August 8, 1999
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the 9:00 Youth Service of First Chinese Baptist Church of San Francisco
(After producing a clear glass, I filled it with stones and asked the question, “Is this glass full?” Then I added sand and asked the same question. Eventually, I poured water in the glass and finally, I can say that the glass is now full.)
What is the point of this illustration? Some may say, “You can always cram more into life.” Or “There’s always more that we can do to help those in need.” Although these are good possible answers, the real answer is: “If you don’t put the big rocks in first, you’ll never get them in at all.” Or put in another way, “The main thing is to make the main thing the main thing.”
What are the “Big Rocks” of life? What are the big rocks in your life?
Doing well or better than you can imagine in school.
Graduating from high school and getting into the college of choice.
Making a lot of money so you won’t need to worry.
Meeting someone really nice and special.
Doing your part in having a happy home.
Getting along with friends and feel included.
Are these some of the big rocks on your mind right now?
For me with the retrofit project soon to begin, a big rock is get the church building cleared out so the construction crew can come in to begin their work. With the help of 27 people last Thursday, this big rock was finally removed! And because Joy and I are rehabbing a house in Sausalito, another big rock for us is to move from SF to Marin County sometime this fall.
From this illustration, we need to remember to put these big rocks in first or you’ll never get them in at all.
Jesus is the Rock
But our Scripture lesson for this morning reminds us that the biggest rock any of us must first fit into our lives is the rock of faith in Jesus Christ.
Whenever we read passages like this one and realize how Jesus was betrayed, rejected, mocked, abused and treated as a criminal, it sends shivers down our backs. We shudder at the reading of the crucifixion. Because we can imagine how horrible it must have been. Jesus Christ, the Messiah was crucified. But against all of this horror, Jesus keeps his focus on the main thing: God is still God; God is in control; God expects obedience.
Jesus never lost his head. Jesus never lost his heart. It was only because Jesus kept the main thing the main thing that he could love his enemies—even on the cross; forgive those who put him there—even on the cross; reach out to someone in need—even on the cross.
Jesus practices what he preaches—even on the cross. He does what he has taught his disciples to do—even on the cross. Jesus prays for his abusers—even on the cross. Jesus prays even for his betrayers (Peter was about to betray him)—even on the cross. Jesus refuses to do evil so that good may come from what he was going through—even on the cross.
Jesus puts the rocks in the glass first; he kept the main thing the main thing—even on the cross. The people mocked him for not “saving himself.” But Jesus did not come to save himself, Jesus came to save others. Jesus said, “Those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life will save it.” (9:24)
The Main Thing
What is the main thing in your life? You may be thinking to yourself, “What is he saying?” My main thing is to get out of here because it’s boring! My main thing is imagining all the fun things that I will be doing at Youth Camp. Or my main thing is getting ready to start college in just a few days. So sometimes, our main things in our heads are the things happening now. What will I do next?
Another way of answering the question, “What is the main thing in your life?” is choosing. What choices might we make that will help us to keep the main thing the main thing. It is very easy to sail through life by simply focusing on the immediate things happening around you. Let things come to you, you deal with them as well as you can, and it’s another day.
But as Christians, we may have been taught by Jesus to not judge others because we certainly have done enough things for God to judge us. But the Bible doesn’t say, “Don’t make judgments.” We are expected to make decisions and to choose God’s way over our human ways. We need to learn how to put the big rocks in first and what small rocks that we have can fill in the cracks last.
Not long ago, there was a venture capitalist named Kirk Bains. A venture capitalist is someone who’s only interest is to make money fast. Kirk discovered that he was in his last rounds of a fight against cancer.
He had lived for “the deal.” And he had been successful because he was able to know when to get in quick, ahead of everyone else, and when to get out. He said, “There’s a difference between what I do and what you do. I couldn’t care less about the product…It can be oil or platinum or software or widgets. It’s all a shell game played for big money, and once I win enough, I wave goodbye.”
That approach spilled over onto his personal life one day. He said, “I celebrate Christmas… the music… giving gifts. That’s fun. But he wasn’t convinced over the church. He said, “Let me put it in my own terms. I’m not a long-term investor. I like quick returns. I don’t believe in working for dividends paid only in heaven.”
Kirk Bains signed on to be a guinea pig in a high-risk experimental treatment. For a few months the treatment seemed to work, but then the cancer came back, and the end drew near. As it did, Kirk came to question his life.
He had always read newspapers, but for him they meant nothing but information for deals. “I never really cared about the world’s events or its people,” he says. “I had no interest in creating something—not a product or a partnership with a person. And now I have no spiritual equity. No dividends coming in. And he comes to see, “I was a self-absorbed uncaring jerk.”
For Kirk Bains, he had not done too well at setting priorities, making good decisions, focusing on the main thing, getting the big rocks in first.
It’s not too late for us to see what Kirk Bains only came to see in the end: that the decisions we make about what rocks to put in first determine what kind of lives we live. It’s time to start being decisive about the big rocks and the little rocks in our life.
Your Main Thing
How many of you here will be going to Youth Camp today? It’s the main event of the summer! We’ve been waiting for this all year. Now it is here.
I suspect one of the reasons why Youth Camp is so great is that it’s one whole week away with wonderful caring friends. It also breaks our normal week to week routine and to be away with special people. And because it is unique and different from our week to week routine, we are more apt to ask ourselves the question, “What is the main thing in my life?”
Do you know why sheep get lost? Sheep just nibble themselves lost. They go from one tuft of grass to another, until at last they’ve lost their way. It’s like when I was little chasing after the “wishies” that fly through the air in the spring. After a while, I realized that I was far away from my friends. I’ve lost my way.
That’s what happens in life, isn’t it? Unless we make decisions and judgments about what are the big rocks, the medium-sized rocks, the pebbles and the sand, we nibble away at life or chase after “wishies” until life is gone and we have no idea where it went.
At Youth Camp this week, I want you to ask yourself, “What are the big rocks in your life? How might you keep the main thing the main thing in your life?” And if you’re not going to Youth Camp, these questions are for you too.
Jesus, the Rock of Ages
If the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing, then what is the “main thing?”
The main thing is that Jesus Christ is the biggest rock of all, the rock that goes in first in your life. Jesus Christ is the Rock of all ages.
The main thing is that Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins.
The main thing is that God raised Jesus Christ from the dead, beating death down forever.
The main thing is that the human struggle entails suffering. We will struggle for justice,
peace, and truth.
But the main thing is also that we will not suffer alone. God suffers along with each one
of us.
The main thing is that if God is for us, who can be against us?
The main thing is that we are never alone, for there is no place in the universe we can go,
there’s no sin that we can commit, that will put us out of reach of the grace of
Christ’s sacrifice, the gift of God’s love.
These are the really “big rocks.” All the rest is filler.
Jesus Christ—insulted, mocked, sneered at, beaten, ridiculed, falsely accused, betrayed and abandoned and finally, murdered—is the Big Rock and the First Rock.
Get it right. Put your faith on this Rock, and all the other rocks in life will fall into place.
Let us pray.
Dear God, help us to place our lives on Jesus Christ, the rock of our salvation. Bless us this coming week as we seek your plan for our lives. In the name of Christ, we pray. Amen.