Pastor Wayne Cordeiro
August 1, 2010 - W1031

Live Like Your Life Depends on It

July 30 - August 1, 2010

Speaker: Pastor Wayne Cordeiro

Life’s focus can be narrowed down to three important aspects:

1)    Faith: Your relationship with Christ

2)    Family:  The people that are close to you

3)    Ministry: Your service to others and the community

 These three areas of your life play a vital part in your entire life.  It is important that your relationship with Christ is solid, because if it is not right it will impact your family relations.  If your relationship with Christ and your family is out of order, it impacts your ministry. These three areas are the core areas of your life, if they are not right, they can keep you away from growth.

LIVE LIKE YOUR LIFE DEPENDED ON IT

In order to keep these three elements of your life aligned, you must live life like your life depends on it.  Until we live like our lives depend on it, nothing of significance will change.

There was a freshman collegiate field goal kicker named Smitty.  He wanted to make a name for himself.  When he was sent in for a play, during the huddle he asked his place holder to throw the ball back so he can run and make the goal instead of kicking it.  During the play, the ball was thrown, Smitty took off and he was tackled. He fumbled and the ball fell in to the hands of the opposing team.  The opposing team made a run to their goal line, and Smitty’s teammates trailed behind him. Out of nowhere Smitty ran and caught up with the opposing team player and tackled him.  The assistant coach was astonished and asked the coach if he knew Smitty could run like that.  The coach replied, “The other players run because they are expected to, but Smitty was running because his life depended on it.”

When living your life, live like your life depends on it. You must put your whole heart into it.  The Apostle Paul uses the analogy of running a race, “Don’t you know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you that you win” (1 Cor. 9:24).   In this passage he is telling his readers how important it is to place your whole heart into the race.  By placing your whole heart into the race one must place their focus and attitude into winning and one must also train to win.

 In Matthew chapter 15, a Canaanite woman came to Jesus and cried out to him to heal her demon possessed daughter.  Jesus at first did not answer.  His disciples asked him to send her away because she continued to cry out.  He then replied to her that He was sent only for the lost sheep of Israel.  The woman still persisted and cried out for Him to help her.  Then Jesus answered her that it is not good to take the children’s bread and feed it to the dogs. The woman told Jesus that dogs also feed from the crumbs that fall off the master’s table.  Then Jesus said, “O woman, your faith is great.  It shall be done for you as you wish!”(Matt 15:28)    In this passage the woman did not give up, she cried out to the Lord with all of her heart.  She persisted because she knew that her life depended on it and it increased her faith.   Remember, “Great faith is built when your life depends on it…. Nothing of significance will happen until your life depends on it.”

We should not just settle for less and accept negative issues in our broken marriages, failing health and other areas in life.  Remember this rule:  Life will not give you what you want, it won’t give you what you deserve, and it won’t even give you what’s fair. Life will give you what you’ll settle for…Unless you live like your life depends on it, you will settle for less.   Unfortunately, people tend to settle for the consolation bracket in life. If you settle for a life that is half-hearted, the Devil will be happy because then there is no growth toward God.  If you refuse to settle for less and if you live like your life depended on it, great faith is developed and things then begin to change for the better.

To throw out your heart to God, three conditions of the heart need to be developed in order to live like your life depended on it:

1.    WATCH OUT.

As the Bible says, "Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life!" (Prov. 4:23) God tell us to watch over our hearts with great care. He tells us to be extremely cautious of what goes in because it may be toxic and lead to ailments such as heartbreak, a hardened heart, and others. The Bible says to store up good treasure in your heart, and from it life will flow.  Do not allow negative comments get to your heart. Sometimes God’s truth may be uncomfortable and difficult but listen to it. Whatever you hear, use God as a filter for what you let into your heart.  Once you allow the truth into your life, it affects everything.

2.    CRY OUT.

It is written, "Then they cried out to the Lord in their troubles and He delivered them out of their distresses." (Ps. 107:6) When your heart is broken, cry out to God.  In Heb 5:7, Jesus cried out to God in tears.  Because of his piety and sincerity, He was heard.  In the Psalms the Jews were wandering in the wilderness, and God heard their cries and delivered them.  Some of us need to cry out to God for the sake of our family, faith, and ministry.  In times of heartbreak, cry out to God. Allowing Him to work in our life can produce much growth. In our society we tend to cry over meaningless things such as a sad movie, but we neglect to cry for the important things in our life such as our family.   Faith, Family, and Ministry are the three areas where we need to live like our life depended on it.

3.    THROW OUT.

As it is written, "Since we have such a large cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us..." (Heb. 12:1) We need to throw out every excuse for not winning. God wants us to let go of our restraints and to run our race with endurance and perseverance. We must run like our lives depended on it.  Excuses fool you in to feeling better about failing. But I have what I call the Fig Tree standard of excuse.  In Mark 11, Jesus was hungry and he came to a fig tree that was not in season. When he came to the fig tree, there was no fruit. He then cursed it saying that no one would eat fruit from it again. The lesson from this is that if you are a fig tree, and your maker comes looking for figs, you better have figs and not have excuses, whether in season or not!

So always remember, "Trust in Lord with your all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight." (Prov. 3:5-6)God wants to trust in him with our WHOLE HEART, not just half a heart.  When we rely on God with only half a heart, it is more stressful than leaning on God with a whole heart.  There are many believers in Christ that are stressed because they do not give their hearts fully to God.  When you place you whole heart in God there is reward, rest and joy.

Discussion Questions:

1)    How are you living your life?  What do you need to let go to live your like your life depended on it.

2)    What are things that are blocking you from having a whole heart in the areas that matter in life?

3)    Why are excuses bad? What are ways that you can put your focus on winning the race god set before you.