Lord, today we are so humbled by the grace and the mercy that you pour out in our lives. God, we don’t understand why you love us so much. We don’t understand why you care. But Lord we stand here today so grateful that you do. That, Lord, in the midst of our lives that are in such array sometimes and the challenges that we go through, the pain that we feel, the tears that flow. Lord, we thank you that in the midst of those times, that we do know where to go. That is to run directly to you, to seek your face, to seek your heart because, God, we know that you love us, we know that you care about us and, God, we know that you are all that we need. And so, God, today we thank you for that love. We thank you for the mercy, that grace that you showed to us when you died on the cross for our sins, when you were buried and when you rose again. You did all of that for us. Lord, we thank you today. In Jesus precious name we pray. Amen.
What a powerful thought. What a powerful truth it is that God loves us. That God cares about us. That God desires to have a relationship with us. Now let me tell you why that’s a big deal. Let me tell you why that is so amazing and hard to understand. It’s because I know all of you and you know me. We know our faults. We know what our problems are. We know that in life, man we’ve got nothing, nothing, nothing to offer God that is of real value except for when God reaches down and changes or lives. And yet even though we know what we’re like and we know the problems that we face, that God loves us anyway. That God cares about us anyway. That’s a powerful truth.
Over these last four weeks we’ve been talking about the statement, “getting back to life.” Getting back to life when your future is uncertain, when your relationships are hurting, when your finances are challenging, and last week, when you feel spiritually stuck, that you’re not making any progress in life at all.
And throughout these last four weeks what we’ve tried to do is we’ve tried to talk through some of the issues and tried to find some of the answers that God wants to give us in how to make it through those times because the world has lots of answers. The world is ready to give you an answer every day of the week for the problems that you’re going through, for the challenges that you’re facing. The world is standing there ready to offer you lots of different answers. The problem is that none of those answers truly lead to peace. None of those answers truly lead to the kind of life that God wants for us.
The verse that we’ve shared so often over these last few weeks is John 10:10, our theme verse in this series. And that verse just simply says, ” The thief comes to steal and to kill and destroy but I have come that they may have life and have it more abundantly.” We focused on that last word. That important word that’s found here at the end of the verse, “abundantly.” Abundantly. Because we know that, as we talked about a few weeks ago, that statement, that word means that God wants us to have more than we could ever imagine, more than we could possibly comprehend. That’s the kind of life that God wants to give to us.
Now today here in this church we’ve had the opportunity, many of us have done so already and many more will do so after the service, to go and to have our family portrait taken. To allow ourselves to stand in front of a camera and in an instant in time they would capture what our family looks like so that that picture we can take home and we can place on the refrigerator or we can place on our mantel or place on our table and something that we can look at for decades to come of what our family looks like today. The portrait of what that family looks like.
As we went over earlier this morning to get our family picture done, I noticed as we walked in, and I noticed within my family too, that there were several people in our family and most of them were women, who were worried what their hair looked like and making sure that their makeup was right and that their lipstick was right and all those things because you want to make sure that you look right when that picture is taken. Because you know this is something you’ll be looking at for a very long time, of what my family looks like today.
Well today as we come to the conclusion of this series, this Back to Life series, what I want to do for you today is to give you a portrait, give you a picture of Christ’s plan for getting back to life. Over these last few weeks we’ve talked about a lot of different issues and a lot of different things that are so vital for us to understand if we’re going to have the abundant life that Christ wants us to have. And today what I want to do is to take us to a passage of Scripture that I firmly believe is God’s perfect roadmap, perfect plan. That if you will do these things, if you will live this out, if you will do what I ask you to do, then what you will have is abundant life, the kind of life that God desires for each and every one of us.
If you will, turn with me today in your Bibles to the Book of Proverbs and the 3rd chapter. And in the 3rd chapter, I do firmly believe that we see and we find the portrait of abundant life. It says in verse 1 and following, “My son, do not forget my law. But let your heart keep my commands for length of days and long life and peace they will add to you. Let not mercy and truth forsake you. Bind them on your neck. Write them on the tablet of your heart and so find favor and high esteem in the sight of God and man.”
Verse 5 is a familiar verse. Charles quoted it a few moments ago. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he shall direct your paths. Do not be wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord and depart from evil. It will be health to your flesh and strength to your bones.”
I want to take a moment and read this passage out of the New Living Translation this morning. It says, “My child never forget the things I’ve taught you. Store my commands in your heart for they will give you a long and satisfying life. Never let loyalty and kindness get away from you. Wear them like a necklace and write them deep within your heart. Then you will find favor with both God and people and you will gain a good reputation. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do and he will direct your paths. Don’t be impressed with your own wisdom. Instead fear the Lord and turn your back on evil.” And listen to what it says in verse 8 because I think this is a perfect statement, a perfect picture of abundant life. It says, “Then you will gain renewed health and vitality.”
I don’t know about you but today that’s what I want in my life, renewed health and vitality. I want a life that is just over the top. And yet every single day when I wake up I’m faced with the challenges of the day. I’m faced with the heartaches of the day, the problems of the day, the struggles of the day. And I don’t care how close to Christ you are. I don’t care how long you have been a Christian. I don’t care what situation you are in in life; it seems like every day is full of them. That every day it just seems to get tougher and tougher. We find ourselves back where that song that we’ve heard, “when I don’t know what to do,” it seems like every day we are crying out those words. When I don’t know what to do. When I don’t know where to go. When I don’t know where to turn. But yet, Christ has given us here in Proverbs chapter 3 the perfect plan for those times. The perfect picture of what we need to do.
Today I want to share with you four truths from this passage because in these four truths we find that portrait of abundant life. And we realize that God’s plan for abundant life, God’s plan for what we do in life is found here. And this is what He will do for us.
The first one is this, true peace. True peace. In verses 1 and 2 it says, “My son do not forget my law; but let your heart keep my commands: for length of days and long life and peace they will add to you.” That word “keep”…“Let your heart keep my commands.” That word “keep” is the idea of guarding something with diligence, with passion. You are going to do everything you possibly can to protect and to make sure that nothing gets into your life that would take you away from Christ.
So the first picture that we get, the first idea that we get from this passage is God is telling you, listen if you want the right kind of life, if you want peace in your life, if you want abundant life, then keep my commandments. Follow what it is that I have told you to do. Guard them. Man, use every bit of your strength. You take this seriously diligently, you keep my Word.
And do you know what He says He’ll do? He says this in verse 2, “For length of days and long life and peace they will add to you.” We read in that verse, verse 2, “Length of days and long life.” Why in the world did God put both of these statements in that first sentence? Don’t they mean the same thing? Length of days, long life, isn’t that exactly the same thing? And the answer is no. It’s actually not. Length of days, that one’s easy. We’ve got that. That means a whole lot of days and I don’t know about you but I want a whole lot of days! I want to live for a long time. I want to make sure I’m around to see my kids get married and to see them have children and I want to see their children have children and, man, I want to break records. I want to be like a hundred and fifty and then be raptured so that I never have to die. That’s my plan. That’s my plan. Length of days, that’s what I want.
But long life does not mean a lot of days. Long life doesn’t mean simply that we live a very long time. You see that word is referring to the quality of life. In fact, if you look in the original Hebrew, the word “life” that’s used here has nothing to do with breathing. It has nothing to do with the heart beating. It has nothing to do with just being able to walk around. That actual word is referring to, listen to this, “Vegetation. Green growing vegetation.” A few moments ago we gave out all these plants. And they are green and they are growing and they are vital. And the vitality that’s in those plants is something that, man, those plants will be around for a long time unless you don’t water them, which is probably what we’ll do. But they will be around for a long time.
That’s the word that God uses here in this passage. Listen, I’ll give you a lot of days but listen, I’ll give you an overflowing life. I’ll give you a satisfying life. I’ll give you a fully growing important impactful incredible life, or “abundant life.” And it comes from keeping, guarding your heart, making sure you’re keeping His commands.
It then goes on to say in the end of this verse, “and peace they will add to you.” You know the word “peace.” That’s the Hebrew word Shalom, which means completeness and wholeness. And that’s something we all want, isn’t it? Completeness. Wholeness. A life that feels like it is completely overflowing and full. That’s what we all want.
The portrait of life that He gives to us that God wants us to have starts with true peace but then it flows forward into true love. We talked about this a few weeks ago with Tim Clinton, of love and forgiveness, acceptance, that in life that we know that there are people who we love and who love us and those relationships are so meaningful. Look what it says in verses 3 and 4. Verses 3 and 4 say, “Let not mercy and truth forsake. Bind them around your neck. Write them on the tablet of your heart and so by doing so, find favor and high esteem in the sight of God and of man.”
We read this passage, “Let not mercy and truth forsake you.” The idea is don’t let these things leave you. You keep them close to you. Don’t let them get away from you. Then it says, “Bind them on your neck.” Why does it say that? Because in those days the neck was something that was equated with where your heart was, where your soul was, what was important to you. You probably read, if you’ve read the Book of Jeremiah, many times it talks about how someone has stiffened their neck against the Word of God. That their necks have stiffened from walking with God and living for God. They’ve stiffened their neck, which basically means they’ve stiffened their hearts. They’ve walked away from; they are resisting what God wants in their lives. So this passage tells us, listen if you want to find true acceptance and true love. If you want to find the kind of life that you are looking for, do this. Bind it around your neck to show the world how important this is.
And then it says to write it on the tablet of your heart. It gives us the idea that the word “write” there, literally, down deep, to etch it, to engrave it. If you’ve ever been involved in sports or some other activity where you’ve gotten trophies or plaques, you know what happens with those trophies and plaques. You get them and, man, you’re so proud of them that day. But then that night you take them home and you throw them in the garage, you throw them in the attic, you throw them in the closet and probably 20 or 30 or 40 years later when you move you happen to pull them back out again and you knock all the cobwebs off of them and you kind of clean them up a little bit. But guess what, even after all of that time, do you know what’s still there? The engraving. At the front of that trophy, at the front of that plaque that said it was given to who you are, your name and what you’ve done. Those words are still there. They’ve not washed away. They’ve not been wiped away. They’ve not faded, they’re still there because when you etch something, when you engrave something, it’s there for a lifetime.
The Bible tells us here, “Write it, engrave it, etch it in your heart. It goes on to say an important statement here, “By doing so, you’ll find favor in the sight of God, in the sight of man.” In other words, we’ll find true acceptance. We’ll find true love and in whatever we face, we’ll have people around us who love us and care about us because they see in us the love and the heart of God.
Deuteronomy 6 talks about this. Write it on the tablet of your home and nail it to the doorpost of your home. Talk about it in the morning. Talk about it when you go to bed. In everything you do, you talk about God and live for Him. That’s what this passage is telling us. If you want to find true love, true acceptance, this is what you do. So we get the picture that God has given us here of true peace, of true love.
It then goes on to give us an idea of true direction, of where we’re to go. Look at what it says in verses 5 and 6. Again a familiar passage, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he shall direct your paths.” You’ve probably read Proverbs 16:9 that talks about how that man plans his ways but the Lord directs his steps. We understand and realize that God has got the perfect plan for our lives. He will show us where to go. He will lead us where He wants us to go.
This last couple of days I’ve been out in California. I had to go out there on Wednesday to speak at a church there in Hollywood on Thursday, an incredible church. It’s reaching out to drug addicts and reaching out to the homeless and it was amazing. Thursday night, about 3000 people in the room, 142 came to Christ that night. It was an incredible moment, incredible time.
But as we were there that night, as we were driving to the church I was with Jason Schonfelder who went with me out there and we didn’t know our way around LA because it’s a little bigger than Lynchburg. And so I took a GPS with me so we could punch in the address and find out where to go and so we’re driving along and I punched in the address on the GPS. Jason’s driving and I’m sitting in the right seat and I’m holding the GPS in my hand. I had to hold it forward to make sure that it can see the window to get the satellites and all that stuff. So I’m sitting there and we’re driving along and I program it in and it’s telling us where to go and then my phone rings and so I’m answering my phone and I’m talking on the phone with someone. And as we’re driving along I’m talking on the phone, I’m watching on the GPS, I’m telling Jason where to go and we’re driving along going on and finally I whisper, “Jason, in about 4 or 5 streets look for the street and turn left.”
Then I go back to my telephone conversation, trying to act like to this person that they’ve got my undivided attention. And we’re driving along and I say, “Jason, make sure you don’t miss that road.” And we’re driving on and a little while later I look down and realize that about 30 blocks behind us, we’d passed that road.
So we stopped and we turned around and I programmed it again and it told us now go down here about 8 blocks and turn right to this new street and it will take us to a new place and so we’re driving along, and I’m still on the phone, still holding the GPS. And Jason is still driving. And all of the madness that is LA. We’re driving along and all of a sudden I look down and I’m trying to talk to Jason and I realize that we’ve gotten about 6 or 7 streets past that.
And I realize quickly that in life, that’s kind of the way we live, isn’t it? You see God’s given us the GPS. God’s given us the direction. God’s given us the plan. He’s told us what we need to do and how to get there. He’s told us everything that we need to know but the problem is that the distractions of life are keeping us from getting there. It’s not God. So often in the midst of challenge, we say where’s God? Why did God leave me? God didn’t leave you. God’s given you everything that you need to know. The problem is we’ve let life lead us in a different way. We’ve let the stuff of life and the challenges of life that we’ve talked about over these last few weeks, we’ve let them drop into our path and we don’t know where to go now. And the things that distract us, they’ve taken us off onto a different road and a different path and even in that time, just like the GPS, if we would take the time to look back at the Word of God, He would give us a new path and he would get us back to where we need to be but we let the distractions keep us from getting there.
Why do we do that? When Christ has told us “Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Don’t lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him,” Guess what? “I will direct your path.” I’ll show you where to go. I’ll show you how to get through. I’ll show you how to make it through those tough times. I will do that for you. But you’ve got to acknowledge me. You’ve got to listen to me. You’ve got to trust me with all of your heart. See, to get to that abundant life, to get back to the life that Christ wants for us, we’ve got to trust Him with everything. He gives us true peace and He gives true love. He gives us a true direction.
But listen to this, and I love this. I love this. He gives us true healing. Healing. Healing. I know there are a lot of people in this room today that need healing. Look what it says in verses 7 and 8. “Do not be wise in your own eyes.” In other words, don’t think you’ve got all the answers. “Fear the Lord and depart from evil,” and I love this. Listen to verse 8, “It will be health to your flesh, strength to your bones.”
We read this passage and we get in verse 7 to that word “fear” and the first thing that comes to our mind is to be afraid of something, isn’t it? In our vernacular, in our world, man it says, fear something. Man, we fear it. We want to get away from it. We don’t want to go anywhere near it. You know we’re to be afraid. I was driving through Los Angeles. There were a lot of things I was fearful of. You want to walk away from.
But that is not what this word means. When you look in the original Hebrew at the word “fear” that’s used there, it’s the word yare’. And it means this, listen, to stand in awe, to stand in reverence, to stand in absolute appreciation. So in life, Christ is telling us, listen hey don’t be wise in your own eyes. Don’t think you’ve got all the answers. Don’t try to figure it out on your own. Listen, you fear me. You revere me. You stand in awe of me. You respect me. You live your life and make sure that everything you do you realize what a great God I am. And if you do that, here’s what will happen. I’ll bring health to your flesh. The word “health” there, we look in the original languages and it’s the word riph’uwth, which literally is a vivid Hebrew word, a medical term that refers to something that is broken, that is injured, coming back to normalcy. Something coming back to normal.
I’ve had 37 broken bones in my life. There was one day that I had a broken leg. I was 14 years old. I broke my leg right before the end of school one summer and had the cast on for it seemed like forever. And man that day was coming. I was so excited about that day. I was looking forward to that day that cast was coming off. Man, I couldn’t be more excited. I couldn’t be more happy. The summertime, man, I wanted to go swimming. I wanted to learn to do all of that stuff and, man, that day came and I was working at Treasure Island Youth Camp that summer as a, helping out in the camp. And my mom came to pick me up that morning. She picked me up and took me to the orthopedic doctor’s office. And they took me in there and they cut that cast off. And you know, if you’ve ever had a cast, man, there’s no feeling like when that cast comes off. You know? And you’re moving your leg around; you’re moving your toes around. It’s just awesome, you know? It’s incredible. I was so excited. And so I walked out of there. Man, I couldn’t have been more happy and I went back to the camp that night, and at 11:00 o’clock that night, I stepped off a curb and broke my other leg! Thirteen hours I was healthy. I broke my other leg. Really stinks. But do you know what? When we get the picture of the healing that God brings, something that’s broken, something that has been crushed, and something that has been ripped apart. Listen, fear the Lord, revere Him, respect Him and it will be like health to your flesh. Something that’s broken, restoring to something that’s normal. Taking what’s broken and bringing it back to life.
You see that’s what Christ desires for each and every one of us. That’s what His plan is. That’s what His desire is. But you know, not only does He bring us back to normal, that gives us that health, but look what that verse says. In verse 8, how it ends. Not only will He bring health to our flesh, but listen “and strength to your bones.”
That day when I broke my other leg, I had health back for a little while but then I was broken again. But you know what, when you follow after Christ, when you live the life that He wants you to live. When you fear Him, when you respect Him, when you obey Him, when you walk with Him, when you pursue Him with all your heart, when you let Him lead every step of your way. When you let Him guide you--everything, not only will He bring you back to health, but He will give you the strength to protect you in the days to come. Bring you back to normal, but that’s not enough. He’ll give you what you need to face the days ahead. That’s what abundant life is all about.
So in essence how do we get back to life? What’s the answer to getting back to life in the midst of life’s problems? How do we get back to life? We get back to the giver of life, knowing that our only hope, that our only peace, that our only love, that the only opportunity we have for a future is found only, only, only in Jesus Christ.
With our heads bowed and our eyes closed today, I know. I know there are many people in this room right now and you don’t know what to do. You don’t know where to turn. The brokenness in your life is intense. Your heart aches and you’re stuck. You’ve tried it all. You’ve tried everything and nothing seems to work. My friends today the picture that we’ve got and the portrait of life that Christ has given to us is a portrait that leads us directly back to Him.
If you’re here today and you’re stuck in life and you want to get back to life, listen you’ve got to get to God. You’ve got to get back to Him before you’ll ever get back to life. Maybe you’re here this morning and you’ve never realized the power that comes from the cross of Christ. You’ve never come to that realization that you’re a sinner and you need a Savior. I want you to know today and I want you to hear me. I don’t want anyone moving around, no one’s leaving. Listen to me. God loves you and He loves you just the way you are. With all of your problems. With all of your struggles. With all of your hurts. With all of your tears, God loves you just the way you are. And He loves you so much that in the midst of all of that, He sent His son to die on the cross for you and for your sins. To pay the price that you should have paid. The penalty that we should have paid, Christ paid for it when He bled and died on that cross. And then as He was taken down from that cross and laid in that borrowed tomb, He lay there for three days and listen, He did that for you. But my dear friends, three days later He got up and He walked out of that tomb. And He did so for you to give you abundant life. To give you a future. To give you hope. To give you forgiveness. All of that was for you. And if you’re hear today and you’ve never accepted that free gift that God wants to give you, then my friends in a moment we are going to sing a song. A song that literally says the words of this passage today that we’ve read. And it’s a statement. How Great Is Our God. And today I’m going to invite you in a moment to come meet our pastors here and to meet that God, that God who loves you so much that He sent His son to die for you.
Today you can meet Him. You can walk out of here as a new creation. Maybe you are a Christian but you’ve gotten away from God. Your life is so far off the track you don’t know how to get back to Him. The Bible just simply says this, draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Today I’m going to give you the opportunity to come to this altar, to kneel at this altar and say, God, I’m tired of doing it on my own. God, today I’m coming back to you.
Maybe you want to come for baptism. I’m baptizing tonight and I’d love to have that opportunity and privilege of baptizing you. Maybe you want to come to join our church. Maybe you just want to come and kneel here and pray for your family or for a friend. Couples, maybe you want to come and pray together. Whatever it is, listen, the answer, the answer to getting back to life is to run to the giver of life. The world doesn’t have that. It’s only found through Christ.
Lord, today I pray that in these next few moments for those that are gathered in this room. Lord, I pray right now that you would speak to their hearts. To the hurting, to the broken, to the lost, Lord to the ones who don’t know what to do and don’t know where to go and don’t know what to say. God, I pray in this place, in this moment right now that you would speak to their hearts. That you would draw them to this altar, proclaiming with their hearts and their lips, how great is our God. And that they would find in you that abundant life that you so desperately want for them. God, do it today. Do it today. Do it in us.
With our heads bowed and our eyes closed we are going to stand and sing this song, How Great Is Our God. And with no one moving around unless you are moving to this altar, unless you are moving to this altar. I want you to sing these words. I want you to sing them not only with your lips, I want you to sing them with your heart. How great is our God, in the midst of trials? How great is our God in the midst of problems? How great is our God in the midst of broken hearts? How great is our God in the midst of everything that I face? How great is our God? And say it today loudly, proclaim it. He is the one that will lead us every step of the way. Step out right now.
Sing this song from the tops of our hearts, from the tops of our lungs proclaiming Him as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. There are those that are kneeling at this altar right now. There are those that are in the prayer room right now but if you are standing here and you’ve tried everything else to make it through life, you’ve tried everything you can possibly think of and your heart is still broken, and you still can’t find your way, listen to these words. Step out, come to this altar and seek the One and only One who can give you the answers that you desperately need. How great is our God. Let’s sing it together this morning.
Lord, today we thank you for how great you are. We thank you that you love us so much that you came to this earth and you died on the cross for us, that you were buried and that you rose again for us to give us life. You are the giver of life. God I pray right now for those that are gathered around this altar, those who are in the prayer room, those who are standing in this room today. Lord, I pray that in this place that you would draw all of us to you. That you would help us to see that in the challenges that we face that the only answers that we have are to run to you. To pursue you with all of our hearts, God. And Lord, we thank you that you care. We thank you that in the midst of all of the stuff that we face, God, that you are never done with us. That you are never done with us. God, we thank you for that truth. So Lord, now I pray that as we leave this place today, that you would give us everything that we need. That you would guide our steps and you would guide our paths. Lord, so that we can live the lives that you intended for us to live, abundant life. And God, for that we will give you all the praise and all of the glory because you are the only one who is worthy of our praise. In Jesus precious name we pray. And all of God’s people said. Amen.
God bless you, we’ll see you back tonight at six o’clock.