Here's my notes from the last 15 minutes of Index on Sunday night when we dealt with some incredibly important but very difficult concepts.
People everywhere live for and live out a story that describes the point of their life and motivates them in what they do:
e.g. the American dream: “work hard and no matter who you are and what background you come from you can make it big in America!”
e.g. the celebrity culture “the best life is one of fame and fortune” (often people who are known not because they have done something great but because they have drawn attention to themselves)
e.g. the fun culture “what matters most is having a good time and getting the most out of life”.
e.g. the success culture: "you need to be the best, with more promotions, more money and more prestige, then you'll have made it in life"
e.g. the beauty myth: "how you look is everything - your image makes you who you are"People’s meaning and purpose in life is determined by the story they have for their lives => our choices in how we spend our time, what jobs we do, how we do our jobs, what friends we choose to make and how we cope with suffering, are all determined by the story we are living in and living out!
Q. What is the story of your life: What are you living for? What are your specific purposes and goals in life?
Q. Specifically with examples, how does Jesus fit into your purpose and goal of your life?
Q. How can you make sure your life matters?
The gospel of Jesus is the only TRUE story that describes what everything in life and history is really all about, since it is the story designed by God long before He made the universe. Jesus is the lamb slain before the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8): slain for people whom God loved and foreknew(Romans 8:28) before they were ever born or the universe even existed. That passage in Revelation talks about a book called “The Lamb’s Book of Life” where our names have been written by God before He made the world. You see the gospel story began back in eternity when God the Father and God the Son made a covenant together (the eternal covenant in Hebrews 13) deciding to save the world that they were about to create by Jesus dying for the sins of His people He had chosen for Himself.
Therefore, the foundation for our identity and value is in the fact that God has CHOSEN us long before we ever existed (shown by our names being in His book) and has a plan for us. Don’t built your identity and worth on: your grades, your talents, your looks, your money, your friends, your girlfriend or boyfriend. We’re not valuable because we have done anything or can do anything for God…we’re valuable simply because He has chosen to set His love upon us, even though He knew He was getting a bunch of messed up sinners – that love has to be the basis of our identity and value. God loves you…whatever else happens nothing can strip you of that if you are in Christ!
Making Your Life Matter:
We asked the question above: “How does Jesus FIT IN to your life?” Let me suggest we flip this way of thinking around: rather than talking of fitting Him into our lives, let’s focus on fitting into His story. The story of our lives as Christians is meant to be the living out of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He is meant to be the foundation of our lives as before the foundations of the world He had planned the gospel story and all of history - INCLUDING our lives - is meant to be the working out of that story – history is His Story.
All things were created through and for Jesus: all of creation and all of History is about Him! Before creation, God had already planned all of history around and to culminate in the Redemptive and Reconciling work of Jesus Christ. The Cross is the great height of God’s wisdom and glory, as His Son suffers for our sins and saves us from them so that we can be made God’s people who RECEIVE GOD’S LOVE...then at the end of history Jesus will come to establish His kingdom on Earth by bringing heaven down on earth in a New Creation. This work of Jesus planned from before the foundation of the world is the central purpose of the entire universe...
It’s all meant to be about Him and our lives were meant to reflect that: we would worship Him and serve Him with all our hearts, and we would be completely satisfied in His goodness towards us. Is everything about you living and going for Jesus?
BUT NOTICE where your life is meant to fit into all of this on the diagram
… we are part of Jesus’ story that goes back a long time before us (even before the universe ever existed) and is much larger than our individual lives (God bringing heaven upon earth through Christ]…yet God wants us to participate in bringing about His great universe altering purposes through being living and loving testimonies about the story of Jesus! We can really be involved in changing the world one life at a time by bringing people to Jesus and the Cross; and bringing the Cross and Jesus to people who have never heard of Him! We can find true significance for our lives in us imbedding ourselves in the most significant story that changes everything, and making that story the driving force in whatever career you embark on, whatever sport you play, whatever relationships you have.
Does that mean that exams, deadlines, sports matches, games and fun don’t matter? Not wrong or unimportant, but just not as important as Jesus in our lives => It means that the things we are doing here, the worries we have are small/short compared with eternity, which gives us perspective when dealing with the crushing problems of life and struggles. GOD’S STORY CANNOT FAIL, SO WHATEVER FEARS OF FAILURE YOU HAVE, IF YOU ARE A PART OF GOD’S STORY THEN IT CANNOT FAIL.
Conclusion:
So we need to go back to that question: What story are you living by? There’s only one true story and that’s the true story of Jesus Christ, God’s eternal Son, whose gospel changes all of life and all of eternity.
Are you living yourself; are you living for your job and career advancement; are you living for your professors and their opinions of you; are you living to please your family; are you living to hold onto your boy/girlfriend? Life is short and very small in this world…make it count and live for Jesus!
ONLY ONE LIFE TWILL SOON BE PAST
ONLY WHAT’S DONE FOR CHRIST WILL LAST
