Consider the pattern of you life

Consider the pattern of you life

What is your primary fantasy? If you could have or do anything at the moment what would it be?

What do you plan to do over the next 6 months? Where do you want to be in 10 years time?

What are your ambitions? What are you working towards?

What do you spend most of your time doing?

It is perfectly natural to be self-oriented

How do other people's interests figure into your priorities?

What would you be prepared to fight and/or die for? Self? Possessions? Friend? Stranger?

Are you caring for anyone who is poor, disabled, sick, abused, dysfunctional, oppressed, lost, or depressed?

You have a higher calling

The path is narrow…

Matthew 7:13-14 13"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it."

It requires you to give up your time, money, will, life…

Matthew 10:39 "Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it."

Following Jesus' example, we take on God nature/priorities…

Micah 6:8 "He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."

This is how:

1. Don't get distracted by money

Luke 12:15 "Then he said to them, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions."

John 6:27 "Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval."

Matthew 6:19-21 "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

2. Put others' interests before your own

Phil2:3-4 "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others."

Luke 6: 29 "If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic."

John 15:12-13 "My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends."

3. Fight for those that can't fight and give your time and money generously

James 1: 27 "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."

Matthew 25:44-46 "They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?' "He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.' "Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life"

Psalm 82:3-4 "Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed. Rescue the weak and needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked. "

1 John 3: 16-18 "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth."

Mother Teresa "When a poor person dies of hunger, it has not happened because God did not take care of him or her. It has happened because neither you nor I wanted to give that person what he or she needed."

Opportunities for service

Where at the poor, the downtrodden, the marginalized, the needy? You know they are out there…but where?

Why aren't they visible? Do we look the other way, avoid contact, and deny the problem?

Matthew 6:9-15 "9"This, then, is how you should pray: 'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.'"

We are told to pray that his kingdom will be established on Earth. What does that Kingdom look like? It will bear a resemblance to the King; his nature will be the nature of the Kingdom. His values will be the Kingdom's values. Justice and mercy will be provided to all. There will be no suffering. Truth and love will be seen everywhere.

This is what we work to bring. We have to bring the fight to the battlefield. We have seek out injustice and redress it. We have to find poverty and help alleviate it. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress!

Consider short-term mission

I encourage all of you to go on a short-term mission. Bring your trade-skills to where they are needed. Discover your gifts. Work out what you want the pattern of your life to look like. You are young a free; a window that will sooner than you think. See the world. Find a wife.

What do you think?