I was fortunate to share with Hope Mission this morning at the RiverCross Mission. The following is the text from my talk, though anyone reading who was there will notice that I veered away from the script several times.
Scripture is taken from the New Living Translation.
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Good morning. Does anyone here know what “Hallelujah” means? \\
Can we all shout that word right now? Perfect. Now let’s clap a bit. Great. We just praised God together.
Who here is alive?
Right now half of you are thinking, What a dumb question, and the other half of you are thinking, The first half is right that is a dumb question. Of course we are alive. Every one of us in this room is alive. You just heard us clap and yell “Hallelujah”. We are breathing right now.
Life, real life, is about more than simply breathing. If we look at life as nothing more than breathing, nothing more than getting through one day and onto the next day we are missing the point about why we are here. This morning, I want to open the Bible to tell you three things about what real life is. First, it comes from God and it has a purpose. Second, it is something that is valuable. Third, it is important.
Let’s start with #1 – Life comes from God and it has a purpose. I know this because we are all creatures and Genesis 1 explains what it means to be something that God made. Let’s look at Genesis 1:26-30.
26 Then God said, “Let us make human beings[b] in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth,[c] and the small animals that scurry along the ground.”
27 So God created human beings[d] in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. 28 Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.”
29 Then God said, “Look! I have given you every seed-bearing plant throughout the earth and all the fruit trees for your food. 30 And I have given every green plant as food for all the wild animals, the birds in the sky, and the small animals that scurry along the ground—everything that has life.” And that is what happened.
31 Then God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was very good
I love this passage of scripture because it tells us that we all have a purpose. A lot of us know the story in Genesis 1, but I will do a very quick summary just in case you haven’t heard it yet. In Genesis 1 God creates everything. He makes land and oceans, he makes fish and birds, he makes trees and animals. After that he looks around and says that everything he did is good. But he doesn’t stop there. Next, He makes us.
Genesis 1 tells us two things that make us special to God. Before we were here, God looked at what He made and said it was “good”. Now that we are here, God looks at what he made and says that it is “very good”. This amazes me. There is nothing that God created on earth that he thinks is better than us. God looks at all of us in this room and people everyone and says, “Very good.” Genesis 1 also tells us that we are created in God’s image. That means that God created us for a reason. God gave everyone in this room a job to do. We need to reflect him to the rest of creation. It is our job to show everything we see – like our pets, flowers on the hill, and every person we meet – that God created them and loves them. The way we reflect the image of God is by being loving to what and who God loves.
OK. Let’s move on to # 2. Life is something that is valuable. The Gospel of John explains Jesus’ role in creating the world. When John writes “The Word,” he is writing about Jesus. Let’s look at John 1:1-5.
In the beginning the Word already existed.
The Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
2 He existed in the beginning with God.
3 God created everything through him,
and nothing was created except through him.
4 The Word gave life to everything that was created,
and his life brought light to everyone.
5 The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness can never extinguish it.
The reason that I love this passage is that it shows us that Jesus will always protect us. That means that life is valuable. John says that Jesus not only gave us life but that he also saw that sin made our lives dark. When Jesus saw this darkness he shone a light into it. What is exciting about this is that when Jesus’ light is here the darkness can never take over again.
I know that your life is valuable and I know that my life is valuable because Jesus says they are. This does not mean that every day from here on out will be peachy. Until Jesus returns and his Kingdom is here in full, bad things are going to happen to all of us. Something bad might happen to one of us today. When something bad happens it does mean God can’t protect us. It means that the devil is doing his best to make life horrible for everyone on earth. Let’s be honest about this. Evil can do a pretty good job at making life hard. However, evil can only do so much damage. The worst thing it can do is make it so we aren’t breathing any more.
Jesus tells us not to worry about that because he knows that life is about more than breathing. In Matthew 10:28 Jesus says not to fear people who can destroy our body. Instead we should fear only God because, if he wanted to, he could destroy both our body and soul.
If I walk outside this building and on my way back to work someone destroys my body, that would be a very bad thing. It would not be the end of me, though. God will still protect me and my soul will be safe. Even though my body would be destroyed, that would only be temporary. Remember that Jesus’ body was destroyed too. Jesus was dead but then he wasn’t dead any more. Jesus resurrected on Easter morning and he promises the same resurrection to everyone who follows him.
When you die, it will not be forever. That is how much Jesus values your life.
# 3 is very close to # 2. Even though resurrection will come in the future for people who follow Jesus, life today is important right now. Jesus cares about you today and Jesus care about me today. Jesus thinks that life today is so important that says that he knows when people love him based on how we treat people and their lives. Let’s look at Matthew 25:34-36 and 40.
34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. 36 I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.’… 40 “And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters,[f] you were doing it to me!’
The reason that I love this passage is that it shows us that Jesus still cares about us when we are completely desperate and that he wants to meet our needs. When we see someone who is thirsty and we give them water, or we see someone who is lonely and we invite them over for tea and cookies, or we see someone who is sick and we visit them when are showing people that we think their lives are important.
Do you know how we know Jesus thinks this is important? Jesus says that when we help someone who needs help he counts it as if we were helping him. That Jesus thinks so highly of my life that he will let people help me instead of helping him makes me feel pretty important. I hope that makes you feel important too.
I don’t get to spend much time at Hope Mission any more, but my time here a few years ago and then my visits since matter a lot to me. When people ask me why I am a Christian and why I think church is worthwhile, I always talk about Hope Mission. I love coming here because when I see the community here it helps me to understand a bit better about why life is purposeful, is valuable, and is important. Thank you for letting me speak with you this morning.
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