We live in a world that makes promises telling us “We can have it all.” Life without limits. Blessing without budgets. Choices without costs.
This is the basic pitch of almost every advertisement. “You need this car.” “You should buy that house.” “You have to go to that event.” “Don’t leave the house without wearing these!” Message after message sells each item in a vacuum. Isolated, the case is way easier to make. In the “We can have it all” world, we have unlimited time and money – so we can do everything and buy it all. And in this mythical/limitless world, attractions are magnified and consequences are forgotten.
There is a serious problem with this worldview, though. It is absolutely not possible. All of us have the same amount of time (24 hours a day, 7 days a week) – a finite and limited number. Though some lives are years shorter than others, when compared to eternity, our varying length of days are all look short and limited. As it relates to money, each of us are entrusted with differing amounts, but a budget constrains all. With only a few days and dollars, we are forced to demonstrate our priorities by what we experience and expense. And as it relates to our decisions themselves … they are actually way more consequential than we sometimes realize. Our choices all carry consequences, even if we don’t perceive them immediately.
So, as it turns out, the world’s promises are really lies. We can’t have it all, and there really are consequences to our choices. Given this reality, how do you determine where to spend your life (time and money)? How do you evaluate the ups and downs of the choices you make?
What is WORTH investing your life in? All of us will invest our lives in something. At the end of the day our time and money will go somewhere. We will have made our choices. What choice will you make?
I want to suggest that there is one big choice that will rule the other choices in your life. And I want to propose that this idea is not just mine … but that I got it from someplace really important —- Revelation 14. In the middle of the last book of our Bibles, amidst a presentation of Jesus Christ as the Lord of the Earth, we get a chapter that informs us that there is a MASTER CHOICE that we must all make regarding our lives. Using the perspective of eternity and the context of the end times, this chapter points out that each life will be MARKED by something … really by SOMEONE.
Either we will choose to be MARKED by the BEAST of this world, and invited to be intoxicated by the desires of our flesh, and our desire for self-preservation … OR we will be MARKED by the LAMB OF GOD and determine to follow Him wherever He goes. Either we will keep our lives in our hands and do and say whatever we need to do and say in order to “fit in” down here, or we will turn our lives over to another who will personally protect and provide for us forever. What will mark YOU? What DOES mark you?
How you answer this question is of a level of importance that cannot be overstated … and the rationale for making this decision is no “blind leap of faith.” In His last words of the Bible (Revelation), the argument is made for the enduring worth of following Jesus, and the excruciating agony of this beastly world.
This Sunday at Wildwood, we’ll talk about it, and look at Revelation 14:1-20 to see for ourselves this eternity-shaping reality. Make plans to join us this Father’s Day for this message and time of worship together. Our Heavenly Father wants us to know how to be with Him on His day. Don’t miss it … and bring friends to the 8:30, 9:45, or 11:00 services. See you there!