Preached in Markham Baptist Church, July 16, 2006

What are you going to do with your life?  There it lies in your hand.  It is yours to use as you like.  What are you going to do with it?

Now don’t be mistaken - this is not a question reserved for young people alone.  It’s a question that we all must answe,r whatever our age, whether it be 16 or 40 or 80 because our Lord Jesus Christ is always coming to us and saying, “I have come that you may have life and have it to the full.”  (John 10:10) Jesus is the giver of life. Of course, He is the giver of physical life, but even more, He is the giver of a quality of life - a spiritual dimension of life that is rich and deep and eternal.  He gives us that life and He gives it to us fully.

And our Lord is always watching, always waiting to see what we will do with the life that He has placed in our hands.  And right now He looks at you and He sees how you some of you have given that life back to Him and seek to live for Him with all your heart and soul and strength.  You give great joy to His heart and He looks to His father and He says these are my sheep, they know My voice and follow Me in the way of the cross.  They give of themselves for others in service to the kingdom.  And He takes great delight in you. 

There are others, our Lord notes, who keep looking at the ground and He notices how you think that it’s impossible for you to achieve anything for His kingdom in His name. 

And He sees others of you who keep straying off the course and He is alarmed, fearing that you are going to throw away your life on some foolish nothing, that you will waste and squander what is a unique thing that can never be replaced – and He is afraid that you will let yourself be tricked and lured into some cheap bargain.

He saw it many times when He walked this earth – people who had been given life, but they squandered it by going after the things of this world.  Once a rich man asked Jesus, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” and Jesus said, “Keep the commandments.” The man said, “I have done that.”  “Good,” says Jesus, “now leave everything and come follow me.”  (Matthew 19:16-21) but the man wouldn’t do it.  His heart was captured by the world.

So we have God’s lament over His people – living far from their land, living in Babylon – God says at verse 2 of Isaiah 55, “Why do you spend money on what is not bread and your labor on what does not satisfy?”

What are you going to do with your life?  I don’t know about you, but I have a driving ambition in my life - for it to count for something.  That I will not have passed through this life without serving Christ well, that I will have affected someone positively for Christ so that at my funeral as people gather round and eat those sandwiches with the crusts cut off and olives from the pickle tray they will be able to say this was a life well-spent.  Even more importantly, my Lord will be able to say to me, “Well done!” 

What are you going to do with your life?  We want it to count for something, don’t we?  Isaiah 55 addresses this very thing. 

It not only asks us, “What are you going to do with your life?” But says if you really want your life to count for something then keep your priorities straight.

Recognize the thirst of your soul.  The chapter begins with the words, “Come, all you who are thirsty.”  It is a magnificent invitation offered by the God of the universe.  Come – and it is issued to all who are thirsty.  If you are not thirsty, then this invitation is not for you.  Come, all you who are thirsty. 

Now of course we need to recognize that the text is not talking about physical thirst but spiritual thirst.  And all too often we confuse the two, thinking that if we have satisfied the physical then that is all there is.  But that is God’s complaint in verse 2 – why are you hungering and thirsting for the things that do not fully satisfy?

I was thinking the other day as I poured peanuts into our bird feeder that our lives are like peanuts.  I think these deep philosophical thoughts often when I feed the birds!  Our life is like a peanut.  There is the shell, the part that we can see.  But when we peel off the shell there is the most important part and that is the nut.  Because the life is not in the shell, that just breaks down and turns back to dust – the life is in the nut. 

Listen, we all have a shell, a body, but the life is not the body. The body is simply a vessel for the essential you, the real you, your soul.  And the soul needs feeding, the soul needs nurturing.  Your soul needs your attention.  But we get it mixed up we spend more time buying deodorant than we do feeding our soul, our spiritual lives.  We get our priorities all mixed up.

Old Benjamin Franklin never forgot his very first purchase.  He was just a little boy and had saved up all his money to buy a tin whistle that he seen in a shop window.  He wanted it, it possessed his mind and attention – and so he gathered all his coins in his hot little hand, went down to the shop and reached them over the counter and he got the little tin whistle.  And almost as soon as he did, he realized he had been cheated.  It had cost him too much, all the money he had for this cheap, shiny bit of tin.

But he learned a lesson which he never forgot.  All his life he remembered how much he had given for so little and constantly he looked at other people and looked at what they were spending and looked at what they were getting for what they spent and he would say quietly to himself, “That man has paid to much for his whistle.”

Why do you spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy?

Get your priorities straight. 

Jesus said, “Seek first the kingdom of God.”  Let that be your first priority.  Seek first God’s kingdom rule in your life.

Do you seek first the kingdom of God when you buy a car?  Or do you read Consumers Report first?  Do you ask God what He wants you to do?  I’m trying to make it practical for you.

Do you seek first God’s kingdom rule in your life before you ask that girl out on a date? 

Do you seek God’s rule in your life first before you put that money in the offering envelope?

Do you seek first God’s rule in your life when you are offered a new position in the company?

God says to us, keep your priorities straight.  Come to Him and He will feed your soul, not just with water but with wine that delights and milk that nurtures.   As we draw near to God and follow in our Lord’s way, He promises that our soul will delight in the richest of fare. 

Keep your priorities straight.

And closely associated with this – if you want your life to count for something, then set godly goals. 

 There is well known phrase – “Only one life to live and soon ‘tis past; only what’s done for Christ will last.” If, at the end of your life, you want to be able to say, “My life counted for something” - then set godly goals. 

Ask yourself - what is it that I am after in life?  And if you are truly wanting to grow in your relationship with God, if you truly want to demonstrate the reality of Christ in your life, if you truly want to grow in your Christ-likeness then ask yourself – am I giving the time and the attention that it demands?  Because we know that it just doesn’t happen.

I cannot stress this enough. Every life ought to know what it is that he or she is after, what it is that you find worthy, that is, what it is that you hunger for. 

So many people never stop to plan, never stop to set goals for themselves.  But the truth is if you set no goals then you are sure to hit that target.  Set godly goals for yourself.

What are godly goals?  Well, there are goals that strengthen spiritual  knowledge.  These include reading your Bible regularly, or reading the Bible in a year.  Joining a Bible study course, taking the Alpha course.  Joining a small group.

There are goals that shape your spiritual character.  These include serving in the church, or giving some time to a lonely senior or spending time with those in physical need.  These goals include working toward reconciling with someone who has hurt you, or stepping out in faith in an area that you know that God is calling you. 

There are goals that shape your spiritual stamina.  These include practicing the spiritual disciplines of fasting, and prayer and solitude and worship.

How do you know if your goals are godly? Do the hard work and examine your life goals carefully.  Sometimes we Christians are good at spouting off all the things we Christians ought to be doing.  But when it comes right down to it our hearts are not set on those goals at all – we have another set of goals, unnamed, undefined, but very real which control our affections and thus our lives. 

So ask yourself what is it that I hunger and thirst after and list them and see if they match with Scripture.  Ask yourself, “Who is it that I sincerely envy – to whom do you look and say, ‘If only I had what he has,then my life would be complete,’ ?”   Look at your role models - are they godly people who practice godliness in their lives?

Pray.  List out your goals and ask God, are these goals after your own heart? 

And then, set your energies and time and priorities to achieving those goals.  It’s not enough to simply write them down in black and white, although that is good, but put your energies toward achieving those goals.  Colossians 3:2 says, “Set your affections on things above.” 

Do you really want these godly goals to be accomplished in your life?  The great writer Rudyard Kipling said that if we have had desires for what we would like to accomplish in life and life has not fulfilled those desires, it only proves one thing: either we really did not want it or we tried to bargain about the price.  Isn’t it true, that many times we really don’t want it?

Do we as a church really want to see our worship connect with God and our culture?  Then we have to ask ourselves what are we willing to do to see that happen?

Do you really want our church to demonstrate the body life that is described in the Word of God – where people are cared for and loved and accepted and served and encouraged and built up – then what are you willing to do in order to see that happen?

Do we really as a church want to see new Christians grow in their faith in our church?  Then we have to ask ourselves what are we willing to do to see that happen?

Do you really want to see younger families in the church, or other ethnic groups, then what are you willing to do to see it happen?  It’s no good just talking about it and saying this is what we want if you are not willing to put in place the attitude, the atmosphere, the environment for it to happen.  

Do you really want to grow in your Christ-likeness? Then what are willing to add to your lifestyle and delete from your lifestyle to see it happen? To really want it and not just talk about it. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be filled.” (Matthew 5:6). 

Do you want your life to count for something?  Then my friends, get your priorities straight, set godly goals, desire to achieve them above all else, and then this - trust God.  After you have set your priorities, you have set godly goals and desire to have them achieved, be sure to trust that God will bring them to fulfillment. 

Verse 3 – “Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul will live.”  There it is. There’s the promise.  It is as we trust God that we will truly have life.  Our souls will truly live.   We will live in the light of God’s love, it says at the end of verse 3.  The same covenant of love God made with David will be made with us as we look to God.  Look what He did for David, He says in verse 4 - surely He will do the same for you, He says in verse 5.  Not only will you live in the light of God’s love you will live in the light of all the nations.  People around you will see there is something different about you as you as trust in God.   

In verses 6 through 7 we are told we can trust God and His grace.  As we seek to live godly lives with godly goals, we will experience failure.  We need to know that our God will freely pardon and we can pick up and start again. We can trust God and His grace.

In verses 8-9 we are told we can trust His wisdom.  As we seek to live godly lives we may get to thinking that we really should be living for the things of this world.  But God says, no, no, trust my wisdom, my ways are not your ways. Trust God, He knows what he is doing.

In verses 10-11 we are told we can trust God’s Word.  It will accomplish what God has desired and achieve the purpose for which He sent it. So when He tells us to come to Him, to come buy wine and milk without money and without cost, we can trust that God’s Word is true and our souls will live.  He will not let us down as we trust in Him.

O how we need to trust God - His grace, His wisdom and His Word.  We need to expect great things from God.  William Carey was a poor man.  He was a cobbler; he just repaired shoes; he did not make them.  But he got his priorities straight, he set godly goals and desired to see them fulfilled.  He had a goal of reaching the whole world for Christ.  He set a map of the world before him and he looked at it every day.  He set his heart upon that and committed to God and trusted God to use him.  He believed that God would enable him in some way to accomplish that goal. He trusted God, His grace, His wisdom and His Word.  He went to a meeting of British clergymen and uttered words which have been forever since attached to his name. He said, “Expect great things from God.  Attempt great things for God.”  He was the first modern missionary to go to India.  For a number of years not a single person was converted.  Somebody wrote to him from home and in discussing the situation and knowing that things were pretty bleak, said that perhaps he ought to come home; perhaps the whole thing was a mistake; perhaps he had been wrong about what God would have him do and asked him how the situation was now.

William Carey wrote back and said that thus far there has not been a single convert, but concerning prospects for the future: “They are as bright as the promises of God.”

Shortly thereafter the first Indian accepted Christ and a great missionary movement that was begun by that poor young cobbler who trusted God. 

And we should not wonder at it.  For it is the very promise of God.  As we get our priorities straight, we set godly goals, we desire them and trust in God look at what will happen verse 12: “You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.  Instead of the thorn bush will grow the pine tree and instead of briers the myrtle will grow.”

That speaks of fruitfulness – there is the fruitfulness of joy, the fruitfulness of peace, the fruitfulness of myrtle, instead of briers.  All for the Lord’s renown, says the last part of the verse. 

Do you want your life to count, do you want to do something significant in this life?  Then my friends, get your priorities straight, set your hearts on eternal treasure, rather than the treasure of this earth, set godly goals, desire them with not just with your lips but with your wills, and above all trust God - His grace, His wisdom, His Word. 

Copyright MBC and Tom Cullen - July 2006

[Home] [Coming Up] [Programs] [Sermons] [About Us] [Contact Us]