What about me?
Living the selfless life
Introduction: Today we begin our march to the cross. Next Sunday will be Palm Sunday and then of course Easter Sunday, the following week. This message is not filled with eloquence or syrupy words, but if you take it to heart, you won't hear another sermon that will serve you any better all year.
William Barclay said “There are two great days in a person's life: the day we are born and the day we discover why.”
We live in a selfish culture, a culture that glorifies the self. The reason kindness, goodness, charity is notable is because it is so rare. It isn't every day that you see people being nice, returning a $100 bill that dropped out of a man's pocket, a bystander helping someone who is getting mugged in a parking lot, or a good Samaritan that sacrifices his time and money to help someone in need. We don't see these things very often because we go about life in a hurry thinking only about ourselves. Even when we Christians help others in this world, it seems they expect the help, rather than appreciate it. Don't misunderstand, I'm not saying we only help those who will appreciate it. Frankly, it is more noble to help those who won't appreciate it.
We were created for a purpose, as I mentioned last week we are not to just sit back and do nothing until we get to heaven. We must do good, serve God, and participate somehow in winning souls to Jesus. When this life is over we will be judged by how well we did these things. We read Jesus explaining his purpose and ours: To live the selfless life.
Scripture: John 12:23-26
Jesus is the Example (v.23, 24)
“The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.”
Jesus said “the hour has come for the son of man to be glorified.” This tells us that the resurrection is coming! The great day when the age of grace begins is upon them. Oh what a great day that was! Without it, we have no hope. Jesus shows us his purpose and in it we find our purpose. That is to die, be born again, and produce fruit. Jesus explains this by illustration: A kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, but if it dies it produces many seeds. (v.24) Jesus uses the law of nature to make his point. Something must die before it can live. Just like a farmer sows his dead seeds in the ground, God the father sows his dead son into the earth, where he will be buried like a kernel of wheat. What happens when you bury a seed into the ground? Something that went into the earth dead, comes back out of it alive! So will our LORD Jesus, just like a seed, He will spring up out of the ground alive. And after a seed springs up out of the ground, it produces fruit, which also has seeds. Jesus will bring forth many converts (fruit), and they in turn will produce fruit for him. (he is the vine and we are the branches)
If Jesus is going to die, come back to life, and produce fruit, then his followers must do the same: we die (crucify the flesh), we come back alive (born again), and produce fruit (fruit of the spirit & winning souls)
Ill. Tyrtaeus, an old Greek poet who lived before the time of Christ, wrote, “The man who risks his life in battle has the best chance in saving it; the one who flees to save it is most likely to lose it.”
(Sermon central: Walter Bauer, from a sermon by C. Philip Green, 4/14/2011)
Transition: We all remember the playground phrase “finders keepers, losers weepers.” Well according to this scripture, keepers are losers.
Keepers are losers (v. 25)
“The man who loves his life will lose it,...”
Those who do nothing but live to keep their life, waste their time because anyone that loves their life better than Christ will lose it. This is the calamity of self-love: Matthew Henry said “There are fatal consequences of an inordinate love of life; many a man hugs himself to death, and loses his life by over-loving it.”
From an unknown source comes an article titled, "How To Be Miserable." It says, "Think about yourself. Talk about yourself. Use "I" as often as possible. Mirror yourself continually in the opinion of others. Listen greedily to what people say about you. Expect to be appreciated. Be suspicious. Be jealous and envious. Be sensitive to slights. Never forgive a criticism. Trust nobody but yourself. Insist on consideration and respect. Demand agreement with your own views on everything. Sulk if people are not grateful to you for favors shown them. Never forget a service you have rendered. Shirk your duties if you can. Do as little as possible for others." (Daily Walk June 29th 1993)
There are those that do all they can to gratify the flesh and their ego because they love this life too much. One woman starves herself to death, another man eats himself to death, another drinks himself to death, all trying to satisfy a pride or lust, attempting to squeeze out as much pleasure from this life as they can. As Paul described these people to the Corinthians using Isaiah 22:13 “Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die.” that is the mindset of the ungodly. Let us enjoy all that we can possibly enjoy now, because we won't be able to enjoy it, once we are dead.
When I graduated high school, there was a Christian organization that offered a party for graduates. They had all kinds of food, games, neat things, but what caught my attention was a cash grab booth. You've probably seen them, a booth that blows up dollar bills into the air and you catch them. You were allowed to stay in for a couple of minutes and whatever you were able to grab before your time ran out, is what you were allowed to keep. Some people treat their life like that cash grab booth. They must grab every dollar, every pleasure, every lust, every self-gratifying thing there is, before their time runs out. It sounds fun, the only problem is, when a person came out of that booth during my high school graduation party, they were allowed to keep what they caught, but once this life is over, and your time has finally run out, you aren't allowed to keep what you caught. While our works don't save us, we will be rewarded for our good works. The only thing that matters when this life is over, is what we gave, not what we kept.
Knowing there are real consequences for sin and living your life according to those convictions to avoid those consequences proves that you do believe in God. Other wise you would live like the heathen who says 'let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die.' Their only interest in life is to preserve their life so that they can enjoy more of it! They choose selfishness over selflessness, self fulfillment over self sacrifice, self centeredness over self denial
The Lord lets us know that the surest way to lose eternal life in heaven is to be too fond of this temporal life on earth.
If you are so afraid of sacrifice, if you love yourself so much that you are willing to do anything to preserve your own life then, self preservation has become your idol. It isn't God but your life that you love with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.
Ill. A devout believer in astrology, French king Louis XI was deeply impressed when an astrologer correctly foretold that a lady of the court would die in eight days time. Deciding, however, that the too-accurate prophet should be disposed of, king Louis summoned the man to his apartments, having first told his servants to throw the visitor out of the window when he gave the signal. “You claim to understand astrology and to know the fate of others.” the king said to the man, “so tell me at once what your fate will be and how long you have to live.”
“I shall die just three days before Your Majesty.” answered the astrologer. The shaken king canceled his plans! (Today in the word:July 16th 1993)
Oh what we will do to save our own life!
When met with the option to deny Christ and live or confess Christ and die, those who love this present temporal life will do all they can to assure the security and safety of it. They will choose to deny Christ and live because they believe this life is all there is to live for, and losing it is more than they can bear.
Transition: SO we learn that Keepers are losers, but the second part of this verse teaches us that losers are keepers.
Losers are keepers (v. 25)
“...while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”
The one who loses this life will gain eternal life. This is the calling for self denial – The one that hates their life in this world, and prefers the favor of God and an interest in Christ, will keep their life forever. Jesus living in us, weans us off of this world, by showing us another world. Just as the seed dies, we too must die to self. There are so many greater things to live for than our 'self'. We must crucify the flesh and live by the spirit. God bless the man who gives up his own good for the good of others, who denies his pleasures to please others, who denies his own good cause for the good cause of another.
Ill. A woman, carrying her baby on her back, was trapped by a prairie fire. As she looked about, she realized there was no way of escape. Hurriedly she took the baby off her back and began digging a hole in the earth with her bare hands. She then placed her child into it and covered the child with her body. Later the woman was found dead, but the child was saved. (sermon illustrations: unknown)
That is selflessness. A bad mother would drop the baby to save herself, the average mother would try to save her baby and herself, a good mother sees the inevitable death and sacrifices according to save the child she loves. 'greater love has no man than this: to lay down his life for another' -Jn 15:13 Jesus doesn't ask anything from us that he himself hasn't given for us. He sacrificed his life for us. Is it too much for us to sacrifice our self love for him?
Dwight L. Moody said “the Christian who desires to be great and first in the kingdom, is the one who is willing to serve in the hard place, the demanding place, the place where he is not appreciated and may even be persecuted. Knowing that time is short and eternity is long, he is willing to spend and to be spent. He is willing to work for excellence without becoming proud, to withstand criticism without becoming bitter, to be misjudged without becoming defensive, to withstand suffering without succumbing to self-pity.”
The one who 'hates his life' seems careless and passive about it, he is unconcerned about it; it may seem to others that he is wasting it away. Doesn't he know there is so much to have? so much to do? so much to experience? so much to enjoy? Why does he waste so much time working at a place that doesn't approve of him? Giving to those who don't appreciate it? Praying to God and studying that bible? Doesn't he know he is missing out on the world? Yes, he does. The only reason he would or could hate his “life in this world” is if he had hope of eternal life in another world, a better world.
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” - Gal. 2:20
A.W. Tozer once said that those who have been crucified with Christ have three distinct marks:
1. They are facing only one direction
2. They can never turn back
3. They no longer have plans of their own (they surrender to God's plan for their life instead of trying to fulfill their own plans for their life. - until they do that they haven't really surrendered to Christ)
Our life in this world includes all the enjoyments of our present state: riches, honors, pleasures, living a long time having all of these things. We must realize these things, in and of themselves, can not make us happy – even if we got all we wanted, and did all we wanteaiken this world it can not make us happy. If it could then why must we constantly seek more of it? The desire for these things is like gas in the tank, it fuels our ambition to get them but once we reach our destination and we are out of gas, we realize how disappointing, and unfulfilling it all was. We should dread the temptation of anything that would keep us from the cause of Christ. After all they will never satisfy us like Jesus does.
Transition: keepers are losers and losers are keepers, and at the end of it all the losers will be honored. There is no greater honor than to be honored by the master of all things, creator of the universe, and savior of the world.
Losers will be honored (v. 26)
“Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.”
Losers are servers. Those that lose this current life to gain eternal life will be honored. The Greeks desired to see Jesus – but He lets them know that it wasn't enough to “see” him, they must serve him. Jesus isn't some circus side show for us to be entertained by when we see him – He is King of Kings and Lord of lords, we are his servants. A servant must follow. We must do as Jesus did and do what he says to do.
Jesus said in Matthew 16:24 “whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”
To be a disciple we must be a servant, we must be where he is: we must follow Jesus wherever He goes. He went to die on the cross and many of his followers die the same way. They dared to serve Jesus.
We learn by the tradition of the day that a master would be seen in the streets and wherever he went he had a small parade of people following behind him, mostly servants. Where he went, they went, because they belonged to him. And as a servant of Christ, Jesus promises great wages – To the world that watches you, as you suffer and serve, putting yourselves last to put Jesus first, it doesn't seem like a wise thing to do. And if this world is all we had to live for, they would be right. But Jesus promises that those who serve him will be honored.
The reward is honor, true lasting honor, the highest honor, the greatest honor; it is the honor that comes from God. The world vilifies Christians but in due time – they are the ones that will be honored.
Ill. Just like life comes in the place of death, so honor comes in the place of service.
Pediatrician David Cerqueira tells the story of a little girl in his wife's Sunday School class. His wife had prepared a lesson on being useful and told the children that everyone can be useful in serving God. There was a short moment of silence, and a little girl named Sarah spoke up. "Teacher, what can I do?" she said. "I don't know how do to many useful things."
Mrs. Cerqueira had not anticipated that kind of response, but she quickly looked around and spotted an empty flower vase on the windowsill. "Sarah," she said, "you can bring in a flower and put it in the vase. That would be a useful thing."
Sarah frowned. "But that's not important."
"It is," her teacher said, "if you are helping someone."
Sure enough, the next Sunday Sarah brought in a dandelion and placed it in the vase. In fact, she continued to do so each week. Without reminders or help, she made sure the vase was filled with a bright yellow flower, Sunday after Sunday. When her pastor found out about it, he put the vase in the main sanctuary next to the pulpit. That Sunday he gave a sermon on the honor of serving others, using Sarah's vase as an example. The congregation was touched by the message, and the week started on a good note...
But during that same week, Sarah's family discovered she had leukemia. David Cerqueira was her pediatrician, and he did his best to explain to Sarah's parents that nothing could be done to save her life. He says, "I don't think I have ever had a more difficult conversation than the one that night."
Eventually, Sarah became confined to bed and to the visits that many people gave her. She lost her smile. She lost most of her weight; and then, the end was near.
That Sunday, at the end of his sermon, the pastor suddenly stopped speaking. His eyes wide, he stared at the back of the church, and everyone turned to see what he was looking at. It was Sarah! Her parents had brought her for one last visit. She was bundled in a blanket, a dandelion in one little hand.
She slowly walked to the front of the church where her vase was still perched by the pulpit. She put her flower in the vase and a piece of paper beside it. Then she returned to her parents.
Four days later, Sarah died... At the funeral, the pastor showed Dr. Cerqueira the note Sarah had left. It said, "Dear God, This vase has been the biggest honor of my life. Sarah."
(David Cerqueira, "Sarah's Vase," Today's Christian, March/April 2008, adapted from Evangel magazine, December 2005. From a sermon by C. Philip Green, We Want To See Jesus, 4/14/2011)
In her own small way Sarah showed that we all can be useful in serving God. In this same chapter v. 43 we read that some Jews loved to be honored by men rather than be honored by God. But in verse 26 we read that those who serve and follow Jesus will be honored by God.
Conclusion: Do you want to spend your life trying to be honored by, and among men, or do you want to spend your life serving Jesus so that you will be honored by God?
We often say we want a relationship with Jesus. But it sometimes seems as if we want to have that relationship on our own terms. I want you to be my savior, if you do this, I want you to be my Lord, if you will do that, I will give you my love and devotion, if you give me this or that. Those that want to live the selfish life ask “what about me?” Those that want to live the selfless life ask “what about them?”
So what about you? Do you want to keep your life loving it only to end up losing it, or will you lose it so that you will truly keep it, keep it to the full and keep it forever?
