Last month, we thought about “The purpose and meaning of life” based on God’s Word in Eph 2:10.Today, we will look into “A full and abundant life” – what Jesus promised in John 10:10 – “Còn ta đã đến, hầu cho chiên được sự sống, và sự sống dư dật”… We will talk about half time (the age of 50), the first half (hiệp 1, the first 50 years) and the second half (hiệp 2, the remaining years).As you may remember, last time, I mentioned Bob Buford and his book “Half time”. Half time is the point dividing life into 2 halves – the first half and the second half. According to Eph 2:10, in the first half, we are created in Jesus Christ (đã được dựng nên) and the second half, we are to do God’s good works.
In Asian culture and the Vietnam society, our parents place a high value on success. We are expected to study hard, get good grades, get awards… We try and work hard to be successful in school.
Afterwards, we need to get a good job and work hard to gain big titles and make a lot of money to honor our parents and to help them financially. So we have to work long hours, more than required. When I was still working, I used to come in the office at 6:30am and leave at 7pm, with half an hour for lunch, putting in 12 hours a day. In my company, if you can get to a manager level under 30 years of age, you are considered exceptional (xuất sắc). So every young engineer try to work hard and compete. I thought I was working pretty hard by working 12 hours a day, 60 hours a week, until a new boss came in. And he was at work at 5am, left at 8pm and also came in on weekends, Saturdays and Sundays. He was smart and very good, but he gives up a lot of his life and his family to be successful.We are raised in a culture, grow up in the environment, and in a materialistic world. And we need money to pay for everything. Success is indeed necessary and has gradually become our #1 priority. “Danh, loi, quyen” naturally becomes our god, without us knowing. I know of an insurance agent who stayed out late at night to meet and talk to potential customers after they come home from work. On nights when there is no customer, he would sit at a McDonald’s until 10pm instead of going home to be with his family. And you probably know other stories.And time is fleeting, after working for 25, 30 years, we reach our half time. Half time is a very important time in sports, it is when the 2 teams take a break, regroup and plan how they will play in the second half (hiệp 2) to win the game. Whether the team is winning or losing in the first half, the second half is the deciding time. Similarly, in the game of life, most of us have similar hiep 1 as discussed above, but our hiep 2 could be very different, we could win or lose, dependent on how we respond to God’s calling.There are 2 basic life choices at half time – to continue making more money, moving up, buying a vacation home, investment properties, traveling the world and becoming more successful OR we would change our priority by obeying God, to share life with Jesus by carrying out God’s will, to know God more deeply and to enjoy an abundant life that Jesus had promised. Basically, the choices are to follow our will or God’s will.
Before meeting Jesus, the apostle Paul was being considered very important and successful with all of his credentials (education, background…). After meeting Jesus, Paul wrote in Phil 3 that he considered all of it as “smelly garbage”. We believe Paul wrote the Letter to the Philippians when he was in his 50’s (in his half time). Paul clearly had chosen to move from “success to having Jesus”. And this is God’s calling to all believers, and to us, today.Another book that I also like was “The Hole in Our Gospel (chỗ thiếu xót trong Tin lành của chúng ta)” by Richard Stearns. Like Bob Buford, Richard Stearns was very successful in business. He was the CEO of a “fine china” company (chén dĩa kiểu đắc tiền). In the book, he talked about Christians in our time lack compassion for the poor in the world (that’s the hole) and he shared how God called him to serve in World Vision. World Vision is a global Christian humanitarian organization (một cơ quan từ thiện Tin lành thế giới) that works to improve the lives of children, families, and communities around the world. They focus on addressing issues like poverty, hunger, and diseases. He was approached by World Vision to be its President. At first he declined because he didn’t want to give up the CEO job that he had worked all of his life to achieve. It carried a lot of power, respect, and money, and he didn’t want to lose all of it. World Vision, however, kept praying and pursuing him for several months. Finally, he gave in when he faced a question from his heart. The question was “Do you want to continue selling fine china to the rich or to help the poor?”
Today, God put this same question in our hearts, “Do you want to continue making more money, chasing materials and success or to follow and được thông công with Me?” 1 Cor 1:9 – ĐCT là thành tín, Ngài đã gọi anh em được thông công với Con Ngài, là Đức Chúa Jesus Christ chúng ta (thông công là a partnership hay là share life with Jesus (New Living Translation).. it has a clearer picture, a deep relationship which we will study next month. I like this phrase “partnership – sự hợp tác, đồng công – and share life – chia xẻ cuộc sống – with Jesus” and will use it in the rest of the study).
God had blessed Richard Stearns and his work. Under his leadership, World Vision took in $1B a year from donations, much more than before, and he served for 20 years, the longest presidency.Last month, we said to “move from success to significance” is a really difficult decision and we talked about why. Although we read the Bible, we know what God wants, we go to church, we hear sermons and we think, but we don’t make the decision. If it is up to us, we would not choose to give up security, comforts and pleasures, all the things that our carnal person desires. With God’s grace that transforms and changes us from the inside out, and as a result, we will believe and to follow Jesus, instead of being hardened. We remember the hot sun softens the wax but hardens the clay.
In Matt 9, Jesus said, “Mùa gặt thì thật trúng, song con gặt thì ít” – Matt 9:37.. “Vậy, hãy cầu xin chủ mùa gặt sai con gặt đến trong mùa mình” – Matt 9:38. Jesus is looking for anybody who desires Him, who wants to share life with Him… How do we respond?
We know, if we continue chasing success, making more money and getting to higher positions, we will also have more stress. Stress is not good for our health and cause many illnesses. God also knows that we will not be satisfied if we only use our wealth to buy more stuff. In Dr. Richard Teo’s (Singaporean) last letter, which many of you have probably known, he wrote: “Bởi vì càng tích lũy, càng có nhiều, tôi lại muốn nhiều hơn. Càng ham muốn, tôi càng trở nên mê muội. Như tôi đã nói, tôi muốn sở hữu nhiều hơn, đạt tới đỉnh vinh quang như xã hội muốn đào tạo chúng ta. Tôi trở nên mê muội đến nỗi chẳng còn việc gì thành vấn đề đối với tôi nữa. Bịnh nhân chỉ là một nguồn lợi tức và tôi vắt cạn từng xu của họ.” Thưa quí vị, God wants a better life for us because having a lot of stuff is not an abundant life. And we can’t bring anything with us, when we die.With God’s grace and the Holy Spirit’s intervention as Jesus did for Paul, we will choose to “share life” with Jesus. Jesus wants to give us an abundant life in Him… Jesus is waiting… How do we respond?Prayers: Our Father in heaven, thank you for the Bible study this morning, your calling in Philippians and Matthew and the lives of the apostle Paul, Bob Buford and Richard Stearns who go before us. You have chosen us to be your children and you want us to have a full and abundant life on earth and eternal life with you. We are chosen to “share life” with Jesus, and by God’s grace, we will choose it and can experience the sweetness, your peace, joy and hope in God. Thank you Jesus and in Jesus name, we pray. Amen.
Tóm lại, như con cái của Chúa phải nhờ có Chúa Jesus là gốc nho để sống, và nương tựa trên Chúa Jesus để có một cuộc đời sung mãn thì nước Mỹ cũng được Chúa ban phước rất nhiều vì được xây dựng trên nền tảng của Kinh thánh. Chúng ta nghĩ lại về anh Muối, người tín đồ chỉ trong trí tưởng tượng, nhưng ai nấy cũng thấy mình giống với anh vì thiếu sót những trái thánh linh nào đó và thiếu tình yêu thương trong đời sống hằng ngày của mình. Sự tranh chiến giữa con người cũ và con người mới vẫn còn đó. Ba ngôi Đức Chúa trời biết và Chúa thánh linh ở trong lòng của chúng ta sẽ giúp đỡ chúng ta… Chúng ta cứ yên lòng ở trong Chúa Jesus.
John 15:11 sẽ kết thúc bài học KT buổi sáng hôm nay để chúng ta được khích lệ qua lời của Chúa.. Chúa Jesus nói – “Ta nói cùng các ngươi những điều đó, hầu cho sự vui mừng của ta ở trong các ngươi và sự vui mừng các ngươi được trọn vẹn.”
