WHAT DOES "LOSE YOUR LIFE TO FIND IT" MEAN ANYWAY? It means to pursue Jesus’ path even at the expense of my desires.
- Matthew 10:39; Matthew 16:25; Mark 8:35; Luke 9:24; Luke 17:33; John 12:25.
- This is a foreign concept to many Christians. In the American church we largely ignore this teaching. I don’t recall hearing a lot of sermons down through the years on it.
- I feel like we have to explain the idea itself before we can move on.
- The idea is something like this: there are a bundle of desires that fill up my heart – a whole host of things that I want.
- Career issues: “I want to be a doctor.” “I want to be a model.”
- Media choices: “I want to watch that new Seth MacFarlane show.” “I want to listen to that new Train CD.”
- Life choices: “I want to marry Isabella.” “I want to move to South Carolina.”
- Sex choices: “I want to sleep with my girlfriend.” “I want to watch porn.”
- Emotional choices: “I am at peace over this decision.” “I am worried about my job security.”
- Religious choices: “I like what Buddha has to say.” “I believe in heaven but I don’t like the idea of hell.”
- And on and on.
- Some of the things I’ve listed above might be good choices that God would endorse. Others might be things that we really want but God says no to.
- But the big decision is to acknowledge that I’m going to trust Jesus’ wisdom over my wisdom. I am going to pursue His path over the path one that I might want to right now.
- We’re holding what we want in one hand and what God instructs in the other. “Losing your life” means committing to pursuing what God instructs when there is a conflict between the two choices.
- Now, let me acknowledge that sometimes the two will be in unity. What I want to do and what God instructs me to do are in harmony. Those are easy choices to make. But when they’re not in harmony, God has the final say.
- This is a foreign idea to the American mind.
- We say that you have to follow your dreams. We say that you have to listen to your heart. We say that you have to love yourself first.
- All of those are lies.
- Jesus says that we are to deny ourselves and be willing to lose our life.
- This is radical. It’s also Jesus repeated a lot. It’s in all four gospels – in two of them it’s in there twice.
- Do the math: my desires < Jesus’ teaching.
- We shift from “The most important thing is figuring out what you want” to “The most important thing is figuring out where God is leading.”
WHY WOULD JESUS ASK THAT? Because Jesus’ path is not a one-degree course correction, but a 180-degree change.
- Too many people think of what Jesus taught as being “be a nice person.” If that’s true, then all that’s expected of us is to just keep doing what we’ve been doing, but just be a little easier to get along with.
- That’s wrong.
- Jesus’ path is radically different from business as usual. Those who think that Jesus’ instruction is basically just “be nice” are people who have never actually read the Bible.
- One example: the American Dream.
- We’re surrounded by a culture that put money first.
- Jesus said, “One’s life does not consist in the abundance of your possessions.” He said, “Be on guard against greed.”
- He’s standing radically against the materialistic culture we live in.
- Another example: what you do is what matters.
- Jesus said, “If you lust after a woman in your heart, you’ve committed adultery.”
- Another example: get revenge.
- Jesus said, “Forgive your enemy.” Jesus said, “Pray for the one who hurts you.”
- Another example: spending your money.
- Jesus said, “Store up treasures in heaven.”
- Another example: denying yourself something good.
- Jesus said, “When you fast. . .”
- Over and over, as you actually read Jesus’ teaching, He’s pointing us to a radically different path than business as usual.
- The word “repent,” which Jesus used quite a bit, means to turn 180 degrees from the direction you were going.
- We like to think of holding onto both our old life and Christ.
- We want to feel safe and secure because we have Jesus in our heart without having to really change much in our life.
- Jesus calls for a choice.
- If you didn’t need a change in direction, then why do we call it “being saved”?
WHAT DOES DOING THAT LOOK LIKE?
1. Do I trust God enough to give Him control of my life?
- There is the old bumper sticker that says, “God is my co-pilot.” If God is your co-pilot, switch seats. God desires to be our pilot.
- There is a big difference between receiving God in our life as our Lord versus as our Advisor.
- Most of us are glad to have God in our life as an Advisor. We can ask His opinion and choose when we want to take it. And there are moments when we grab onto His words and refuse to let go.
- But when we have Jesus as an Advisor, there are also moments (many of them) when we choose to pursue what we want to do rather than obey the instructions of Christ. There are moments when we just don’t like the direction that He’s pointing us in, so we ignore His words.
- Having Jesus as Lord means that He’s the Boss and the CEO of my life. If He says, “Go this way,” I do it. If He says, “Do this,” I do it.
- It’s a big question: do you trust God enough to give Him control of your life?
- For many of us, we only trust Him when we’re given no choice.
- For instance, there’s a medical problem and we have no way to fix it on our own, so we are forced to trust Him.
- For instance, an adult child spirals way out of our influence and we are forced to trust Him since we can’t reach them anymore.
- If we choose this path, there will be many points where you’ll have to say, “I know you’re leading me down this road, but I don’t get it Father.” And in that moment, you have to trust and move forward.
- Show scene from “Karate Kid” where the training that he was made to do suddenly makes sense.
- The point I want to draw out of that scene: the actions that his karate master was asking him to do didn’t make sense at first. In fact, he was getting a little frustrated that maybe the master was just messing with him. But then the master showed him that every action he’d had him do was with an intent toward making him someone skilled at karate.
2. Will I commit to living out all of Jesus’ teaching, not just the parts that initially sound good?
- We’re a lot like our kids: we ask them to do something and their answer is: “I don’t wanna.”
- Much of response to the challenging parts of Jesus’ teaching boil down to those three words: “I don’t wanna.” There are things in there that push us in directions we’d rather not go, so we just throw the argument out there that our four-year-old makes: “I don’t wanna.” And we deem that sufficient to not have to move forward.
- You have to give up the ridiculous idea that God’s highest goal in your life is your short-term happiness. It’s not.
- His long-term goal is not your happiness either. His long-term goal is to transform you into Christlikeness. Now undoubtedly there will be joy and blessings along the way, but they are not the larger point.
3. Will I dig into the Bible so I know specifically what Jesus wants from me?
- One of the biggest problems is that many Christians don’t know what Jesus actually said.
- It seems kind of obvious, but it apparently has to be said: if we’re going to follow Jesus’ teaching, we have to know Jesus’ teaching.
- That means digging into the Word of God every day. That means studying it believing that it has the words of truth and life that we’re not just willing to hear, but that we’re eager to hear.
- Let’s talk about a few of the types of people here this morning:
a. Some of you have never read the Bible on your own.
- You don’t really know much about what Jesus actually said – just what you’ve gleaned from sermons.
- You need to make a commitment to read it daily. If you don’t know where to start, you can sign up for the one-chapter-a-day Bible reading plan that I lead at 60IN60Bible.org.
b. Some of you read but skip the tough parts.
- Some of you do read the Word, but when there are parts that you don’t like you quickly move on to something more comforting. You say you love the Bible, but what that really means is you love the uplifting parts of the Bible.
- You need to commit today: when you come across a part that pierces your heart, you’ll stay with it a while. You’ll ask God to open that up to you. You’ll want to know how it applies to your life.
- People in this category are in the dangerous place of claiming love for the Bible while ignoring the parts of the Bible that have the greatest chance to transform your heart.
c. Some of you have been reading the Bible and accepting it all as truth.
- You need to know that God is not done with you yet. It’s wonderful where He’s challenged you in the past and how He’s matured you, but He’s got more work He wants to do. Don’t think that you’ve arrived yet.
4. What credit limit am I giving Jesus in my life?
- The "credit limit" we give God in our lives should be unlimited.
- Some of us are ok with little sacrifices in our lives because of the call of Christ, but not anything.
- I am willing to give up an hour on Sunday morning to worship, but not twenty minutes every day to read the Word and pray.
- I am willing to sing a song, but not forgive an enemy.
- I am willing to write a little check, but not quit gossiping.
- I am willing to say I’m a Christian when asked, but not to diligently pray with a burden for someone’s salvation for months.
- I am willing to compliment the preacher on the way out of church, but not reject the material lifestyle that defines America.
- We need to reach a place of trusting God with whatever He asks of us.
- This demands that we believe that He has our best interest as well as the best interests of His Kingdom in mind. It demands that we believe that large sacrifices are asked in order to make significant gains for Jesus’ fame, but they are worth it. It demands that we believe that Jesus desires to bless our own life through this path.
- Even if there’s serious sacrifice, I’m going to pursue it.
WHY SHOULD I DO THIS? Do you want to experience Jesus’ abundant life or not?
- John 10:10.
- We walk this path expectantly, believing that Jesus has great things in store for those who travel it.
- Consider the other half of what Jesus says in this verse: “whoever loses his life for Me will find it.”
- That’s a great promise: pursuing this path will lead you to the abundant life that Jesus promised.
- That should be something that gets our attention. Do we want to make sure we don’t waste our life? Do we want to be abundantly fruitful in our lives? Do we want to make sure we honor God with our lives?
- Is this a challenging truth? Absolutely. But it’s also a truth with a promise – and that promise is to find the true and deep life that Jesus is offering.
- Do you want that this morning? If so, are you willing to trust Jesus enough to actually believe what He’s said about this?
