LIFE IS WORTH LIVING!

By: Richard Kirkland

James 4:13-14

 Introduction:

                        A.        What is your life?  What is the purpose of life?  Does your life have meaning?  Is there a reason for living?  Can we live and be happy?  Can we be happy today?

                        B.         There is constant change in this world.  The change is so rapid that we sometimes feel irrelevant.  We reflect upon the past and wonder about the future.  But we can only live one day at a time.  Jesus said, “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things.  Sufficient for the day is its own trouble” (Matthew 6:34).

                        C.        We live in stages.

                                                1.         We are constantly changing in relationship to those around us.  We begin as babies, grow from childhood to adolescence and become young adults.  We move from young adulthood to the middle years and on to old age.  From old age we move to the grave and to the destiny that awaits us on the other side of the veil.

                                                2.         We are children, then parents, grandparents, etc.

                                                3.         Each stage, or season of life, has its own unique features.  Some good -- some bad.  There are joys to be experienced all along the way.  There are also heartaches, sorrows, disappointments, discouragements, conflicts and griefs.

                        D.        Sometimes the burdens of life become so great and are so oppressive that we feel we can’t go on.  We give up on humandkind and declare every man to be wicked and deceitful.  We give up on life and want to die!

                        E.         But it is exactly at the moment when life seems so unbearable, when all of our work seems in vain, and hope is lost that we must not quit.  Success is just around the corner.  Happiness is within our reach.  And, “weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning” (Psalm 30:5)

I.            EVERY LIFE HAS ITS SHARE OF TROUBLE.

                        A.        “Man who is born of woman is of few days and full of trouble.  He comes forth like a flower and fades away; he flees like a shadow and does not continue” (Job 14:1-2).

                        B.         Job suffered physically -- tormented by a grievous disease -- and cried out to God in his pain and affliction.

                                                1.         He despaired even of life itself and questioned God saying, “Why did I not die at birth?  Why did I not perish when I came from the womb?  Why did the knees receive me?  Or why the breasts, that I should nurse? . . . Why is light given to him who is in misery, and life to the bitter of soul, who long for death, but it does not come, and search for it more than hidden treasures; who rejoice exceedingly, and are glad when they find the grace?”  (Job 3:11-12; 20-22).  Have you ever wished to die?

                                                2.         He speaks of the depth of his despair, “Oh, that my grief were fully weighed, and my calamity laid with it in the balances!  For then it would be heavier than the sand of the sea--. . .Oh, that I might have my request, that God would grant me the thing that I long for!  That it would please God to crush me, that He would loose His hand and cut me off!”  (Job 6:2-3; 8-9).

                                                3.         But even in troublesome times Job did not lose his faith in God!  He said, “As God lives, who has taken away my justice, and the Almighty, who has made my soul bitter, as long as my breath is in me, and the breath of God in my nostrils, my lips will not speak wickedness, nor my tongue utter deceit. . . .Till I die I will not put away my integrity from me, my righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go; my heart shall not reproach me as long as I live” (Job 27:2-6).

                                                4.         Because Job abode faithful and honored and praised God, God blessed the life of Job so that the latter end of his life was better (greater) than the beginning had been (Job 42:12).

                        C.        Adam and Eve (the first humans) knew trouble.  They suffered because of their own sin and later because of the sin of their son.  “Cain rose against Abel his brother and killed him” (Genesis 4:8).  One son dead, the other a murderer.  We can only imagine how much Adam and Eve grieved over their sins and that of their son Cain.  Has your home suffered because of violence?  Have your own sins cause you to be a burdened with a sense of guilt that you don’t seem to be able to bear?  You are not alone!

                        D.        David, the sweet singer of Israel, knew his share of trouble as well -- much of it of his own doing.

                        1.         He was troubled by his political enemies.  “Have mercy on me, O LORD, for I am in trouble; My eye wastes away with grief, Yes, my soul and my body!  For my life is spent with grief, and my years with sighing; my strength fails because of my iniquity, and my bones waste away.”  (Psalm 31:9-12).

                        2.         He was troubled because of the guilt of his own personal sin. :there is no soundness in my flesh because of Your anger, nor is there any health in my bones because of my sin.  For my iniquities have gone over my head; like a heavy burden they are too heavy for me.  My wounds are foul and festering because of my foolishness.  I am troubled, I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long.  For my loins are full of inflammation, and there is no soundness in my flesh.  I am feeble and severely broken; I groan because of the turmoil of my heart.” (Psalm 38:3-8).

E.         Solomon wrote: “Truly the light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes to behold the sun; but if a man lives many years and rejoices in them all, yet let him remember the days of darkness, for they will be many.  All that is coming is vanity” (Ecc.  11:7-8).

II.        LIFE IS WORTH LIVING!

                        A.        Given all the problems, etc. of life we might ask, “Is life really worth living?” The answer is a resounding, “Yes!”

                        B.         “A Psalm of Life” written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, please read:

Tell me not, in mournful numbers,

Life is but an empty dream! --

For the soul is dead that slumbers,

And things are not what they seem.

Life is real!  Life is earnest!

And the grave is not its goal;

Dust thou art, to dust returnest,

Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,

Is our destined end or way;

But to act, that each tomorrow

Find us farther than today.

Art is long, and Time is fleeing,

And our hearts, though stout and brave,

Still, like muffled drums, are beating

Funeral marches to the grave.

In the world’s broad field of battle,

In the bivouac of life,

Be not like dumb, driven cattle!

Be a hero in the strife!

Trust no Future, howe’er pleasant!

Let the dead Past bury its dead!

Act, --act in the living Present!

Heart within, and God o’erhead!

Lives of great men all remind us

We can make our lives sublime,

And, departing, leave behind us

Footprints on the sands of time.

Footprints, that perhaps another,

Sailing o’er life’s solemn main,

A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,

Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us then be up and doing,

With a heart for any fate;

Still achieving, still pursuing,

Learn to labor and to wait.

                        C.        Listen to these words of the prophet Isaiah, “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the LORD has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn, to console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness” (Isaiah 61:1-3).

                        D.        When Jesus began his personal ministry in the city of Nazareth he entered the synagogue, read this scripture, and said, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”  (Luke 4:16-21).

                        E.         It is Jesus who make life worth living.

                        1.         John 14:6.

                        2.         John 10:10.

                        3.         Matthew 11:28-30.

                        4.         John 17:3.

                        5.         No wonder Paul wrote: “But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ.  But indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”  (Philippians 3:7-11).

Conclusion:

                        A.        Does your life seem hardly worth living?  Are you burdened with cares and sorrows?  Has trouble come to disturb your peace?  Has disappointment or heartache caused you to grieve night and day?  Are your troubled because of the guilt of personal sin?

                        B.         Jesus is the answer.  Jesus died for you so that you might live for Him.  He will bear your burdens.  He will give true meaning and purpose to your life.  Will you come to Him in simple, trusting faith, obeying Him and claiming Him as your Savior too?

                        C.        The angels are awaiting, God is watching, we are praying for your response.