You may or may not recognize the name Shah Jahan.
Shah Jahan lived in the 1600s.
He was the fifth ruler of the Mughal Empire in India.
When he was 15 years old, his marriage was going to be arranged for him.
And he was going to marry a 14 year old named Arjumand Banu Begum.
And they weren't going to meet until the day of the wedding.
But, when they did, when he finally saw the face of his bride on the day of the wedding,
he was so impressed with her beauty that he ended up changing her name to Mumtaj Mahal,
which means, "Jewel of the Palace."
They instantly fell in love. They hit it off.
They went everywhere together.
She even went with him to war.
She ended up, or he ended up trusting her more than he trusted his highest advisers.
They were in love. They were best friends.
They ended up having 14 children together.
She died giving birth to the 14th.
And Shah Jahan was so crushed that he ordered the entire country to mourn for her for two years.
He refused to be seen in public for one entire year
and when he came back into the public eye
he wanted to build his wife a tomb.
He wanted to build a tomb worthy of the woman he loved
and you know what the name of that tomb was?
The tomb that Shah Jahan built for his wife, Mumtaj Mahal,
is what we know today as the Taj Mahal.
He built a monument that meant something.
He wanted the world to see exactly what meant the most to him.
We do the same thing with our lives.
You know, what we build, what kind of lives we build,
they, they show what means something to us.
The decisions we make with our time,
the decisions we make with where we throw our money and where we invest our resources,
who we hang out with, with how much time we spend with our family or at work.
They all say something.
We're all building a type of life and . . .
well, what type of life are you building?
Is it significant?
Are you building a godly life?
Are you building something that's meant to last?
Are you building a life that's meaningful?
Does your life mean anything?
There's so many people who walk through life right now wondering if their life means anything.
Let God help you with the answer to that question about whether your life means anything.
In Ephesians chapter 5 it says this:
That passage is referring to something that Christ built.
He built something with his life too.
It wasn't a grand palace in the nation of India.
He built a cross, on a high hill, on a dark day,
with some wood and some nails
because he wanted the whole world to show what means more than anything to him.
He loved you.
His whole life was built focused on you.
And as you begin this week, as you begin
and you're gonna make decisions with where you invest your time,
and your money, and your attention, and your energy,
You have questions about whether or not your life means anything,
just know this . . .
Start the week knowing that your life means something to God.
You're beautiful to him.
You're radiant to him.
And you can walk into this week knowing that he walks with you.
There's a house near Rhode Island that you might find somewhat interesting.
It's a house that was built back in 1905.
That's not exactly what I'm talking about when I say it's interesting.
What makes it interesting is that it is completely surrounded by the waters of the Atlantic Ocean.
It's a single house, just, uh, just a little bit off the shore of Rhode Island
and it was built, literally, in the middle of the ocean.
And it's been there since 1905 and it's still there.
This house is remarkable because it's been hit by all the wind and the waves
and the hurricanes that that normally affect the Atlantic Ocean.
And yet it's been standing for well over a hundred years
and there's at least one main reason why it's been standing for that long.
Because this house is built on a rock that peeks out of the ocean that
goes all the way down to the bottom of the ocean.
It's a standing on a foundation that no matter how many winds,
no matter how many waves, no matter how many hurricanes hit it,
it's, it's not going anywhere.
I see this house as kind, of a kind of a metaphor for life as we look to build our lives.
As we look to build our lives, we often find out that it's kind of hard work.
You get hit by the, the winds of worry and the waves of doubt and hurricanes of bad news
and things didn't see coming that are swirling around you.
With the winds coming in every direction, sometimes making you wonder
if you're going to be able to stand on your feet.
Building a life is hard work.
And Jesus knows that.
Which is why he gives us some guidance in how to
remain standing through all the winds and waves and hurricanes of life.
And Matthew chapter 7 he says this:
Jesus directs our attention to the word.
He says that we are wise if we hear his word.
And the reason he directs us to his word is because the word shows us
someone else who knows how it feels to be right in the middle of the winds
and waves and hurricanes of life.
And that is Jesus himself.
As he was hanging on his cross, he was hit by the winds of hurt and the waves of nails
and the hurricanes of a lot of hate that was coming in his direction,
in addition to the weight of sins that were weighing down on his shoulder.
But after he died, with his empty grave on Easter morning,
he showed us that there is no wind, wave, or hurricane in this world that can keep him down.
He's making the promise, then, as he walks with you through life,
there's no wind wave or hurricane that's going to keep you down.
He knows that your life is sometimes hard.
He knows that you sometimes wonder if you're gonna be able to keep standing.
He knows the different challenges that are out there
and he wants you to know that they're not going to get the best of you in the end.
As you go into this week, as we continue to build your life,
build your life on a rock.
Spend some good time listening to his words and learning how to put his word into practice.
That no matter the winds and waves and hurricanes that come,
you'll remain standing.
Back in 1874, the New York State penitentiary system hired a man named Richard Dugdale
to come in and study the lives of all the prisoners who were in the New York State prisons.
They wanted to figure out if there were any common characteristics that contributed to
inmates ending up in prison so that they might be able to address them.
He was surprised to discover not only how many of the prisoners were related to each other,
but how many of them were actually descended from the same one man who lived 150 years earlier.
A man who, in his study, he named Max Jukes, which was not his real name.
He kept the real name secret from everybody.
But he, in studying the life and the family tree of this Max Jukes,
and the 1,500 descendants who came after him,
from this one man he found came 300 convicts, 27 murderers, 190 prostitutes
and 509 alcoholics and drug addicts.
He wanted to be able to compare this to something.
So, he decided to compare the life and the family tree of Max Jukes to life and
family tree of a man named Jonathan Edwards, who was a missionary
and was the President of Princeton.
So he studied his roughly 1,500 descendants who came the next four generations after him,
and he found that from Jonathan Edwards came 430 ministers, 130 judges and lawyers,
99 college professors, 13 university presidents, 60 doctors, and 11 congressman and governors.
This became known as the five generation rule--
the rule that says that how you live your life and the decisions that you make in it
impact not only your life, not only your children's lives,
but the next four generations after you.
Now, somebody hears about that study and they feel really good about it if they've made
really good decisions with their life.
But what if you haven't?
What if you've made some really bad decisions?
Jesus has a response to that.
In first Peter chapter 3, the Apostle Peter shares the word of Jesus in this way. He says:
In other words, if there was ever a time where it looked like we wouldn't have the right to expect
anything good to happen from the present.
It was when Jesus was hanging on a cross,
when God himself was dead and his limp body was taken down.
And yet, Peter points to the resurrection which showed us that even a moment like that doesn't have to
dishearten us and doesn't have to suck the confidence out of us.
Jesus came alive again and that's the beauty of the resurrection.
In Christ, we have a new beginning.
Whatever has happened in the past, however you feel in the present,
Today, in Christ, is a new beginning.
A while back I caught a news story about a car that crashed into a Walmart in West Virginia.
It was really surprising to everyone that a car would crash into a Walmart
until they discovered who it was that was driving the car.
Apparently, the owner of the car had parked the car but they left the car running while they
went inside to get their shopping done.
And her two dogs that were inside the car somehow got behind the wheel,
started driving the car and the car ended up
crashing. And so now are you surprised that a car ended up crashing into a Walmart?
Not when you see who it is that's driving.
Who's driving is pretty important.
Same is true of your life and your heart.
You know, what is it that drives your decisions?
Jesus once said, "Where your treasure is, there your heart is."
In other words, looking at where we drive our treasures
of our money and our time and our attention
and it reveals what it is that's behind those things.
It reveals what's going on in our heart
and he's saying in that section that if God is driving our hearts,
we love God more than anything and that's going to show up in our lives.
We'll be driven to do godly things.
But if what's driving our decisions is a love of money, a love of pleasure, a love of attention,
a love of comfort, then, well, don't be surprised if you end up crashing.
Doesn't it seem like sometimes, though, that's going to happen anyway?
Doesn't it seem like sometimes no matter how hard you work, no matter how much you pray,
no matter how often you go to church and try to do things the right way,
that the wrong people keep getting rewarded while you end up getting hurt?
As if you are just falling, falling, falling all alone with no ability to stop you from inevitably crashing?
Jesus knows how hard that is.
Remember that Jesus also knows how it feels to fall, to crash.
And to have no one, not even his father in heaven there to catch him when he did.
He knows how it feels to always do the right thing and
yet be treated as as if he didn't.
He knows how it is to suffer at the hands of those who are only doing the wrong
things and the reason he does is because he wanted the whole world
to see exactly what it is that he treasures in his heart more than anything
and what it is that drives every one of his decisions.
It's you.
The reason he went to his cross, the reason he went through so much pain
knowing that it was coming even though he had the ability to stop it from happening
is because he wanted you and the whole world to see not only him die
but he wanted you to see his empty grave on Easter morning, an assurance that there is nothing
in all creation that's going to stop him and his church from winning.
Jesus gives us a great, a great promise that we get to live with as we carry out
the important, very important work of building our lives.
In Galatians chapter 6 he says this:
Jesus knows that there are so many times in life where we are tempted to give up
or our hearts are tempted to give in.
But he wants you to know you, he wants you to live with the promise today and everyday
that the effort that you put in is always worth it.
A while back I had happened to catch on television the Men's Cyclocross World Championships.
It's a bicycle race, basically.
And the man who was leading the race, as I was tuning in, was approaching the line and saw that
nobody was very close to him.
So he started putting his hands up in the air and celebrating as if he had won.
And then he crossed the line.
The trouble was, he hadn't actually won.
In fact, he hadn't even finished the race.
He made the mistake of celebrating a little bit too early.
He had one more lap to go.
Thinking he had finished the race, he started celebrating as if he did
and by the time he realized that he hadn't finished the race and had one more lap to go,
the other cyclists had passed him and he ended up losing the race.
You know, as we go through our lives, there are any number of things that we celebrate.
We celebrate birthdays, we celebrate when someone gets the job they want.
But really, there's only one thing that is worth celebrating more than anything.
One thing that is actually gonna, gonna help us win and the danger we have is that
if we, if we take our eyes off of the one thing that will help us win in the end
and celebrate other things more than that,
we put ourselves in danger of losing entirely.
So, what are you celebrating in your life?
We've talked about building your life this week.
The effort and the energy and the time it requires to, to get your life to look the way that you want
and so I'm asking, as we finish up this week,
what are you looking to celebrate more than anything?
What do you consider to be a win?
Consider what Jesus did. In Matthew chapter 16 it says:
I don't think there are too many people who go through life considering the most
important thing to be suffering.
"Boy, I hope that I can get to a place where I'm in a whole lot of pain!"
And yet, Jesus did.
And the reason he did was because the one thing that he was focused on more than anything
was giving you a finish line at which you will be guaranteed to win.
The reason he did that wasn't because he considers everything in your life less important,
it's because he wanted to give you confidence as you carry out all those different things.
I mean, think about what it would be like if, if you were playing in the Super Bowl
and you stepped onto the field at the beginning of the game knowing for sure, somehow,
you knew for sure that you were going to win.
Think about how you would feel, how confident you would be, if you went into
the Olympics and you were running the 400 meters and you knew at the beginning of the race, for sure,
somehow, you knew it was guaranteed that you were going to win.
You step onto that track, you step onto that field, feeling pretty confidently.
Imagine what it would look like if you were confident every day as a Christian.
Imagine what it would look like if you carried out your Christian tasks with a high degree of character,
anticipating that it was going to go well.
You don't have to imagine.
You just keep your eyes on the finish line that Jesus has already given you
and you will see, and so will the people you love,
so will the people whose lives you impact, more than anything.
They'll see what it looks like--
the life of a Christian who's guaranteed to win.