LIFE
by Bob Wickizer
Scripture: 1 Kings 2:10-12, 1 Kings 3:3-14, Psalms 111:1-10, Ephesians 5:15-20, John 6:51-58
Title: Life
Author: Bob Wickizer
Text: 1 Kings 2:10-12, 3:3-14; Psalm 111; Ephesians 5:15-20; John 6:51-58
Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of the time.
...Do not get drunk with wine, ... but be filled with the Spirit
This morning we need to have a serious discussion about life. The word appears in this brief gospel passage six times. The Greek word "zoe" for life is the root of our word for "zoo." But more than that, I want to deflect your attention from what 99% of the sermons on this passage talk about which is "eternal" as in "eternal life."
Before diving into our subject, we need to debunk what is commonly preached about eternal and eternal life. The word "eternal" in its original context does not mean eternity or forever. It implies a long period of time. It is better translated as "age" as in the age of the dinosaurs or the age of the Roman empire. Jesus did not mean you would live forever implying some kind of afterlife in a heaven fluttering around on wings and eating bon bons till the end of time. The idea is that believing in Jesus and more importantly doing the things he did will give you a full life right here and now. A moment living doing what Jesus did will seem like a very long time.
Every moment of your conscious day, you get to make a choice. To live as Christ did by being compassionate for complete strangers, protesting injustice, standing alongside the disenfranchised, and challenging political power that oppresses people. Or you can choose to cave in to the urgent, frenetic demands of your current life, sprinting all day from one important thing to do to the next. You flop exhausted on your bed at night wondering where the day went. And twenty years later, you wonder what happened during those twenty years. How did you get so much older so fast, and you hardly noticed it. Your children are now adults, and you missed so much being busy.
That is living in the fast lane. Mar ...
Author: Bob Wickizer
Text: 1 Kings 2:10-12, 3:3-14; Psalm 111; Ephesians 5:15-20; John 6:51-58
Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of the time.
...Do not get drunk with wine, ... but be filled with the Spirit
This morning we need to have a serious discussion about life. The word appears in this brief gospel passage six times. The Greek word "zoe" for life is the root of our word for "zoo." But more than that, I want to deflect your attention from what 99% of the sermons on this passage talk about which is "eternal" as in "eternal life."
Before diving into our subject, we need to debunk what is commonly preached about eternal and eternal life. The word "eternal" in its original context does not mean eternity or forever. It implies a long period of time. It is better translated as "age" as in the age of the dinosaurs or the age of the Roman empire. Jesus did not mean you would live forever implying some kind of afterlife in a heaven fluttering around on wings and eating bon bons till the end of time. The idea is that believing in Jesus and more importantly doing the things he did will give you a full life right here and now. A moment living doing what Jesus did will seem like a very long time.
Every moment of your conscious day, you get to make a choice. To live as Christ did by being compassionate for complete strangers, protesting injustice, standing alongside the disenfranchised, and challenging political power that oppresses people. Or you can choose to cave in to the urgent, frenetic demands of your current life, sprinting all day from one important thing to do to the next. You flop exhausted on your bed at night wondering where the day went. And twenty years later, you wonder what happened during those twenty years. How did you get so much older so fast, and you hardly noticed it. Your children are now adults, and you missed so much being busy.
That is living in the fast lane. Mar ...
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