Live to Give
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Introduction
Introduction
Adoniram Judson - letter to Father-in-law -Throughout his forty-year-ministry among the Burmese people, Judson and his family fought constant one-hundred-degree heat, cholera, malaria, dysentery, and other physical ailments. While serving in Burma his wife and seven of his thirteen children died of diseases that would have been preventable in a more modernized country. Judson also found himself imprisoned for seventeen months at the hands of the Burmese people. Six years until first covert - but many churches planted. Translated Bible into Burmese language.
Why would Adoniram sacrifice so much? He discovered that the best way to spend your life is to give your life away.
You will either live to give or live to gain. The only way to gain what truly matters - eternity with God - is to give your life away.
- Discipleship discourse. Jesus teaching the normal Christian life - a life of self-sacrifice, taking up cross-
How do you live to give your life away?
Instead of giving up, keep investing.
Instead of giving up, keep investing.
Jesus has been teaching upside-down Kingdom - victory through suffering.
Disciples response is almost comical - Peter rebukes Jesus and gets called Satan. Peter can’t stop running his mouth, so the Heavenly Father speaks from a cloud to shut him up, the disciples so busy trying to assert their importance, they can’t do what Jesus empowered them to do.
vs. 30-32 - Jesus persistently teaches, the disciples persistently fail, and it doesn’t get better. Passing through Galilee, just the disciples and Jesus - second time Jesus tells what is going to happen to Him.
vs. 32 - They still don’t understand, but afraid to ask Jesus questions. What if Jesus calls one of them Satan like He did Peter? What if God speaks from a cloud again? That was pretty scary!
Son of Man () - suffering - the two don’t go together - they just can’t understand and won’t until the resurrection.
Capernaum - maybe staying at Peter’s house. While on the way, Jesus talking about death, disciples having a sidebar conversation hoping Jesus wouldn’t hear it. Jesus asks about it, disciples embarrassed.
Jesus talking about death and sacrifice, disciples talking about who’s most important.
Jesus talking about death and sacrifice, disciples talking about who’s most important. Peter - “He called me the Rock, took me to the top of the mountain.” Phillip, “Yeah, but He also called you Satan.” Andrew - “I was the one who found a little boy with bread and fish that Jesus blessed and divided.” James and John - “We’re the one He calls, “Sons of Thunder.”
To disciples, an important conversation - when Jesus became King of Israel - who would serve where in His royal court? Who would get the prominent positions? Still missing it -
Jesus sits them down. “Let me tell you about greatness… Greatness is not living to be served, greatness is when you serve. You want greatness in my Kingdom? Give your life away.”
A child - maybe Peter’s? Children had little worth - “You want greatness - focus on those who have little worth - love them, serve them.”
If you want to be great, make yourself nothing. Example of Jesus - making Himself nothing by traveling around Galilee with hard-headed, prideful blue-collar workers trying to teach them about the Kingdom - not giving up on them, but always investing. He doesn’t trade them in!
Truth about me: I need Jesus to not give up on me - to keep teaching convicting, helping, etc. You do to! Jesus gives of Himself by continually ministering to us!
Give your life away by not giving up on other people - by investing even when it’s hard.
Don’t stop listening - Listening to God helps us put life in perspective. (Peter’s failure - now the rest of them failing - not wanting to hear what Jesus has to say…) Listening to people helps us know how to serve them. ()
Don’t stop giving of yourself - The question you’re asking: When should I give up? Did Jesus? He kept on. You need to keep on too - even when it seems that your efforts are in vain. You don’t know how God is working in the life of that coworker, that child, that family member. Keep speaking truth with love and gentleness. Keep praying. (Sometimes that’s the only way you can serve someone. How many testimonies - my mother prayed.)
Don’t stop setting the example - The disciples heard Jesus words, but more importantly, they saw His life - a life that He laid down for them. What kind of example are you setting for people to follow?
Who have you given up on? Jesus is calling you to pray for that wayward child, or that friend that hurt you. He’s calling you to serve - to speak truth, to minister, to set an example of godliness.
Instead of getting prideful, keep encouraging and training.
Instead of getting prideful, keep encouraging and training.
Apparently it’s not registering with John. “We saw someone casting out demons in your name. We tried to stop him because he was not one of us.”
Other words: “We’re great - we’re the ones supposed to be casting out demons (even though we just botched it…) Who does he think he is?”
Jesus: “He’s for us. Do not stop him.” Apparently, the guy believed and was empowered to do what the disciples were doing.
John eaten up with pride and jealousy. “Aren’t we the ones who are supposed to do your work?” He was short-sighted to see that Jesus wasn’t only at work in the lives of the disciples - He was at work in anyone who believed in Him. John guilty of putting position before mission. “We’re special.”
Jesus is not just at work in you either.
You can serve pridefully or humbly. Prideful service: “I want people to see what I’m doing, how needed I am, the special gifts I have.” It’s the person who thinks more about being seen rather than thinking about helping someone grow and develop their giftedness.
Humble service: “I want to see God at work in others. I want to see others using their gifts and abilities for the Kingdom. I want to help develop others for the Kingdom.” This is discipleship! Not, “look at me.” But, “let me help you so you can help others.” This is what the church needs - humble servants who are helping others become humble servants. It’s the men that serve faithfully who invite younger men to serve alongside of them. It’s the women who sacrificially give of their time who invite others to do likewise.
Two ways a humble servant lives:
Live knowing that you are not needed. (What John needed to know) You think you’re special, but God doesn’t need you at all to accomplish His purpose. But, in His grace, He chooses to use you. However, He can always raise up someone else.
Live knowing that your greatest contribution might not be what you do but what you teach someone else to do. We all want to do something great! Mission trip to Russia - Preaching to thousands - etc. (Billy Graham spiritual lineage.Edward Kimball - D.L. Moody - Wilbur Chapman - Billy Sunday - Mordecai Ham - Billy Graham If you are investing, you are making a difference! If you’re not, you’re wasting the grace God has given you because God has extended grace to you so that through you, He might extend grace to someone else!)
Instead of giving in, let go.
Instead of giving in, let go.
Instead of giving in, let go.
Instead of giving in, let go.
If you cause a child to stumble… Live to give, God will use you to draw people to Himself. If you live to gain, how will you negatively influence the lives of others? What will your kids see? How will it influence them? (Millstone - wow! If you’re going to lead people to hell - it’s better that you’re dead!) What if you lived as if every choice you made not only impacted your life but the people you love? We don’t think about our influence enough…
Turns to disciples, “If you sin...” Living in sin is the epitome of selfishness. “Give me what I want.” Living in sin is saying, “I live to gain - what I want out of life.”
Your relationship with God will always be hindered when you walk in sin, and you will always be ineffective in impactful ministry when you walk in sin.
If you’re going to live to give, you must at the same time live to let go… Jesus describes serious nature of sin - “Better to cut off...” Mortification of sin - Kill sin or it will kill you. Kill your ministry to others...
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand throne of God. (Hebrews 12:1-2)
What sin is entangling you? Effecting your intimacy with the Lord and your influence on others? (your mouth? your attitudes? judgmental? jealousy? complacency? anger? bitterness? lust?)
Jesus calls us to the mortification of sin. Not literally cutting off limbs, but understand serious nature of sin.
Three truths about sin you must understand:
The penalty of sin is gone. “Looking to Jesus, founder and perfecter of our faith, endured the cross.” Jesus lived to give - His life on a cross - death in our place. Have you experienced His salvation?
The power of sin is defeated. “Lay aside” - Satan is no longer your master - you have a new master who empowers you to overcome as you see Him and walk by faith. “…and, have been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.” ()
The presence of sin remains. You still live in a fallen world, and you still have a fallen body. You are regularly tempted, and you regularly give in. You have to fight. You have to let go. You have to pursue with passion and joy knowing how much Jesus wants to change you for His Kingdom glory, knowing the influence you can have if you let Him use you.
Today, let go. Let this morning be a morning of repentance so that you may be used by God for His glory. So you may discover that the best way to live your life is to give your life away.
Cut off everything that is standing in the way of you effectively living to give for the sake of eternity.