The story I want to tell you is from Uncle Remus and Song of the South. He tells stories about Brer Fox, Brer Bear, and Brer Rabbit. It’s short for Brother Fox, Brother Bear, and Brother Rabbit. Brer Fox and Brer Bear were always after Brer rabbit. They were trying to get him, cook him, and eat him. Brer Rabbit was always using his smarts and escaping. One day, Brer Fox and Brer Bear put a tar baby up on a log. You may remember the story and know where I'm headed. They took some tar and shaped it like a person with arms and legs. They hid in the woods until Brer Rabbit came hopping by. Brer Rabbit stops at the tar baby and says, "How do you do?" The tar baby doesn't say anything. Brer Rabbit backs up and says, "You didn't hear me. I said, ‘How do you do?’" Of course the tar baby doesn't say anything. Brer Rabbit says "Now listen. I'm being nice to you. I'm trying to greet you. Now, good morning!" The tar baby just sat there. Brer Rabbit got more and more upset. He finally got to the point where he said, "If you don't say ‘hello’ to me, I'm going to hit you." Well, the tar baby didn't say anything so Brer Rabbit hit him. Of course, as soon as Brer Rabbit hit him, his hand got stuck in the tar. So Brer rabbit says, "Turn loose of me. You wouldn't say hello to me. Let go of me. If you don't let go, I will hit you with my other hand." Of course the tar baby didn't say anything. So Brer Rabbit hit him with the other hand. This went on for a while. By the time Brer Fox and Brer Bear arrived, Brer Rabbit was all caught up in the tar baby, stuck in the tar.

That is the picture I have in my mind of people whose lives get all caught up in the world. They don't know where to go next. It just seems like the more they try to get out of it, the more they get caught up in it. What I mean by "tar baby" is the "busyness" of life. We get so involved in the busyness of life that we honestly get to the point where we wake up one morning, and ask, "How did I get myself into this? How did I get so busy? How did I get so committed? Why can't we just have a moment of peace and quiet?" That's the picture I get. Maybe you will picture yourself hitting a tar baby this week. You will hit a tar baby and before you know it, you are all messed up in it. You are not really in control of your life. That's what we'll be talking about this morning—life.

Let's start in Luke 14:7. We're looking at life and how we view life. We've talked about the philosophy, "I think, therefore, I am." Of course, you may say, "I think. Therefore, I am confused." Ha ha. We want to look at life from the viewpoint of your life. I want to look at all aspects of life. A Scripture the pastor used this morning talked about living "as you go": no matter where you're going, whether you're laying down, eating lunch, whatever you're doing." It's that kind of life. It's "as you live." We need to examine it. There are all kinds of ways of looking at life—your life. You can look at it in stages: your life as a child, as a teenager, as a young adult, or as a middle-aged adult. Or you can look at it in terms of busyness. What kind of busyness do we get involved in? I think we all do. So let's look at verse seven.

Jesus has been invited to the house of a common Pharisee to eat dinner.

We’re talking about life from the perspective of the world. What is a motto that the world uses related to what we just read? "Put me first. Take care of yourself. No one else will. Look out for number one." Jesus is saying, "No. Look at it this way: always take the lowest position and then you will be exalted."

This gets us closer to the proper perspective. When we look at life, we can look at it two ways: Spirit or World. You can see the spiritual principle here. It will be completely opposite of how people develop their own lives in the world (what you think is important, your priorities in life). There are two spiritual principles here. One is humbling and exalting oneself. The other is inviting people to dinner. It’s easy to invite other people similar to yourself—living in the same neighborhood or attending the same church. But this is saying that you must take it further. If you want to have the abundant life that Jesus promises (in John 10:10, "I came that you might have life and have it more abundantly."), there are some principles we need to learn and apply that are the exact opposite of what you’ve been learning from the world. This is all about how to get the most out of life. It’s what you thought it was versus what God says it is. It’s "inviting the poor and needy" and "humbling yourself" versus "taking care of yourself" or "looking out for number one."

That shows a lot of spiritual insight. Revelation talks about the wedding feast that Christ is preparing for His bride, the Church, us. That’s a future event that will happen and this is one reference to it.

Does this sound like what we just read?

What’s interesting about this story is that it is a parable but I think all of you realize who He’s talking about. Who are the people who are too busy to come to the banquet? The Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Jews who rejected Jesus Christ. That’s who He’s talking about. They had excuses for not doing this. So Jesus said, "Go out and invite anyone and everyone." We know that that’s what eventually happens with the Gospel—it goes out to the Gentiles (everyone) and not just the Jews.

Skip back to chapter 12 now.

Let’s apply this to life. What does the world say? "Get all you can. Your life is defined by what you own." Right? We do that to ourselves, don’t we? Don’t we tend to identify our value by what we have? That’s a worldly philosophy that’s gotten into our lives. All of a sudden, we define our happiness and joy in life in terms of our possessions. We all do it, don’t we?

What if we don’t have something? What’s our life like? We want it. We’re miserable because we don’t have it. So one way or the other (whether we have or have not), if we center our life on possessions, our life could be miserable. This verse says, "Be on guard against this."

Does this sound familiar? What do we want to do in America? Retire early so that we can eat, drink, and be merry.

So this says that if your life is all about possessions (from a worldly point of view), who’s going to get the possessions anyway? Somebody else—your children, your estate, the government, etc. I think we’re all guilty of this. I think each of us in here has gotten to the point where we said, "Well, I want this and I can’t have it," or "I got it! Look how good I am." We violated the Godly, spiritual principle. If we extend our perspective and realize what’s going to happen—rust, maintenance, work, and eventually thrown into a scrap heap.

Let’s look at Ephesians 4. I’m going fast because I want to get to some other stories.

That seems like a very easy, direct command to obey, doesn’t it? That’s what we’re to be about as a church.

That’s what we’re supposed to do. That is saying that if we live according to the principles of the Spirit, our lives will be full and abundant. I would dare say that if you look for the word "life" as you read the New Testament, most of what you’ll read will be related to how you live your life. It would give you a contrast: this is how you can live in the world (and be unhappy, discontented, and despondent) or you can live life abundantly and experience the joy and peace God would grant.

Do you see how you are to live your life? You can have these things in your life (sexual immorality, greed, obscenities, dirty jokes, etc.) or you can have thanksgiving. That’s what we’re talking about. We have decisions to make on how we conduct our lives.

You are children of the light. So through life in the Spirit, we have goodness, righteousness, and truth. I am trying to draw a contrast between life in the Spirit versus life in the world. I would challenge you to read the New Testament and write down all the words that contrast life in the Spirit vs. life in the world.

We are the light of the world and we expose darkness.

What kinds of things are "of the Spirit" there?

• Filled with the Spirit.
• Wise, not unwise.
• Make the most of every opportunity. – We’ve talked about this one before and you know what an "opportunity" is. A spiritual opportunity is every time you interact with someone else. God has put that incident together for you to edify, build up, or encourage someone or to shape your character. That’s why it’s there. We tend to look at someone who has ticked us off, jump over to the "worldly" side, and get upset with them. That will carry on to the next person we see…if it’s your spouse, it won’t be two seconds before, "What’s wrong with you!?" This is all about applying these principles to life and learning how to respond.

In other words, live your life in the Spirit, not in the world. A Christian should be to the point where when they realize that they’re "in the world," they should recognize the effect on God—like the lukewarm church in Revelation, He vomits. We should be that way about realizing the world in our life. It should be so anti to what we think, what we believe, and the direction we’re going. If you feel that your possessions own you instead of you owning them (in other words, they’re guiding you), seek God. Ask God to help you with that and get out of the world and into the Spirit. Don’t live in the world with your busyness. That’s what the Bible’s talking about.

Let’s look at 1^st Corinthians 10:31.

This is also found in Colossians and other places.

When you get up in the morning, no matter what kind of person you are in the morning, how are you supposed to get up? For the glory of God. "God, I just look up to your glory." Whatever you’re going to do, do it for the Lord. If you’re going to a soccer game, do it for the Lord. If you’re going to buy groceries, do it for the Lord. If you’re going to work, do it for the Lord. Whatever you’re doing, do it for the Lord. Do you see how that’s a mindset—giving yourself completely and wholly to the Lord? That’s what you’re doing. You’re still living in this world but you say, "God, it’s all yours. It’s all yours."

Each one of you has to decide which side you’re going to live on: Spirit or world. If you want to live in the Spirit, it’s going to take obedience and discipline. What does it take to live in the world? Not a whole lot. Just keep hitting that tar baby if you want to. That’s all it takes. You really get to the point (and I’ve been there) where this world has so consumed you that you don’t know how to escape it. You don’t know how to get yourself out of what you’ve gotten into. It’s just way too much. You get out of it one step at a time, trusting God, and saying, "OK, God, this is your day. I still have a lot to clean up, but God, I’m with you." Over time, God will deliver you from it. He will deliver you.

The "witnesses" are all those who have died and gone on before us. The "witnesses" are us. The "witnesses" are everyone of Christ.

What do we throw off? Any weight and any sin. "Sin" is anything we do against God. "Weight" includes those things we add to our lives that are not necessarily bad—soccer games, commitments at school, etc.

For example, I’ve lost 20-25 pounds over the last month. I hiked before that and I’ve hiked since. I cannot believe the difference without that extra weight. That is just like life—if I throw off these things that are burdening me. Without the 20-25 extra pounds, I felt like I could go twice as far, twice as fast. I was shocked and amazed. I mentioned to the guy I was hiking with before the weight loss, "You must have thought I was a wimp, as far as how out of shape I was."

It’s the same thing for life. We accumulate, accumulate, accumulate, and this weight becomes unbearable. It’s 5 pounds here, 10 pounds there, and 20 pounds over there. We’re carrying it. You can’t be what you should be for God and you can’t do His will if you have all this weight on you. All of you know that Jesus said, "Come to me, all of you who are laden and heavily burdened, and I will give you rest." Jesus will take that on for us.

That’s how we keep going. That’s the discipline.

A large part of not wasting your life is to set goals/priorities and to exercise discipline.

You can take care of things God wants you to take care of better when you’re not under pressure and stress. When you live in the world, under the pressure and stress, ask the Holy Spirit to hit you with a two-by-four or to wake you up with an alarm clock. You don’t want to be in the world. You want to live in the Spirit. You have to give it up. You have to let it go.

Many of us tend to compartmentalize our lives.

What does that mean? You have your church life, your work life, your home life, etc. I highly recommend that you keep a journal. Keep track of how much time you sleep, eat, play with the kids, watch TV, work, pray, or spend on yourself. Look at it over time to get an idea of what you spend your time on. Look at it and ask, "Are my priorities straight?"

Some of you are saying, "Wait a minute! What about work!? That’s 8-12 hours a day." Remember: the Bible says, "Whatever you do, do it as unto the Lord." There will be a difference in how you do that work. I promise you. I don’t care who your boss is, what your job situation is, or what your stress level is. You do it for God and you will look at it differently. The fruit will come out if you do it for God. Say, "God, I’m doing this for you." Now, don’t say, "I’m doing this for you," and then curse your boss—that’s not the way it works.

Discipline is defined as order, control, and obedience.

Everybody loves discipline, right? When we say "discipline," we usually think of "punishment." You punish a child for past behavior. There’s no future involved. You’re saying, "You did something wrong. I’m going to punish you." There’s no growth, nothing learned, no benefit, and no value. When you punish a child, that’s what you’re doing. You’re saying, "You did that wrong, so," wham, "That’s what you get for it."

Discipline means taking the time to sit down with your child and say, "Now you did this. I’m going to tell you what you did wrong, why you possibly did it wrong, and what we’re going to do the next time this happens." In other words, you’re teaching, you’re disciplining.

That is the way I think you should view discipline in your own life. Don’t view it as punishment when you do something wrong. That’s what Satan would have you do. We’ve talked about this with sin—beating yourself up, punishing yourself, or saying, "I’m not going to do this today because I did that yesterday." It’s not punishment but instead, "God, teach me. Discipline me. Show me how I got into this sin to begin with so that I don’t get into it again. Teach me." And God will do that.

You should embrace discipline. Discipline is something you should love. You should love discipline in your life. It’s a great thing to have. God will show you things to make you grow to be more like Christ. He will give you that peace, joy, and understanding. So love and embrace discipline.

Biblically, discipline can be summarized with one word: obedience.

How do we get "obedience" without becoming legalistic? Attitude. The legalistic view says, "Give me the 10 things I’m supposed to do. I’ll obey those 10 things and I’ll be a good person." The spiritual view of discipline and obedience says, "No. It’s what Christ has already done for us. I accept that and because of His love, I’ll be obedient. I’ll do what He has asked me to do."

I want to challenge the way you look at your life. We have a way of looking at "quality of life" that’s a little warped in America. It’s because we’re so well-off and materialistic.

Many of you, if not all of you, have had someone placed into a nursing home and visited them. If you go to a nursing home, questions come to mind. One of the first things is probably, "Well, they’ll never put me in a nursing home." Or, "Why doesn’t anyone ever visit her or him? Why are they always alone?" Or maybe, "Why does God allow this suffering to go on?" You can think all kinds of things.

I bring this up because we’re looking at "life," and we tend to make a judgment call on others’ lives. My mother-in-law is in a nursing home with several mental problems that prevent her from thinking clearly. It’s very easy to say, "What kind of quality of life is that?" If you saw her for just a few minutes, you’d say, "Well, she looks pretty happy." She can’t remember yesterday or talk about tomorrow. That’s beyond her. But for those few minutes with her, it’s pretty good. She’s talking, looking around, playing around, etc. I sometimes think that that kind of thinking is very close to a Christian kind of thinking. In other words, God says don’t worry about yesterday and don’t fret about tomorrow. Sounds just like my mother-in-law. I think she is very close to God right now.

So you want to ask, "Exactly what is life?" Sometimes we need to just think about what life is. If you don’t think about what life is—visits to the nursing home, your children, the "heavier" side of life—then you are drowning in the world. Jesus said, "I have come that you might have life and have it more abundantly." We can be deceived into thinking that the life that we see in a supermodel, professional athlete, politician, or someone else is much better than our own life.

Stop right there and say, "God made me for a purpose." You, individually, and uniquely. He has made you in such way that your life is going to touch so many other people and that’s His will. We have to find out what that life is and be attentive and sensitive to that life. Know that God is taking care of everything. We can be all about His will in this life. No matter who we come in contact with, God has a purpose in it. It’s for you (your character) or for someone else (to be built up and edified). It is not to be consumed on self. Unfortunately, that’s where many of us are today.