Word of Salvation – Vol. 41 No. 29 – August 1996
Will This Be The Last Year Of Your Life?
Sermon by Rev. D. Groenenboom on Ephesians 5:1-2
Scripture Readings: Romans 12:1-8; Ephesians 4:25 – 5:2
Suggested Hymns: BoW 121a; 176; 499; 503
Beloved Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Just for a moment this morning/afternoon, you can see into the future. You see forward to one year from now (name the date one year from today). You see people are standing around, quietly. You see others who look like they’ve been crying. You hear the soft tones of an organ. You realise it’s a funeral. These people are mourning. You see the coffin, and the flowers. You catch a glimpse of one of the programs, and you’re shocked to find your own name on it. This is your funeral, one year from today!
What do you think? Could this be the last year of your life? Only twelve months to live? What if it were true?
The question is: Would the last year of your life be any different to what it is now? Would the way you serve the Lord be any different to what it is now? The amount you give to the Lord? The way you conduct yourself in worship? The way you speak about Christ to your friends who don’t know Him?
One year to live. What difference would it make?
As we talk about this, I am going to make one assumption. I am going to assume that you know Jesus Christ as your Saviour. I am making that assumption because if you don’t, nothing will give you peace when you think about the last year of your life.
If you have no faith in Jesus, you will be overcome with fear. You will be overcome with guilt for your wrongs. As the day of your death draws closer, you will be more and more troubled with uncertainty about what lies on the other side of death’s door.
But because you know Jesus, you will think more about life than death. For believing in Jesus brings life! His perfect love drives out all fear of punishment. His death on the Cross brings cleansing and forgiveness from sin. His rising from the dead brings new life. So, if you have faith in Jesus today, you can face this question in the light of the resurrection. “Could this be the last year of your life?”
1. Imitate God
In the face of that question so much in life becomes simply unimportant.
One: I suggest that if you’re working all sorts of crazy hours simply to impress the employer, that would change. You’ll probably still want to do your job well and provide for your loved ones, but living to impress people suddenly becomes unnecessary, futile and childish.
Two: Some things that irritate you now would be more easily accepted. Does it matter if your son has an ear-ring? What does it matter if your daughter chooses a different line of work than what you had hoped? What does it really matter if the overseas trip doesn’t work out? What about the things you got worked up about this last week – how much do they really matter? Would it really matter if the mix of songs for worship was not fully to your liking? Wouldn’t it be the case that we would be less concerned about preference and more concerned for the lost?
You see folks, with just one year to live, so many things (not everything) fall away. They lose their importance. They lose all power to stake any claim on us.
But, on the other hand, there are other things that become very important indeed. If it were your last year – would you make a few more sacrifices? Keener service in church and kingdom? Deeper desire to lead the young people of this church in true discipleship? Deeper awareness of the fact that we live in a city of 250,000 people [substitute this number with the population of your city!], most of whom are going to hell?
Lots of things, but all of them come under the banner of Paul’s command in Ephesians 5:1. With just one year to live, imitating God would become the one thing that really matters. Now, what is this except living as children of light? This is exactly what Paul means when he calls us to imitate God. The word for “imitate” in Greek is the same as the one we get our word “mimic” from. And when we mimic someone, we copy their actions, or their speech, or something that distinguishes them from other people.
Some of us will remember a man by the name of Max Gillies, who earns a living mimicking famous people. Whether it’s Paul Keating, Bob Hawke, John Howard, Kerry Packer or Ita Buttrose, Max Gillies can “take them off” to a tee. How does he do it? He does it by taking the most distinctive aspects of somebody’s looks or voice and copying them. And when you see Max, you know exactly who he’s imitating.
When we are called here to imitate God, we are to take the distinctive aspects of His character, and imitate them. When people look at us, there should be no doubt in their minds that what they see is something like the character of God.
Of course, imitating God does not mean we should try to know everything, or to be present everywhere, or to save people from their sins. We can do none of that. Imitating God means to live like God, to live with the same attitude as Jesus Christ. Look how the verse flows: “Be imitators of God … just as Christ loved us.”
And if we had just one more year to live, surely that would be the most important thing of all – to live just the way God wants us to live.
2. Life of Love
Now, the great thing is that we are not only told what we should do, but how we should do it: live a life of love, just like Jesus. This life referred to here is selfless love. A life where the needs of others become more important than whatever I might want. Paul gives some concrete examples of what this life of love is in the verses before. The life of love is a life of kindness, compassion and forgiveness (see 4:32).
The last year of your life, the last opportunity to show kindness to your family – how would you do it? The last opportunity to bring kindness to this congregation – what form would it take? Or think about your neighbours, the people who live close by. You meet them in the street and the supermarket. How would they see kindness in your life?
Then, of course, there’s compassion. Seeing people in need, in the nakedness of suffering, and in God’s grace and strength seeking to meet those needs. God has blessed you richly – isn’t there a little more room for compassion toward those whose struggle in life is harder and more constant than your own?
And forgiveness. One more year. Those people you haven’t been mixing with, the sister you haven’t been speaking to – is the stand off really worth it? Isn’t it true that the bitterness has made you suffer more than the original wrong?
Living the life of love calls for forgiveness, and the time is so short. Surely you’d want to act now, today, if there was just one year left to get things right.
I know that when we start thinking about those sorts of things, we can often ask “but why must it always be me? Why does the buck always stop at my door? What about the other side – surely they can do something, too! It’s pretty natural to feel that way, but that attitude has its root in pride. As if we’ve done something. And now some other person should be doing something, too. True, they should face their responsibilities, but what exactly would you receive if you only got what you deserved? Nothing you wanted, I think.
You are not on this earth to wait for what you deserve. Thankfully, whatever you deserved has been taken by Jesus on the Cross. Now, you are called to show your thanks by living in imitation of Christ. That is a life of love and sacrifice.
We should really let ourselves hear the full force of that word. Remind yourself about Jesus’ sacrifice. Absolute self-denial, and for what? A sinner like you, a wretch like me. Self-denial, and to bear the full weight of God’s eternal anger for your wrongs. That is sacrifice!
And it is precisely what we, too, readily avoid. Too often we pay lip service to sacrificial living, but in reality steer away from anything that causes us any sacrifice at all. We are self-indulgent and self-serving. Like the people described by Paul in 4:20, we are too easily dominated by sensuality.
That’s not merely sexual sensuality. It stands for anything where our wants and desires dominate our action. A whole host of things: someone addicted to alcohol; someone intolerant of a people from a particular country; someone who simply has to have the latest fashions to wear.
It can refer to people coming to church simply for social contact instead of a true desire to humble themselves before the Word. All of these things are driven by personal wants. In the language of the Bible, that is sensuality and idolatry. Is that the way you would live in your last year? Surely not!
The life of love and sacrifice is surely the way to live our last year. But it is probably not our last year. Not that we know of. The truth is, we don’t know when our last year will be. Our Father can call us home any time.
Recent news reports told the story of a terrible disaster on the Murray River, where a large piece of river red gum fell on a car of holiday makers, killing a mother and children. We also read of four people going to a wedding in Western Australia, whose plane crashed into a dam. All dead.
I don’t mention these things to scare you, but simply to point out that death may not be that far away from any of us. It’s not only the very old, or those suffering from terminal cancer who may be near death. Maybe you are, maybe you aren’t. But whether you live, or die, you belong to Jesus, and today you are called to be like Christ in love and sacrifice.
Today you are called to be as gracious to others as God has been to you, and this last year will be the best year you have ever lived!
3. A Fragrant Offering
But there’s something else here, too. And that is that all those changes we would make, if we knew for sure this year was our last, are changes we probably should make anyway. For these few verses were not first written for people who had only one year to live. They were given to people saved by Christ. People called to live a distinctively Christian life. They were written for those who are to be children of light. Who put on the new self. Who are created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
This is our calling every day, every year, and not just our last. When we read those words, “live a life of love,” they come with the force of “live this way every day”; “make this your way of life.” Surely that’s the best way to live – with the attitude of Jesus Christ! All day, every day! Surely that’s one of the things we should be praying about as our day begins! “Lord, in the things that happen at work, in the things we do as a family, in my role as a father or a mother, help me to live the life of love like my Lord Jesus Christ!
As you serve the Lord in your school work, or in your ministry to older people, or in the special things you do as a single person, will it be your chief desire to live the life of love, just like your Lord Jesus? It should be! That’s one of the very purposes God has in giving you new life through His Son!
Believers know that when Jesus Christ died on the Cross, He became the only sacrifice necessary to cleanse His people from their sins. The verses before us describe His crucifixion and death as a “fragrant offering.” That tells us it achieved just what the Father wanted.
Christ undertook to save His people from their sins, and did so. He set out to take their guilt, and did so. He set out to give them new life, and did so. He set out to make them acceptable to God, and did so. And God was so pleased with Christ’s self-giving work on the Cross that He raised him from death!
The wonderful news for believers is that when they seek to live the life of love out of faith in Christ, out of a desire to conform to God’s law, and to bring Him glory, God calls that good, too!
Whether this is the last year of your life, or the first of many more, what a privilege is yours! Every day Christ calls you to offer your body as a living sacrifice! Every day filled with the acceptable worship of a life of love!
It’s not that we can take any of the personal credit. It’s not that the life of love we live will be perfect. Even the very best we do is darkened by sin’s shadow.
For sure, imitating God, as much as salvation itself, is by grace. Christ has saved us. Christ has cleansed us. And His Spirit is renewing us and recreating us. This life of love and sacrifice is lived only in His power and in the light of His Word and Spirit.
Is the funeral yours? No one knows, except your Father in Heaven. You cannot be sure how much time you have left.
But you are sure about Jesus’ love for you. You are sure about His forgiveness and grace. You are sure that He is with you always, even to the end of the age.
Today is what matters. Today is the day of salvation! Today is the day for service! Now is the time for the life of love!
So make the changes you need to make in His strength, and live all the days he gives you to His glory. And even if it is your last year, when you imitate God and live the life of love, it will be your best!
Amen.