We started this series several weeks ago asking a simple question… “what are you driven by?”
We had a funeral yesterday for Dorothy Hicks… Mother in Law to John Alpers, Bill and Dave Alpers brother…
Since I have been here I have performed almost 20 funerals…
And I am reminded every time of this question… am I driven by eternity…
For each person… as I perform their funeral… I look at something…
The Dash
The dash embetween the date of their birth and the date of their departure from this earth…
Looking at the dash – what was in that dash?
How did they live?
Did they die before their body did? Giving up on life?
Were they selfish… were they God centered? Were they giving?
What is the dash of their life… and then I always think… what is the dash in mine? I still have a chance to change that dash… how will I live? Will I be driven by eternity…
Over the past several weeks we have been in discussion over this series about what it means to be driven by eternity… I needed to remind us this mornign of those discussions and do what I call a “Thread Service”
Where we look at the thread of what God is saying to us as a church… we can’t just go from service to service… and miss the point… we must hear and do what God is speaking to us…
We are asking what it means to be Driven by Eternity… is the focus of our life being lived where our dash will glorify God or be about us…
Define Driven: It is the force by which we move forward. It is the focused thing we given attention to that drives us, moves us, forward in life… What gives you meaning? Force… strength… reason for living? What are we driven by…
THE REAR VIEW MIRROR
1 Peter 2… 9 But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are a kingdom of priests, God’s holy nation, his very own possession. This is so you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.
Driven by eternity is about our focus, like the rear view mirror and the windshield… where do you spend much of your focus… looking ahead… but why do we often try to drive backwards… for there is a reason the rear view mirror is smaller… it is meant to give a reference point for safe travel, to know what was… but we are meant to drive forward… not in reverse…
DRIVING FORWARD
In John 8 Jesus, after forgiving the women of her past, and compeling her to drive forward into her future… He says… 12 Jesus said to the people, "I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t be stumbling through the darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life."
Why are we given this forgiveness and calling in the kingdom of God… why are we sanctified…
This is so you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.
Why we live, move, and breath…
Sanctified: Set a part for a holy purpose… consecrated… a holy nation… with purpose… so we can show others the goodness of God!
WRECKING THE ROOF
Ultimately we have to change our thought process… and our focus. What is our center point for how we approach church?
What do I mean?
Is our centerpoint about us – an internal focus
OR
Is it about others – external focus.
Mark 2: 1 A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. 2 So many gathered that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. 3 Some men came, bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them. 4 Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on.
THE CHURCH IS ONLY THE CHURCH WHEN IT EXISTS FOR OTHERS
THE GRAVEYARD
Finding the purpose of Palm Sunday: Dead to sin, Alive in Christ
1 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?
The purpose for which Christ entered the world… He was Driven by Eternity…
Sin: What is it? That which seperates us from a just and righteous God.
