Leave Boldly

We're in this series "One Month to Live" and I can really identify with the scene described in the book. In fact, I'm going to personalize it a little bit. He talked about building sand castles. How many of you remember building sand castles when you were kids? Wasn't that fun? So much fun. I spent many hours of my childhood doing this here on Main Beach in Santa Cruz because we grew up on the Las Gatos side of San Jose. I came over here to Main Beach all the time. That was our beach. I enjoyed it so much. I'd build towers from styrofoam cups that I would just find on the beach. In those days Main Beach was much different, much more littered, which was excellent for building castles. Do you guys remember this? There was a lot more litter in those days. There were always Coors beer cans. And there were empty Coke bottles. And there were cigarette butts all over the beach. And I loved it. As a kid, it was much better actually because they were all props. I used them all. Little cigarette butt soldiers on the ramparts of my castle. And bacteria-laden seagull feathers were the flags. And I think back on this and I wonder, "Where was my mother during all this?" And then I remember she encouraged it. "I found some cigarette butts for you. Go crazy." It was a different world back then. It really was.

But I'd put in tunnels with a snake in my arms, which would always collapse. And I'd try more and I would always, always dig a really deep moat. As deep as I could. I remember I'd bring shovels over from home and dig a really deep moat around my castle and build a really high wall so that my sand castle would last. Right? Did you guys do this too? And every time I would think, "This time, this time, there is no possible way the mere waves can breach this moat. This is a moat for all time." Anybody else here do this? Try to make your sand castle last? I still actually remember. I kid you not. I remember this very clearly. One time running back and forth at the shore when the tide came in. Yelling at the ocean, "No! No! Go back! Go back! Go back!" Like this. Of course, I was only, what, 19 or 20 years old at the time. So it's understandable. No, I was maybe four or five. But of course, it didn't matter how high I'd build the walls or how deep I'd dig the moats. The tide rolled in, the castle disappeared. And guess what? This is what I want to talk about this morning because a lot of life, we're still building sand castles.

And I can prove it to you. If I could fit you all in my car, I'd give you an object lesson. Right now, this morning, I'd just drag you all into my 15-year-old Chevy Lumina and I would drive up the coast a little ways. Let me put it on Google Maps and describe the drive to you. And you try to guess where I'm taking you, okay? Just try to picture this. We'd get in my Chevy and we would travel north on Highway 1 and we'd stay on the highway when it turned into a mission. And we'd keep going north a few miles. We'd go past the entrance to UCSC. We would take a right turn just past Wilder Ranch and we'd wind our way up a hill. Look back toward the ocean now and you'll see a beautiful view. And now here's your first clue. In this particular place, there's always lots of seagulls. But we keep driving up and we get to a plateau that is just piled high with stuff. Okay, where have I taken you? To the most beautiful city dump in America is where I've taken you, right? The Santa Cruz City Dump.

Actually, you know, they used to call it the dump and then they changed the name to Landfill because it sounds so much better than dump. And then because this is Santa Cruz, we could not stop renaming it. And now, thanks to many committees, I kid you not, it is called the Resource Recovery Facility. And I'm not even joking. Is that not typical Santa Cruz? Anybody moving here would have no idea what that is. It's not a dump, you Neanderthal. It's the Resource Recovery Facility. But actually, it is so nice. They could build a convention center up there. I actually think we should change the name again to the Old Stuff Home or the Santa Cruz Home for Retired Stuff. But whatever you call it, sooner or later, guess what? Everything ends up there. Everything. Last time I went up to the dump, I mean the Resource Recovery Facility, I saw old Christmas decorations. I saw parts of cars. I saw parts of boats. I saw parts of hot tubs and clothes and stereos and TVs and barbecues. Like one author says, "The treasures people dreamed about, the toys kids argued over, it all ends up there." I recommend a trip. I really do. It's just kind of a field trip object lesson. Take the kids, go to the beach first, build some sandcastles, watch the tide come in, and then go up to the most beautiful dump in America and go, "Kids, just a bigger sandcastle."

It'll be a powerful object lesson because everything in life, the tide comes in and it goes away. Nothing lasts. You can take nothing with you. But what if there was a way to build a castle that lasts forever? What if there was a way to build up a legacy that doesn't end up in some resource recovery facility? The Bible says there is. Take out your outlines from your programs that have the logo "One Month to Live" on top. The point of this series "One Month to Live" is to imagine what if you knew you had only a short time left? How would you live? Well, today's principle is where the rubber really meets the road. Leave boldly. If you knew that you were leaving life on earth soon, you'd want to make sure you left a statement, right? A legacy. You'd want to do something that outlasts you. So how do you do that? How do you do something that's not just a sandcastle? How do you do something that doesn't just end up in the dump?

Well, look at the verse at the top of the notes here. 1 Corinthians 3:13–14, our key verses today. And let's read this together, in fact. Whether you're here or watching over in venue in the 10:45 hour, let's all read this out loud together. Here we go. "Whatever we build on that foundation will be tested by fire on the day of judgment. Then everyone will find out if we have used gold, silver, and precious stones or wood, hay, and straw." This passage says that every day of your life, every day, every moment, you get to choose what materials you will build with. You can build with temporary materials, or you can build with eternal materials. You can build a sandcastle, or you can build an eternal castle. It is actually your choice.

So what are the permanent building materials that you can build with? Well, I searched the Bible, and as far as I can see, there are only four things you can build with that are eternal. Only four things that you can build with that really build a legacy that lasts, that weathers the waves of life, the tide of time. And it's not cement. It's not concrete. Those things will all crumble. There's only four things the Bible talks about that last forever. You build with these things, and you leave a legacy that lasts. Jot these down. The first one is convictions. Convictions based on God's Word. Look at what Isaiah 40:8 says, and let's read this verse out loud together too, church. Let me hear you say this. "The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever." Now, you may be here and you're not even a Christian. You came because you're kind of curious and checking this out, but you're not sure. You buy into this whole thing, and this verse might sound a little odd to you, and you're going, "What are they talking about? What does this mean?" What this means is just objectively, trends and styles come and go, but the words in the Bible never change. The best seller list is always changing, but God's Word never changes. What culture approves and disapproves is always changing, but God's Word never changes. So it brings stability to your life to build on this.

Now, you're thinking, "Well, what does that mean to build on what?" Well, specifically on the words of Jesus Christ. Look at Matthew 7:26. Jesus has been saying, "If you build your life on my words, the words I've just spoken, your house will outlast the wind and the waves. It won't be a sandcastle." And then he says, "But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand." And I love the message paraphrase of this verse, but he says, "If you use my words in Bible studies and don't work them into your life, you're like a stupid carpenter who built his house on the sandy beach." Now, think about this. Jesus was a builder, right? We often translate the word "carpenter," but the Greek word "technon" really means he was a builder of any kind. It could mean he was a carpenter with wood, but it could also mean he was a stonemason. It could mean he was what we call a general contractor today. The word doesn't mean carpenter the way you might think of it, somebody who builds chairs and tables. It's more broad than that when it says Jesus was a technon. It means he was a contractor, he was a builder, he worked with his hands is what it means.

And I think he's speaking from personal experience. He probably worked on houses that didn't have a great foundation, and he's saying, "Only fools build houses like that because all the work that you build on top of a poor foundation is doomed because your foundation is poor." And of course, this is directed right at you and me. What are you building the house of your life on? He's talking really about the difference between beliefs and convictions. I like what somebody said, "A belief is something you hold on to, but a conviction is something that holds you." Convictions are your anchor. They're a rock to build on. So is your foundation solid? This is very important.

In 1174, the Italian architect Bonanno Pisano, what a great name, huh? Bonanno Pisano. He started work on what would become his most famous project, unfortunately for him, an eight-story bell tower for the cathedral of the city of Pisa. Just one little problem, soft soil. Before they were even done, the tower was tilting a little bit. In fact, it took 176 years to finish the tower because of the tilt. And during that time, they tried all kinds of things to try and compensate for the tilt, except for start over someplace else. In fact, if you look at it, you can tell that the upper levels were even built at an angle to try to make the top of the tower look straight. Like, "Tilt? What tilt?" You know? But nothing worked. Why didn't anything work? Because it had a bad foundation. You build your life on a bad foundation, it gets tilted. And like the builders of the tower, you can try lots of things to try to compensate for the tilt, but it all goes back to the foundation. What's your life built on? Some trend or something that has stood the test of time?

And let's get very specific about this. Here's something a lot of people miss. Jesus says to put what into practice? Put what into practice? What does he say? These words of mine. What words is he talking about? Well, when he says this, he is just finishing the Sermon on the Mount. It's an actual sermon of Jesus Christ that we have recorded in three chapters of the Bible, chapters 5, 6, and 7. So what does he say in the Sermon on the Mount? Well, I would really recommend going back and reading it this week. We're going to talk about it in the Daily Devotions, but here are some highlights for you. He says, "Love your enemies. Do not worry. Do not judge. Do to others what you would have them do to you." All from the Sermon on the Mount, and there's lots more in the same vein, but he says, "These words of mine are great building material if you put those words into practice." But they've got to be convictions, not just beliefs. I mean, I'm a pastor. I believe Jesus said these things. I'm very familiar with this. I preach sermon series on the Sermon on the Mount. But even to this day sometimes, I'll feel a little tilted. I'll wake up at 3:30 in the morning worried, and I'll start to run through my mind this and that, and I'll start thinking, "How come that person is living their life like this, and I'm going to tell them off this way?" And I'll really start going, and I'll find myself full of anxiety. And then I'll realize, "Right now, I'm not built on the foundation. I've forgotten my foundation, which is Jesus Christ's teachings. Don't worry. Don't judge. Do to others what you would have them do to you." And of course, there's much more on the Sermon on the Mount. So you've got to be familiar with those words. Go back and read them this week. And then you've got to actually put them into practice.

You could give me a great cookbook. There are so many great cookbooks out right now. Cuisine is just in this renaissance right now. But I could go, "Awesome cookbook! I love these pictures!" I could go through the whole thing. I could get some highlighters. I could highlight the neatest recipes with different color highlight pens. And I could do word studies on the different words for cheese and stuff. And I could go to a small group where we discuss the recipes in depth, and we talk about recipes that we experienced in our childhood that hurt us, that turned us off to food, you know? But unless I put it into practice, I'm no chef! And it's the same thing with the words of Jesus Christ in the Bible. You've got to have a foundation of convictions based on these for the foundation of your lasting castle. And then once you've got the foundation right, you can go on up to the second eternal building material, and that's compassion. Compassion.

Did you know that your acts of compassion, when done for God's glory, in God's name, have eternal value? In fact, they have much more eternal value than cement or concrete or anything else you can store up. There's a great story that Jesus told once. Jesus, of course, did not preach without telling stories. Sometimes people might accuse pastors of over-illustrating. Well, if there's anybody who ever over-illustrated, it was Jesus, because the Bible says He never taught anything without telling a story related to His point. Did you know the Bible says that about Christ? And one time He tells a story, a rich man had one great year after another. He just keeps getting richer and richer. And finally, He has His best crop ever. And He says, "Wow, I am so rich!" He goes, "I'm so rich, I only have one problem. I don't have enough places to put my stuff. I don't have enough barns to store all my food. What could I possibly do with all this extra food?" And He thinks and thinks. Then He says, "I know. I will tear down these barns and build bigger barns. And then I'll be happy and I'll never worry about anything again, and I can eat, drink, and be merry." And Jesus says, "But God said to Him, 'You fool. This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself? This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.'

Now, notice God doesn't call Him a fool because He's rich. That's not the problem. And He doesn't call Him a fool because He built barns. And He doesn't call Him a fool because He wants to eat, drink, and be merry. Why is He a fool? And by the way, not even wicked. Just a fool. Why is He a fool? Because He's rich in the things of this world but not rich toward God. What should He have done when He ran out of space to store all the food that He got? Give it away, right? That was the obvious answer. And here it's a brainteaser for Him. What am I going to do with all this extra food? I know I'll build bigger barns. And Jesus goes, "No, you've got to store up treasure in heaven." Look at Matthew 6:20. This is in the Sermon of the Mount. "Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where moth and rust do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal." Did you notice here Jesus is not actually against storing up treasures for yourself? Sometimes you think God is against, you know, amassing riches. He's not against it. In fact, in this verse, it looks to me like He commands it. He says, "You better store up treasures for yourselves. Do it. Get rich. Just do it where it'll last, not where the tide crumbles the castle." So how do you store up treasures in heaven, right? That begs that question.

Well, Jesus elsewhere says, "If anyone," watch this now, "If anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who's my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose his reward." You know, if we're honest, I think a lot of us live in fear that we are just building sand castles, and not sand castles that are sprayed with some kind of glue fixative to keep them together either, castles that are just going to crumble. A lot of us are worried that we're going to live our lives and we're not going to leave anything that lasts. I think, in my experience, most parents feel that way about their efforts, especially moms. I mean, I've had my own wife talk to me about this. I've talked to many other moms. I mean, you do the dishes, next meal, dishes are dirty again. They make the beds in the morning, next morning, messy again. You cook a meal, next 10 minutes, they're hungry again, if you have teenagers, right? Most moms especially feel like all their hard work gets washed away at the end of every day. Here comes the tide, the four-year-old and six-year-old tide with runny noses coming in. There goes all my hard work. And some of you are caring not for kids maybe, but for an elderly or a sick relative. And it's the same thing. The laundry, the bed sheet changing, the doctor's visits all seem like, "Build up the castle." Tide knocks it down. "Build up the castle." Tide, endless cycle.

But today I want you to know Jesus is saying in this verse, "Every cup of cold water." And of course, he's not meaning specifically cold water every time. He's using that as an example of the tiniest thing you can do, the smallest little cup of water, not even something that you have to make or bake or cook or cut. Just a cup of water to the littlest person, to the smallest one of these. What's a cup of cold water? Every hug to someone who's thirsty, maybe not for water, but a hug. Every encouraging word to somebody who needs that cup of cool water, that's an encouraging word. Every time you visit somebody in a nursing home, and they always could use a visit, every time you write a card to a vet like we did last weekend, every time you babysit for a stressed-out mom, every cup of cold water, you make feel like, "Nobody sees this." But Jesus is saying here, "I see it." And he's saying, "I will never forget." I mean, it's an amazing promise. Every morning you make the bed. Every morning you cook up the oatmeal in the rush right before school. Every time you visit somebody in the hospital and they're so drugged up, they don't even remember that you ever saw them. Jesus says, "I see it. I'll never forget." And one day, eye to eye, I'll say, "Thank you." And he says, "I promise you, you will receive an eternal reward. You are building much more than a sandcastle. You are building a legacy with those little acts of compassion.

Now, I know some of you are going, but sometimes I feel like my little bit just cannot make it. What difference does a cup of cold water make? And I'm just one person, and there's so many needs out there, but I like what Helen Keller said. She said, "I'm only one, but still I'm one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something. And because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do." That is exactly what Jesus is underlining in this verse. Every single little thing matters. And there are so many small ways that you can show compassion. Now, again, you say, "But I have no real talents. What can I possibly do that is a cup of cool water to people who need some help?" Well, there are opportunities all around you. John Orpberg, in his book, "It All Goes Back in the Box," tells my favorite story about this. It's the story of Johnny the Bagger.

Johnny works at a grocery store, and one day he went to a training event led by a speaker named Barbara Glans. And Barbara was speaking on how people can make a difference, and Johnny loved what he heard. And about a month later, Barbara gets a call from the 19-year-old bagger, Johnny. And Johnny, on the phone, first proudly informs her that he has Down syndrome. That's an important part of the story. And then he tells her a story. He says, "Barbara, I like what you talked about, but I didn't think I could do anything special for our customers." And then he had an idea. He would find a thought for the day, something positive, some reminder of how good it was to be alive or how much people matter or how many blessings that we are surrounded by. If he couldn't find one, maybe he'd find a good little Bible verse, or maybe he'd make one up. And then every night his dad would help him enter the saying six times a page on the computer, and then Johnny would print out 50 pages. Then he'd take out a pair of scissors every night and carefully cut 300 copies and sign every one, "Johnny." And the next day, every time he finished bagging somebody's groceries, he put his saying on top of the last bag.

A month later, the store manager called Barbara. "Barbara, you won't believe what's happened here. I was making my rounds, and when I got up to the cashiers, the line at Johnny's checkout was three times longer than anybody else's. It stretched all the way down to the frozen food aisle." And he got on the loudspeaker to get more checkout lines open, but he couldn't get any of the customers to move. They said, "That's okay. We'll wait. We want to be in Johnny's line." One woman came up to him and said, "I used to shop at your store once a week. Now I come in every single time I drive by. I want to get Johnny's thought for the day." There's a reason that Johnny's lines are longer than anybody else's, because our souls need a cup of cold water as much as our bodies do. And an encouraging word to people in this stressed-out, harried society, that's a cup of cool water.

And of course, what makes the words on the page mean so much to the people is who they come from. Because when people get them from Johnny, they're reminded of one person going past his limitations, going with his limitations, and doing some little act that really makes a difference for everybody else. And a few months later, the manager calls Barbara once again to tell her Johnny's lines are transforming the whole store. He told her when the floral department had had a broken flower or unused corsage in the past, they used to throw it away. Now they go out into the aisles and find an elderly woman or a little girl and pin it on her. The butchers started putting ribbons on the cuts of meat they wrapped up for customers. The people who make their shopping carts are actually trying to make carts with wheels that work. No, I made up that last part. But what Jesus is saying here is, "You can be a Johnny the bagger. You can do something that's a cup of cold water to people." And it's not just, you know, I'm looking down here at Lisa and she's putting, she put together those Valentine's cards for veterans and is taking up Valentine's dinner that Acapulco Restaurant donated to the women in the female post-traumatic stress award for the veterans along with all the Valentine's that you guys signed last weekend. And she's taking it up there for Valentine's banquet for those ladies up there in the Veterans Hospital.

And you might be tempted to think once the food's gone and the cards have been up maybe a month on the mirrors, you know, and they're in the garbage and that was kind of nice, but it didn't last. Jesus says, "Eternal reward." Jesus says, "Legacy factor, 100%." Because you're showing acts of compassion and that's one of those eternal building materials and that actually ties into the third building material that lasts forever and that's community. Community. What am I talking about here? Well, ever go down to Capitola during the Begonia Festival and watch the real pro sand sculpture people do their thing? Anybody ever do that? It is amazing. But I read an interview with a sand sculpting team and they said the number one question they get asked all the time is this, "Don't you get discouraged that you're working so hard on something that's just going to be torn down?" And they said, "No, not at all. We love the process." They said, "We love the creativity and the relationships. We have so much fun together on our team and that's what it's all about." And I thought about that and I thought that's the way life is. That house you live in, it's a sand castle. So don't get too attached to it. It's wearing out even as we speak. It's fine, enjoy it, but it's just like this. It's what goes on, you know, as you're building that sand castle. It's what goes on inside and around the sand castle that lasts and that's important. That car you drive, that's a sand car. It really is. Don't get too attached to it. It's wearing out right now. It's rusting as we speak in the parking lot. It's the relationship building in and around it that's going to far outlast the car. That's why Jesus says most important command, "Love God, love people," because that's what's going to last. That's why 1 Corinthians 13:13 says, "Three things will last forever, faith, hope, and love, but the greatest of these is love."

Now before our final point today, in this series we've been imagining, what would I do if I knew I had limited time on earth? Right? Well, I got a question for you. What about if you actually died and then got a second chance? How would that change your life? Well, that very thing really did happen to a friend of mine. George Hurley goes here to Twin Lakes Church. George is an executive at a construction company that builds massive public buildings like hospitals. He travels all over the nation building these huge, multi-million dollar castles. But I'll never forget, last year, Memorial Day weekend, my family and I were coming back from Camp Cornonia. And when we got the phone call, George Hurley is in the hospital. He had a massive heart attack. He was revived, but he flatlined, and he's in a coma. We don't know if he's going to live. What would it be like to go through that experience? Well, I want you to listen to what George has to say about it.

My brother and I were out on a bike ride on Memorial Day weekend, and as it was relayed back to me, I had a major heart attack that Monday morning while I was riding. My brother performed CPR on me to save my life, and from there I was in a coma through till the following weekend. I came out of my coma, I guess, on Friday. So for me, it was a very big event. There was, as explained to me, I pretty much left for a little while and came back. It's like God gave me that second chance. So I'm back, and I'm back in a big way. I've never in the past started every day where I sit down at the table with my bowl of oatmeal, and I pray, and I leave the day with the Lord because he gave me my life. And so it really is all about him. I mean, if you just simply say, "This is all yours, Lord." You know what? I can't change it. I mean, I can't control this. So I serve up this day, and man, I am with you 100 percent. Before my heart attack, I often thought about how much more time I had to position myself for retirement, getting the house paid off and not having any debt. Now, I don't really think about it. I mean, I don't even care if it ever happens. My wife and I could just go rent something, but I'm so ready to just do meaningful things in my life and to make every day much more meaningful than it was.

When I see people coming back from those missions trips, and I see how much growth and how much they got and gained out of those trips, I just know that that is where I want to be. Just fully blessed, but just knowing that I blessed people, that I was able to share God's love, that I could take my skill sets and give back. And so I just want that. That is what I want from my legacy more than anything else. My priorities are much different. I won't stay long at a meeting if I think I need to get home on time. My priority is to get home on time. My priority is to work less. But I'm also, I just don't get excited about things like I did in the past. And so that gentleness really reads over into my work life as well. And people are recognizing it and saying, you know, you definitely are different. I take every opportunity to tell people something special. You know what I like about you? You know, the way that you invest your time in your children, the way that you treat your son or do things with your son. And so I'm trying to not miss an opportunity to let other people know that they have a real purpose.

Since the event, I've softened. You know, I want to be firm, but I don't want to be firm anymore because I'm so happy to be with them. And I want to share that. I want to share sort of in that joy. And I'm kind of like, I'd rather just let God deal with them. You know, let God be the strength that they need to get to where they need to go and let me be more, more gentle, more their friend. We were leaving the hospital. It was one of those beautiful days. I mean, it was just a sunshining day and to get into the car and to feel the warm air and to see Santa Cruz at its best with the sun shining. And it so overwhelmed me, the happiness of just being back, you know, of life. And I just started crying. And, you know, my wife's like, are you OK? Are you OK? I said, yeah. I said, I'm just so happy. I'm just so happy to be back, to be, you know, for God to have given me back my life. And it was, I don't know how often we do. But we ever stop to just simply say, wow, what a great feeling to just simply be alive.

Aren't you glad that George is alive? Isn't that great to hear? There were so many great things that he said. There are so many. And we're probably going to post it on YouTube or something so you can watch it again and really glean all the meaning out of that. You know, talk to somebody who's got a literal second chance. But one of the things he talked a lot about there was, I really want my life to be about meaning. I like the idea of mission trips and of making every day something meaningful. And that is our final and fourth eternal building material, living for a cause that outlasts me. A cause. What cause are you living for? There's a lot of unstated causes people live for in life. My cause, if you were just to gauge from the way people live their lives, some people might have as their unstated cause to watch as many hours of television as I possibly can. But what is your cause? Jesus says, here's a cause worth living for. "Upon this rock I will build my church and the powers of hell will not conquer it." I've got to tell you something, I really believe that God's church is the hope of the world. And I don't just mean this little local church. I mean the whole community of Christ followers in all kinds of different denominations all over the world.

But all over the world, right now, there's a billion Christ followers feeding people and curing people and teaching people and crucially telling them the story of how God loves them so much that He left heaven to come for, to look for them, His little lost lambs and to build a bridge for them to get to know Him. And that changes people's lives and it's the greatest cause ever. And Jesus says the gates of Hades, He's saying it's no sand castle. And He's not talking about buildings, church buildings are going to crumble and fall just like any other buildings. He's talking about souls, soul building. And that's the best cause to give your life to ever because it's the only cause that has an effect that goes on forever. So let's wrap this up by making a list. Let's imagine a chart, all right? On one side, things that last. What lasts? Well, there's only four things that I can see in the Bible. There's God's Word, it says lasts forever, kind acts done in His name, people, their souls, and the church that Jesus is building. That's it, biblically.

That's why I want to have, in order, conviction based on God's Word, compassion, kind acts done in His name, community with people that last forever, and a cause related to the church. These four things. On the other side of the chart, what doesn't last? Well, I made a very quick list. My stuff, that's pretty all encompassing. Money, that doesn't last. Titles, no matter what titles you get. In fact, try this experiment. Try what I call the game of tens. Do this today with somebody that you know. Try to name the last ten winners of any title. Try to name them. The last ten winners of the AT&T. Try to name the last ten winners of the Best Actress Oscar at the Academy Awards. Try to name the last ten senators from California. It's very hard to do. And these are people who reach the top of their field. Unless you're a super-trivial, Jeopardy! champ, you just can't do it. What else doesn't last? Youth. How many of you are living illustrations of that? Can I see a show of hands right here? How many of you are sitting next to somebody who's a living illustration of that? Okay, sir, husbands who just raised their hands. You can have a sad Valentine's Day, I just have to tell you, right? Right? All right, what else doesn't last? Beauty. Again, I ask, no, just kidding. Power? Ask Cosme Mubarak about this. Health? Now, this stuff isn't bad. You just have to keep this stuff on the right side in perspective, right? You can have fun with a sandcastle, right? I like sandcastles. But all these things on the right side, they're just sandcastles. So enjoy your sandcastle, but it doesn't make sense to prioritize the stuff that lasts.

You know, we used to sing a song when I was a little kid in church, "With Eternities, Values, and View, Lord. With Eternities, Values, and View. Help me live each day for Jesus with Eternities, Values, and View." How many of you remember that old song? Some hands that went up when I asked about youth. I don't know if you noticed, it's the same hands, exactly. But anyway, now, with Eternities, Values, and View, living for what lasts, this does not necessarily mean huge changes in your life. But it might. It did for me. Some of you might know that my undergrad degree is in radio TV, and I worked for a few years at radio stations up and down the coast, mostly over in San Jose, places like K-Bay, FM100, K-Bay, the bright and the beautiful. Back in those days, Mix 106.5 KZR, several other stations, it was fun, but it occurred to me, legacy factor, zero. I was doing commercials for Zit Cream, no legacy factor. And there's very few occupations with a lower legacy factor than disc jockey. And I knew I had to change something. So how's your legacy factor?

For you, it probably won't mean a job change. It might, but probably not. But it probably will mean some change, if only an attitude change toward your kids, toward the daily opportunities to give a cup of cold water. You know, you could say that life looks like this. Our life on earth is a dot. It starts, it ends, it's brief. But from that dot, a line goes on forever. Right now, we're living in the dot, right? But what are we living for? A short-sighted person lives for the dot. A person with perspective lives for the line. A person who lives for the dot gets treasures that end up in the dump. A person who lives for the line gets treasures that last forever. A person who lives for the dot ends up with sand castles. A person who lives for the line ends up with heavenly mansions. And the funny thing is, Jesus teaches, it's totally your choice. Let's pray. Would you bow your heads with me?

Heavenly Father, help us all to live with eternity's values in view. In fact, I pray that this church would be characterized as a place where we do enjoy building sand castles. Sand castles are fun, but where we just keep our sand castles in perspective. And may we be a church where people have all four of these lasting values, a place where we value convictions, and also compassion and community and the cause of Christ, the stuff of eternal legacy. And specifically right now, I pray that if there's somebody in this room who's listening to all this and is uncertain what would happen to them if they had one month to live, is uncertain what will happen to them when the dot is over. That they just settle this issue right now and say, "Father, I don't understand all of this, but as much as I do understand, I want to live my life for you, Lord." Thank you so much for the forgiveness of sins purchased on the cross by Jesus. That helps me to live in that line that enables me to live in that line that goes on forever. I want to live with Him as my leader, my Lord. I want to make each day of my life count. And I pray this in Jesus' name, Amen.