Don't Waste Your Life (Part 3)

Watch the video of this sermon on YouTube: Don't Waste Your Life (Part 3) A copy of the outline can be downloaded at the bottom of this page. To listen to or watch the previous sermon in the series, click here: Part 2 To listen to or watch the next sermon in the series, click here: Part 4 6. Spending too much time learning worthless or unprofitable information A. Be not overmuch wise (Ecc 7:16). B. A fool's eyes are in the ends of the earth instead of being focused on things of importance (Pro 17:24). C. Examples of worthless or unprofitable information: i. A Biblical example of wasting one's time learning worthless information would be spending excessive time researching genealogies, fables, and foolish questions (1Ti 1:4; Tit 3:9). ii. Another example is spending inordinate amounts of time researching conspiracies (Rom 16:19). iii. If you study conspiracies more than your Bible, you are wasting your life. D. More examples i. Reading too many Facebook posts is a waste of your life. ii. Reading tabloids and celebrity news is a waste of your life. iii. Watching the news is often a waste of your life. iv. Before you click on an article, ask yourself if you really need to know this information and if it is worth your time and effort to read it. E. "Reduce your interests to a few. Don't try to know what will be of no service to you. Avoid the digest type of mind--short bits of unrelated facts, cute stories and bright sayings. Learn to pray inwardly every moment. After a while you can do this even while you work. Practice candor, childlike honesty, humility. Pray for a single eye. Read less, but read more of what is important to your inner life. Never let your mind remain scattered for very long. Call home your roving thoughts. Gaze on Christ with the eyes of your soul. Practice spiritual concentration." (A.W. Tozer) F. "The people that make a durable difference in the world are not the people who have mastered many things, but who have been mastered by one great thing. If you want your life to count, if you want the ripple effect of the pebbles you drop to become waves that reach the ends of the earth and roll on into eternity, you don't need to have a high IQ. You don't have to have good looks or riches or come from a fine family or a fine school. Instead you have to know a few great, majestic, unchanging, obvious, simple, glorious things -- or one great all-embracing thing -- and be set on fire by them." (John Piper, Don't Waste Your Life, p. 44) G. If you spend too much time learning worthless information, you are wasting your life. 7. Spending too much effort to prolong your life A. If you try to save your life you will lose it (Mar 8:35). B. Remember Lot's wife (Luk 17:32-33). C. To die is gain, not waste (Phi 1:21). D. To depart and be with Christ is far better (Phi 1:23). E. Bodily exercise profits little (1Ti 4:8). i. Exercise is not entirely unprofitable, but is only a little profitable. ii. Godliness is far more profitable and has eternal benefits. F. Spending excessive time and energy exercising, taking supplements, and trying to find the perfect diet in order prolong your life is wasting your life. i. "Fleeing from death is the shortest path to a wasted life." (John Piper, Don't Waste Your Life, p. 63) ii. Ask yourself whether your desire to live long and prosper is for God's glory, or is to satisfy your love of this life. G. If you spend too much effort trying to prolong your life, you are wasting your life. 8. Moderation and temperance are the keys to not wasting your life in the above ways (Phi 4:5). VII. We need to be profitable, which is opposite of wasting our lives. 1. The opposite of wasting your life is being profitable. A. Profitable - 1. Yielding profit or advantage; beneficial, useful, serviceable, fruitful, valuable. B. Profit v. - I. †1. intr. To make progress; to advance, go forward; to improve, prosper, grow, increase II. 2. trans. Of a thing: To be of advantage, use, or benefit to; to do good to; to benefit, further, advance, promote. b. intr. To be of advantage, use, or benefit; avail. 3. Of a person: a. intr. To be profitable, bring profit or benefit, do good (to some one); b. trans. To be profitable to, benefit, do good to; c. refl. To benefit oneself, make one's profit; = 4. 4. intr. (for refl.) To benefit oneself; to derive profit or benefit; to be benefited. b. esp. with prepositions †with, by, of, from: To derive benefit from, be a gainer by; to avail oneself of; to make use of, take advantage of. 2. God will teach you to profit (Isa 48:17) if you will but listen to Him (Isa 48:18). VIII. Thirteen ways to not waste your life 1. Spending time learning about God and loving and praising Him. A. The only life worth living is a life of self-denial and service to God (Mar 8:34). B. If you lose your life for Christ, you will save it (Mar 8:35; Joh 12:25). C. We must love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength (Mar 12:29-30). D. Jesus exhorts His children to learn of Him (Mat 11:29). E. God exhorts us to be still and know that He is God (Psa 46:10). F. Praising God and declaring His truth is profitable, which a person can't do if he has wasted his life and is dead (Psa 30:9). i. "No thing can satisfy the soul. The soul was made to stand in awe of a Person - the only person worthy of awe." (John Piper, Don't Waste Your Life, p. 35) ii. "God is the one being in the universe for whom self-exaltation is the most loving act. Anyone else who exalts himself distracts us from what we need, namely, God. But if God exalts himself, he calls attention to the very thing we need most for our joy." (John Piper, Don't Waste Your Life, p. 36) G. If you spend time learning about God and loving and praising Him, you will not waste your life. 2. Spend time learning and practicing righteousness and godliness, and mortifying sin. A. Godliness is profitable (1Ti 4:8). B. Treasures and riches don't profit, but righteousness delivers from death (Pro 10:2; Pro 11:4). C. Mortifying sin in your life is profitable and will ensure that you don't waste your life (Mat 5:29-30 c/w Col 3:5). D. Maintaining good works is profitable to men (Tit 3:8). E. Obeying the word of God preached by the pastor (Heb 13:7) is profitable for Christians (Heb 13:17). F. Works which prove faith to be genuine are profitable to a Christian (Jam 2:14). G. Practicing godliness, righteousness, and good works is profitable, and is a sure way to not waste your life.