What Are You Living For?
By W.H. Wood
(Obviously written for a high school graduation, but I have no other information on when it was written.)
But he said unto
them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of .John 4:32
Mr. Superintendent, Graduating Class, Parents, and
Friends:
Intro: Happy to be
with you; Happy for this opportunity today.
Your achievement in coming to your graduation marks a
distinct epoch in your life. This
achievement indicates patience and persistence on your part. May I urge you to go on with further study and
necessary preparation for days ahead.
Education was considered a luxury for the few. But now considered a stern necessity for
many. Get knowledge, but remember “the
fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”
Culture that leaves Go out is dangerous.
World is suffering now because knowledge too often has been divorced
from any recognition of the will of God.
I bid you God-speed.
Remember what the old Troy general said to the young man when asked the
secret of his winning victories in his campaigns. He said, “The secret of any and every
victory, young man, is in getting a good ready.” Get a good ready, my friends, for the battles
of life are ahead of you. Great demand
will be made upon you.
Now let us think about the hidden reinforcements of life.
The thought comes from the words of Jesus as He said, “I have meat to eat that
ye know not of.” Recall the occasion…
Jesus had an open conversation with the woman at the well
in Samaria…
Probed her conscience – by bringing to light the guilty
secrets of her immoral life. He forced
her to see herself as she really was.
Then He led her to see that He was the long promised Christ. Disciples
returned, urged Him to eat, “Master, eat.”
Jesus answered, “I have meat to eat that ye know not of.” This statement points our mediation and
suggests several vital truths for us.
We have spiritual natures which
must be fed on spiritual food. In
contrast to spiritual food – physical food.
Soul relates to God and eternal body relates us to seen and
temporal.
Big question then is “What am I
living for?” What is the dominant
purpose in my life? What spurs me on? Do I live to eat or eat to Live? What is the meaning of life? Everyone should ask, “What am I living for?” Jesus said, “My meat is to do the will of Him
that sent me and to finish His work.”
Ours is the
same if we carry out God’s purpose for our lives.
Have we faced
the truth?
Do we
understand it?
Are we, then wholeheartedly
trying to conform our will to His?
Things of earth cannot satisfy us.
Man descends to level of mere animal if he lives primarily on physical plane. Think of the life of the debauchee, of the
drunkard, of the sensualist, of the mere glutton. Such do not truly live at all. They merely
exist like animals. That type of existence cannot satisfy. The end is doom.
Augustine was
right when he said, “man was made for God and is restless until he rests in
God.”
Story told of
Napoleon’s forces crossing the desert being thirsty, thought they saw a lake of
water. Upon arrival it was a mirage in
the desert. Life without God is like
that, a mirage in the desert – a delusion.
No wonder Lord
Byron wrote when young as he debauched his life most terribly and perverted
it.
“My days are
in the yellow leaf;
The flowers and fruits of love are
gone;
The worm, the canker, and the grief
Are mine alone.”
The world
cannot satisfy. We are made for a higher
destiny than that.
Second truth suggested in the
battle of life is to keep the soul in ascendancy over the body. This is a hard battle. Paul tells of war of spirit against
flesh.
If you could
only see with me, and hear the pitiful cries of some men whose lives have been
burnt out with strong drink. He sits,
and recounts his story of the downward drift of sin and drink, until he is
hopeless in his ability to recover himself and overcome passion for strong
drink.
To gain and
keep control over the body and its appetites is a battle we need to fight. The battle of spiritual over physical is the
hardest battle we have to fight in this life.
Shall the soul or the body dominate our lives? That is the issue.
Fortunately there
are certain hidden reinforcements we can draw upon in this conflict between
body and soul. “I have meat to eat that
you know not of.” We can say the same.
Reinforcements to draw on:
Fall back on conscience. Every man is to look well to his own
conscience. Education most needed in our land and others is education of
conscience.
Paul said, “I
also exercise myself to have a conscience void of offence toward God and man
always.
We hear a
great deal about crisis. Greatest crisis
is that of character. If a man trifles
with his conscience til he is willing to tell a lie for any amount of money; so
that he is willing to turn a sharp corner, marked by trickery and fraud, that’s
a crisis. Yes – a tragedy – in the realm
of character.
We are to see
that we do not have a deadened, desensitized, benumbed, paralyzed consciences.
He must keep
his conscience intact. See to it that it
is not diverted, diseased, and doomed.
Conscience must be sensitive, as the needle of compass to magnetic
pole.
Big question
not what is pleasant or profitable, or expedient, or customary, but what is
right. For right is might, since God is
God, and right the day must win, To doubt would be disloyalty, To falter would
be sin.
Think of covenanted
engagements broken, laughing at them, calling them scrapes of paper in
government. Think of Honor our
legislators have broken and debauched adequate legislature to do away with
whiskey.
Worthy
ambition in life.
What
are you living for? Pleasure, riches,
popularity, name, power, wisdom, glorify God.
Unfaltering
faith in final triumph of righteousness.
Man can endure
ill if he believes in final triumph of righteousness. We are not losing the
battle when we do right. Whatever the
cost, I must do right. I haven’t’ a friend left, I must do right. Better to starve than to do wrong. Man cannot do wrong and not face it and
God.
Faith in final
triumph of righteousness is glorious reinforcement to challenge and strengthen us
as we go on.
It is reported
that Victor Hugo asked, “Was it possible for Napoleon to win at Waterloo? He answered with great vigor, “No.” And why? Because of Wellington? No! Because
of an allied army? No! Then why? Victor’s
answer was, “Because of God.” Napoleon
had said that right and righteousness did not matter. God overturned him. God brought him to defeat and doom.
Christ must
reign until He has put all enemies under his feet. Even death shall be destroyed. That is my faith. Is it yours?
I have no question about the final outcome of righteousness.
Conscious
companionship with Jesus the Divine Savior and Lord.
“Lo, I am with you always. I’ll
be with you in the sixth trouble and I will not forsake you in the seventh.”
These
statements guarantee His presence with His friends. By faith they can see and feel Him standing
within the shadows keeping watch over His own.
His presence with His friends is a reality.
Martin Luther, when storm clouds were all about him said,
“Come let us sing Psalm 46. God is my
refuge and strength, a very pleasant help in trouble.”
Do you have an unfaltering faith in triumph of
righteousness?
Do you have right ambition?
Do you have right motive?
Do you have right goal in life?
Do you have fellowship and companionship with Jesus
Christ?
To whom do you turn in dark and cloudy day?
Do you with Peter say, “Lord to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.”
Christ is the one source adequate and sufficient.
My grace is sufficient.
How glorious it is to take God at His word, to obey and to follow where
He leads.
Will you do that?
