Gaining by Losing, Wk #1
Gaining by Losing • Sermon • Submitted
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· 2 viewsThis study is based of the book by J.D. Greear by the same name. We will seek to discover what scripture says about the way we view our resources and our responsibilities to spread the Gospel.
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Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.
Lesson from farmers in 1920-30
Lesson from farmers in 1920-30
For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.
The Word does not just apply individually.
The Word does not just apply individually.
Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.” But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,
Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
1 Corinthians 6:
Now concerning the collection for the saints: as I directed the churches of Galatia, so you also are to do. On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come. And when I arrive, I will send those whom you accredit by letter to carry your gift to Jerusalem. If it seems advisable that I should go also, they will accompany me.
I will visit you after passing through Macedonia, for I intend to pass through Macedonia, and perhaps I will stay with you or even spend the winter, so that you may help me on my journey, wherever I go. For I do not want to see you now just in passing. I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord permits. But I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost, for a wide door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.
When Timothy comes, see that you put him at ease among you, for he is doing the work of the Lord, as I am. So let no one despise him. Help him on his way in peace, that he may return to me, for I am expecting him with the brothers.
Now concerning our brother Apollos, I strongly urged him to visit you with the other brothers, but it was not at all his will to come now. He will come when he has opportunity.
Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.
Now I urge you, brothers—you know that the household of Stephanas were the first converts in Achaia, and that they have devoted themselves to the service of the saints— be subject to such as these, and to every fellow worker and laborer. I rejoice at the coming of Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus, because they have made up for your absence, for they refreshed my spirit as well as yours. Give recognition to such people.
The churches of Asia send you greetings. Aquila and Prisca, together with the church in their house, send you hearty greetings in the Lord. All the brothers send you greetings. Greet one another with a holy kiss.
I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed. Our Lord, come! The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you. My love be with you all in Christ Jesus. Amen.
God grows his kingdom only as we take our hands off of what little portion he’s given to us, “die” to our control of it, and plant it into the world. - J.D. Greear
Greear, J.D.. Gaining By Losing (Exponential Series) (p. 16). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
If you looked at every one of your blessings as “kingdom seeds,” how many of them are you planting in the fields of God’s kingdom, and how many are you keeping in storehouses to use as “food”?
Greear, J.D.. Gaining By Losing (Exponential Series) (p. 16). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
“For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master’s money. Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here, I have made five talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here, I have made two talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.’ But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
What are we willing to give away?
What are we willing to give away?
Are we willing to lose our kingdom for His?
Are we willing to lose our kingdom for His?
Quite often when I had prayed, “Thy kingdom come,” what I really meant was “My kingdom come.”
Greear, J.D.. Gaining By Losing (Exponential Series) (p. 17). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
There are two basic questions about discipleship that we have to ask ourselves over and over, in every new season of life and in regards to whatever resources
Two questions about what God has given us stewardship over:
— Whose kingdom are we actually building: ours, or God’s?
— Do we really believe that Jesus grows his kingdom most as we “give away” what he’s given to us?
Throughout this book I will introduce a number of ministry
“Plumb Lines”
— key phrases that we can use at our church to keep our ministries and our lives centered on sending.
I hope that they help you evaluate the shape of your ministry and consider its trajectories.
If you are a church leader, I hope this study helps you to see that
Fairlawn’s greatest kingdom potential lies not in our ability to gather and inspire our people at a weekly worship meeting, but in our capacity to equip them and send them out as seeds into the kingdom of God.
If you’re not a church leader, I want you to understand the crucial role you play in the church’s future. I believe that the future of Christianity lies in your hands, not in ours (that is, the hands of your church leaders). That’s not pep-talk rhetoric.
Jesus’ promises about the greatness of the church are about ordinary people being filled with the Spirit, turning the world upside down.
As leaders, our job is not to gather you, amaze you, and collect your funds; our job is to help you discover the power and potential of the Spirit in you.
As I will show you, you — the so-called
The “Ordinary Believer” — is the tip of the gospel spear.
The “Ordinary Believer” — is the tip of the gospel spear.
The greatest gospel movements in history have been facilitated by ordinary people like you, not church leaders like me. And the Great Commission will be completed only when we church leaders get serious about sending you out to do what God has called you to do, and you get serious about doing it.
Greear, J.D.. Gaining By Losing (Exponential Series) (pp. 17-18). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish.
So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.
I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles.
His obligation was not primarily to the church in Rome, it was to the Gospel.
His obligation was not primarily to the church in Rome, it was to the Gospel.
Our obligation is not primarily to Fairlawn Baptist Church, it is to the Gospel.
Our obligation is not primarily to Fairlawn Baptist Church, it is to the Gospel.
For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.
Maybe our focus has become on self-preservation rather than Gospel multiplication.
Maybe our focus has become on self-preservation rather than Gospel multiplication.
So, how do we turn that around? That is what we will hope to discover in the next few weeks.