What Is Your Life
James 4:14
Introduction
Starting in 1955 there was a game show on television called This Is Your Life. Celebrity subjects were ambushed during their ordinary daily routines and brought into the studio to have a spotlight shined on their past. I think it is safe to say that you and I will probably never be dragged into the spotlight on television, to have our lives examined, but we would be wise to face the question, “What is your Life?”
James asked his readers, “What is your life?” to emphasize the brevity of life and the urgent need for the guidance and help of God if we are to make our lives meaningful and productive for God.
So tonight, let me as ask you, “What is your life?” And then I will go one step further and tell you the answers, according to the scriptures.
I. What is your life? – It is a vapor.
a. It is a vapor that appears for a little time.
• A vapor can be seen only briefly, before it evaporates and completely disappears.
b. It vanishes away
• The psalmist was grieved as he considered the brevity of the human life, but he rejoiced in the eternal nature of God’s mercy.
• Listen to the words of Psalm 103:15-18: “As for man, his days are like grass; as a flower of the field, so he flourishes. When the wind has passed over it, it is no more, and its place acknowledges it no longer. But the loving kindness of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him, and His righteousness to children’s children, to those who keep His covenant and remember His precepts to do them.”
• Compared to eternity your life is just like a vapor.
II. What is your life? – It is a mystery
a. Life has been defined as the absence of death
b. Death has been defined as the absence of life.
• People still stand in awe before the mystery of life.
• Doctors and scientist still cannot fully comprehend the sheer amazement on how is life begins.
• Your life is a mystery that only God knows.
III. What is your life? – It is the breath of God
• It is the breath of God according to Genesis 2:7 which reads, “Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.”
• Apart from the breath of God, a human is but a pile of dust and we all know what happens to dust.
• Life is God’s gift to us.
• God is the author and giver of life.
• Your life is the breath of God.
IV. What is your life? – It is a trust from God.
• We must all give an account of our stewardship of the gift of life one day.
• Listen to what Paul has to say about this in Romans 14:12, “So then each one of us will give an account of himself to God.”
• The writer of the book of Ecclesiastes, speaking from the viewpoint of common sense rather than from a heart filled with great faith, declared, “God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.”
• Your life has be entrusted to you by God and one day we will ask for an account of how you used it to glorify him.
V. What is your life? – It is an opportunity to serve
• Our Lord understood and defined life in terms of an opportunity to minister to the needs of others.
• In Mark 10:45 Jesus Christ himself says, “Even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.”
• Those who would follow Jesus must accept his attitude and his ambition concerning the purpose of being.
• Your life is a opportunity to serve God.
• So how are you serving God today?
Closing
What is your life? If you have not trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior, you do not have life. John 3:36 reads, “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” You have the ability to receive the gift of everlasting life if you will just accept Christ. He is eager to give on you this gift if you will trust him as Savior and Lord. Jesus gave us all the promise in John 10:10 when he said that I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.
What is your life tonight? Is it abundant and free or headed for the wrath of God? The Lord is waiting; will you come to the altar to accept Him?
