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 How
do you measure the standards of your life quality? A lot of people call
that standard of living. The gospel of Jesus is radical. It's scary
when you get serious with the Lord about the meaning of this journey.
Jesus said those of us who are first by the culture's standard will
be last in the kingdom of God. And Jesus said if you want to really
find your life, you have to lose your life. The measure is not about
getting. The measure of the kingdom of God is about giving.
 The
passage we've been using the last four weeks is Isaiah 54. Notice the
context of the first verse. God, through the prophet Isaiah, is talking
to an unfruitful, barren people - people who are not having an influence
for God's purpose. The second verse says to enlarge the place of your
tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, not hold back, lengthen your
cords, strengthen your stakes for you will spread out to the right and
to the left. Our focus today is on the phrase that says to lengthen
your cord. The Bible is talking about a measuring cord or a standard
of measure. In Biblical times, they had cords of different lengths and
they would use these for agreed upon measures. For example, there was
a land measuring cord that determined amounts of land tracts, like our
acres today. God is telling the people to lengthen their standard of
measure.
I. The Measure of Me
and Mine
 In the
middle of a piece of paper put a little dot. Then make a circle about
the size of a half-dollar. Inside this first circle, write me and mine.
This is the measure of me and mine. When we work with this circle as
our standard of measure, we work for all we need and want. Now what
exactly does that look like? Well, when I want to go out and eat, I
can go out and eat. When I need new carpet, I can afford new carpet
for my home. When the kids need shoes or clothes, we are able to get
the kids shoes and clothes. It might not always be the name brand thing
but we can at least do the K-Mart thing. When cars need repaired we
are able to have the cars repaired. With some semblance of regularity
we are able to purchase new cars. We are able to help our children get
an education. And, we want to go on a vacation once a year. When we
are working hard for me and mine, we want to do this with minimal sacrifice.
Many Americans strive to maintain this measure of living.  Many
of us spend most of our energy trying to maintain this standard. But
when we continually live in this standard of measure for me and mine,
it's like running on a hamster wheel. We continue to run hard and we
never grow forward in becoming the people that God has created us to
be spiritually. We arrive at the end of life with no more than the life
slogan: we came, we saw, we shopped. When you maintain that standard
of measure, which has pretty much been the American standard of measure
in recent years, you never get beyond being a consumer.  Consumer
is barren. You leave no spiritual legacy. It's what Jesus was talking
about when He cursed the fig tree for not bearing fruit. Faithfulness
is fruitfulness. It's what He meant in the parables of the vineyard
that didn't produce grapes, or the man who gave the Lord no return on
his talent. God created us to be fruitful - to reproduce fruit for God's
purpose.
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