Christ Said We Have to Lose Our Lives to Gain It Again

My aim this night is to persuade you of the truth — or at least open up you to the truth — that it is better to lose your life than to waste matter information technology. When I spoke at Passion One Day in 2000, I looked out on that sea of students and said, "I could exist your father." My oldest grandchild just started college this fall. So now I look out at you and say, "I could exist your grandfather," which means that I share another generation's worth of weight inside when I say I don't desire you to waste your life.

Time to Say Goodbye

Let's expect at Acts 20 together. Possibly you know what the situation is in this text, but maybe not. Paul had spent iii years in Ephesus (on the west coast of today'southward Hellenic republic), teaching and building upwards the church building. You run into this at the cease of the chapter (verse 31): "For 3 years I did not cease night or mean solar day to admonish every one with tears." He was so successful in this ministry building that co-ordinate to Acts 19:ten, "all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks." Amazing.

"My aim is to persuade you of the truth that information technology is better to lose your life than to waste product it."

He left Ephesus and spent the winter in Corinth in Greece, across the Aegean Sea. At present, he is on his way to Jerusalem, hurrying to get back by Pentecost, probably in the year AD 56. But he wants one more than contact with the leaders of the church building of Ephesus. So, when his boat puts in at Miletus some twenty miles south of Ephesus, he sends for the elders of the church. In Acts twenty:18–35 he gives them his last words. It is very moving. The meet ends like this:

There was much weeping on the function of all; they embraced Paul and kissed him, being sorrowful about of all because of the give-and-take he had spoken, that they would not see his face again. And they accompanied him to the ship. (Acts 20:37–38)

When I see a Christian pastor or missionary taking leave of his people, or a father taking go out of his family for the last time, I listen very carefully. Because I know, I'grand going to hear words not just from the centre, just also words that probably sum up: What has my life been nigh? What has this ministry been for? What'south the signal of it all?

Paul's Last Will and Testament

So what we have here in Acts xx:18–35 is a kind of last will and testament of Paul, the smashing apostle of Jesus Christ, to a church where he seems to have worked longer than anywhere else.

This is a very personal word from Paul near his deepest convictions — about what it means to follow Jesus Christ. And I have to admit that nearly every fourth dimension I circle back to these words (especially verses 22–25), they make me want to renounce everything and follow Jesus (Luke 14:33). These radical words of Paul make chills of adoration and longing go up and down my dorsum. They make me want to be utterly out of step with my secular historic period and the typical expression of the "American Dream" — particularly for a 71 year erstwhile. This is but a more than immediately available version of the dream held out to 22 year olds. Paul'due south words make me want to be utterly abandoned to the crusade of Christ in this world — no matter what.

Printing on for the Prize

I would like you to look with me at verses 22–25, with a special focus on verse 24:

And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what volition happen to me at that place, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me. Simply I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. And at present, behold, I know that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom volition see my face again. (Acts 20:22–25)

"I want to be utterly abandoned to the cause of Christ in this earth — no matter what."

My summary of these four verses for yous is this: better to lose your life than waste material it. Listen over again to verse 24 and see if you agree that this is a off-white summary of the poetry: "I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may cease my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to show to the gospel of the grace of God."

I don't count my life of any value, or equally precious to myself — except for one thing. I have been given a race to run and ministry to perform; namely, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. This ministry is like a race that I am running. At that place is a racecourse. And I am running on it. This is why I live. This is what my life means. Finish the race, fulfill the ministry building. Don't stop. Don't leave the form. Don't go astern. If you do, your life is wasted.

So when he says, "I exercise non count my life of any value but for this ane thing," isn't he saying, "Better to exist faithful and die than unfaithful and live"? Or, "Ameliorate to lose your life than to waste it"? My goal is not to stay live. My goal is to stay on course.

The Unwasted Life

Paul volition say this once more from prison in Rome in Philippians three:viii:

I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.

One of those things that Paul counted as rubbish was staying alive and living eighty years, and making eighty million dollars, and never having a sick day — while running through the meadows off the racecourse toward the cliff. That kind of success, he says, is rubbish. Better to lose your life than waste material it.

He had read it in Psalm 63:three, "Your steadfast love [O Lord] is meliorate than life." There is a path of life that leads to the everlasting enjoyment of the steadfast love of God. Ameliorate to lose your life than go off of that path. "I practise not account my life of any value nor every bit precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God."

Five Pictures of What It Looks Like to Lose Your Life

And then, what I would like to do with you this evening is attempt to answer two questions using these verses as the basis for the answers: (i) What is it like to accept the mind-fix, "It is better to lose your life than waste it"? and (2) Why is it better to lose your life than to waste it?

Start, what is information technology like to have the listen-set: "Better to lose your life than waste it"?

1. It is like existence mastered by a Person and a power not your ain.

And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained [literally jump] by the Spirit, not knowing what volition happen to me there. (Acts 20:22)

A Christian who says, "Better to lose my life than to waste product it" and who ways information technology for Jesus's sake is not speaking in his own power. He is constrained by the Spirit. This is how we all got started on this race when we were dead in our sins. How did you come up to say from your heart, "Jesus is Lord"? Paul tells us how nosotros came to say that in 1 Corinthians 12:3: "No one speaking in the Spirit of God e'er says 'Jesus is accursed!' and no ane can say 'Jesus is Lord' except in the Holy Spirit." You would never accept said, "Jesus is Lord" unless constrained by the Holy Spirit, overcoming all your fears and all your rebellion. And no Christian ever says, "Better to lose my life than waste it," except by the Holy Spirit. This is the evidence that he is in yous.

That's the start answer to the question: What is it like to have the mind-set: "Ameliorate to lose your life than waste it"? It is similar beingness mastered by a Person and a power not your own. This is the mind-gear up of the Spirit, non the mankind (Romans 8:v–eight). God'south Spirit has a concur of you. And your new passion is a life utterly devoted to God's racecourse, God'south ministry plan.

2. It is being content not to know what tomorrow will bring.

Go along reading in verse 22:

And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there.

The unwasted life that looks decease in the confront and says, "Yous are no threat to me — better to die than waste my life," does not demand to know what tomorrow may bring.

Every racecourse that God appoints for his children to run disappears over the hill chosen the hereafter. Every ministry takes a turn around the corner called futurity and disappears into the unknown. Therefore, the unwasted life is always lived ane footstep from the unknown. This is what faith is for. "By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to leave to a place that he was to receive every bit an inheritance. And he went out, non knowing where he was going" (Hebrews 11:8). That'due south what faith does.

"I will non alive for the American Dream, non as a higher educatee, or as a mid-lifer or as a seventy-something."

Better to lose your life on the racecourse of faith than to say, "I've got to know what'due south coming!" Yous don't. And yous never will. Merely y'all do know that he volition be at that place with y'all and for you (Matthew 28:20; Romans 8:31).

When I preached on Hebrews 11:eight in 1997, there was a young educatee in the audience wrestling with whether to take his family unit into the unknown dangers of Bible translation. One of his relatives had said the dark before the Sunday when I preached, "Y'all're crazy if you lot take these little children overseas like that!" He told me afterwards, "At i point during the bulletin you were talking about Abraham's going out not knowing where he is going, and yous looked right at me, and shouted, 'That'south crazy! Yes, and absolutely glorious.'" Better to lose your life than to miss that racecourse. He has been in Thailand with his family since he finished his preparation.

So, the 2nd answer to the question, What is information technology like to have the mind-set: "Better to lose your life than waste it"? Information technology is existence content in organized religion non to know in particular what tomorrow volition bring. Poesy 22: "I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, non knowing what will happen to me in that location."

three. It is the courage not to end running when the racecourse leads through suffering.

In the adjacent poetry (Acts 20:23), however, Paul goes on to say that there is one matter he does know about his future. He does non know what will happen to him "except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me."

It'due south not just that the racecourse disappears over the hill. The Christian racecourse is designed by God to atomic number 82 through pain.

• Paul said to all his churches according to Acts 14:22, "Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God." There is one path to heaven, and that is the way it goes.

• He wrote to Timothy in ii Timothy iii:12, "Indeed, all who desire to alive a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted."

• Jesus said in Matthew ten:25, "If they have chosen the main of the house Beelzebul, how much more than volition they malign those of his household."

Then, for Paul, the Holy Spirit got even more specific: "The Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me." So, whether it is imprisonment or non for you, information technology will be something. The racecourse of the Christian life e'er leads through suffering.

If you can honestly say with Paul "Ameliorate to lose my life than waste material it," it volition mean not only that you tin be content with uncertainty about tomorrow, merely yous tin can also exist content with the certainty that some of your tomorrows are going to hurt. And so "Better to lose your life than waste it" also means, "Better to live life through suffering than to waste it."

"Some of your tomorrows are going to hurt, but it'southward better to live life through suffering than to waste matter it."

May I say a word to you women? My experience of over forty years of recruiting and shepherding young men and women for radical, risk-taking ministry — say, in reaching unreached peoples (but non but missions) — has taught me that oftentimes, or perhaps more oft, in union (or as singles) the woman is more than ready for the challenge of missions, more than eager, and less risk-averse than the human being.

I don't say that to puff y'all up. I say information technology lest whatever of y'all call back you lot get a pass on courage. I say it to direct your attention to the give-and-take of God. Proverbs 31:25: "Force and dignity are her clothing, and she laughs at the time to come up." The hereafter, with all its dubiousness, and all its sure afflictions — she laughs.

And do y'all retrieve what Peter in his starting time letter says when he ponders these Quondam Attestation women of religion? He says,

This is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their own husbands, as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. And y'all are her children, if you benefit and do not fright annihilation that is frightening. (1 Peter 3:five–half-dozen)

You lot are a daughter of Sarah (and yeah, I could add, men, you are sons of Abraham) "if you practice good and do not fear anything that is frightening." Ameliorate to lose your life than waste product it means being women and men of courage who do non stop running the race when the racecourse leads through suffering.

4. It is living to make much of the greatness and the glory of the grace of God in Jesus Christ as our supreme treasure.

I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. (Acts 20:24)

Nosotros don't all have the same course of ministry. Only we exercise all take the same essential goal: to magnify the celebrity and the greatness of the grace of God in Jesus Christ. This is the racecourse all Christians are running. The turns and the terrain are different. The aim is the same.

Paul said in Ephesians 1:five–6: "God predestined us for adoption to himself equally sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace." That is the ultimate meaning of life — the meaning of the race — to live to brand much of the glory of the grace of God. That is the unwasted life.

Therefore, a wasted life is a life that leaves the racecourse of living to magnify the glory of the grace of God. Improve to lose your life than to waste material information technology like that.

5. I volition non live for the American Dream, neither every bit a higher pupil, nor as a mid-lifer nor every bit a 70-something. I am going to Jerusalem.

And at present, behold, I am going to Jerusalem. (Acts xx:22)

"Only Paul, you're getting onetime. How 'bout a little cottage on the Aegean Ocean? You've already washed more in your ministry than virtually people could practise in 5 lifetimes. Information technology'southward fourth dimension to rest. Let the last twenty years of your life be travel and golf, shuffleboard and putzing effectually the garage and earthworks in the garden. Let Timothy have a chance. He's young. Don't go to Jerusalem. Agabus the prophet has told you, they are going to demark your hands and feet and hand you over to the Gentiles (Acts 21:11). And whatever yous practise, don't go to Rome. And go out of your head the crazy plan of going to Kingdom of spain at your historic period. You could get yourself killed. It isn't American! It'south non the American Dream of 'the sunset years.'"

"The Christian life is non moving toward night, but toward noon. At that place are no sunset years for the Christian."

You might wonder why I would mention the tragic waste of the so-chosen sunset years to a crowd of higher students. Information technology'southward considering, as I said at Ane 24-hour interval in 2000, they are spending billions of dollars to make the wasting of the end of your earthly life expect so attractive you will build your whole career around information technology.

Don't misunderstand. I am just fine with you retiring from your well-paying job at age 55 or 62 or 67 and giving yourself for the next xx years to a ministry that yous only dreamed nearly and never had fourth dimension for. There is no such affair every bit retirement from ministry in the Bible.

Simply the path of the righteous is similar the light of dawn,
which shines brighter and brighter until full day. (Proverbs iv:eighteen)

The Christian life is not moving toward dark, but toward noon. There are no sunset years for the Christian.

Till you lot dice, there is a race to be run and a ministry to exist finished. Or, if non, there is a life to be wasted. And it is better to lose your life than to waste it.

Why Live for More than Than Yourself?

One last question: Why should nosotros embrace this maxim — this watchword over our lives — Better to lose your life than to waste product it?

The reason is this: It is better to lose your life than to waste matter information technology because, when you lose it, while non wasting it, you don't lose it. Y'all gain it. And you gain it crowned. The race has been won.

Recollect, in poetry 24, Paul speaks of finishing his form. "I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course." At that place is only one other identify where Paul speaks like this with these words (2 Timothy 4:7–8):

I accept fought the skillful fight, I have finished the race, I take kept the organized religion. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous estimate, will laurels to me on that day, and not only to me merely besides to all who accept loved his appearing.

"The crown of righteousness will be put on your head past the King of kings."

Improve to lose your life than to waste material information technology because, when you lose it, while not wasting information technology, y'all get the crown. Everybody who finishes the unwasted life, whether at 22 or 82, wins the crown. And this crown of righteousness volition exist put on your caput past the Male monarch of kings. Yous will share his righteousness. Share his rule. Share his glory. "This light momentary affliction is preparing [or working] for united states an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparing" (two Corinthians iv:17).

You volition await dorsum and say, after a k temptations, I am so glad — then thankful — I lost my life while I was not wasting it.

Don't Waste Your Life

To sum it up: if the heed-set that says improve to lose your life than to waste information technology means

• beingness under the control of a power not your own — of the Holy Spirit,
• and beingness courageous in the face of uncertainty,
• and overcoming fear when the course runs through suffering,
• and living to make much of the glory of the grace of God in Christ as our supreme treasure,
• and putting the pedal to the metal of ministry between the ages of sixty and fourscore — and living in sync with that dream betwixt twenty and sixty,

and if losing your life while not wasting information technology means you don't lose information technology — but gain it with a crown of righteousness — and then my simple bulletin to you is: don't waste product your life because it's meliorate to lose your life than to waste it.

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Source: https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/better-to-lose-your-life-than-waste-it

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