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Pirates of the Superior - Week Three Notes

By jgiroux ⋅ December 6, 2008 ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

Pirates of the Superior
Anchored
James Giroux

[Dylan’s Couch]

Today I want to start by asking you a question. Take a minute and turn to the people around you and answer this question:

What’s the greatest moment of your life?

All right, I hate to cut these conversations off, but if you could focus back up here.�  Here’s how I would answer the question if someone came up to me and said, “James, what’s the greatest moment of your life?”

I’d say, “Moments are kind of like the bricks of life.” Every year, every day, every time you take a breath you are living in a moment. And each of these moments, if you start stringing a few of them together, they start to build on each other.�  And you do some things, and you add to that layer. And you ask yourself, “Self, what do I do now?” And you do some stuff, and then you add some more bricks.�  Because, all of us are living brick by brick, moment by moment, and we are building our lives with these moments.

Does that make sense?

Just like there are a bunch of bricks on the outside of the church here that make it a building, there are a bunch of moments in your life that shape your personality and desires and likes and dislikes.� 

Dylan’s Couch is all about a guy sharing moments with everyone else.�  To some people they may seem dumb or not that important but if you pay attention to Dylan, every single moment is important.�  Dylan tries to make the most of every moment.

It turns out that if you read through the Bible, Jesus was the master of making the most of these moments. So, with the time remaining tonight, I want to study one brick – one moment – in Jesus’ life and see what we can learn about how to make the most of our moments just like Jesus did in his life. Sound good?

Why don’t you all help me read this passage from Luke 23.

“When they got to the place called Skull Hill, they crucified him, along with thecriminals, one on his right, the other on his left. Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive them; they don’t know what they’re doing.” One of the criminals hanging alongside cursed him: “Some Messiah you are! Save yourself! Save us!” But the
other one made him shut up: “Have you no fear of God? You’re getting the same as him. We deserve this, but not him–he did nothing to deserve this.”�  Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you enter your kingdom.” He said, “Don’t worry, I will…” By now it was noon. The whole earth became dark, the darkness lasting three hours– a total blackout. The Temple curtain split right down the middle. Jesus called loudly,” Father, I place my life in your hands!” Then he breathed his last. When the soldier there saw what happened, he honored God.”

What we see here and what we find in Jesus’ life on a consistent basis moment by moment were four things.

LIVE (to be fully alive)

First, we see that in this moment recorded here in Luke 23 where Jesus is being crucified, he is living.�  So how are we going to define LIVE?�  Let’s say that to live is TO BE FULLY ALIVE.

To live, to be fully alive, involves an unchangeable commitment to look beyond yourself.�  To be fully alive means that you set aside your own problems and your own wants and your own fears, and help others get ahead.� 

I don’t always do it but I really enjoy thinking of others instead of myself.�  It’s great to be able to encourage other people and let them know how important they are to you.�  In fact, just this week I had an opportunity to think of someone else and do something really cool for them.�  It was Sunday afternoon, church was over and there were a couple of people just lingering around the church.�  I got hungry at about 1:30 and decided to go and fix myself some of the leftover Shepherd’s Pie that was in the fridge.�  As I got into the kitchen though, I realized that there were some other people in the building who were probably just as hungry as I was.�  So I went and asked a couple of them if they wanted something to eat.� 

One said no but one said yes.� 

I was so stoked so I pulled out all the stops, I got their plate with food on it all ready, I went scrummaging and found a silver platter that I could put everything on so I decided to go a little bit further than just warming up a piece of Shepherd’s Pie, I found a napkin and I rolled a fork and knife in it to make it look better, I found a frosted mug in the freezer so I poured some soda into it and set that all up on the platter, I found a dessert so I added that to the platter as well with a spoon in it.�  And then I brought it over to this person who was studying for an exam.�  At first they kind of laughed at me because I went over the top but I’ll tell you it was so awesome to be able to demonstrate to that person how much I appreciate them.

In a way that’s kind of what it’s like to be fully alive, to really experience a moment when you help someone else.�  That’s what Jesus was experiencing when he was on the cross, as we read in Luke 23.�  When Jesus was up there dying for us, thinking of us as he went through that suffering, he was fully living in that moment.�  That was life.

OBEY (to carry out)

Not only can you live in a moment, you can obey in a moment. OBEY means simply TO CARRY OUT. I think when we hear this word, we kind of cringe sometimes, because we think that to obey is like being in the army or something and God is some mean general barking orders at us. And the truth is, from what I’ve read and what I know about God that’s about the farthest thing from the truth.�  I’ve found God to be an encouraging God. He’s wants me to obey, not because if I do, I won’t have any fun, but if I obey, I will be living my life the best that I can with what I have.

In fact, one area that I think God encourages us all to obey or carry out his plans involves how we were created. We are human beings, and we have been given a certain set of gifts and talents and skills and desires that we were intended to use to give glory to God.

And none of are the same, and that’s God brilliant design.�  All of us have a different perspective. All of our conditions are relative, but there’s one God above it all. There’s one God that seeks to bring unity to all of our individual lives.�  So, when God says OBEY, he’s not saying, “Drop down and give me fifty” and he’s not saying, “I’m going to put you in a religious straightjacket.”�  When God says OBEY, he’s saying, “Be who I created you to be.�  You team up with me as you are right now, and you grow and mature as a Christ-follower,” and you know all those skills and gifts and talents and desires and things that you’re good at? God has given those things to you and He’s wants you to carry them out in your life. He wants you to obey and do what you’re good at for His church. “Use your gifts to glorify my name.”�  God would say.

When we obey, when we carry out what we were created to do, the people around us feel a little better, we feel a little more alive, and God gets the glory.�  Think back to Luke 23 Jesus is hanging on the cross, we’ve already said he is fully alive because he is thinking about other people instead of himself, but look what else is going on in this moment: He is obeying; he is carrying out what God created Him to do. And what happens? “When the soldier there saw what happened, he honored God.”

People honour God when you obey God.

LOVE (to desire)

The third thing, in order to make the most of a moment is to LOVE, which means TO DESIRE.�  And love is another one of these things that is supposed to be directed toward other people. No one wants to be around a person that is in love with himself; nobody wants to hang out with a girl that loves herself. But, people are drawn to other people that show love towards them.

Love is to KNOW and be KNOWN

People exist to know and be known. God wants a group of Christ-followers that will see people for who they are and then lovingly accept them and encourage them.�  Christ-followers will know the people around them and care deeply about their lives. I’m here, I am sharing these thoughts because I care about your well-being. Your leaders dedicate their Wednesdays to be with you guys because they
love you. The people in this place do what they do because they love you and they want you to be known.

Jesus was the same way. Think back to Luke 23. “One of the criminals said… ‘Jesus remember me…’ He said, ‘Don’t worry, I will.’”�  Jesus knows you and loves you. His highest desire, the reason he created you, was to love you. It’s our job to spread his love. Everywhere you go, your should pursue people – get to know them, share your dreams with them, listen to their problems, live life together.

CONCLUSION

So, what’s the greatest moment of you life?

In the opinion of John Ortberg:
The greatest moment of your life is right here…�  Because it’s the only moment you’ve got.�  The gift of life is available to be lived only in this moment.

For this is the moment where God is…�  The only moment you’ve got like it. And if there’s any human being anywhere you want to touch, you’ve got to reach them in this moment.�  There have been other moments, there will be other moments, but this moment right here is yours.

Don’t be wishing you could relive moments in the past.�  Don’t worry about what will happen in the moments in the future.�  Once a moment is gone, it never comes back again. Don’t be spending your life wishing you had someone else’s moment.

This should be the greatest moment of your life because this is the moment.�  Jesus is right here, right now, in this moment.�  The presence of God is in this place, right here and right now.�  And if you want to avoid temptation, and you want to live for Jesus, and you want to become a Christ-like person, you will learn to live in this moment.

If Jesus really is here right now, what person cannot be changed? What student can receive forgiveness?

This moment really is where your destiny with God lies.