The Games People Play - Life Series

The games people play - Life

A LIFE WORTH LIVING

Introduction:

1. I was in the summer of my Eighth grade year when my family moved to Huntsville, Alabama. The primary reason that we moved to Huntsville was the church. Mayfair Church of Christ was the largest congregation that I had ever seen, and the Youth Group was larger than most churches we had been to.

During our first days there My brother and I were befriended by an intern, Barry Lefan. Barry and I became fast friends and I missed him sorely that fall when he went off to Lipscomb.

During the next few years I looked forward to the Weekends, Holidays, and Summers that He would come home. We would talk, play, and just spend time together.

My Junior year of High School Barry was home on one of those week breaks. We had talked at church on Sunday night and had planned to play Softball on Saturday. Wednesday afternoon I was on my way to Brett’s home to work on a History project. I rang the doorbell and when Brett answered the door, he was white. He said he was surprised to see me. Why I asked. He said with Barry’s death he didn’t expect me.

I was in shock and told Brett that this was not a funny Joke. He wasn’t joking. It seemed that a friend whom I idolized and would die for couldn’t find a reason to live anymore.

2. Barry is not alone, every year 30,000 Americans decide their lives are not worth living and commit suicide.

a. Perhaps 10 times this many attempt suicide and fail.

b. Hundreds of thousands more seriously consider killing themselves but do not attempt to follow through.

c. Among teenagers, suicide is the second most common cause of death.

3. Something is wrong in society today.

a. Jesus is recorded as saying in

John 10:10 "The thief comes only to steal, and kill, and destroy; I came that they might have life, and might have it abundantly.” NAS

New Century Version says “life in all its fullness.”

a. What is wrong? Why are so many adults and teenagers concluding that life is not worth living?

b. Perhaps it is because we are pursuing the wrong goals.

2. Is our goal in life material wealth?

a. After Marlin Monroe took her life a fan said, "She had so much to live for." Another said, "She had so much to live on but so little to live for."

3. Are we living for earthly fame?

a. One of the most known writers of all time Ernest Hemingway took his own life. Dozens of celebrities have killed themselves.

4. Is education the answer?

a. Psychiatrists are among the most educated people in the world. They must complete training as a medical doctor before they can specialize in psychiatry. Certainly they should understand how the mind works and what it takes to have a satisfied life yet, of all professional groups, psychiatrists have the highest suicide rate in the nation.

6. What, then, is the answer?

I. Abundant Life is a life with a guiltless past.

A. Guilt is a terrible burden to bear and sometimes it crushes people to the point that life becomes an unbearable burden.

B. We all have done things that cause us terrible guilt.

C. Some of our Sins are not as bad as the sins of others.

1. At Pentecost, these Jews had murdered the very Son of God. Can we even imagine the guilt that would cause.

2. Before he becomes Paul, spent his days persecuting innocent Christians.

D. Never the Less there is Sin in our lives.

E. and it is the guilt of that Sin that steals our Abundant Life.

F. But God has promised us Abundant Life that cannot be taken from us.

1. 1 John 1:7 "But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin."

a. The choice is ours, we can choose to walk in the Light or out of the Light.

b. Also notice God does not call us to be perfect. Just to walk in the light and have Fellowship with one another.

1) Why is the Fellowship so important?

2) Do not be deceived: "Bad company corrupts good morals." 1 Corinthians 15:33

3) Or as we say in Alabama “If you run with the Goats you smell like the goats.”

c. What a wonderful thought that the blood of Christ continually cleanses us when we sin.

5. Why does Christ do this? It was His purpose.

a. John 3:16. "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.