When stuck in traffic, my eyes gravitate to bumper stickers.\u00a0 Here are some interesting ones:<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you lived in your car, you’d be home by now.\u201d\u00a0 True.<\/p>\n

\u201cWant a taste of religion? Bite a minister.\u201d\u00a0 I don\u2019t recommend that one.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat If the Hokey Pokey IS Really What It\u2019s All About?\u201d\u00a0 Now that\u2019s<\/em> deep.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t care what you love, what your other car is, who you brake for or what you\u2019d rather be doing.\u201d\u00a0 A bumper sticker decrying all other bumper stickers.<\/p>\n

And one more: \u201cBoldly going . . . nowhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hey, that\u2019s how we feel sometimes – boldly going . . . nowhere. As someone once said, \u201cIt\u2019s important to learn the difference between motion and direction.\u201d Just because we\u2019re on the go doesn\u2019t mean we\u2019re going anywhere worthwhile. What\u2019s the difference between motion and direction? In a word, purpose. Motion is simply movement. Direction is motion harnessed to a purpose.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s like one of those cartoons which appeared in The New Yorker<\/em> magazine a few years back. It showed a man running toward the end of a rainbow only to discover that at the end of the rainbow was a pot of baked beans. And that\u2019s how it is for many people – they spend their lives chasing that elusive pot of gold, only to discover that it\u2019s a pot of beans. In other words, many of us pursue the perks of life instead of the purpose of life. We boldly go somewhere – only to discover it wasn\u2019t worth the trip.<\/p>\n

We all reach a point in life when we must evaluate what it is we\u2019re living for. Most of us reach that place gradually. Some of us, on the other hand, reach that point of evaluating our life quite suddenly – due to a sudden crisis. Rather than a slow evolution – we find ourselves rudely awakened.<\/p>\n

The apostle Paul understood that. His life evaluation moment was so sudden and significant that he found it necessary to change his name just to express the difference in his life.<\/p>\n

Paul, whose given name was Saul, had a very comfortable position in life, until he met Jesus. Saul was from a prominent Jewish family. He was a member of the Pharisees, the Jewish ruling council. We can assume that Saul was well respected among the other Jews. He was sincere in his observance of Jewish laws and customs, keeping himself far from any impurity. And he was zealous in his persecution of this new sect called Christians. No doubts kept him up at night. He knew who he was, where he was going, and what he was all about. Until . . . he had an encounter with Jesus.<\/p>\n

We read in Acts 9 that Saul was on the road to Damascus, on his way to persecute even more Christians, when he was blinded by a bright light, and he heard the voice of Jesus calling to him. A few days later, healed of his blindness, he was brought to the home of a Christian man. As soon as Saul, now known as Paul, regained his sight, he was a changed man. He began telling everyone that Jesus is the Son of God. And this was the end of Paul\u2019s comfy life.<\/p>\n

The Jewish leaders \u2013 Paul\u2019s old friends and colleagues, his brothers in the faith – turned against him. And because of his new found faith in Jesus, they were determined to kill him. If Paul\u2019s experience was anything like the experience of persecuted Christians around the world, he lost more than just his friends. He probably also lost his family, his job, his home, his reputation. And that was just the beginning.<\/p>\n

As a Christian preacher, Paul was continually harassed and threatened, beaten and thrown in jail. Read through the book of Philippians sometime and note its joyful tone. Then, remember that Paul wrote this letter from a musty prison cell. This was a man who had lost everything – but don\u2019t start feeling sorry for him yet. In Philippians 3, Paul writes, \u201cBut whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ . . .\u201d<\/p>\n

What about you? Are you still chasing \u201cpreeminence, prosperity, position, promotions, plaudits, popularity?\u201d Are you striving after the perks in life? Or are you striving after its purpose?<\/p>\n

There is a whole generation of exhausted, hard-working, well-meaning men and women who are stuffing themselves with knowledge and yet are suffering from relational anorexia. We know things, not people. We know how to do work, but we don\u2019t know how to be a friend. We know what it takes to get ahead, but we don\u2019t know who we can depend on to help keep our heads above water when life becomes overwhelming. We know how to make a living, but we don\u2019t know how to make a life.<\/p>\n

Paul had all the right knowledge and all the right connections to guarantee his success in life. Then, suddenly Paul knew that he was completely ignorant about the most important thing a human life could experience: A right relationship with God. Filled with knowledge, Paul was starving to death. Only an intimate, personal relationship, a wholly different kind of \u201cknowing\u201d and being \u201cknown\u201d satisfied all Paul\u2019s cravings.<\/p>\n

Everyone who deals in data knows the old maxim \u201cknowledge is power.\u201d The corollary of that law insists that crucial knowledge like power should never be shared. In stories about organizations like the FBI or the CIA, agents are always being curtailed by the power structure\u2019s biggest safety net: The old \u201cneed-to-know\u201d rule. If you can perform the task at hand without having any real information about the whole operation, then you have no \u201cneed-to-know.\u201d Only those in charge, those with all the power, \u201cknow it all\u201d and see the big picture.<\/p>\n

Those who \u201cknow Christ\u201d operate under a completely opposite mandate. All who genuinely \u201cknow Christ\u201d are also those who cannot wait to \u201cmake Christ known\u201d to everyone else. There are so many out in our communities, our neighborhoods, our households, who do have a \u201cneed-to-know.\u201d It is up to those of us who \u201cknow Christ\u201d to reveal his love to them.<\/p>\n

On Easter morning, Mary Magdalene was reduced to tears by the sight of the empty tomb. The angels confronted Mary and asked her, \u201cWoman, why are you crying?\u201d She replied, \u201cThey have taken away my Lord, and I do not know….”\u201d<\/p>\n

There are too many \u201ctheys\u201d out there, conglomerates of faceless, hostile \u201ctheys\u201d whose job it is to make it hard for us to \u201cknow\u201d and easy for us to \u201cnot know.\u201d<\/p>\n

– There are the \u201ctheys\u201d of materialism urging us to invest in possessions instead of treasures.<\/p>\n

– There are the \u201ctheys\u201d of intellectualism advising us to trust only our heads and never our hearts.<\/p>\n

– There are the \u201ctheys\u201d of commercialism persuading us to spend the contents of our wallets instead of extending the power of our hands.<\/p>\n

– There are the \u201ctheys\u201d of politicism dividing us into factions instead of joining us into teams.<\/p>\n

– There are the \u201ctheys\u201d of racism, sexism, and ageism frightening us into hiding in enclaves instead of gathering us into communities.<\/p>\n

What you don\u2019t know can hurt you if what you don\u2019t know is Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n

Stop pouring your energy into stockpiling knowledge for the sake of gaining possessions in this world. Start knowing Christ and making Christ known to the world, and the genuine treasures of this life and the next will decorate your life.<\/p>\n

In 1960, Adolph Coors III, the powerful head of the Adolph Coors Company, was kidnapped and murdered. His family, and especially his oldest son Adolph IV, were in shock. For years afterwards, the younger Adolph Coors wandered aimlessly through life. He joined on at the Coors Company, only to be assigned the most menial and humiliating jobs. Finally, he worked his way up to a vice president\u2019s position. He had the wealth and power that are the birthright of the Coors family.<\/p>\n

Along the way, Adolph became a Christian. As part of his new life, he wrote a note of forgiveness to his father\u2019s killer. Finally, in 1979, he was offered the promotion he had always dreamed of in the company. But Adolph Coors IV wasn\u2019t sure he wanted it. He began evaluating his life and his priorities in terms of his faith. And suddenly, the perks no longer seemed to have a purpose. So Adolph left behind the job he had tried all his life to obtain. Today, he tours the country telling others of his journey of faith.<\/p>\n

There will come a time in every person\u2019s life when we must evaluate our purpose in life. Are you here to \u201cgrab all the gusto you can get?\u201d If you were to lose everything tomorrow – your job, your friends, your family, your security – would you have anything left? Many people down through history have lost everything for the sake of Christ, and they testify to the fact that he is worth it. Knowing Jesus – knowing his power and his promises and the hope of eternal life with him – is the highest purpose in life. It is the possession that transcends all possessions.<\/p>\n

Do you know Christ?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When stuck in traffic, my eyes gravitate to bumper stickers.\u00a0 Here are some interesting ones: \u201cIf you lived in your car, you’d be home by now.\u201d\u00a0 True. \u201cWant a taste of religion? Bite a minister.\u201d\u00a0 I don\u2019t recommend that one. \u201cWhat If the Hokey Pokey IS Really What It\u2019s All About?\u201d\u00a0 Now that\u2019s deep. \u201cI […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"pgc_sgb_lightbox_settings":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n