Your Voice
An example of where science and religion intersect.
Doyle Jackson
Apr 14, 2018 45m
In this sermon Pastor Doyle talks about goals. He explained that goals are important so we don't get stagnant in our worship life. He explains there is a place in goal setting where science and religion intersect. He said that the Law of Entropy shows us that things, when left alone, get worse. This applies to our relationship with God as well. If we don't attend to our relationship with Him, sin will creep in, and wear us down. Then he talked about stages of life. He explained that our goals will be different in each stage of our life, but we can find some clarity by asking ourselves which things do feel God has placed on our heart to bring us closer to Him. Video recorded at Columbus, Ohio.
TranscriptionmessageRegarding Grammar:
This is a transcription of the sermon. People speak differently than they write, and there are common colloquialisms in this transcript that sound good when spoken, and look like bad grammar when written.
This is a transcription of the sermon. People speak differently than they write, and there are common colloquialisms in this transcript that sound good when spoken, and look like bad grammar when written.
Doyle Jackson: 00:01 In Loi tok tok to check out the orphanage in the morning. I have Tina with me, Matt [inaudible], Jordan's doing video. They're just wanted to say welcome from Africa.
Doyle Jackson: 00:22 Isn't that cool? Isn't that wonderful? It's exciting to me, I just like hearing her voice, but I'm different on that you know? She's my girlfriend, she's a sweetheart you know? I'm so excited, I'm so excited to be a part of a church that loves their community here, and we did what we did on Easter. And now we're working together on the other side of the earth to share the love of Jesus, encourage brothers and sisters there, so exciting. Jennifer called me this morning and gave me a little update, so I thought I would share that with you. There's some prayer requests that they have, so you may want to jot these down. Let me get my notes out from talking to her. She said that they had a hard time sleeping last night, and you will not identify with this, she said that the monkeys outside of their tent...Okay, so they're staying in this little cabin thing, but it's more like a tent that it is a cabin. It's hard to explain to you until you've been there, but the monkeys were eating some bugs or something outside their tent and it was so noisy. It was so noisy, their eating, that they couldn't sleep, none of them. You know, and she said at one point she got up and she went and checked her bag just to make sure something had not crawled into cabin, and gotten into her bag, because she took some snacks with her. Surprise, you know what I'm saying? You go halfway around the world, you're going to take a couple of things with you. Just in case you need is a go to, you know what I'm saying? But the monkeys were so loud. So if the monkeys were so loud last night that they kept you up in your house, and I know some of you have some monkeys, we're going to pray for you after church. But pray for them.
Doyle Jackson: 02:07 They traveled about 26 hours, it took 26 hours of travel time. They got there, they tried to go to bed in Nairobi, didn't get really a full night's sleep. Got up, and had to ride six hours in a car on rough roads, and then they got to where they are yesterday, today, whatever we want to look at it. There are seven hours ahead of us. Okay. Jennifer has always been ahead of me. Alright,. I'm just. I'm okay with that, but they haven't slept well, so pray that they'll sleep well. It's really, really, rainy there. A lot of mosquitoes, pray that they won't get mosquito bites, that will just make it worse. They're doing everything they can. Pray for them in terms of their work will be effective, pray for the technology to work. Because that video you got, took hours to get it here, and it was only 30 seconds. So the videos you get maybe short, because they don't always get as good a connection as we do today. I think she posted a picture this morning. We've got a picture up there, because that's what we could get to you today. Okay. It's later in the evening, they are now, they'll be getting ready for bed very soon.
Doyle Jackson: 03:21 If you'd like, this evening at 5:00, at Deeper Life, I'll try to show you some pictures from when I was in Kenya, just to give you a little bit of feel for that, and we're going to take some time to pray for them. So if you have a real heart for that, I invite you to come tonight. I'm also going to talk about the cure for rejection. So if you're alive and breathing, you've been rejected at some times. So I think that it's good. Okay. But if you want to come tonight, that's available to you here, and it'll be in the chapel. Let me see if she gave me any other thing. She said that the little church that they went to today and shared with, has just planted a second church, and they've had some revivals. They've done some special meetings to welcome people to Christ, and over the past few weeks, they've seen 47 people come to know Christ. They've worked really hard. Where they are right now is a Loi tok tok and it's not far from Mount Kilimanjaro. Okay. And they were there so they could see the grounds where the orphanage that we've been investing in has been built and all that. I think she mentioned that they were real close to an elephant. That's, hey, that's a highlight of my day. Any day I get to be 15, 20 feet from an elephant, it's a good day, I'm telling you. And I walk away from it, it's a very good day. All right? And they're having a lot of fun. But as you can imagine, there are some challenges that they face. One of the things that Jennifer said that really stuck with me, she said, I learned something. I said, what'd you learn? She said, well, she said, it's just as difficult to reach people for Jesus here in Africa as it is at home. She said, sometimes we have this imagination that somehow in Africa it's easier to share Christ with people, and she said it's just not true. She said that people today, she said we had low crowds at church because it had rained so much, and they would have to walk so far to church, in so much mud that they just didn't come in. And she said, you know, we think sometimes, well, you know, we said we struggle with the same things. You and I struggle with the same things they do, you know, things that challenge us just to get up and to give God a little bit more, to give God in our life. Do not live under the imagination that it's easier for somebody else. We're going to talk about that a little bit today. Okay? So pray for them. If you haven't, check it out on Facebook, share it with your friends. Keep following. That's the best way for you to know what they're doing.
Doyle Jackson: 05:57 I also want to remind you, they'd mentioned earlier that on Tuesday night we're going to have a worship night. You guys were worshiping, Awesome. You did a great job. It's not just them, it's you I come to hear. And on Tuesday night we're having a worship night, but on Friday night is one night in Columbus. It's only one night a year, and it's where we gather to pray for our city and to worship the Lord. It's at the Celeste Center at the Ohio's fairgrounds there. You're welcome to come Friday night, I believe it's 6:30. If you make the decision now, you know I want to see what it would look like to have several thousand people of Columbus gather and worship God. Okay? Write it down, be there Friday night. Okay.
Doyle Jackson: 06:41 With that, I want to invite you to get out your phones, get out your notes. We're going to talk about Hashtag goals, your voice. Alright. When it comes to this whole idea of goals, the reasoning we're looking at this is that when Jesus rose from the dead, we looked at Easter a few weeks ago. We said there's a little bit more, that there's more to yours and my God relation. There's more to knowing Jesus, than just salvation, and a lot of people stop there. A lot of people think, well, Jesus died on the cross so that I can have eternal life, and I'll just wait for heaven. No, God wants you to experience his presence, his goodness in this life. So what I believe that the Bible teaches is this, is that a relationship with God will impact the way I relate to my family. My relationship with God will impact the way I relate to my neighbors, my friends, my work, every area, and so when we talk about goals, the reason we need goals is because just life in general will drag you down. We all agree with that, right?
Doyle Jackson: 07:47 Well, there's a scientific principle that promotes that, and there's a biblical principle that goes along with that, and I just want to help you see that real briefly. In the world in which we live, if you go to school and you study physics, we talk about the law of entropy. Anything left alone will get worse. All right? If you leave your coat outside on the fence, over time, the rain is going to fade it, it's going to blow away, it's going to tear apart, right? If you leave your car outside, it's going to rust. You can buy a brand new car, all right, and you want to save it for several years, you put it in the garage, it's going to begin to fall apart, even if you leave it there. The rubber will degrade, you have to start it, you have to manage it, otherwise it's going to go bad. Well, the Bible says that you and I live in a world that is sin filled, and that the nature of the world in which we live, means that it takes energy to overcome the sin. And you and were not able to overcome sin in our own ability, but God went to the cross to give us victory over sin. And that the law of entropy says, if you live in this world, it's going to take energy for you to overcome just the slow down. Anyone who has spent a little bit of life begins to understand, you get to a point in your life and then the curve begins to go down. You're not naturally growing every day, and it takes more energy. It takes more energy as you grow older just to get up and get out of bed. Alright? When you were little, and if you have a little one at home, you know they have more energy than you. It's time to be honest.
Doyle Jackson: 09:42 Well see, that's all dealing with just the reality of life, and what the Bible talks about. And so, what that means for you and I is this, the reason we've got to have goals is because goals is recognizing that there are forces that are pulling against us. And the reason you have a goal, is so that you can push against those forces, and you know what you're dealing with. The reason that goals become important is they give you the energy. If you just have the goal to get up and get out of bed every day, that's an important goal. If you get up and make your bed, that's even a better goal. If you get up and have a plan for the day, that's even better. Because otherwise this is what's going to happen. It'll just happen to you, and you'll get to the end of the day and you'll go, man, I've wasted my whole day and I don't feel good about anything. But if you'll write down your goals, you're going to reach them. Goals become important. Now the goals in your life change over time. The goals that you had as a teenager, are different than the goals you had in your twenties and thirties, your forties and fifties and your sixties and seventies. And so the voice that you have is directly related to your context, your life experience, where you've lived. If you grew up near Loi tok tok where the orphanage is, in Africa, you have a different life experience from Columbus, Ohio. You have different things you can say about life, different learning's.
Doyle Jackson: 11:16 Your context is what I want you to look at today. I want you to begin to imagine what is the context for your life? Where are you at in this, and what are the forces that you're pushing against? Okay? If if you're young, you're pushing against some things differently, than if you were older and more mature. That's your context. Now, there's this powerful passage in scripture, it's from the Prophet Isaiah, in the Hebrew Bible, and it's about a voice calling in the wilderness. And some of us know it, we've even heard quoted in movies, and in the modern contemporary world in which we speak. We'll talk about making the low places higher, and the high places lower, so it's smooth. And it's the voice calling in the desert. Isaiah speaks of this voice calling in the desert, and what he's speaking of is just that every one of us lives in a world where entropy and sin are dragging them down, and we all need a voice of hope. If you would look at this verse with me, these verses from Isaiah 40, "Comfort my people says your God, speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord's hand, double for all her sins. A voice of one calling, calling in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord. Make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low, the rough ground shall become level, and the rugged places a plain. The glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken." I believe that what this speaks to, is that every generation, every generation, needs a voice of hope. What I want to invite you to, is to be the voice of hope in your generation. Now you don't even have to believe in God to do that, you can just believe that the world in which we live is experiencing the effects of evil. you can believe that the world that we live in is experiencing entropy, and that we need a little energy and a little bit of encouragement and hope. But if you are a Christ follower, I believe that you look at this with an even greater urgency, because you feel like, well, God has spoken to his people, and he invites us to be a part of his voice. The purpose, the purpose, of anyone who calls themselves a Christ follower, is to bring glory to God. The church has always said that, that the main purpose of God's people is to bring glory to him. It's always to point to Him, not to ourselves. So when this prophecy was written in the life of Isaiah, when he spoke it and wrote it down and he came to you, it was within the context of the Hebrew people in Jerusalem at the time of a king by the name of Hezekiah.
Doyle Jackson: 14:25 Now Hezekiah is remembered for many reasons throughout the tradition of God's people. One of them is because he built a tunnel through solid rock. I've walked through that tunnel. It carries water from the spring, outside the city of Jerusalem, into the city. He did that because the city was under siege from enemies. In Hezekiah's time, when he was the king of Jerusalem, they had several opponents that came to destroy them. They wanted to destroy the city, and God miraculously showed up in Hezekiah's day, and delivered the city, because of the prayers of the people, because of God's great mercy, it wasn't necessarily because they were deserving. It was just God showed up, and delivered them from some really powerful ancient enemies. Okay?
Doyle Jackson: 15:17 In the Book of Second Kings Chapter Twenty, it tells us the context for Isaiah 40. It says that God has delivered Jerusalem from these enemies, and then after that King Hezekiah comes down with an illness. Now God speaks to Isaiah, the prophet, the one that we just read. It says, I need you to go talk to the king. And Isaiah says, okay, and he says, what do I need to tell him? And God says, tell him he's going to die. Now that's not good news, we all know we're going to die, but we all have an imagination, we've still got plenty of time. Doesn't matter who we are, everybody I know always thinks they've got more time. We just assume that, well Hezekiah is sick, it says he has a boil. I don't know what kind of boil this is, I don't even want to go there. Alright? But Isaiah comes walking into the king, and he says, I want you to know something Heze, God and I we're talking today, and he says, you're going to die. That's not a good report. And then Isaiah leaves the king, and the king is on his deathbed. All right? And it says that King Hezekiah rolled over, and faced the wall, and he began to weep. He began to cry. Now Isaiah has left the king's bedroom and he's leaving. He says he's going through the courtyard and God speaks to him again, and God says to Isaiah, stop, go back, I have a new message for Hezekiah. And it says that Isaiah turns around and he walks back into the king's bedroom, and he says, Hezekiah, God has spoken. He has seen your tears, he's seen your repentance, he's seen your grief, he saw you on your bed right now, and God says, I'm going to give you 15 more years of life. Now that's good news if you're Hezekiah. Alright, keep reading in the chapter, and it says, sometime after that, that there was an emissary from another nation that comes to visit King Hezekiah in Jerusalem. Now remember, he's got these extra years now. He's beyond into this whole new part of his life. And he welcomes this emissary, and he's so proud of the city of Jerusalem and everything that he takes this person on a tour, shows them everything, takes them into the temple, and then on the backside of the temple, he takes them to where all the treasury is from all of God's people. And he's just so proud of his city that God has given them. Well, God speaks to Isaiah again, says you need to go talk to the king, I need you to let him know that he's been a foolish man today. Because in essence what Hezekiah did, what he showed was God's wealth in God's people's lives, and he took credit for it.
Doyle Jackson4: 18:51 Okay? It's kind of like you and I, when we take credit for our talents, our ability, our lives, and we're just stewards of that. It's not because we're so smart, or so good, we just, we take credit for that. What the king did was he took credit for God's blessing on the people of Jerusalem, and so Isaiah says, you've made a mistake, and because of this mistake, because of this mistake, we're going to be attacked and destroyed. And Isaiah's telling him this, and Hezekiah says, I just have one question. He says, what's the question? He says, is it going to happen in my lifetime? He says, no, God said he won't do it in your lifetime. And Hezekiah actually says, Oh, good, that during my lifetime it'll be peace. Okay. Did you see how self-centered that is? How off kilter he's gotten? You see, this is the danger that you and I have, the danger is that you and I began to take our life for granted. We begin to take our life as though it's our life, that somehow we've done something to deserve the life that we have. It is God's grace and mercy, in my opinion, that you have any opportunity that you have. And God speaks to Jerusalem. He says, I'm going to give you a voice and I want you to know that the voice in the wilderness says, I'm the one that make the low places high, and the high places. Look, I am the one that prepares the path in your life, not you. Relearn to rely on me. That's what God is inviting us to.
Doyle Jackson: 20:40 Now fast forward, years and years later, seven hundred and fifty years later. A young man, by the name of John, comes preaching in the wilderness. When I see John the Baptist in my mind, I imagine a 1960's to early 70's hippie, that is nowhere in scripture, that's just my imagination. You know what I'm saying? I think long, woolly hair, and that's just because he wore camel hair, and we're not talking about the nice coats that you get at Nordstrom's okay? His may have even had camel fleas. Okay? It says that he ate locusts, and he lived in the desert, he was kind of a vagabond, you know? And he comes out there, and people come out to him in the desert to hear his message of hope. And what's interesting is this, is that people gather around John, and they're wealthy, and they're poor, they're religious, they're irreligious, and they come out to him. And John, he steps up to them, and he says, who warned you? You vipers, you brood of vipers, who warned you to come out here to hear me? I mean, that is not very complimentary, right? What John is trying to say to the people who came to listen to him, it was God's grace in your life that brought you here. See, when you live in a desert place, it's God's grace that gets you through. When you live in this world, it is a desert place, and there's constantly these forces against you that you have to work against. It takes all of your energy, and it's God's grace that will lead you through. It is the voice of God's hope in life that helps you. And then the question is this, will you take from your own experience of God's voice, God's grace and His mercy, and will you break off a little bit of it and share it with the people around you, just like we do when we have communion.
Doyle Jackson: 22:51 See, we take from the Lord what we have received, and we pass it on to others. Your life experience is your context, and what God is inviting you to, is to understand your life and how you can share it with others. So what is your life context? Recently I got to see a friend of mine. I'm not saying he's a close friend, I should say he's an acquaintance. I met him several years ago. His name is JB. If you watch NFL football, you'll know JB because he's an announcer on TV. He's a wonderful, wonderful Christian. Jennifer and I met, and got to know, he and his wife a couple years ago when we were at a Billy Graham retreat center. Okay? And last weekend he was here in Columbus, I got to see him again, and say hello to him. But he has this way where he shares about life. Okay? And it really sticks in my mind. See, your life right now is a gift from God, but you don't always know what your life is going to be like in the future, and so you have to value it. There's this passage in scripture where Jesus is talking to Peter after the resurrection. You remember Peter denied Jesus on the night that he was betrayed? Okay, on Good Friday? Peter was not having such a Good Friday, and he denied Jesus, okay? Well then after the resurrection, Jesus comes to him and says, Peter, do you love me? He says, you know I do. Then feed my sheep. He goes to this back and forth, and what God is doing is he's extending forgiveness to Peter. Okay? Now, the reason that's important to you and I is this, is there may have been a time in our life when we're really close to Jesus, we knew Jesus, but then we denied him. A lot of us, we had some church experience, we knew about God. But then we had this idea that, well, maybe the world is better, and I need to go check that out, and so we kind of ran from God. We denied God for some years, and then we realized that wasn't the party we thought it was going to be, and so we came back to God. And this story is a help to us, because we know that we can be forgiven, and have our place.
Doyle Jackson3: 25:02 Okay. Others of you, you just came to know God, and this is your first experience with God. And what we would tell you is this, you can have a bad day, it doesn't mean it's over. Jesus will always forgive you, and he will help you. Don't seek out bad days, you're going to have enough as it is now. Right after Jesus has that conversation with Peter, he says these words, it's from John Chapter Twenty one. He says, "Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you dressed yourself and went where you wanted." He said, Peter, we all know how full of energy you are, and I'm expecting you to serve me well all the days of your life. When you were younger, you had lots of energy. Right now Peter, you still have energy. You just cut a guy's ear off a couple of days ago, I know you're full of that life. But then he goes on in the rest of the verse, he says, "One day Peter, when you're older, people are going to come and dress you and they're going to lead you by the hand." Now what's Jesus saying? He was saying to him, yes peter, you're going to have a long life. But he's saying, Peter, the energy you have today is not always going to be the energy you have, finish well. He's saying to him, he's saying, Peter, I want you to serve me til your last breath. He's saying, Peter, don't just serve me when you have energy, serve me when they lead you around by the hand, your whole life is mine.
Doyle Jackson: 26:24 Now, I talked to JB. JB says his mom passed away when she was 71, he said it was far too early, he said he was far too early for me. He said it's been really hard for me not to have my mom. But it caused me to think about life, and to think about how much time we have, and he said I did some study and I did some research and I found out that the average person in America lives to about 72. He says, when you mix all the different races and people together, we all have about 72 years. Then when you divide that by four, it's in four sections of 18. He says, so that if you break your life into four quarters, he said, I'm an athlete I think about quarters of life. It means that the first quarter of your life is from zero to 18. He says, the second quarter of your life is from 19 to 36. He says, then we're at halftime. He says, then we shift into third quarter, that's 37 to 54, and then your fourth quarter is 56. Excuse me, did I get the math right? 55 to 72. Okay? Now, if you're over 72, JB looks at you and he says, you're in overtime. Amen. Now I just have one question. This is JB's question, okay? How does overtime end, sudden death? Okay, yeah, that's all real funny, but every one of us is going to die. And I've already covered the fact that many of us, we know people in our life who didn't make it to overtime, like JB's mom. And JB, he goes into great detail, he says, you know, I go to churches, and I see Christians, and he said they're all about the holy huddle. They want to get together, but they never want to get out and play the game. And he said, in every sport I know there's a time clock running, and if you waste time they throw the flag on you. And he said, one day you're going to have to meet the time keeper. Are you wasting time? If you've wasted time, repent, stop wasting time. See, this is why goals become important, because goals help you maintain focus. Because over time in your life, the law of entropy is going to set in, it's going to take more energy for you to do what you used to do tomorrow. So you have to create habits, and patterns, and systems in your life so that you can keep doing many of those things. Don't take it for granted. See, goals is about becoming intentional with your life.
Doyle Jackson: 29:22 And so what God is inviting you and I to, is to think about our life. In Acts chapter 17, we read this, this week. If you're reading along with me in the Book of Acts, keep it up. If you haven't been, start. Okay? Paul walks into the city of Athens, he's preaching to them. He looks at them, and he makes this powerful statement. He said, from one man, he, God made all the people of the world. Now they live all over the earth. He decided exactly where they should live, and he decided exactly when they should live, and he's decided exactly where they should live. So he says, God decides where you live, and when you live. God has decided that you're living in Columbus, Ohio. You may be from another part of the earth. Okay? Met a family from Pakistan, that's part of our church this morning. There are a newer part of the church, and God has brought them here. We have people from all over the world that go to The Church Next Door. I am thankful for that, I celebrate that, that's a good thing. But if you are here in Columbus, Ohio today, it's God that brought you here. It wasn't your own strength, it was not your own wisdom. Did you have to use some of yours? Yes. But it's God's grace and mercy that got you here. Some of you are still complaining about being put in Columbus, Ohio. I've been guilty of that, I'm sorry. Mostly cloudy, I would just like partly sunny, that's the way I try to look at it. Now, listen, God may determine where you live and when you live. I don't know why you live in Columbus, Ohio at this time in history. If you'd lived here two hundred years ago, it would have been a rough place. A thousand years ago, who knows. Why did God let you live in this time? I don't know.
Doyle Jackson: 31:12 This is the question though. Look at it in your notes, I want you to really grasp this. You decide how well you play your allotted time. See, God will not force you to play ball with him, you can reject him, walk away and do whatever you want to with a life you have. He gives you that permission, that's called freewill. But if you so choose to submit to the Lord of creation, the one that is lord over your life, the one who has power over time, then you're going to lean into that with goals. You're going to lean in, so how are you going to play? Do you know what quarter you're in? Do you know what your life experience has been? If you grew up in Loi tok tok, you have very different life experience to speak to other people about. If you grew up in Columbus, Ohio, God has put you in a place. He's put you in a context. How were you going to live your life? How are you going to make a difference in the world in which we live?
Doyle Jackson: 32:12 So here's the real question, to what areas do you want to give some focus at this time in your life? Based on your experience, and based on where you are in the game. See listen. If you're in the first quarter of your life, you look at this list differently, don't you? When you look at the whole issue of education, you really might, in terms of intellect, you might really want to work on that one. Can I tell you, when I was younger, I did not want to get an education. I remember when it was time for me to go to seminary, I was in a ministry. I was helping the youth ministry in my home church. It was rocking. Cool things were happening in the young people's life. I was so, so happy. Close to Jesus, loving on Jesus. You know, Oh God, this is so wonderful. Why would you take me away from this, and make me go get my education, I didn't want to do that. I was convinced Jesus was going return real soon and that will be a waste of time. And God taught me a lesson that I have to trust him and listen to his voice. See, right now you may be young, and you may say, I don't need to get the education it's too hard, it's too expensive, but you may be young, and you need to do that.
Doyle Jackson: 33:28 Some of you, you know, if you're 65, you probably shouldn't start your PhD right now, I'm just sorry. Some of you might need to get a job now, you've been in school forever, you know. See what I'm saying? There's different stages. Okay, so when you look at this list, physical needs, intellectual needs, social needs, financial, spiritual, marital, parental, vocational. Avocational, that means your hobby, some of you need to give up some hobbies. Ouch. I'm sorry, if you're going to meet Jesus one day, and you spend all your time on some of these hobbies, you may not feel so comfortable with that. I'm not against hobbies, you need to rest and relax, I didn't say that. Some of you live for your hobby though, and not for Jesus. And I'm not trying to condemn you, I'm trying to invite you to a more meaningful life. Okay?
Doyle Jackson: 34:28 Emotional. Some of us, we can't really function within our own family because our emotions are so broken. You see what I'm saying? What is it? And I want you to find three things. You're going to check them off, and then you're going to put them in priority. What are the three things I need to focus on? There's a principle I learned several years ago, and you really need to hear this because it's so powerful. It's this, you will lose what you don't manage. You should write this down, if you didn't already, you will lose what you don't manage. If you don't manage your career, you'll lose it, because you'll take it for granted. If you don't manage your money, you'll lose it. I promise you, if you don't manage your health, you'll lose it. Why? Because the law of entropy is playing in your life. See, whatever you don't manage, if you don't manage your marriage, you'll lose it. If you don't manage your family, you'll lose it. If you don't manage your job, you'll lose it. If you don't manage your emotions, they'll overcome you. Folks, it's a powerful statement. What you don't manage, you will lose. Now there are some things we will lose, even though we don't manage it now. That will be categories like our hair. All right? I mean, you're just going to lose it. Some of us, right? It's just no fun. Now, why is that important? Because see if you know that the law of entropy is playing, and you'll begin to identify these.
Doyle Jackson: 35:56 If you're young, and you're just having your first children, then you need to focus on parenting. That's a logical thing for you. If you're in your second quarter, you need to still be working on that intellect, you need to be working on it. Listen, several years ago, I made a decision that I wanted to serve God till the very end. And so I said, you know Lord, my health is not what it needs to be, and I began to work on my health. Because I believe that my body is a temple for the Holy Spirit, and so I want to take care of my body so I can serve God as long as I can, and that takes energy and effort. It takes more today, and probably take a little bit more tomorrow.
Doyle Jackson: 36:41 And I know that that's a difficult thing for some of us. Okay? But those are all the things. So if you take these 10 areas, and pick them. Now, this is why. Next week we're going to talk about the why. Because I did not get, I did not get my health in order, until I believed the why. So for me, the why behind getting my health right was I realized that I needed to have a right relationship with God about my body, and that's when I got it in order, okay? Generally the reason you'll get your parenting in order is because you believe it matters for your children's future, and some of us wait until there's a crisis before we get into that one. Does that make sense? See, your why becomes the main reason that propels you forward.
Doyle Jackson: 37:25 But your voice right now, you have men and women, what I love about this place, what I love about this church, you have a wealth. You are in the midst of a multi-generational, multi-ethnic congregation that is serving Jesus. That means every one of you in this place can probably find somebody who has some experience in that area, some of them painful, and they're willing to help you. And see that will help you in your life. That is a powerful, powerful place to be.
Doyle Jackson: 38:06 So here's the invitation. The invitation is learn to submit to God's voice of direction. In Isaiah, that same prophet in chapter 30, he says, "And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee saying, this is the way to walk ye in it. When you turn to the right hand and when you turn to the left." What Isaiah is saying, this is the King James version, that's what I grew up with, and that's just still stuck in my brain. Now to turn to the right or the left, God's going to direct you, if you are willing within you and within your life experience, I bet everyone in this room could tell us a time in their life when they felt like something was prompting them to go a certain direction. And they look back on it, and the only explanation they can they can explain is, well, something greater than me was watching out over my life or I wouldn't be where I am today. Learn to recognize that voice, and seek that voice, and cultivate a relationship with the Lord of life and your Creator. You may be saying, some of you right now are just still reeling because you're like, you got to be kidding me, I'm an overtime. Listen, Moses, Moses ministry didn't start until he was 80, okay? God is the one that determines how long your life is, finish well.
Doyle Jackson: 39:22 Just today I got up to read my Bible, I try to read it every day. And if you're reading with me, you're going through. We're in Acts chapter 21, and I read on into 22 because I got so excited about the story of Paul, and Paul's returning to Jerusalem. And all along the way people keep telling him, the Lord showed us that you're going to go and suffer Paul. Don't go, don't go, don't go. And then in Acts 21, he arrives in Caesarea, okay? We know about Caesarea from reading other things about Caesarea. It's where the Pentecost to the gentiles came to the Centurion's house. And now Phillip, the evangelists Phillip, that baptizes the Ethiopian Eunuch along the way. He's kind of the head of that community of faith at Caesarea. Paul arrives, Philip welcomes him, they're so excited to hear the great missionary Paul come and visit them, okay? And they're so excited about being a part of this ministry, that this global ministry. And a prophet comes down from the hills of Judea. And this prophet, under the anointing of the Lord, takes Paul's belt, and then he takes Paul's belt and he wraps it around his own arms, the Prophet's own arms. Okay? And he looks at Paul and he says, the one who wears this belt is going to be bound like this and carried away. In verse, I believe, 21 of chapter 21, is that right? No, 12, 13. "Then Paul answered, why are you weeping and breaking my heart. I'm ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus." I mean how do you get there? What Paul is saying on that day is this. He says, listen, I've heard it too. I know that I'm going to go and suffer in Jerusalem, but he said, I also know that this is what the Lord wants me to do, and I'm good with that. I'm good if they bind me, and I'm good if I die. Now, how could he say that. and why would he say that? Well, this is what it tells me. It tells me number one of all things, Paul truly believed that Jesus Christ was the Messiah, that they brutally killed him on a cross, they buried him in a tomb and he rose again or he would not have died for it. And what Paul knew, was this, he knew if I go to Jerusalem, he knew [inaudible]. He knew all the people. He knew all the people that were going to harm him, and he said, they will know that it is no game for me, that I've put all my chips in. and he says this... This is what he's saying. He's saying, if I die for the sake of Christ, there's no better thing to live and to die for
Doyle Jackson: 42:28 Now, for you right now, that may be frightening. But this is what I know, everyone, everyone in this room, and everyone outside this room wants their life to matter, to have meaning. And goals are the only way to know, and to aim, at having meaning. And if you know what your life experience is, and you know where you are in your life, then you can make reasonable goals based on your experience and where you are in life. I'm not going to the NBA, I'm too short, too slow, too old. I might get a ticket to watch the NBA, but I'm too cheap.
Doyle Jackson: 43:19 Alight? I want to give you a prayer that comes from Corrie ten Boom, and I'm going to invite you to pray it. It's on the end of your notes. Corrie ten Boom was a holocaust survivor. She was a Christian, a gentile Christian, that hid Jews in her home during World War Two. And because of it, she was put in prison to die with the Jews, and she survived. Her story is written in a book and in a movie called The Hiding Place if you want to learn it. But she wrote this prayer, well before she got there, well before she got to prison, well before she ever hid Jews in her home. She started praying this prayer, Lord, help me to see the world around me as you do, and to respond as you would have me. What Corrie was saying every day of her life, she learned to ask, Lord, I want to see it the way you see it, and I want to respond the way you want me to respond. If you will start doing that, you're inviting God to direct you and to listen. If you will see the world from God's perspective, it'll be much more compassionate, much more loving, much more kind.
Doyle Jackson: 44:23 I invite you to stand with me, and say that prayer. If you want, aright, you can hold your neighbor's hand if they're willing too. Alright, here we go, let's say it together. Lord, help me to see the world around me as you do, and to respond as you would have me. Awesome. Hey, you have a great week. If you're new, come say hello, I haven't met you yet. And if you want prayer, there's always a team that will pray for you. If you're a guest stopped by, they have a gift for you. God bless you.
Recorded in Columbus, Ohio.
Doyle Jackson: 00:22 Isn't that cool? Isn't that wonderful? It's exciting to me, I just like hearing her voice, but I'm different on that you know? She's my girlfriend, she's a sweetheart you know? I'm so excited, I'm so excited to be a part of a church that loves their community here, and we did what we did on Easter. And now we're working together on the other side of the earth to share the love of Jesus, encourage brothers and sisters there, so exciting. Jennifer called me this morning and gave me a little update, so I thought I would share that with you. There's some prayer requests that they have, so you may want to jot these down. Let me get my notes out from talking to her. She said that they had a hard time sleeping last night, and you will not identify with this, she said that the monkeys outside of their tent...Okay, so they're staying in this little cabin thing, but it's more like a tent that it is a cabin. It's hard to explain to you until you've been there, but the monkeys were eating some bugs or something outside their tent and it was so noisy. It was so noisy, their eating, that they couldn't sleep, none of them. You know, and she said at one point she got up and she went and checked her bag just to make sure something had not crawled into cabin, and gotten into her bag, because she took some snacks with her. Surprise, you know what I'm saying? You go halfway around the world, you're going to take a couple of things with you. Just in case you need is a go to, you know what I'm saying? But the monkeys were so loud. So if the monkeys were so loud last night that they kept you up in your house, and I know some of you have some monkeys, we're going to pray for you after church. But pray for them.
Doyle Jackson: 02:07 They traveled about 26 hours, it took 26 hours of travel time. They got there, they tried to go to bed in Nairobi, didn't get really a full night's sleep. Got up, and had to ride six hours in a car on rough roads, and then they got to where they are yesterday, today, whatever we want to look at it. There are seven hours ahead of us. Okay. Jennifer has always been ahead of me. Alright,. I'm just. I'm okay with that, but they haven't slept well, so pray that they'll sleep well. It's really, really, rainy there. A lot of mosquitoes, pray that they won't get mosquito bites, that will just make it worse. They're doing everything they can. Pray for them in terms of their work will be effective, pray for the technology to work. Because that video you got, took hours to get it here, and it was only 30 seconds. So the videos you get maybe short, because they don't always get as good a connection as we do today. I think she posted a picture this morning. We've got a picture up there, because that's what we could get to you today. Okay. It's later in the evening, they are now, they'll be getting ready for bed very soon.
Doyle Jackson: 03:21 If you'd like, this evening at 5:00, at Deeper Life, I'll try to show you some pictures from when I was in Kenya, just to give you a little bit of feel for that, and we're going to take some time to pray for them. So if you have a real heart for that, I invite you to come tonight. I'm also going to talk about the cure for rejection. So if you're alive and breathing, you've been rejected at some times. So I think that it's good. Okay. But if you want to come tonight, that's available to you here, and it'll be in the chapel. Let me see if she gave me any other thing. She said that the little church that they went to today and shared with, has just planted a second church, and they've had some revivals. They've done some special meetings to welcome people to Christ, and over the past few weeks, they've seen 47 people come to know Christ. They've worked really hard. Where they are right now is a Loi tok tok and it's not far from Mount Kilimanjaro. Okay. And they were there so they could see the grounds where the orphanage that we've been investing in has been built and all that. I think she mentioned that they were real close to an elephant. That's, hey, that's a highlight of my day. Any day I get to be 15, 20 feet from an elephant, it's a good day, I'm telling you. And I walk away from it, it's a very good day. All right? And they're having a lot of fun. But as you can imagine, there are some challenges that they face. One of the things that Jennifer said that really stuck with me, she said, I learned something. I said, what'd you learn? She said, well, she said, it's just as difficult to reach people for Jesus here in Africa as it is at home. She said, sometimes we have this imagination that somehow in Africa it's easier to share Christ with people, and she said it's just not true. She said that people today, she said we had low crowds at church because it had rained so much, and they would have to walk so far to church, in so much mud that they just didn't come in. And she said, you know, we think sometimes, well, you know, we said we struggle with the same things. You and I struggle with the same things they do, you know, things that challenge us just to get up and to give God a little bit more, to give God in our life. Do not live under the imagination that it's easier for somebody else. We're going to talk about that a little bit today. Okay? So pray for them. If you haven't, check it out on Facebook, share it with your friends. Keep following. That's the best way for you to know what they're doing.
Doyle Jackson: 05:57 I also want to remind you, they'd mentioned earlier that on Tuesday night we're going to have a worship night. You guys were worshiping, Awesome. You did a great job. It's not just them, it's you I come to hear. And on Tuesday night we're having a worship night, but on Friday night is one night in Columbus. It's only one night a year, and it's where we gather to pray for our city and to worship the Lord. It's at the Celeste Center at the Ohio's fairgrounds there. You're welcome to come Friday night, I believe it's 6:30. If you make the decision now, you know I want to see what it would look like to have several thousand people of Columbus gather and worship God. Okay? Write it down, be there Friday night. Okay.
Doyle Jackson: 06:41 With that, I want to invite you to get out your phones, get out your notes. We're going to talk about Hashtag goals, your voice. Alright. When it comes to this whole idea of goals, the reasoning we're looking at this is that when Jesus rose from the dead, we looked at Easter a few weeks ago. We said there's a little bit more, that there's more to yours and my God relation. There's more to knowing Jesus, than just salvation, and a lot of people stop there. A lot of people think, well, Jesus died on the cross so that I can have eternal life, and I'll just wait for heaven. No, God wants you to experience his presence, his goodness in this life. So what I believe that the Bible teaches is this, is that a relationship with God will impact the way I relate to my family. My relationship with God will impact the way I relate to my neighbors, my friends, my work, every area, and so when we talk about goals, the reason we need goals is because just life in general will drag you down. We all agree with that, right?
Doyle Jackson: 07:47 Well, there's a scientific principle that promotes that, and there's a biblical principle that goes along with that, and I just want to help you see that real briefly. In the world in which we live, if you go to school and you study physics, we talk about the law of entropy. Anything left alone will get worse. All right? If you leave your coat outside on the fence, over time, the rain is going to fade it, it's going to blow away, it's going to tear apart, right? If you leave your car outside, it's going to rust. You can buy a brand new car, all right, and you want to save it for several years, you put it in the garage, it's going to begin to fall apart, even if you leave it there. The rubber will degrade, you have to start it, you have to manage it, otherwise it's going to go bad. Well, the Bible says that you and I live in a world that is sin filled, and that the nature of the world in which we live, means that it takes energy to overcome the sin. And you and were not able to overcome sin in our own ability, but God went to the cross to give us victory over sin. And that the law of entropy says, if you live in this world, it's going to take energy for you to overcome just the slow down. Anyone who has spent a little bit of life begins to understand, you get to a point in your life and then the curve begins to go down. You're not naturally growing every day, and it takes more energy. It takes more energy as you grow older just to get up and get out of bed. Alright? When you were little, and if you have a little one at home, you know they have more energy than you. It's time to be honest.
Doyle Jackson: 09:42 Well see, that's all dealing with just the reality of life, and what the Bible talks about. And so, what that means for you and I is this, the reason we've got to have goals is because goals is recognizing that there are forces that are pulling against us. And the reason you have a goal, is so that you can push against those forces, and you know what you're dealing with. The reason that goals become important is they give you the energy. If you just have the goal to get up and get out of bed every day, that's an important goal. If you get up and make your bed, that's even a better goal. If you get up and have a plan for the day, that's even better. Because otherwise this is what's going to happen. It'll just happen to you, and you'll get to the end of the day and you'll go, man, I've wasted my whole day and I don't feel good about anything. But if you'll write down your goals, you're going to reach them. Goals become important. Now the goals in your life change over time. The goals that you had as a teenager, are different than the goals you had in your twenties and thirties, your forties and fifties and your sixties and seventies. And so the voice that you have is directly related to your context, your life experience, where you've lived. If you grew up near Loi tok tok where the orphanage is, in Africa, you have a different life experience from Columbus, Ohio. You have different things you can say about life, different learning's.
Doyle Jackson: 11:16 Your context is what I want you to look at today. I want you to begin to imagine what is the context for your life? Where are you at in this, and what are the forces that you're pushing against? Okay? If if you're young, you're pushing against some things differently, than if you were older and more mature. That's your context. Now, there's this powerful passage in scripture, it's from the Prophet Isaiah, in the Hebrew Bible, and it's about a voice calling in the wilderness. And some of us know it, we've even heard quoted in movies, and in the modern contemporary world in which we speak. We'll talk about making the low places higher, and the high places lower, so it's smooth. And it's the voice calling in the desert. Isaiah speaks of this voice calling in the desert, and what he's speaking of is just that every one of us lives in a world where entropy and sin are dragging them down, and we all need a voice of hope. If you would look at this verse with me, these verses from Isaiah 40, "Comfort my people says your God, speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord's hand, double for all her sins. A voice of one calling, calling in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord. Make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low, the rough ground shall become level, and the rugged places a plain. The glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken." I believe that what this speaks to, is that every generation, every generation, needs a voice of hope. What I want to invite you to, is to be the voice of hope in your generation. Now you don't even have to believe in God to do that, you can just believe that the world in which we live is experiencing the effects of evil. you can believe that the world that we live in is experiencing entropy, and that we need a little energy and a little bit of encouragement and hope. But if you are a Christ follower, I believe that you look at this with an even greater urgency, because you feel like, well, God has spoken to his people, and he invites us to be a part of his voice. The purpose, the purpose, of anyone who calls themselves a Christ follower, is to bring glory to God. The church has always said that, that the main purpose of God's people is to bring glory to him. It's always to point to Him, not to ourselves. So when this prophecy was written in the life of Isaiah, when he spoke it and wrote it down and he came to you, it was within the context of the Hebrew people in Jerusalem at the time of a king by the name of Hezekiah.
Doyle Jackson: 14:25 Now Hezekiah is remembered for many reasons throughout the tradition of God's people. One of them is because he built a tunnel through solid rock. I've walked through that tunnel. It carries water from the spring, outside the city of Jerusalem, into the city. He did that because the city was under siege from enemies. In Hezekiah's time, when he was the king of Jerusalem, they had several opponents that came to destroy them. They wanted to destroy the city, and God miraculously showed up in Hezekiah's day, and delivered the city, because of the prayers of the people, because of God's great mercy, it wasn't necessarily because they were deserving. It was just God showed up, and delivered them from some really powerful ancient enemies. Okay?
Doyle Jackson: 15:17 In the Book of Second Kings Chapter Twenty, it tells us the context for Isaiah 40. It says that God has delivered Jerusalem from these enemies, and then after that King Hezekiah comes down with an illness. Now God speaks to Isaiah, the prophet, the one that we just read. It says, I need you to go talk to the king. And Isaiah says, okay, and he says, what do I need to tell him? And God says, tell him he's going to die. Now that's not good news, we all know we're going to die, but we all have an imagination, we've still got plenty of time. Doesn't matter who we are, everybody I know always thinks they've got more time. We just assume that, well Hezekiah is sick, it says he has a boil. I don't know what kind of boil this is, I don't even want to go there. Alright? But Isaiah comes walking into the king, and he says, I want you to know something Heze, God and I we're talking today, and he says, you're going to die. That's not a good report. And then Isaiah leaves the king, and the king is on his deathbed. All right? And it says that King Hezekiah rolled over, and faced the wall, and he began to weep. He began to cry. Now Isaiah has left the king's bedroom and he's leaving. He says he's going through the courtyard and God speaks to him again, and God says to Isaiah, stop, go back, I have a new message for Hezekiah. And it says that Isaiah turns around and he walks back into the king's bedroom, and he says, Hezekiah, God has spoken. He has seen your tears, he's seen your repentance, he's seen your grief, he saw you on your bed right now, and God says, I'm going to give you 15 more years of life. Now that's good news if you're Hezekiah. Alright, keep reading in the chapter, and it says, sometime after that, that there was an emissary from another nation that comes to visit King Hezekiah in Jerusalem. Now remember, he's got these extra years now. He's beyond into this whole new part of his life. And he welcomes this emissary, and he's so proud of the city of Jerusalem and everything that he takes this person on a tour, shows them everything, takes them into the temple, and then on the backside of the temple, he takes them to where all the treasury is from all of God's people. And he's just so proud of his city that God has given them. Well, God speaks to Isaiah again, says you need to go talk to the king, I need you to let him know that he's been a foolish man today. Because in essence what Hezekiah did, what he showed was God's wealth in God's people's lives, and he took credit for it.
Doyle Jackson4: 18:51 Okay? It's kind of like you and I, when we take credit for our talents, our ability, our lives, and we're just stewards of that. It's not because we're so smart, or so good, we just, we take credit for that. What the king did was he took credit for God's blessing on the people of Jerusalem, and so Isaiah says, you've made a mistake, and because of this mistake, because of this mistake, we're going to be attacked and destroyed. And Isaiah's telling him this, and Hezekiah says, I just have one question. He says, what's the question? He says, is it going to happen in my lifetime? He says, no, God said he won't do it in your lifetime. And Hezekiah actually says, Oh, good, that during my lifetime it'll be peace. Okay. Did you see how self-centered that is? How off kilter he's gotten? You see, this is the danger that you and I have, the danger is that you and I began to take our life for granted. We begin to take our life as though it's our life, that somehow we've done something to deserve the life that we have. It is God's grace and mercy, in my opinion, that you have any opportunity that you have. And God speaks to Jerusalem. He says, I'm going to give you a voice and I want you to know that the voice in the wilderness says, I'm the one that make the low places high, and the high places. Look, I am the one that prepares the path in your life, not you. Relearn to rely on me. That's what God is inviting us to.
Doyle Jackson: 20:40 Now fast forward, years and years later, seven hundred and fifty years later. A young man, by the name of John, comes preaching in the wilderness. When I see John the Baptist in my mind, I imagine a 1960's to early 70's hippie, that is nowhere in scripture, that's just my imagination. You know what I'm saying? I think long, woolly hair, and that's just because he wore camel hair, and we're not talking about the nice coats that you get at Nordstrom's okay? His may have even had camel fleas. Okay? It says that he ate locusts, and he lived in the desert, he was kind of a vagabond, you know? And he comes out there, and people come out to him in the desert to hear his message of hope. And what's interesting is this, is that people gather around John, and they're wealthy, and they're poor, they're religious, they're irreligious, and they come out to him. And John, he steps up to them, and he says, who warned you? You vipers, you brood of vipers, who warned you to come out here to hear me? I mean, that is not very complimentary, right? What John is trying to say to the people who came to listen to him, it was God's grace in your life that brought you here. See, when you live in a desert place, it's God's grace that gets you through. When you live in this world, it is a desert place, and there's constantly these forces against you that you have to work against. It takes all of your energy, and it's God's grace that will lead you through. It is the voice of God's hope in life that helps you. And then the question is this, will you take from your own experience of God's voice, God's grace and His mercy, and will you break off a little bit of it and share it with the people around you, just like we do when we have communion.
Doyle Jackson: 22:51 See, we take from the Lord what we have received, and we pass it on to others. Your life experience is your context, and what God is inviting you to, is to understand your life and how you can share it with others. So what is your life context? Recently I got to see a friend of mine. I'm not saying he's a close friend, I should say he's an acquaintance. I met him several years ago. His name is JB. If you watch NFL football, you'll know JB because he's an announcer on TV. He's a wonderful, wonderful Christian. Jennifer and I met, and got to know, he and his wife a couple years ago when we were at a Billy Graham retreat center. Okay? And last weekend he was here in Columbus, I got to see him again, and say hello to him. But he has this way where he shares about life. Okay? And it really sticks in my mind. See, your life right now is a gift from God, but you don't always know what your life is going to be like in the future, and so you have to value it. There's this passage in scripture where Jesus is talking to Peter after the resurrection. You remember Peter denied Jesus on the night that he was betrayed? Okay, on Good Friday? Peter was not having such a Good Friday, and he denied Jesus, okay? Well then after the resurrection, Jesus comes to him and says, Peter, do you love me? He says, you know I do. Then feed my sheep. He goes to this back and forth, and what God is doing is he's extending forgiveness to Peter. Okay? Now, the reason that's important to you and I is this, is there may have been a time in our life when we're really close to Jesus, we knew Jesus, but then we denied him. A lot of us, we had some church experience, we knew about God. But then we had this idea that, well, maybe the world is better, and I need to go check that out, and so we kind of ran from God. We denied God for some years, and then we realized that wasn't the party we thought it was going to be, and so we came back to God. And this story is a help to us, because we know that we can be forgiven, and have our place.
Doyle Jackson3: 25:02 Okay. Others of you, you just came to know God, and this is your first experience with God. And what we would tell you is this, you can have a bad day, it doesn't mean it's over. Jesus will always forgive you, and he will help you. Don't seek out bad days, you're going to have enough as it is now. Right after Jesus has that conversation with Peter, he says these words, it's from John Chapter Twenty one. He says, "Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you dressed yourself and went where you wanted." He said, Peter, we all know how full of energy you are, and I'm expecting you to serve me well all the days of your life. When you were younger, you had lots of energy. Right now Peter, you still have energy. You just cut a guy's ear off a couple of days ago, I know you're full of that life. But then he goes on in the rest of the verse, he says, "One day Peter, when you're older, people are going to come and dress you and they're going to lead you by the hand." Now what's Jesus saying? He was saying to him, yes peter, you're going to have a long life. But he's saying, Peter, the energy you have today is not always going to be the energy you have, finish well. He's saying to him, he's saying, Peter, I want you to serve me til your last breath. He's saying, Peter, don't just serve me when you have energy, serve me when they lead you around by the hand, your whole life is mine.
Doyle Jackson: 26:24 Now, I talked to JB. JB says his mom passed away when she was 71, he said it was far too early, he said he was far too early for me. He said it's been really hard for me not to have my mom. But it caused me to think about life, and to think about how much time we have, and he said I did some study and I did some research and I found out that the average person in America lives to about 72. He says, when you mix all the different races and people together, we all have about 72 years. Then when you divide that by four, it's in four sections of 18. He says, so that if you break your life into four quarters, he said, I'm an athlete I think about quarters of life. It means that the first quarter of your life is from zero to 18. He says, the second quarter of your life is from 19 to 36. He says, then we're at halftime. He says, then we shift into third quarter, that's 37 to 54, and then your fourth quarter is 56. Excuse me, did I get the math right? 55 to 72. Okay? Now, if you're over 72, JB looks at you and he says, you're in overtime. Amen. Now I just have one question. This is JB's question, okay? How does overtime end, sudden death? Okay, yeah, that's all real funny, but every one of us is going to die. And I've already covered the fact that many of us, we know people in our life who didn't make it to overtime, like JB's mom. And JB, he goes into great detail, he says, you know, I go to churches, and I see Christians, and he said they're all about the holy huddle. They want to get together, but they never want to get out and play the game. And he said, in every sport I know there's a time clock running, and if you waste time they throw the flag on you. And he said, one day you're going to have to meet the time keeper. Are you wasting time? If you've wasted time, repent, stop wasting time. See, this is why goals become important, because goals help you maintain focus. Because over time in your life, the law of entropy is going to set in, it's going to take more energy for you to do what you used to do tomorrow. So you have to create habits, and patterns, and systems in your life so that you can keep doing many of those things. Don't take it for granted. See, goals is about becoming intentional with your life.
Doyle Jackson: 29:22 And so what God is inviting you and I to, is to think about our life. In Acts chapter 17, we read this, this week. If you're reading along with me in the Book of Acts, keep it up. If you haven't been, start. Okay? Paul walks into the city of Athens, he's preaching to them. He looks at them, and he makes this powerful statement. He said, from one man, he, God made all the people of the world. Now they live all over the earth. He decided exactly where they should live, and he decided exactly when they should live, and he's decided exactly where they should live. So he says, God decides where you live, and when you live. God has decided that you're living in Columbus, Ohio. You may be from another part of the earth. Okay? Met a family from Pakistan, that's part of our church this morning. There are a newer part of the church, and God has brought them here. We have people from all over the world that go to The Church Next Door. I am thankful for that, I celebrate that, that's a good thing. But if you are here in Columbus, Ohio today, it's God that brought you here. It wasn't your own strength, it was not your own wisdom. Did you have to use some of yours? Yes. But it's God's grace and mercy that got you here. Some of you are still complaining about being put in Columbus, Ohio. I've been guilty of that, I'm sorry. Mostly cloudy, I would just like partly sunny, that's the way I try to look at it. Now, listen, God may determine where you live and when you live. I don't know why you live in Columbus, Ohio at this time in history. If you'd lived here two hundred years ago, it would have been a rough place. A thousand years ago, who knows. Why did God let you live in this time? I don't know.
Doyle Jackson: 31:12 This is the question though. Look at it in your notes, I want you to really grasp this. You decide how well you play your allotted time. See, God will not force you to play ball with him, you can reject him, walk away and do whatever you want to with a life you have. He gives you that permission, that's called freewill. But if you so choose to submit to the Lord of creation, the one that is lord over your life, the one who has power over time, then you're going to lean into that with goals. You're going to lean in, so how are you going to play? Do you know what quarter you're in? Do you know what your life experience has been? If you grew up in Loi tok tok, you have very different life experience to speak to other people about. If you grew up in Columbus, Ohio, God has put you in a place. He's put you in a context. How were you going to live your life? How are you going to make a difference in the world in which we live?
Doyle Jackson: 32:12 So here's the real question, to what areas do you want to give some focus at this time in your life? Based on your experience, and based on where you are in the game. See listen. If you're in the first quarter of your life, you look at this list differently, don't you? When you look at the whole issue of education, you really might, in terms of intellect, you might really want to work on that one. Can I tell you, when I was younger, I did not want to get an education. I remember when it was time for me to go to seminary, I was in a ministry. I was helping the youth ministry in my home church. It was rocking. Cool things were happening in the young people's life. I was so, so happy. Close to Jesus, loving on Jesus. You know, Oh God, this is so wonderful. Why would you take me away from this, and make me go get my education, I didn't want to do that. I was convinced Jesus was going return real soon and that will be a waste of time. And God taught me a lesson that I have to trust him and listen to his voice. See, right now you may be young, and you may say, I don't need to get the education it's too hard, it's too expensive, but you may be young, and you need to do that.
Doyle Jackson: 33:28 Some of you, you know, if you're 65, you probably shouldn't start your PhD right now, I'm just sorry. Some of you might need to get a job now, you've been in school forever, you know. See what I'm saying? There's different stages. Okay, so when you look at this list, physical needs, intellectual needs, social needs, financial, spiritual, marital, parental, vocational. Avocational, that means your hobby, some of you need to give up some hobbies. Ouch. I'm sorry, if you're going to meet Jesus one day, and you spend all your time on some of these hobbies, you may not feel so comfortable with that. I'm not against hobbies, you need to rest and relax, I didn't say that. Some of you live for your hobby though, and not for Jesus. And I'm not trying to condemn you, I'm trying to invite you to a more meaningful life. Okay?
Doyle Jackson: 34:28 Emotional. Some of us, we can't really function within our own family because our emotions are so broken. You see what I'm saying? What is it? And I want you to find three things. You're going to check them off, and then you're going to put them in priority. What are the three things I need to focus on? There's a principle I learned several years ago, and you really need to hear this because it's so powerful. It's this, you will lose what you don't manage. You should write this down, if you didn't already, you will lose what you don't manage. If you don't manage your career, you'll lose it, because you'll take it for granted. If you don't manage your money, you'll lose it. I promise you, if you don't manage your health, you'll lose it. Why? Because the law of entropy is playing in your life. See, whatever you don't manage, if you don't manage your marriage, you'll lose it. If you don't manage your family, you'll lose it. If you don't manage your job, you'll lose it. If you don't manage your emotions, they'll overcome you. Folks, it's a powerful statement. What you don't manage, you will lose. Now there are some things we will lose, even though we don't manage it now. That will be categories like our hair. All right? I mean, you're just going to lose it. Some of us, right? It's just no fun. Now, why is that important? Because see if you know that the law of entropy is playing, and you'll begin to identify these.
Doyle Jackson: 35:56 If you're young, and you're just having your first children, then you need to focus on parenting. That's a logical thing for you. If you're in your second quarter, you need to still be working on that intellect, you need to be working on it. Listen, several years ago, I made a decision that I wanted to serve God till the very end. And so I said, you know Lord, my health is not what it needs to be, and I began to work on my health. Because I believe that my body is a temple for the Holy Spirit, and so I want to take care of my body so I can serve God as long as I can, and that takes energy and effort. It takes more today, and probably take a little bit more tomorrow.
Doyle Jackson: 36:41 And I know that that's a difficult thing for some of us. Okay? But those are all the things. So if you take these 10 areas, and pick them. Now, this is why. Next week we're going to talk about the why. Because I did not get, I did not get my health in order, until I believed the why. So for me, the why behind getting my health right was I realized that I needed to have a right relationship with God about my body, and that's when I got it in order, okay? Generally the reason you'll get your parenting in order is because you believe it matters for your children's future, and some of us wait until there's a crisis before we get into that one. Does that make sense? See, your why becomes the main reason that propels you forward.
Doyle Jackson: 37:25 But your voice right now, you have men and women, what I love about this place, what I love about this church, you have a wealth. You are in the midst of a multi-generational, multi-ethnic congregation that is serving Jesus. That means every one of you in this place can probably find somebody who has some experience in that area, some of them painful, and they're willing to help you. And see that will help you in your life. That is a powerful, powerful place to be.
Doyle Jackson: 38:06 So here's the invitation. The invitation is learn to submit to God's voice of direction. In Isaiah, that same prophet in chapter 30, he says, "And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee saying, this is the way to walk ye in it. When you turn to the right hand and when you turn to the left." What Isaiah is saying, this is the King James version, that's what I grew up with, and that's just still stuck in my brain. Now to turn to the right or the left, God's going to direct you, if you are willing within you and within your life experience, I bet everyone in this room could tell us a time in their life when they felt like something was prompting them to go a certain direction. And they look back on it, and the only explanation they can they can explain is, well, something greater than me was watching out over my life or I wouldn't be where I am today. Learn to recognize that voice, and seek that voice, and cultivate a relationship with the Lord of life and your Creator. You may be saying, some of you right now are just still reeling because you're like, you got to be kidding me, I'm an overtime. Listen, Moses, Moses ministry didn't start until he was 80, okay? God is the one that determines how long your life is, finish well.
Doyle Jackson: 39:22 Just today I got up to read my Bible, I try to read it every day. And if you're reading with me, you're going through. We're in Acts chapter 21, and I read on into 22 because I got so excited about the story of Paul, and Paul's returning to Jerusalem. And all along the way people keep telling him, the Lord showed us that you're going to go and suffer Paul. Don't go, don't go, don't go. And then in Acts 21, he arrives in Caesarea, okay? We know about Caesarea from reading other things about Caesarea. It's where the Pentecost to the gentiles came to the Centurion's house. And now Phillip, the evangelists Phillip, that baptizes the Ethiopian Eunuch along the way. He's kind of the head of that community of faith at Caesarea. Paul arrives, Philip welcomes him, they're so excited to hear the great missionary Paul come and visit them, okay? And they're so excited about being a part of this ministry, that this global ministry. And a prophet comes down from the hills of Judea. And this prophet, under the anointing of the Lord, takes Paul's belt, and then he takes Paul's belt and he wraps it around his own arms, the Prophet's own arms. Okay? And he looks at Paul and he says, the one who wears this belt is going to be bound like this and carried away. In verse, I believe, 21 of chapter 21, is that right? No, 12, 13. "Then Paul answered, why are you weeping and breaking my heart. I'm ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus." I mean how do you get there? What Paul is saying on that day is this. He says, listen, I've heard it too. I know that I'm going to go and suffer in Jerusalem, but he said, I also know that this is what the Lord wants me to do, and I'm good with that. I'm good if they bind me, and I'm good if I die. Now, how could he say that. and why would he say that? Well, this is what it tells me. It tells me number one of all things, Paul truly believed that Jesus Christ was the Messiah, that they brutally killed him on a cross, they buried him in a tomb and he rose again or he would not have died for it. And what Paul knew, was this, he knew if I go to Jerusalem, he knew [inaudible]. He knew all the people. He knew all the people that were going to harm him, and he said, they will know that it is no game for me, that I've put all my chips in. and he says this... This is what he's saying. He's saying, if I die for the sake of Christ, there's no better thing to live and to die for
Doyle Jackson: 42:28 Now, for you right now, that may be frightening. But this is what I know, everyone, everyone in this room, and everyone outside this room wants their life to matter, to have meaning. And goals are the only way to know, and to aim, at having meaning. And if you know what your life experience is, and you know where you are in your life, then you can make reasonable goals based on your experience and where you are in life. I'm not going to the NBA, I'm too short, too slow, too old. I might get a ticket to watch the NBA, but I'm too cheap.
Doyle Jackson: 43:19 Alight? I want to give you a prayer that comes from Corrie ten Boom, and I'm going to invite you to pray it. It's on the end of your notes. Corrie ten Boom was a holocaust survivor. She was a Christian, a gentile Christian, that hid Jews in her home during World War Two. And because of it, she was put in prison to die with the Jews, and she survived. Her story is written in a book and in a movie called The Hiding Place if you want to learn it. But she wrote this prayer, well before she got there, well before she got to prison, well before she ever hid Jews in her home. She started praying this prayer, Lord, help me to see the world around me as you do, and to respond as you would have me. What Corrie was saying every day of her life, she learned to ask, Lord, I want to see it the way you see it, and I want to respond the way you want me to respond. If you will start doing that, you're inviting God to direct you and to listen. If you will see the world from God's perspective, it'll be much more compassionate, much more loving, much more kind.
Doyle Jackson: 44:23 I invite you to stand with me, and say that prayer. If you want, aright, you can hold your neighbor's hand if they're willing too. Alright, here we go, let's say it together. Lord, help me to see the world around me as you do, and to respond as you would have me. Awesome. Hey, you have a great week. If you're new, come say hello, I haven't met you yet. And if you want prayer, there's always a team that will pray for you. If you're a guest stopped by, they have a gift for you. God bless you.
Recorded in Columbus, Ohio.
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