Investing for Life | Part 1

Life is lived in depth, not merely in length. Welcome to Love Worth Finding featuring the dynamic teaching that counts for the Lord Jesus. And perhaps the most Christ-like character in the Old Testament was Joseph. His story in Genesis chapter 37 gives us insight into how to live life in depth, not merely in length.

If you have your Bible, turn there now as Adrian Rogers begins part one of Investing for Life. Okay, so I was in an airport and one of the things I do in airports is to watch people. I don't know whether you ever do that or not, but people are well worth watching. And if you have nothing else to do, it's very entertaining, sometimes instructive, just to watch people. And so I was sitting back watching and I saw a young man dressed in his military uniform. I was in a little is to watch people. I don't know whether you ever do that or not, but people are well worth watching.

And if you have nothing else to do, it's very entertaining, sometimes instructive, just to watch people. And so I was sitting back watching and I saw a young man dressed in his military uniform. And this young man dressed in his military uniform was there with his, I suppose were his father and his mother. And the young man was a handsome young man. He looked like he could have been a movie actor and he looked also like he could have been a football back field star.

He had a square jaw, broad shoulders, impeccably dressed in his uniform. And his mother and dad were there and his little boy and little girl were there. And they were saying goodbye.

And it looked like a Norman Rockwell magazine cover to see the old man and the old woman, to see this beautiful wife, to see the handsome noble man and the little children gathered around his knees. I almost felt like it was wrong for me to watch, but I was transfixed. I watched as they hugged, embraced, kissed. I watched him as he kissed his wife, his mother. His dad embraced him.

I watched him as he picked up those little children one more time and hugged them. And I thought to myself, he's going overseas. He's going maybe to the battlefront. He may never come home.

This may be the last goodbye. And I thought I wonder, does he know the Lord? Is he saved? And I prayed, Lord, let him sit by me on the airplane. And I got in and got my seat.

It was pre-assigned and I waited. And in an answer to prayer, that young man came, sat down right beside me. And so I turned to him. I said, sir, I was watching. And I don't mean to be intrusive, but was that your mother and father? Oh, he said yes. He said, I said was, obviously then that was your wife. He said yes.

Those were your little children. Yes. I said, are you going to the front? He said, yes, I'm going to Vietnam.

I said, do you expect to see combat? He said, yes, I do. I said, well, now ask your question.

If perhaps you don't come home, are you absolutely certain if you died, you'd go straight to heaven? He said, oh, yes, sir. I know I'm going to heaven.

I said, well, tell me about it. He said, well, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And I believe he took my sins to the cross and he died for me. And I have trusted him as my personal Lord and Savior. And he's very real in my heart.

It was so beautiful to hear that testimony. And I said, well, then are you afraid of dying? He said, no, sir, I'm not afraid to die.

And I said, well, what about if you die young? He looked at me. He didn't know who I was. He didn't know what I was getting at before I asked him the question. He didn't know I was a preacher.

And sometimes I try to hide that and disguise that. And he looked at me as if to give me some instruction and it was good instruction. He said, sir, let me tell you something. He said to me, Christ is real in my life. And he said, God has been good to me. And he said, I may die young.

And if that's his plan, praise his name. But he said, mister, let me tell you something. I have learned that life is not lived in length. It is lived in depth.

I've never forgotten it. Life is not lived in length. It is lived in depth. And he said, Jesus has given me a very full, rich and deep life.

I wanted to witness to him, but friend, God put him on that airplane to witness to me. I believe that the greatest tragedy in life would be to discover on your deathbed that you lived a shallow life, that you lived maybe perhaps many, many years, but you never lived in depth, that you never laid hold of that for which God laid hold of you. And in the words of another, you might look back on your life and say that youth was a struggle, maturity, a blunder, and old age, a regret. So many people are born into this world with so little, and yet they achieve so much, and others are born with so much and achieve and accomplish so little. Now I want to talk to you about investing for life. And what I want to use as a framework is the life, one of the most noble young men that I know anything about in the Bible whose name was Joseph. Now I want to give you some things that will help you to invest in life and to live life in depth, not merely in length. Number one, learn to dream.

Dare to be a dreamer. Read with me now in Genesis chapter 37 verse 1, and Jacob dwelt in the land wherein his father was a stranger in the land of Canaan. And these are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being 17 years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren, and the lad was with the sons of Bilhah and with the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives, and Joseph brought unto his father their evil report. Now Israel, that's another word for Jacob, loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age, and he made him a coat of many colors. And when his brethren saw that their father loved him, that is Joseph more than all his brethren, they hated him and could not speak peaceably unto him. And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren, and they hated him yet the more. And he said unto them, Here I pray ye, I pray you this dream which I have dreamed, for behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright, and behold, your sheaves stood round about and made obeisance to my sheaf.

And his brethren said unto him, Shout thou indeed rule over us, or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams. And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more, and behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me. And he told it to his father and to his brethren, and his father rebuked him and said unto him, What is this dream that thou'st dreamed?

Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come and bow down ourselves to thee, to the earth? And his brethren envied him, but his father observed the saying. Now as you read the rest of the life of Joseph, it's obvious that this was not a mere daydream. This was not some inordinate, silly ambition. But God had given to him a dream. It was a God-given dream that one day the world's rulers would bow at his feet, and the world's resources would be in his hands. God gave him that dream. And when he told the dream, he was not boasting, he was not bragging, because the dream was for God, and the dream was for the benefit of other people.

Now let me say this, that if you would invest your life, you need to get a dream, a God-given dream. Now I don't mean something that you've schemed up and something that you've dreamed up. Jeremiah chapter 29 verse 8 says, Neither hearken to your dreams which ye cause to be dreamed.

I'm not talking about idle daydreams. But I'm talking about finding God's will, God's plan for your life. I love Jeremiah chapter 29 verse 11 in the King James. The NIV gives it even in a more poignant way.

Listen to it. Here's what God said to his ancient people, For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future. And I don't believe that it would be wrong for us to take the intent of that verse and apply it to our hearts, because as God loved his ancient people, God loves us. And there is a sense in which there is a divine destiny for every one of us, and every one of us needs to catch that dream, to hear the voice of the Lord, to say, Lord, what is it you have for my life? Again if we come to the Old Testament prophet Joel.

Joel said in Joel chapter 2 and verse 28, And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Do you have a vision? Have you dreamed a dream? Again I want to say I'm not talking about carnal ambition. I'm not talking about silly daydreams. God doesn't promise to fulfill our fantasies, but God does want to give us a divine aspiration, divine inspiration, divine inclination to be what we ought to be. How can you tell whether it's a God-given dream or just a daydream or a fantasy?

How can you tell whether that thing that you feel stirring in your heart is of God? Sometimes people say to do things that is not of God. I heard about a man who thought he would be on the police force, and he went down to the police force to see if they would, if he could join the police force, and they gave him a test. He came back home, and his wife asked him, said, Do you think they're going to let you be a policeman? He said, More than that, I think they're going to make me a detective. He said, Well, why do you believe that? He said, Well, they gave me a test, and they asked me a very serious question. He said, Who killed Abraham Lincoln?

He said, They've already put me on a murder case. So sometimes people have inclinations that are not of God. They're silly, and they have unrealistic expectations that are not of God. Don't lie to yourself and think that God has a plan for you that He doesn't have for you, that you daydream perhaps of being the chairman of the board of General Motors or whatever.

Test your dream. When God spoke to Mary, He told Mary that she was to be the mother of the Messiah. She believed God. She acquiesced.

But you know, there's something very interesting. The Bible says in Luke chapter 2 verse 19 that Mary kept these things, and she pondered them in her heart. She turned them over and over in her mind. This was not unbelief, but she began to ponder and to say, Lord, is this your will, and if it is your will, how is it going to come to pass?

And she just turned that over and over in her heart and her mind, not in unbelief, but in divine or in wise scrutiny. I remember when God called me to preach. I was a teenage boy, and I had not come from a line of preachers. There's no reason that I should be a preacher.

As a matter of fact, I was very shy to speak in public, didn't want to speak in public, had no inclination to do so. But somehow in my heart, the germ thought got in my heart that God might want me to preach. Now, I'd already told the Lord, Lord, I will do anything you want me to do.

And that was a subtle thing in my heart and in my mind, and I thank God that I had enough spiritual inclination to know that God's will for me was good and perfect and acceptable. So I said, Lord, here I am, whatever you want me to do. And somehow that germ got in my heart, in my mind, that God might want me to preach. And I began to ask the Lord, Lord, do you want me to preach?

Because in a way it seemed a little ludicrous. And then after a while, I began to pray this way. Lord, I think you might want me to preach.

And then after a while, I began to pray this way, and this went on for a period of many months. Lord, if you don't want me to preach, you better let me know. And then one day, Lord, I know that I know that you've called me to preach. Now, I didn't know the scripture that I'm about to give you when I was going through that exercise. As a matter of fact, I knew very little.

As a matter of fact, I didn't know who came first in Bible chronology, Abraham or Moses. But I felt God moving in my heart and in my life. But then I discovered a scripture that explains what was going on in my heart. That scripture was in Proverbs chapter 4 and verse 18 that says, the path of the just is as a shining light that shineth more and more unto a perfect day. Now, the shining light is the sun. And as the sun comes up, at first it's dark. Then it is gray dawn.

You can just see shapes but no colors. Then after a while, you can see colors but long shadows. And then after a while, it is high noon and then no shadows. That's the way it was in my life. It was dark, and it was gray dawn.

I could just see these kind of masses, ideas, thoughts. But then, finally, it was high noon in my heart and in my life. If you think that God is speaking to you about something, if you're wondering is it God's will, do what Mary did and ponder it in your heart. Do what I did and say, Lord, if this is you, just keep on speaking. And say, I'm ready to do your will, whatever it is.

I had a missionary friend call me, and I was honored. He said, I'm facing a real decision. How can I know the will of God?

Well, I had to think because we didn't have a lot of time to talk. And I gave him a verse that I want to give you. It's Romans 12, verses 1 and 2. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, and you will prove what is that good, perfect, and acceptable will of God.

And here is the formula. So, presentation plus transformation equals realization. Now, think about it. Present your bodies a living sacrifice. Now, what is a living sacrifice? Well, a sacrifice has no plans of its own. It's a sacrifice. You don't have to die to be a sacrifice. You can be a living sacrifice.

You put everything on the altar. You say, here I am, Lord. I present myself.

I give myself to you. Have you done that? If you haven't done that, you have no right to expect to know the will of God. Presentation. When you do that with that presentation, there comes a transformation. And be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Now, how does that transformation come about? God renews your mind. Well, when God renews your mind, what does He do with that new mind?

Or what do you do with it? You're to think with it. Why would God renew your mind if He didn't want you to think with it? So, God renews your mind. You have the mind of Christ, and you're transformed. You no longer have the old ambitions, the old desires, the old standards of right or wrong. You have a new mind to think with.

There's presentation, there's transformation, and then there's realization. Then you will know what is that good and perfect and acceptable will of God. Do you know where the will of God is?

Right between your ears and right in your heart. The will of God is God speaking to you through the renewed mind as He brings opportunities to you. And you see these things, and you begin to assess things in the light of God's wisdom as God speaks to you. It's not all that mystical, though it is absolutely miraculous. And so, you need to get a dream.

You need to let God speak to you. Now, God didn't tell Joseph that one day he was going to be the Prime Minister of Egypt. He didn't spell it out with specificity. But Joseph had a dream. He knew he was special. He knew that he was set apart.

He knew that God had His hand on his life for something. I pray that you will say, Dear God, don't let me just be living a shallow life. I want to live life in depth. I want to know your will for my life. Now, number two, not only do you need to dare to dream, but you need to remember your distinctiveness. Remember that the you you see is the you you will be. God made you very, very special.

You're different. Look, if you will, in verse three. Now, Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age, and he made him a coat of many colors. And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him and could not speak peaceably unto him. Now, Joseph stood out from his brothers. He was different. He dared to be different. And there's a great contrast in the life of Joseph and the life of all of his brothers. The beautiful coat that he wore just symbolized his distinctiveness, and that coat of many colors was the kind of coat that royalty would wear. It was the sign of noble birth. And, friend, if there's anybody who ought to stand out as distinctive because of a noble birth, it's those of us who've been twice born, those of us who are children of the Father in heaven, deeply beloved of our Father.

And you'll find out that when you display your nobility, not arrogantly, but boldly, the world will resent that nobility, and the world will try to squeeze you back into its mold. That's what Joseph's brothers tried to do to him. They tried to make him conform, but he had been transformed and he would not conform. Now, God had a plan for him. God said, Joseph, you're going to be different.

You're distinct. And God revealed it to him. Now his brothers resented him for it. I have had people to try to get me to back out of the ministry. When I was announced as a teenager that God had called me to preach, there were those who said things like this, you can make more money doing something else, or you will never succeed in the ministry, or you'll never make it, you won't last, and all of those things. The world has plenty of wet blankets to put out your fire. Why do people resent it when you go on in the things of God?

Because your spiritual success shows them up for what they are, spiritual failures. Coming up tomorrow, we'll hear part two of this important message, Investing for Life. Maybe today you have questions about who Jesus is, what he means to you, how to receive his forgiveness that he's freely offering right now. Go to our Discover Jesus page at lwf.org slash radio. You'll find resources there, materials that will answer questions you might have about your faith.

Again, go to lwf.org slash radio. Now, if you'd like a copy of today's message, you can order one by calling us at 1-877-LOVEGOD. Mention the title Investing for Life when you get in touch to order, or go online to lwf.org slash radio, or write us at Love Worth Finding, Box 38600, Memphis, Tennessee 38183.

Adrian Rogers said, the highest place is just in the center of God's will, wherever it is. Meditate on that today and join us next time for the conclusion of Investing for Life, right here on Love Worth Finding. Listen to this email from a pastor we received recently.

I think it'll encourage you. He says, I'm writing from Kenya and it was by God's grace that I found Love Worth Finding. We are a young growing Christian church whose major aim is to populate heaven through Bible study and evangelism in our area. I'm making a humble prayer to our God that he may open doors for you to continue sharing these resources we share with others. We are so grateful for your prayers and your gifts that make it possible for us to share these resources with people like this dear pastor in Kenya. As a way to say thank you for your support right now, we'd love to send you our Struggles Booklet Collection. Request the Struggles Booklet Collection when you call with a gift at 1-877-LOVEGOD, or you can give online at lwf.org slash radio. Again, thanks for your generous support of Love Worth Finding.