Play

“Outside of the Box”

Eric McKee
05/25/25 - Sun AM

The following transcription is computer-generated and may not accurately reflect the contents of the audio. Please verify the content before quoting.

(Transcribed by Congregate. Always check document for possible errors and inaccuracies in automated transcriptions.)

This morning, the scripture reading will be taken from the book of Ephesians chapter 4.

Ephesians chapter 4, in just a few minutes, I'll begin reading in verse 17.

Paul begins the chapter by talking about the importance of unity in Christ.

I'll be picking up in verse 243, reading through the end or through verse 24, and I'm reading from the English Standard version, which is what you see on the screen behind me.

Verse 17, Paul writes, now this I say and testify in the Lord.

That you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do in the futility of their minds.

They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to their hardness of heart.

They have become callous.

And have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.

But that is not the way you learn Christ, assuming that you have heard about Him and were taught in Him as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds and to put on the new self created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

When I was a child, my mom and dad and sister and I used to love to play board games.

In fact, it was pretty common for us to have people over once a week, a lot of times where we would just spend time together and eat together and play games together.

And I just have a, a lot of really great memories of that over the years.

And one of the games I remember most was called The Game of Life.

One of the first things you find when you open the box is a set of little plastic cars.

And this little plastic car becomes your game piece that travels around the board during the game of life.

Now, you get to choose whatever color car you want.

And then you take a little peg and you put it in the driver's seat of the car.

If you're a female, you get a little pink peg, and if you're a male, you get a little blue peg.

And then the game begins with a decision that you have to make.

You can either choose to go to college or you can choose to go to work work immediately.

If you choose to go straight to work, then you're going to start your career earlier with no debt, and so you have an opportunity to start making money earlier and you don't have to pay off debt, but you earn generally a smaller starting salary.

If you choose to go to college, you're offered more career and salary opportunities throughout the game, but again, you, it takes more time and it puts you into debt that you have to pay off throughout the game.

The way you advance your car around the board is by spinning the wheel on top of a green mountain.

Depending upon the number that you get, that's the number of spaces that you get to travel.

And so there's an element of chance about the game of life.

Sometimes you get the number that you want in life, sometimes you don't.

Sometimes you land on a space that you want to land on, sometimes you don't.

As you advance your call around the board, you have to perform whatever the action is on the space that you land on.

Now there are some spaces that are red and have a stop sign.

So no matter what you roll, when you get to that space, you have to stop.

And so in the game of life, you can't just skirt through without working.

You have to have a job.

And so when you land on the get a career space, you draw 3 career cards and then you get to choose which career you want.

And again, some require a college degree and some do not.

Then Throughout the game, any time you pass a green space, that's payday, and so you accumulate play money throughout the game.

You can also land on other spaces that allow you to get money, but you can also land on spaces that cause you to lose money and you give up money.

Um, also, another red space is the get married space.

In the game of life, you have to get married, OK?

And so it's a, it's a red space.

When you land on the get married space, then you take a little peg of the opposite color and you place it into the passenger seat of the car, and now that is your spouse and you are married.

Uh, also a red space.

You have to have some place to live and so mandatory space is buying a house.

So when you land on the buy a house space, you get to choose which house you buy, you get the deed, but again, you get a mortgage and the, the more expensive the house, the more, the greater your debt is, and then you're gonna have to pay that debt off throughout the game.

Then there are spaces that you may land on if you, if you spend that number and you may not land on those spaces.

Some of those are a baby boy space or a baby girl space or a twins space.

And so these spaces are throughout the game.

And so when you land on one of these spaces, you get a little more little blue and pink pegs that you add to your car.

Now, it's interesting that the 1977, I played a later version, but the 1977 version of this game says, if you end up in your turn on a boy or girl space, add a blue or pink peg to your car.

If you have more than 4 children, just crowd them in as you do in real life.

That was before seatbelt laws, apparently.

The game of life also consists of paying taxes, changing careers, going to night school, buying automobile and homeowners insurance, investing in stocks, taking out loans.

It can involve losing your job, it can involve being in an accident and incurring medical expenses, and many other activities that you would expect from the game of life.

Sometimes good things happen, sometimes bad things happen.

And the very last square of the game is called retirement.

You can either retire at Countryside Acres or you can retire at millionaire estates.

And when the game is over, when all the players have reached retirement, each person adds up their money and their life events, and the person with the highest dollar amount wins the game.

That's the game of life.

And when I was a kid, I loved to pretend, as most kids love to pretend.

And so I love playing games.

I love playing the game of life.

It was a lot of fun.

And then I became an adult and I realized that real life isn't always that simple.

I'll be honest, in my adult life, I, I have discovered that there are some similarities between the game of life and the life that I have lived so far.

For example, I got to choose my car.

Now, it's been very rare that I've chosen the color.

You can ask Leslie.

Most of the time my decision is based on the best deal that I can get, but I have gotten to choose my car.

I chose whether or not I would go to college.

I chose a career.

I found a wife and I put that little pink peg in the car next to me, except her name is not Peg, it's Leslie.

Uh, we bought a place to live and we took out a loan.

We landed on a little boy's space and got a little blue peg and named him Clark.

And we landed on a little girl's space and we got a little pink peg and we named her Audrey.

I've paid taxes, I've bought insurance, uh, I've gone to night school, I've invested in stocks, I've lost my job, I've changed careers.

I've been in accidents that required medical expenses.

Uh, Sam, sometimes I've landed on good spaces and sometimes I've landed on bad spaces.

And as amusing as these similarities may seem to me about the between the game of life and real life.

The similarity that I want us to focus on this morning is what I believe is the most important similarity because it applies to every one of us here.

And that is this.

In the game of life, after the game is all done, after the winners and the losers have been determined, those little plastic cars go back in that box.

The education goes back in the box.

The careers and the salaries and the raises go back in the box.

The vacations, the life events, the money, all goes back in the box.

Everything that made us feel like we won or lost at life goes back in the box.

Even the little white buildings and the little green mountains and the board itself gets folded up and it goes back into the box.

The other day, I reached out to my dad, who's actually here this morning.

I reached out to my dad and I asked him, I said, do you still have that game of life that we used to play so much when I was a kid?

Cause I thought maybe I'd get it and look at the instructions and see the board, maybe get some pictures for the sermon or maybe bring a little car in here.

And he said, no, we don't, we don't have it anymore.

And that's fine.

I don't hold a grudge.

Um, but, but, but I thought, you know, that game that we played all those years.

All the fun that we had, we put all those pieces back in the box, and now that game has gone to somebody else.

All those things went back in the box, those things went to somebody else.

And if I'm not intentional about my own life, my real life, it can become too much like the game of life.

There can be, there can turn out to be too many similarities between the two.

Because all the stuff that often makes us feel like we won or lost in life is going to go back into a box in our real life, so to speak.

In Ecclesiastes 24 to 11.

Solomon says this.

He said, I make, I made my works great.

I built myself houses and planted myself vineyards.

I made myself gardens and orchards, and I planted all kinds of fruit trees in them.

I made myself water pools from which to water the growing trees of the grove.

I acquired male and female servants and had servants born in my house.

Yes, I had greater possessions of herds and flocks than all who were in Jerusalem before me.

I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the special treasures of the kings and of the provinces.

I acquired male and female singers, the delights of the sons of men and musical instruments of all kinds.

So I became great and excelled more than all who were in Jerusalem before me.

Also my wisdom remained with me.

Whatever my eyes desired, I did not keep from them.

I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure, for my heart rejoiced in all my labor, and this was my reward from all my labor.

And so what Solomon is saying is I played the game of life and I won.

And what a tremendous life it was.

Solomon ended up at billionaire estates.

And yet he goes on to say in verse 11, then I looked at all the works that my hands had done and the on the labor in which I had toiled, and indeed all was vanity and grasping for the wind.

There was no profit under the sun.

Then I hated all my labor in which I had toiled under the sun because I must leave it to the man who will come after me, and who knows whether he will be wise or a fool.

Yet he will rule over all my labor in which I had toiled and which I had shown myself wise under the sun.

This also is vanity.

And so Solomon is saying that all the stuff that he required was gonna go back into the box.

And then now someone after him is gonna get all that stuff out and they're gonna play their round of the game of life.

And what about those little pink pegs and those little blue pegs?

Well, They went back into the box too.

And so even me, that little blue peg is one day going to go into a box.

That image, by the way, is not from the game of life.

It wasn't that morbid.

I'll tell you, you may be asking yourself, where do you get that?

If you, if you ask AI to give you the image of a light blue old style game of life peg in a casket.

That's close to what you get.

And then when you then, by the way, thank you, Clark for your help.

If, if you get your son to help you out, it can look even better.

You know, all the stuff that goes in the box represents the temporary, the things that won't exist when the world is gone, the things that we can't really count on or trust in the long term.

All the stuff in the box is perishable.

The things that are outside of the box are the things that are eternal, unchanging, the things that will continue to exist even after the world is gone.

The things outside of the box are the things that we can count on and trust in the long term because of the things that endure forever.

In 273 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 18.

Paul writes, we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

And so this morning, I want us to consider together the things that are truly important, and that is the things outside of the box.

First God's word is outside of the box.

The word of God is outside of the box.

In Psalm 11989, we read, forever, oh Lord, your word is settled in heaven.

The word of God is not settled on earth, it is not settled by man, it is settled by God in heaven.

And when he settles it, that's the way that it is.

In Isaiah chapter 40 and verse 8, we read that the grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever.

The word of God never fades.

It never sits down or lays down.

It always stands forever.

In Matthew chapter 24 verse 35, heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will by no means pass away.

The word of God never dies.

It endures forever.

God's principles that He has recorded for us in the Bible are unchanging.

We can count on them.

Honesty, integrity, justice, love, truth, hope.

These things don't change over time.

They don't fade, they don't die.

They can't be destroyed by fire or theft.

God's teachings are always going to be true.

They're always gonna be good and right.

It doesn't matter how society changes.

It doesn't matter how churches change.

It doesn't matter how I change.

The word of God never changes.

In Hebrews 13:8, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.

And God's promises don't change.

God's promises don't change.

In Genesis chapter 123 and verse 22, it says, while the earth remains, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer and day and night shall not cease.

This is a promise of God, and it's been true for thousands of years, ever since he made it, and it's always gonna be true until the, until the earth is no more because God's promises stand.

God says this of his people in Isaiah 41 and 10, Fear not, for I am with you.

Do not be dismayed, for I am your God.

I will strengthen you.

Yes, I will help you.

I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

In 1 John chapter 2 verse 25, this is the promise that he has promised us eternal life.

The word of God is outside of the box, and because of this, I need to make sure that I know it.

I need to make sure that I read it.

I consider it.

I study it.

I believe it, I obey it.

I build my life on it.

Because when life here is done and everything goes in the box, the word of God is still going to remain.

The second is the human soul is outside of the box.

The human soul is outside of the box.

When God created Adam, we read in Genesis chapter 2 and verse 7 that the Lord God formed man out of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being.

Life is in us because God has put our spirit within us.

has breathed it in us.

And in Ecclesiastes chapter 12 verses 153 through 7, we read, Remember your Creator before the silver cord is loose or the golden bowl is broken or the pitcher shattered at the fountain or the wheel broken at the well.

He's saying, remember your Creator while you're still alive, before, before you die.

And then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the Spirit will return to God who gave it.

In 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verses 1 through 4, we know that if our earthly house, this tent is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

For in this we grown earnestly desiring to be clothed with our with our habitation, which is from heaven.

If indeed having been clothed, we shall not be found naked.

For we who are in this tent grown being burdened not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life.

Our soul lives in our body, which is this temporary dwelling, this tent.

But one of these days, our tent is gonna be folded up just like that board game was folded up.

And our soul is going to have a permanent dwelling.

In Romans chapter 14 verses 10 through 12, why do you judge your brother or why do you show contempt for your brother?

For we all should stand before the judgment seat of Christ, for it is written, as I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess to God.

So then each of us shall give account of himself to God.

Likewise, in 2 Corinthians 213:9, we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to him.

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that each 1 may receive the things done in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

And because of this, Mark chapter 8, verses 36 through 37, what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world?

And loses his own soul, or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?

The human soul is outside of the box, and because of this, I need to cherish it.

I need to shelter it.

I need to understand how valuable it is, and I need to appreciate the value of not only my soul, but the soul of everybody else around me.

Because when life on earth is done, And everything goes back in the box.

The souls of men and women are going to continue to exist.

The 3rd Is that lasting relationships are outside of the box.

Lasting relationships are outside of the box.

In Matthew chapter 22, verses 35 through 40, a lawyer asked Jesus a question.

And then, and he said, Teacher, what is the great commandment in the law?

He was testing Jesus.

He said, Teacher, what is the great commandment in the law?

And Jesus said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

This is the first and great commandments.

And the second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

On these two commandments, hang all the law and the prophets.

Jesus is saying the most important thing about life is relationships.

The most important thing about life is relationships, relationships with God.

Relationship with our fellow man.

In 33 Corinthians chapter 13 verse 13.

Now abide, faith, hope, love, these three, but the greatest of these is love.

Love abides.

1 Corinthians chapter 27 verse 224.

Love never fails.

Paul writes this in Thessalonians chapter 227 verses 212 through 215.

He says, do, I do not want you to be ignorant brethren concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope.

For we believe that Jesus died and rose again.

Even so, God will bring with him those who sleep in Jesus.

For this, we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep.

For the Lord will Himself will descend from heaven with a shout.

And the voice of the archangel and the trumpet of God and the dead in Christ will rise first.

Then then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord.

Therefore, comfort one another with these words.

Paul is saying, comfort one another with the fact that in the end, After we leave this world, you're gonna be able to be with the Lord forever, and you're gonna be able to be with those that you love forever.

The people of God forever.

Jesus was asked about relationships.

He was being tested again, but he was asked about relationships after this life is over.

And he was being questioned about a woman who had had 221 husbands and they had all died.

And then they were asked, well, who's gonna be her husband in the end that when, when she's resurrected to eternal life, who's gonna be her husband then?

And Jesus said, You're mistaken, not knowing the scriptures nor the power of God, for in the resurrection they neither marry nor given in marriage, but are like angels of God.

In heaven.

You know, relationships there aren't gonna be the same as they are here.

But I'm, I'm confident.

That they're going to be better They'll be better.

Lasting relationships are outside of the box.

And so I need to make sure that I'm in the right relationship with other people, that I don't hold grudges, that I have a forgiving heart.

That I bear one another's burdens, that I love other people sincerely.

And I need to make sure that I'm in a right relationship with God, the God of heaven.

Because when life on earth is done and everything goes back in the box, lasting relationships are going to continue.

And number 13, Eternal life is outside of the box.

Eternal life is outside of the box.

In Ecclesiastess chapter 21 and verse 24, he has made everything beautiful in its time.

Also, he has put eternity in our hearts.

God has made us as an eternal.

Individual Someone that's going to last forever, and he wants us to have eternal life with Him.

In John chapter 2180 and verse 16, God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

In John chapter 10 verse 10, Jesus said, I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly.

In Romans 6:23 tells us the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

And in John chapter 14 verses 43 through 3, Jesus says, let, let not your heart be troubled.

You believe in God, believe also in me.

In my Father's house are many mansions.

If I were, if it were not so, I would have told you.

I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself that where I am, there you may be also.

When Jesus was with Mary and and Martha and Lazarus.

And he was about to raise Lazarus from the dead.

He told Martha, he said, I am the resurrection and the life.

He who believes in me though he may die, he shall live and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die.

Do you believe this?

Do I believe this?

Do we believe this?

That we'll never die.

That we can have eternal life.

Eternal life is outside of the box.

And so I need to make sure that I turn to the one who holds the power of eternal life, and that is Jesus Christ.

Because when life on earth is done and everything goes back in the box, there will be eternal life for the people of God.

You know, just because we live in a world that's going back in the box doesn't mean we can't enjoy it.

God created us with the capacity to feel joy.

To laugh, to smile.

In Psalm 118:24 says this is the day that the Lord has made.

We will rejoice and be glad in it.

You know, with the exception of sin and pain, of course, there's really nothing wrong with the things that are going back in the box.

It's good to have a car.

You know, even Jesus traveled by boat for transportation.

He didn't walk on the water every time.

It's good to have a house.

Mark's mother had a house, and it served as a gathering place for Christians.

It's good to have an education.

Paul was well educated at the school of Gel.

It's good to have a career.

Aquila and Priscilla were tent makers.

If a man won't work, neither shall he eat.

It's good to have a spouse.

Peter had a wife.

We're told that he who finds a wife finds a good thing.

It's good to have children.

Children are a heritage from the Lord.

The fruit of the womb is a reward.

It's good to have a vacation.

Jesus often encouraged his followers to come with him to a quiet place and rest for a while.

God made us to live our life.

He wants us to live our life.

The issue is not whether or not we live a life.

It is the foundation that we build that life upon.

In Matthew chapter 7, verses 24 to 27, Jesus, after he preached that sermon on the Mount, he said, whoever hears these sayings of on and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock, and the rains descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house, and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.

But everyone who hears these sayings of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand, and the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house and it fell and great was its fall.

You know, to look at those two houses standing there.

I suspect that there were probably a lot of similarities.

Perhaps it was the same size, perhaps it was the same building materials.

It may have had the same roof.

The appearance could have been the same.

The difference wasn't noticeable until the storm came and tested the house.

The difference was the foundation of the houses.

And to look at two lives, there may be a lot of similarities.

A lot of things we talked about earlier may side by side maybe look like a very similar life.

But the life that is going to stand is the one that is built on the foundation of Jesus Christ.

You know, even retirement, it's good to retire.

I think many would agree with it's good to retire.

But we have to have the right priorities.

Even in that Luke chapter 12 verses 15 through 21, Jesus tells us a parable about a man that retired.

And Jesus said, take heed and beware of covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.

Then he spoke a parable to them, saying the ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully, and he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do?

Since I have no room to store my crops.

So he said, I will do this.

I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods.

And I will say to my soul, soul, you have many goods laid up for many years.

Take your ease, eat, drink and be merry.

But God said to him, fool.

This night your soul will be required of you.

Then whose will those things be which you have provided?

So is he who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.

And that's really what it's about.

It is not he who lays up treasure for himself, but it's he who is rich toward God.

It's good to live life, but in living life, we must remember that in the end all these physical things are going to be gone.

And so we can't neglect being rich toward God.

In Colossians 3 verses 1 through 4.

If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ is.

Sitting at the right hand of God, set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth, for you died and your life is hidden with Christ and God.

When Christ, who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.

And so in the end, it's not gonna matter whether or not I won or lost at the game of life, because life is not a game.

It is a test.

And so what matters is that I trust the word of God.

What matters is that I recognize the value of a human soul.

What matters is that I build my life on meaningful relationships with others and with my God.

What matters is that I lay hold on eternal life because all these things are the things that are outside of the box.

If you're here this morning and you have not given your life to Jesus Christ, you have the opportunity to do that.

If you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, That he died on the cross for your sins, then you can repent of those sins.

Turn away from those things, 180 degrees, and turn your life toward God.

A change of mind about sin that results in the change of of behavior.

Confess that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, with a mouth, confession is made unto salvation.

And then be baptized, immersed in the water for the forgiveness of your sins, for as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

Or if you've done this and have been struggling with temptation or weakness or the spirit, and just need the prayers of brothers and sisters here, we understand, we all struggle.

Make those things known while together we stand to sing.