Out of This World: Loss NOT Gain!

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German pastor and theologian who stood against Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party.  Bonhoeffer was hung as a martyr for his Christian faith in a Nazi concentration camp at the age of 39 in 1945 for participating in a resistance against Hitler in support of the Jews.  He is most well-known for writing a book called “The Cost of Discipleship” in which he penned the famous statement, “when Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”  This statement summarized Bonhoeffer’s belief that being a follower of Christ is not cheap but costly and allows us to, “live in the world without being of it”, and to be “truly free to live our lives in this world”!

Where did Dietrich Bonhoeffer obtain such a strong belief?  What was the source of his willingness to stand up to Hitler in the face of death?  

READ:  Matthew 16:24-26

Jesus Christ taught what Dietrich Bonhoeffer came to believe and live out, that life is FOUND when we LOSE our lives in this world!  It is a great and beautiful paradox in Christianity that when we lose our lives we truly find it.  Losing our lives has a specific cause, it is for a specific purpose, most significantly losing our lives is for the sake of a specific person . . . Jesus Christ!  How do we lose our lives for the sake of Jesus Christ?

We must FORBID ourselves the LIFE we want (Mt. 16:24) – Forbidding ourselves things we want is hard to do.  Our golden retriever Daisy had zero ability to forbid herself something that she wanted.  She would spend 5 straight days digging a hole underneath a fence just so she could get to a ball.  Are there things in life that we react the same way towards?  We spend our lifetimes pursuing what we want when we should “deny (ourselves)” and live for God.  Our lives are not our own to do with what we want, we are the possession of God and therefore we need to use our lives for His purpose and glory (Rom. 14:7-8; 1 Cor. 6:19b-20a)!

Every day we are to WRITE another page of our OBITUARY (Mt. 16:24) – An autobiography is an account of a person's life written or composed by themselves.  If you were to write and autobiography do you think that you would choose to choose the genre of an obituary?  The apostle Paul wrote his own obituary in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.”  Like Paul, by “taking up (our) cross”, we are to put ourselves to death in order that we may walk a new life in Christ (Rom. 6:3-7, 11)!  Daily we are to die to the desire to write our own story, but instead let God author every chapter of our life.

See ourselves as a FOLLOWER instead of a LEADER (Mt. 16:24) - Do you remember getting to be the line leader in elementary school?  How proud to be the ONE that marched everyone down the hall to recess or to the lunch room.  Is that not the position that we are encouraged to achieve in life?  Jesus does not call us to be at the front of the line, rather to place ourselves last and least among others and take up the humble position of following.  Jesus’ call to be disciple is an invitation to leave the world and follow Him (Mt. 4:18-22)!

CONCLUSION
Another popular Christian martyr was Jim Elliot.  Jim was one of five missionaries killed at the age of 29 in 1956 while participating in Operation Auca, an attempt to share the gospel with the Huaorani people of Ecuador in South America.  Jim’s expressed the heart of loss not gain eleven years before he died when he wrote in a personal journal, “he is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lost”.  Jim understood something that we need to understand as we live in this world.  There is nothing in this world that is worth holding onto compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing and following Jesus Christ!

READ: Philippians 3:7-11

Out of This World: Light NOT Dark

We do not have to look any further than the front page of a news web site to realize we live in a very dark world.  The darkness of our world is evident in a long list of sin, evil and wickedness including things like war, injustice, oppression, murder, sexual immorality, anger, drunkenness, hatred, gossip, and jealousy.  This darkness is not just “out there” in the world, it is within each and every one of us.  Darkness is in our lives and the lives of those around us.  We desperately need a light to shine in this darkness in order for us to experience good, righteous, and true things including peace, justice, fairness, faithfulness, mercy, kindness, and love.  Where might we find the source of such a great light?

God’s Word tells us that the source of light that overcomes the darkness is Jesus Christ!  John 1:4-5 says that, “Jesus was the life, and the life was the light of men . . . and (His) light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”  In John 8:12 Jesus Himself said, “I am the light of the world.  Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”  Just as darkness cannot exist in the presence of light; sin, evil, and wickedness cannot exist in the presence of Christ.  How do we bring the light of Christ to the world?

READ:  Matthew 5:14-16

In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus tells His disciples that believers in Christ are to be the LIGHT in a dark WORLD!  Ephesians 5:8 says that, “at one time (we) were darkness, but now (we) are the light in the Lord.  Walk as children of the light.”  Believers in Christ carry the Lord Jesus Christ as the source of the light of goodness, righteousness, and truth within us which can be seen by others.  How can we most effectively shine this light in our dark world?

As believers in Christ, light must be who we ARE (Mt. 5:14) – The invention of electricity has changed the way we use light.  If we want light, we turn the switch on.  If we don’t want light, we turn the switch off.  This is not how we are to understand the light of Christ dwelling within us.  Jesus said that his disciples, “ARE the light of the world”!  We do not turn this light “ON” when we want to and turn it “OFF” when we want to.  Since Jesus is light, if He dwells inside of us, the switch in our lives has been permanently turned to the ON position . . . light is who we ARE!  The light of Christ is either within us and is shining brightly or it is not within us and we are darkness.  Since light is who we are, we will only do what a light does, . . . shine.

Our light must not be HIDDEN, but SHINE for the world to see (Mt. 5:15) – “This Little Light of Mine” is a popular children’s song written in 1920.  One line in the song says, “hide it under a bushel? NO! I’m gonna let it shine.”  No one lights a lamp and hides it!  Once the light of Christ is shining within us, it is not something we should be embarrassed or ashamed of and want to keep “hidden” or conceal. The light of Christ dwelling within us should be something that is visible for all to see.  He should be placed on the stand of our lives where EVERYONE will see His glory in our lives.

Our light shines before others through GOOD WORKS (Mt. 5:16) – The way that Christ will shine brightest in and through us is by the “good works” that He has created for us to do for other people (Eph. 2:10).  God created us to transmit His glory (often described as light) throughout the world.  The good works we do radiate the love and compassion that God has for all people.  We put the glory of God on display as the light of Christ shines through the good works of our lives (2 Cor. 9:8; Col. 1:10; 1 Tim. 6:18; Titus 2:7, 14).

CONCLUSION
Philippians 2:15 Paul said that we are to be, “children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom (we) shine as lights in the world!”  The crooked and twisted generation that we are living in desperately needs the light of Christ.  Is the light of Christ shining brightly in and through you?