A
Balanced Life
Luke 3: 21-22 January 10, 2010
Last Sunday we talked
about finding A New Beginning in our life through Christ Jesus… We talked about the promise of Jeremiah 29
which assures us that God has a plan for our lives…
Today, I want us to
continue that thinking process on another level because God not only has a plan
for our lives, but He wants us to have A Balanced Life…
For the next five weeks
we’re going to be celebrating the season of Epiphany. Remember we learned last week that Epiphany
means to discover something new; it’s like that light bulb that goes on in your
head when you begin to understand something and see something more
clearly… So, for the next five weeks
we’re going to be studying some of the epiphanies in the life of Jesus in hopes
that we will be able to see him more clearly…
Today is the Baptism of
the Lord Sunday… It’s the day in which
we reflect upon the baptism of Jesus and what his baptism means to us…
Just the thought of Jesus
being baptized is an epiphany… Because
when you think about Jesus, the Lamb of God, the perfect sinless man, going
through the ritual of baptism, you have to ask the question why? Why would Jesus do this? He is the Son of God! Why would the Son of God need to be baptized?
The fact is, Jesus didn’t
have to be baptized but he chose to be baptized. And he chose to be baptized for Godly
reasons… The gospel of Matthew says that
Jesus was baptized to fulfill all righteousness… His baptism was for us; it was to show us the
way – Jesus is our example of what we should do to be a good Christian… But also, part of his baptism is showing us
that he was in human form – Yes, divine, but also human… Through his baptism Jesus was able to connect
to us, to experience what we experience…
But more importantly, the baptism of Jesus was the beginning of his
ministry. His baptism was an outward
sign of who he was and who he is… and the beginning of his ministry…
That biblical fact may be
another epiphany for us… Yes, Jesus was
born the Son of God, he has always been a part of the Trinity, “The Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit,” but he did not start his ministry until he was
baptized. Before baptism there were no
miracles and no ministry - But once he was baptized he began a ministry like no
other…
Another part of this
epiphany is that it was not until he was baptized that the Holy Spirit of God
descended upon him in bodily form and God affirmed him saying, “You
are My son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” Notice that God affirms Jesus as His Beloved
and is pleased with Jesus before he even begins his ministry… Well, God has always been pleased with
Jesus… The question is; Is God pleased
with us?
Illus: All four of the gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke,
and John) record the baptism of Jesus. But
Luke says that these things took place while Jesus was praying… I like Luke’s version because he makes these
things personal. The sending and
receiving of the Holy Spirit, the voice from heaven, God’s affirmation of who
we are – these things are personal things between us and God…
Friends, we all experience
personal moments with God because our relationship with God is based on a
personal relationship with God… We get
personal with God and God gets personal with us… And we can make our personal relationship
with God public, and we should… but what I take from all of this is
that we all share something in common…
When we become baptized in the name of Jesus – we share his baptism with
him and because we share it, we become the beloved son or daughter of God…
Friends, it’s through our
baptism in Christ Jesus that God says to us, “You are My
son, you are My daughter, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased…” God affirms who we are as His child and it’s
before we even begin our ministry that He is already well pleased with us.
Having that right
relationship with God is part of us having A Balanced Life…
Friends, you and I don’t
even begin living life until we personally accept Jesus into our hearts… Our profession of faith and our baptism is
the beginning of our new life (an eternal life) with Christ Jesus. But how do we maintain that Balanced
Life?
Well, Matthew 6: 33 says, “Seek
first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and then all these other things
will be given unto you…”
I think the reason that
our lives get out of balance is because instead of the kingdom of God, we tend
to seek all these other things first… We
do just the opposite of what God’s Word tells us to do…
Our lives get out of
balance because we fill it with things that aren’t from God… The
kingdom of God is peace and joy and righteousness, and right
relationships…
If there are some things
in your life that aren’t filled with peace, joy, and righteousness, then they
probably aren’t from God… If you’ve got
bad relationships in your life they aren’t from God…
Illus: I love the story in Luke 10 about Martha and
Mary… Martha was such a busy body… she
was fixing dinner and cleaning house while Mary just sat at the feet of Jesus
listening to him talk… Finally Martha
says to Jesus, “Do you not care that Mary is letting me do all the work? Tell her to get up and help me…” And Jesus said, “Martha, Martha… you are so
distracted by so many things… Mary has
chosen what is most important and it will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10: 38-42)
It’s not that Martha was
doing anything bad, evil, or wrong – It’s just that she had forgotten what was
most important…
You and I dare not let our
lives get so busy and so distracted that we forget what is most important…
If you want A Balanced
Life, you’ve got to straighten out your priorities… You’ve got to seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness… That means that we are seeking peace, joy,
and righteousness… It also means that
we’re building relationships with God, yourself, and others…
Illus: Psalm 91 talks about having a secret place, a
hiding place where we can go and talk to God.
We all need a place that’s safe, a place that is quite
and peaceful. A hiding place where we
can seek God, where we can study His Word, and we can pray.
That’s how we build OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD… We’re always seeking Him, His
righteousness… We’re reading and
studying His Word… And, we’re praying –
we’re talking and listening to God… When
we do these things that builds relationship and it builds trust… We learn to trust God and God learns that He can trust us…
But the second thing we
need to do is build A
RELATIONSHIP WITH OUR SELF. If
we don’t like ourselves how can we expect other people to like us? We have to learn to like ourselves (some people have no problem with this
– in fact, some people are in love with themselves…) But that’s not what I’m talking about…
I think another problem
why many of us don’t have a balanced life is because we’re trying to be someone
we’re not… We are pretending to be
something other than what God made us to be…
We pretend to be smarter, or better, or richer, or prettier than God
made us… We are seeking to be someone
else… We want to live the life of so and
so instead of our own…
If that’s you – STOP
IT! Because it makes
you a hypocrite… We’re saying,
“God, You must have messed up – this is not how it’s supposed to be…” Friends, if you don’t like the way God made
you – ask God to change you – but until He does, BE WHO YOU ARE! Because God has made you the way you are for
a reason… and
for His purpose!
And can I tell you
something? Because God is who He is,
it’s OK to be who you are!
But lastly, in order for
us to have A Balanced Life, we need to work on OUR
RELATIONSHIPS WITH OTHERS…
Yes, Lord, Others…
We were not meant to live
alone… God did not intend for us to be
hermits… He wants us to have
relationships not only with Him, but with others…
When we look at the life
of Jesus, we see that Jesus spent time with God, he spent time with himself,
and he spent time with others…
And when he was with
others, he would focus on their needs and their wants… Jesus came to serve others and believe it or
not; serving others is part of having a balanced life…
This concept may sound
strange to you… You may be thinking that
you don’t have time to do things for yourself much less time to do things for
someone else… But this is a kingdom
concept – a Godly concept… If you don’t
have time others, it’s because you’re wasting all your time on yourself…
Trust God on this! God will always give you the time to spend
some time with others… Why? Because it’s that important
to God…
How many of you want A
Balanced Life? I think we all do and I
believe that that’s what God wants us to have…
God doesn’t want us to be so busy and distracted… that’s the devil’s plan for our
lives… The devil knows that if he can
keep us busy and distracted that will keep us from doing the things that God
wants us to do…
God wants us to fill our
life with joy, peace, righteousness, and relationships… That’s what He wants for His Beloved… and we are His
Beloved… and we need to remember
that!
Sometimes we forget that
we share the baptism of Jesus… We forget
that we are God’s Beloved… And when we
forget, our priorities get messed up…
And when our priorities
get messed up we do things that a child of God shouldn’t do… we say things that a child of God
shouldn’t say… and we treat others in ways that a child of God should never
do…
May God forgive us where
we fail Him…
May God forgive us when we forget who we are…
This morning I want to
give you the opportunity to remember who you are in Christ Jesus… I want you to remember your baptism and be
thankful…
I don’t mean for you to
remember the water – remember getting wet!
I want you to remember and realize what it means to be a child of God –
what it means to share the baptism of Jesus…
The Bible says, “Those who have been baptized in Christ will be clothed
in his glory…”
I don’t know about you,
but I’m going to remember my baptism and be thankful – and I’m going to ask God
to forgive me for letting my priorities get messed up and ask Him to help me to
live A Balanced Life in Christ Jesus.
Let us pray!