Sermon Central
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Success In Life
Contributed by George Rennau on Aug 25, 2003 (message contributor)
Summary: How are you SPENDING your life between the times you eat, sleep and brush your teeth? Are you accomplishing something meaningful Or are you letting that time slip by you.
Success in Life
Today, just 25 percent of adult Americans say "a lot of money" signifies success and accomplishment, down from 33 percent in 1996.
What do people most associate with success and accomplishment:
83% say that doing those things that will make them feel Satisfied that they are using their life well is the measure of success.
Did you know that the average person SPENDS in his life time
-35.000 hours eating
SPENDS - 30.000 hours in traffic
SPENDS - 2508 BRUSHING HIS TEETH.
SPENDS 870.000 HOURS DOING THINGS LIKE paying bills, getting dressed, getting undressed, filling out forms, and repairing things.
SPENDS - 217.000 hours at work.
When you add all that up it doesn’t leave much time left over for the important things in life.
what are you doing with those few remaining hours in your life?
How are you SPENDING your life between the times you eat, sleep and brush your teeth?
Are you accomplishing something meaningful
Or are you letting that time slip by you.
PRAYER
All of us have attended meetings or lectures where the speaker asks "are there any questions"
Robert Fulghum is an author who has made it his practice when ever someone asked "are there any questions"
He would asks "what is the meaning of Life"?
Of course the question is never taken seriously, people laugh and walk away.
One day Fulgram was at the seminar of a Greek Philosopher, and he asked the usual question "what is the meaning of life"
Everyone laughed, and began to get up to leave, but the philosopher held up his hand and stilled the crowd, and looked at fugram for a long time trying to discern if his question was serious or not.
"I will answer the question"
The philosopher took his wallet from his pocket.
He brought out a very small round mirror about the size of a quarter.
"When I was a boy, during WWII, we were very poor and lived in a remote village in Greece.
One day on the road I found several small pieces of a broken mirror.
A German soldier’s motor cycle had been wrecked in that place.
I tried to find all the pieces and fit them together, but it was impossible, so I kept only the largest one.
This piece.
I scratched it against a stone, and made it round. And I began to play with it like a toy.
I became fascinated that I could reflect light into dark places where the sun would never shine--like deep holes, and crevices, and dark closets.
It became a game for to me to try and get light to shine into the most inaccessible places I could find.
As I went about my growing up I would take it out during idle moments and continue the challenge of the game.
As I became a man, I grew to understand that this was not just a child’s game, but a metaphor, for what I might do with my life.
I came to understand that I am not the light, nor the source of light
But light -- the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ -- is there
And it will only shine in many dark places if it is reflected.
I am a fragment of a mirror whose whole design and shape are not known. Never the less, with what I have I can reflect light into the dark places of this world.
Into the black places in the hearts of man -- and change some things in some people., perhaps others will see and do likewise,
This is the meaning of MY life".
Then he took his small mirror, and holding it carefully, caught the bright rays of daylight streaming through the window, and reflected them onto my face and onto my hands folded on the desk.
I love that story because it is an illustration of how one man recognized the importance of how he should spend his life
God Help each one of us to choose to spend our life wisely
I want to share a few principles God has established for the use of your life.
Be very careful, then, how you live--not as unwise but as wise, [16] making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. [17] Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. [18] Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. [19] Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, [20] always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
[21] Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
1. Be mindful of the Time
