“Survive or Thrive

“Survive or Thrive?”

August 3, 2008

Senior Adult Humor

Today is Senior Adult Day, and I am a senior adult. = So anything I say to you I am certainly saying to my self. In fact I am a Baby Boomer senior adult. We Baby Boomers are large in numbers, selfish and will demand that the world fit us when we retire. Even now with retirement approaching we are making decisions about whether to “Survive or Thrive.”

The dictionary defines survival as “to continu= e to exist; or to live through misery; or to escape with ones life.

Thrive is defined as to develop vigorously; or to prosper; or to flourish.

For a long time I have been trying to survive until retirement. The stresses of the work world are almost overwhelming at times. Technology changes mon= thly. People are expected to work longer days with more efficiency. Once you get something mastered, the rules change. On and on it goes. Why wouldn’t= a person want to retire? But the fact is that it cost more and more to live. =

To add fuel to the fire my wife and I live on her ho= me place. I am a maintainer and I love my time off. We have lived there for fi= ve years and every day off for me has been like a vacation day. I love to play= on the farm!

But , if I were to be hon= est with you, I would say that too much of my time is spent surviving. I would suspect that is the case for many of you.

What is God’s plan? I believe God’s plan= is for us to thrive, but God’s view of thriving is very different from o= urs.

Jesus, in Matthew 10:38, 39, makes a very interesting statement about thriving and finding life. “Anyone who does not take = his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose i= t, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

I beli= eve Caleb of the Old Testament was example of a person who chose to “thrive” rather than “survive.”

&n= bsp; Joshua 14:6b-12.

&n= bsp; Caleb is talking to Joshua. “You know what the Lord said to Moses the man of God at Kadesh Barnea about you and me. I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me from Kadesh Barnea = to explore the land. And I brought him back a report according to my convictio= ns, but my brothers who went up with me made the hearts of the people melt with fear. I, however, followed the Lord my God wholeheartedly. So on that day M= oses swore to me, ‘The land on which your feet have walked will be your inheritance and that of your children forever, because you have followed the Lord my God wholeheartedly.’

“Now then just as the Lord promised, he has ke= pt me alive for forty-five years since the time he said this to Moses, while <= st1:country-region w:st=3D"on">Israel = moved about in the desert. So here I am today, eighty-five years old! I am still = as strong today as the day Moses sent me out; I’m just as vigorous to go= out to battle now as I was then. Now give me this hill country that the Lord promised me that day. You yourself heard then that the Anakites were there and their cities were large and fortified, but the Lord helping = me, I will drive them out just as he said.”

In this text we can see examples of the “surviving” mentality and “thriving” mentality. The people of Israel were mainly concerned about surviving. Oh they would tell you that they wou= ld follow the Lord, but when it came down to make a choice they chose survival over the Lord. Look at verse 8 of our text. “my brothers who went up with me made the people melt with fear.” The majority of the spies who went into the Promised Land knew that it was a la= nd of milk and honey, but they were terrified by the obstacles. Overwhelming f= ear was their response.

When survival is our goal fear dominates. Fear takes away any vision or trust or faith or love. There is no real power because f= ear limits our ability to see beyond our selves. When we fear there is tremendo= us doubt and doubt causes us to be “like a wave of the sea, blown and to= ssed by the wind. James 1:6.

There is no future in just surviving.

God wants us to thrive. Caleb is a great example of = one who chose to “thrive at the risk of not surviving. The Lord said about Caleb in Numbers 14:24 “but because my servant Caleb has a different = spirit …, I will bring him into the land he went to and his descendants will inherit it.

Our text today indentifies three characteristics that enabled that “different spirit.”

1. In verse 8 of our text Caleb said, “I… followed the Lord my God wholeheartedly.” Caleb was fully devoted to = God. He knew full well what Jesus meant when he said “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me = and I in him, he will bear much fruit;” Caleb didn’t do what he= did to get something our to produce an end result. H= e did because he dearly loved God and trusted Him with his whole heart. CalebR= 17;s thriving was a byproduct of his love relationship with God.

I had a professor in seminary that made one of the m= ost profound statements I have ever heard. He said, “Do you love and trus= t God so much that even if every circumstance of life indicated that you are condemned to hell, you would still love Him?

2. The second characteristic that our text indicates= about Caleb is in verse 10 and verse 12. Verse 10”Now then, just as the Lord has promised’ he has kept me alive for forty-five years.” In ve= rse 12 he says, “but the Lord helping me, I wi= ll drive them out just as he said.”

Caleb knew in his heart what Jesus said in the second part of John 15:5 “apart from me you can do nothing.” God had b= een faithful and had sustained him for 45 years. He was willing to take on a God sized challenge he knew that God would walk with him every step of the way.=

Oswald Chambers says that God’s purpose is tha= t I depend on Him and His power now.

3. The final characteristic is demonstrated in vs. 11 and 12. “I am just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then.= Now give me this hill country that the Lord has promised.”

Even thought Caleb was 85 years old he still did not= put limits on his obedience to God. The problem with most us is we are either trying to survive or we have given up and no longer believe God can accompl= ish things through us.

One thing is do know about God is that the words survival and retirement are not in his dictionary. God has a purpose and pl= an for each of us and it is finished until we take our last breath. For even the oldest of us in the mo= st feeble condition God has dreams for us that would take our breath if we cou= ld see what he can to with one person who follows God wholeheartedly, trusting= God each step of the way and ready to take on the hill country.

I want to challenge you in two areas of need.

In your bulletin you will find a prayer calendar for= our church for the month of August. If you are trying to su= rvive or if you are in retirement, decide to thrive. There is not better w= ay to thrive than to be a person of prayer.

John 15:7 says ‘If you remain in me and my wor= ds remain in you, ask what you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.”

God delights in answering the prayers of his people = who follow him wholeheartedly and trust his provision every step of the way.

I have one specific prayer request. Pray for our pre= school children. We need leaders to teach and nurture these precious ones. Matthew 19:14 “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belo= ngs to such as these.”

Let me close with a story. In the mid 80’s a l= arge downtown church building in downtown Lawton, OK burned to the ground. Wh= at had once been a very large congregation had dwindled to several hundred faithful people. The plans reflected a vey practical mindset. They would build build= ing to meet the needs of the existing congregation. After all no one was going = to come downtown to church..

Plans were being made for lovely new church that wou= ld accommodate several hundred. Quietly a small group of little old ladies were moved to ask God what his will was. After much prayer God revealed to them = that he wanted them to build a church that would hold 2000 people.

But this was the kicker. God had led each of these ladies to mortgage their houses to build the church. My friend told me that when he visited that church it was the most dynamic church he had ever been around. There were 2000 + in number.

Brothers and sisters I did not come to this church to survive or retire. I want to be a servant in a Body who follows the Lord our God wholeheartedly and trusts him every step of the way.