This is quite a weekend here at LAC. It’s Sanctity of Life weekend. Churches around our nation set a day aside one weekend each January to remember the value of every human life. Usually, on Sanctity of Life weekend, churches consider the earliest stages of human life in which many of us are very concerned that human lives still in the womb are being devalued and even destroyed in our world. The day originally was motivated by the historic Roe vs. Wade decision in 1973 legalizing abortion in our nation. Our desire to serve those who are tempted to end the lives in their wombs, often because they see no way to care for that life given their present situations, is what has given rise to wonderful ministries in our community like The Living Well. I hope many of you will stop by their table in the lobby after the service.

And, it’s Martin Luther King weekend too. I think MLK day is also a day in which we remember the sanctity of each human life. On that day, we as a nation remember (among other things) the dream that one day children will live in a place in which they are judged not by the “color of their skin but by the content of their character”. Of course, those who believe in the God of the Bible know how consistent both of these remembrances are with a biblical portrayal of human life.

Some of you may not know that MLK day has special relevance to us here in Pasadena because this was the home of Jackie Robinson who helped forge the way for people of all colors into professional sports. Pasadena is also a city in which John Perkins has done much of his groundbreaking work in advocating for opportunities for people of all socio-economic and ethnic backgrounds – doing so on the basis of his understanding of the implications of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And Pasadena is the location of one of the earliest federal court decision to desegregate our schools –1970 – a decision that has had a huge impact on our community. With those historic factors in mind – and the fact that Pasadena has become a very ethnically diverse city in recent decades – our city is surely a place where we can declare something about the glory of God. We can demonstrate that our triune God is one God by being a church community united in Christ even while we represent the breadth of diversity of our neighborhood. The world we are in will always be divided but when we love one another, then all will know that we are Jesus-followers (Jn 13).

So, in my message today, I want us to look again at the way God speaks of human life beginning in Genesis 1:26; i.e., that every human life is made in God’s very image. The Bible offers to us the highest view of the value of each human life that can be found in any philosophy, religion or ideology. The Bible declares from its opening chapter that there is something sacred about a human life.

On this weekend, we are also beginning a new series of messages entitled Don’t Waste Your Life. Yes, I’ve taken the title from a book that has shaped a lot of our lives, a book by John Piper. I recommend it to you to read over these next several weeks. Our Ministry Council and I have been sensing the leading of God’s Spirit to address this topic long before any of us had looked at the calendar and realized that the launch date of the series is MLK weekend and Sanctity of Life weekend. I imagine you can see how this series is directly connected to the way we look at life. The conviction we have is that each moment of each human life is a precious gift in the sight of God. It really is disingenuous for us to argue publicly for the value of human life if we waste the lives God has given us. And, what we will be considering throughout these coming weeks together is that a life that really counts is a life in which each moment we live, each gift we have been given, and each resource God has entrusted to us is intentionally invested in God’s mission and used to bring God glory. I know that a sentence like that sounds overly pious to some – but, if you will come week by week and listen to God’s voice, you will find that it is life-transforming.

It’s always a bit challenging to start a new series – but today I want us to see that we have been made by God to thrive – to experience God’s shalom – when we view ourselves of stewards of all we are and all we have. A steward is one who has a task – given by his master or overseer. The benevolent and wise overseer will give the steward what is needed for the task and the steward has the privilege of freely and creatively setting the resources to work for the mission. When the overseer is good and provides what is needed – and the steward is faithful – then there is joy for all. So today I want us to see that we have been “made for stewardship”. Let’s begin at the very beginning – why is this so?

#1: Why we have shalom when we are faithful stewards of what God has given – The answer, quite simply, is that we are made in God’s image and God is a creative, ordering, and productive God.

Look at Gen. 2:2 and you will see a phrase about God that would have been viewed as radical in the ancient world. We are told: By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing… This report that God worked and that he had found joy in work may not seem radical to us but it was in the ancient world. Gods did not work in ancient religions. Work was “beneath” them.

In Eastern religions, the Babylonian Enuma Elish tells of how the god Marduk challenged Tiamat to combat and destroyed her. He then slit her corpse open and made the heavens and earth out of it. But the other gods complained about who will have to maintain this world. At first, Marduk forced the gods who had sided with Tiamat to have to work but then he relented and created inferior, primitive beings called human to do the labor so the gods could really live a life of leisure. In other words, wok was viewed as bad. Gods didn’t have to be productive.

And in Western religions, the Greek God Zeus gave Pandora a jar and said, “Don’t open it!” Of course she did open it and bad things came out – things like disease, decay, pain, death – and work. Yes, work was in Pandora’s jar.

Genesis 1-2 flies in the face of these cultural understandings. In the Bible, God is productive. He creates, and he orders and maintains things. Then, we move to Genesis 2:15, we see that God plants a garden. He’s a gardener. Our God is a God who finds joy in getting dirt under his fingernails. And, in Gen. 2, God makes food – (I’m sure it’s great food!) God is a producer and caretaker.

The point is that being productive and stewarding things have great value according to the Bible. God is involved in this world not first as a tyrant or a hedonist but as a farmer. Then, when His Son came, he came as a carpenter. God is a creative being who likes to make new things. He likes to get involved with the ordering and care of a changing and growing world. And we’re made in his image. So, we are really energized when we accomplish things. All work can be deeply satisfying if it is done right – writing music, building homes, getting rid of weeds, creating sermons, caring for our families… I love how Tim Keller puts it, “Remember the God with dirt under his fingernails who dignifies all work.” It’s in his image that we are made.

#2: How we find shalom when we are stewards of all God gives us. The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it (Gen. 2:15).

Let’s face it: Working at things, caring for things and being a steward of things does not always bring us peace. We’re like the children’s story, Three Men in a Boat. We say, “I love work. Work fascinates me. Why, I could just sit and look at it all day.” I think that work becomes drudgery rather than joy for us when work becomes the center of our lives – either by choice or by some form of slavery. Or, that we work only for the material benefit we hope it will bring to us – rather than as a part of wanting to glorify God.

So, on one side, I tell you, there is little that will leave us feeling more deeply dissatisfied than when our lives seem to be counting for nothing. On the other, we will have shalom when our lives make a difference in this world. I love the words of Jesus in John 4:34: My nourishment is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.

So, how can our stewardship be a joy rather than become a drudgery? All my life, I have heard three guidelines – and I’ve heard many preachers use them. So, now, what I have received, I pass on to you: Look in, look out, and look up.

Step #1: Look in – at all God has given you

What do we see about God that connects to us? First, God is a Creator and makes us so that most of us love to create things too. This does not mean that we create in exactly the same way as God does. He creates out of nothing. The words for creating, “ex nihilo”, are used only for God. But, words for the creative task – Like forming, making, doing, etc. are often used of human beings in the Bible. I like how Tolkien wrote about this. He said we are “sub-creators” = those who make something relatively new out of what God has made. This is not saying that all human beings are supposed to be artists or musicians or poets but it does mean that when we make things and look at them with joy, we sense the image of God being lived out in us.

Second, God is one who brings order to things as the Spirit did in Gen. 1:2. God brought order and beauty out of chaos. He took what already was and made it into something that functioned well – that was better for the rest of creation than the way it was. All of us can do that. When the custodian takes a mess at our church and makes it so that we can come and worship in cleanliness, the creator-like gift has been exercised. When a security agent is placed in a potentially dangerous situation and serves to make it a safe place for learning, or worshiping or playing, he exercises an image-of God quality. When an attorney or judge or jury member takes a legal mess and works in it to bring about justice and compassion, she exercises a part of God’s image. When a mother takes a battle between siblings and brings it to peace, she exercises this gift from God.

Third, Gen. 1-2 reveals that God is a ruler who uses his sovereignty to bring love and joy and life to creation and, in 1:26, we read specifically that he made us to rule in the same way. Business owners or managers, when you use your role as leader to make the workplace a place your people can flourish and use their gifts, you use a God-given gift.

You see, the applications of this are unending. Indeed, I am convinced that every calling in life provides an opportunity for us to be God’s stewards bringing his blessing to wherever he puts us:

• A hair stylist using his/her gifts to take a mess and make beauty is being a blessing.
• A plumber stepping into a frustrated couple’s home and getting that toilet unclogged is exercising God’s gift.
• A teacher equipping students to grow and reach their potential is exercising a gift of stewardship.

So, I urge you to look at what gifts and interests and opportunities God has given you. View them as gifts and know that you have an opportunity to be a steward.

Step #2: Look out – at what is needed in the world

We are told in 2:15 to take care of the world – not just to use it or to work it for our own benefit. You see, if you only engage in step #1 and look inside at what you like to do, you will become self-centered and that is never fulfilling – and it truly is never a blessing to others. I have been in settings, even religious settings, in which people have been told to look inside and discover your passions and interests – and that’s all that’s said. 21^st C culture loves this point! But, then, we who are fallen human beings seem to move quickly to the idea that, “If I have this passion, then God and everybody else had better give me the chance to exercise it.” So, we turn what is supposed to be something that should bring blessing to our world and make it a selfish thing.

But, the Bible makes it clear that our image-of-God-gifts are to be used for the care of other people and of the world. We are to be productive in ways that the world needs. It’s not just for self-fulfillment. In fact, self-fulfillment comes when we live to serve the betterment of others and the world. There are many ways this can be done. One, obviously, is to make money and to give it away to people or to causes that further God’s message, God’s compassion, and God’s justice. And, just as often, it happens through our service and our work – in which we use our time and our talents to further the rule and mission of God in the world. Those of you who care for children in the nursery, mentor students in our student ministries, play instruments to lead worship – all know what I’m talking about.

On this Sanctity of Life weekend, I tell you that when you look at a teenage pregnant girl who wants to keep her child but has no idea how to she ever will take care of it and you say, “I’m not sure either but I know that your child is of infinite value as you are and I am – and I know that we are to look out and see how our lives can be used to take care of others – so I’m ready to walk with you. God will be with you and I will be with you. So, let’s go with him together and see where he leads us.” When you and I think and live like that, we will know our lives have meaning. We will experience the shalom of God.

And I need to add this: the service doesn’t have to be paid. In fact, being paid often robs us of the greatest joy. Joy comes from using whatever we have simply as stewards of the Lord. We should serve because we’re made in God’s image. We’ve been made to serve. Jesus served even to the point of giving his life – as a ransom for many. So, we look inside to see what God has given you and made you to be. Then, ask, “Am I being productive in ways that help people and cares for the world? “

Step #3: Look Up – and ask God to show you what he wants you to do.

Up until this point, the “look in” and “look out” advice could be given in any self-help seminar in the world. That doesn’t make those points less true or less helpful. However, we all know that “living life to the full” does not simply come from my own self-generated efforts – no matter how altruistic they may be. I believe that true shalom comes when we know that whatever we do with our lives contributes to a worthwhile mission. And, when we come to know God through faith in Jesus, we begin to learn that our lives can be stewarded in such a way that all we do brings glory to God.

I will often define stewardship in this way: Good stewardship is the use of what doesn’t last to bring about what lasts longer. And, when we are “born again” to an eternal God and an eternal world through faith in Jesus, we begin to learn that the time, talents and treasures entrusted to us in this material world can be used to further what God is doing – to further eternal things.

This is a wholly different way than the world tells us to live. We don’t say, “OK, I’m a Christian. So, God, you gave me this passion to speak to lots of people so you’d better give me the opportunity to do it or I’ll be angry.” No, all the gifts we have are his. We look inside to see how he’s made us and to see what he’s given us. Then we look out at what is needed. And then we look up with gratitude to God and say, “It’s all yours, Lord. I’m all yours, Lord. Is there some way you would have me use what is yours and has been entrusted to me to bring your message, your love, and your blessing to the world?”

#3: What to do today

• Begin by doing that self-assessment. Don’t focus right now on what you do not have – but what has been entrusted to you. Not on what you used to have when you were younger – but on what God has entrusted to you right now. It might be you’ve lost your job and all you have is a lot of time. That’s something. It might be you’ve gotten older and lost some mobility or work opportunity – but you now have more freedom to decide what to do. That’s something. Do a self-assessment and thank God for whatever you still have. You are a steward of it.
• Look at those around you. Look at the world around you. How can what has been entrusted to you be used to bring blessing. It may be a life of community service. It may be a life of prayer.
• Look to God. Recognize that whatever you are experiencing is not outside of his control. It wasn’t outside his control that Paul had to spend so much of his Christian life in prison. Paul may not have chosen that – but it was in prison that much of our Bible was written. And even Jesus prayed, “Father, if it be possible, please let this cup – a cup of death on a cross – be taken from me.” But, it was on that cross that the greatest act of service – of stewardship – in history took place. His death brings us to God.

And the same will be true for you and me. We were made for stewardship. So let me share with you some of my dreams about what the stewardship of my service here among you will lead to:

I have a dream that LAC will be more and more and more a place in which:

• all our children will be judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character;
• all of us in our church family will see each life as sacred whether that life is in the womb or over 100 years old; and
• all of us not only thank God when we live long but make a commitment to live well – and that means a commitment to live each moment to further God’s glory.