Latest / HBCWestminster / 8.23.20 Luke 9:24-25 Pastor Danny Gardner

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8.23.20 Luke 9:24-25 Pastor Danny Gardner · HBCWestminster

• 0:00
  Well, if you have your Bibles, you can open to Luke chapter 9, verses 24 and 25. Luke 9, 24-25. We continue our study in the Gospel of Luke, and I've titled this morning's message, Live Without Regret. And if you're able to stand in honor of God's Word, allow me to read our two verses this morning, and then we'll pray and begin. Jesus speaking in verse 24 says, For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.
• 0:31
  For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? Allow me to pray, Church, loving Heavenly Father. More and more, our desire is to surrender our lives to you, to take up our cross daily as a willing sacrifice, to cry out your will.
• 0:56
  not ours be done. And we pray that our old selves would remain firmly nailed to the cross as we submit to your leading and guidance in all that we say and do. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you, church. You can be seated. Well, as I've been saying the last several weeks, we dropped off our oldest son, Pearson, at college this last week. And boy, is that hard.
• 1:21
  I've found myself kind of throwing wisdom at him by the truckloads in these last few moments as he has now made this big transition in his life. These last few days with him, I'm just dropping wisdom at his feet in hopes that he will scramble and pick it all up. I've said things like be the most laid back and easygoing roommate, but also don't be a doormat.
• 1:47
  When you play baseball, keep your glove up and shut up, right? Nobody cares about your opinions. You don't know more than your coaches, more than the other players. And so just keep your glove up and shut up. Don't be afraid to worship the Lord, Pearson, even if you're the only one. Don't allow other people to tell you who you are.
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  to redefine who you are, but walk in the confidence of who the Lord has made you. And as I've been giving him this advice, I've also found myself reflecting over my own college years, the decisions that I made. I found that as I look back, it is impossible not to look back without some regret. There are many, many, many things I wish I had done differently during those years, my late teens and early twenties, even in my late twenties, many decisions I wish
• 2:35
  I could have come back to many divine opportunities I believe were squandered. J.C. Ryle has said, I have yet to meet an old man without regret. He actually said it this way. I have yet to meet a young man without pride, nor an old man without regret. And are there things, church, in your lives which you regret? Do you ever wish that you could guarantee that you could live the remainder of your days?
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  With no regrets, is there a path, Lord, that I could walk that would guarantee that at the end of it, I would have no regrets? And we began last week, what are some of the most powerful and profound statements that Christ ever made in regard to genuine spiritual discipleship? We said last week that the gospel of Christ is radically different from the modern gospel, which is so often preached. It is a gospel, the modern gospel has become watered down.
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  even sometimes has major components missing. But salvation, we said, comes to those who want to follow Christ, what scripture calls becoming Christ's disciple. We said last week that there is no difference between believing in Jesus and following Jesus.
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  We said that genuine disciples are not necessarily those who said a formulaic prayer when they were young, like I parroted this prayer when I was seven and therefore I'm saved, but rather those who would deny themselves, Jesus said, take up their cross, in verse 23, and follow him. Walk like Jesus walked. And we concluded last Sunday with two questions. First, is Jesus your lamb? In other words, have you trusted him for salvation? And is Jesus your lion?
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  Does he now reside on the throne of your heart? Does he call the shots of your life? And this morning, Christ continues redefining discipleship by revealing the life that will never be regretted. Wouldn't you love to get to the end of your life and be satisfied? Wouldn't you love to get to the end of your life and have no regret? It's easy, Christ says. It's easy. If you want to find fulfillment in this life and the next, it's simple. Lose it.
• 4:43
  You want a fulfilled life? Jesus says, lose it. And we pick up this morning right where Jesus left off in verse 24. He continues his brief discourse on discipleship by adding that true discipleship is a paradox. Look again at verse 24. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. True discipleship, he says.
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  is a paradox. Now, the context of Luke chapter 9 is that Jesus is at the end of his great Galilean ministry. He has, for better than a year, been traveling through Galilee, going town to town and region to region, preaching the kingdom and healing. He'd been casting out demons. He had even empowered his apostles and sent them to broaden the scope of his ministry. He knew his message would be difficult for many to swallow.
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  He knew that it would only appeal to those who understood their true spiritual condition, those who were lowly, broken, and wretches. And this is why, through the last several chapters of Luke, Jesus has really gone after the outcast, the low, the disregarded, the fringe of society, even like the sick.
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  The unwell woman who had been bleeding and had been cast off, the prostitutes, right? He did not come and appeal to the Pharisees. He appealed to the prostitute. But those who thought highly of themselves immediately rejected him because of how much they believed they had to lose. In fact, in Luke chapter 4, when he returned to his own hometown of Nazareth, his family and friends rejected him because he claimed to be the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy. And they thought, well, who is this? We know this guy. We grew up with him.
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  He rebuked them for their lack of understanding, and in return, they sought to throw him off of a cliff. When he cast the legion of demons into the pigs, the townspeople rejected him in begging to leave, and only when they understood that they themselves were, spiritually speaking, the demon-possessed man in need of healing, did they come to Christ in faith. And in verse 24, Jesus' paradoxical statement reinforces this.
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  truth. I've come for the lowly. I've come for the outcast. I've come for the one who has nothing to lose. And he says first in verse 24, whoever would save his life will lose it. Whoever would save his life will lose it. And you may say, well, I'm not supposed to try to save my life. Did Jesus mean I should make the most reckless decisions possible? No health insurance.
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  Whenever I drive, no seatbelt. Whenever I ride a bike or a motorcycle, no helmets. I'm going to go to every high ropes course I can find, no harnesses. I'm going to walk right on the edge of every cliff. I'm going to hang off the rail of every balcony. And for the remainder of my life, I will wear a bright green t-shirt that says, do not resuscitate. I'm not supposed to try to save my life. That doesn't make any sense. Is this what Jesus meant? And obviously he's not.
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  referring here to physical life. Rather, the statement of verse 24 is a simple paradoxical expression to illustrate the truth of verse 23. In verse 23 from last week, he said, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow. It's a reflection of our study from last week. It refers, your life here refers to your self-reliance, your self-promotion,
• 8:25
  Your self-love, your self-righteousness, it's the opposite of denying oneself. Jesus in John chapter 12 and verse 24 made a similar statement when he said, whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternity. Saving one's self, Jesus says, is the same as loving one's self. And scripture does not have good things to say about those who love.
• 8:56
  themselves. Turn with me. I want you to see it in your Bibles. Turn with me, if you would, to the right. 2 Timothy, 2 Timothy in chapter 3. Listen to the Apostle Paul as he's explaining about what this godless, rebellious, rejecting society will become like someday. He says in verse 1, but understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty.
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  For people will be, and look at the very first thing that he says, very first thing out of his mouth. He says, you want to know what a difficult society will be like? Very first thing, people will be lovers of self. You want to know what a society is like right before it falls off the brink? People will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud.
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  In other words, everybody's going to go to church. Church will still be packed, he says, but they won't actually have the Holy Spirit power. And then he says, avoid such
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  People, scripture does not have good things to say about those who love themselves. Avoid them, it says. Well, what must we do instead? Then we pick up back in Luke 9, 24. First, whoever would love, would save his life will lose it. But what must we do instead? Whoever loses his life will save it. Whoever loses, well, how do I lose my life? The answer is through repentance. Jesus consistently attacked.
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  our human predisposition toward self-righteousness by preaching forgiveness through repentance. We are a people prone to try to do it ourselves. We want to achieve. We want to succeed. We want to have victory over our own failures. And what we must come to grips with as a society, as humanity, what we must come to grips with is that we are impossibly depraved.
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  Impossibly. We are dead in our trespasses and righteousness. We cannot save ourselves. No one seeks after God, not even one person. And the wages for that sin is spiritual death. Eternity apart from the grace of God, eternity in hell rather than by the Lord's side. And Jesus consistently attacked that predisposition in us that we don't want a savior. We want to save ourselves. And the crowds.
• 11:47
  hated Jesus for that message. It wasn't the miracles of Christ that the crowds rejected. In fact, they very much enjoyed his miracles. Following Jesus had some pretty good fringe benefits. Free food, right? A health care plan, a health insurance plan where everybody got healed and there were no insurance premiums. That's pretty good.
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  They didn't even mind that he claimed to be the Messiah. They wanted the Messiah. And in fact, multiple times through the Gospels, they even tried to force him to become their king. What they hated about Jesus and what they ultimately crucified him for was the message that he preached that in order to save your eternal life, you must lay your earthly life down in repentance. In order to be saved, you must repent.
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  You cannot save yourself. And church, the message of repentance is not a popular one. In Galatians chapter one and verse six, the apostle Paul speaking to the churches in the region of Galatia even says, I'm surprised that you have so quickly deserted the true gospel and have chased after another gospel, which is really no gospel at all. I'm surprised, he says, not that you've forsaken faith.
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  Not that you've become atheists. I'm surprised, he says, instead that you've exchanged the true gospel, which is grace, for another gospel, which is works, which is really no gospel at all. It's a gospel which can't save. It's a good news, which isn't good news, is what he's saying. And I'm surprised at how prevalent this gospel is here in Denver.
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  The gospel where you can save yourself, where you're basically good, right? A gospel, and honestly, church, if you want to find a gospel which builds you up and makes you feel better about yourself and tells you that you're a good person with a lot to offer, if you want that gospel, it is here in Denver. You can find it. In fact, it's all over the place. There are many, many, many churches who preach that gospel.
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  You're basically good. You're fine. You're awesome. And you have a lot to offer the kingdom. That is not what Jesus taught. In fact, when I was a kid.
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  There was no such thing as a big screen TV when I was a kid. The generation older than me will remind me, too, that some of them, when they were kids, there was no TV. There was only black and white or whatever. But when I was a kid, we had one of those tube TVs, the big deep ones that had a screen about that wide, kind of a bulb-looking thing, a big channel changer, no remote controls, channels 2 through 13. I don't know why there was never a channel 1.
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  But, you know, that was the kind of the TVs when I was a kid. The only big screen TV I had ever seen, in fact, when I was a kid, it's making me sound really old and perhaps I am, was at Lampost Pizza. Lampost Pizza in town had a big screen projection TV, had a big movie screen looking thing. And then hanging from the ceiling was this huge black box, this huge projector, which only had three colors. It had red, green and blue.
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  And in the combination of those three colors, as they overlap, they could create kind of a grainy image that looked a little bit like a football team playing another football team. But what's funny about the projector is I found when I was a kid that depending on where you sat, if you sat at different angles, you could actually make the projection image look like a different color.
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  You sit at one extreme angle. You could really only see the red that was being projected. And no matter what team you were watching, they all kind of looked red or all kind of look blue or all kind of look green. It was only if you sat at a perfect spot right in the middle where those three colors blended together and you really got the proper image. And the same is true of the three New Testament words used for repentance.
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  In the New Testament, three Greek words are all translated repent or repentance, and they only, in their full understanding of all three of them, will you really get what repentance is really about. They almost create kind of a 3D model.
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  of soul-saving repentance. And so let me just explain how repentance here and the full understanding of these three words really helps us to understand what Jesus meant when he said, whoever loses his life will save it. The first of those Greek words, metanoeo, metanoeo,
• 16:42
  is a reversal of thinking or a changing of the mind. And I want you to hear that word metanoeo because you can kind of hear another word that we get from it. This is a Greek compound word. The first word is meta, and we know that word. It's where we get the word metamorphosis, metamorphosis, when a caterpillar changes into a butterfly, right? Metamorphosis. It's a change.
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  Meta means change. That's what it means. Noeo is your mind, okay? And so meta noeo is a change of mind. It implies that you've messed up and that you've changed your mind about whether that was a good idea. You look back and you say, yeah, I messed up. You admit that something you did in the past was wrong. You figure something out.
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  Only after you mess it up, and certainly I am guilty of that, and repentance in this regard, metanoeo, begins with seeing yourself the way you really are, the way that God sees you. So you've sinned, and now to repent this way is to change your mind. It involves confession, right? But it also involves agreeing with the Lord about who you actually are. Made in God's image, yes.
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  fallen and beyond self-help, a beloved enemy called, justified, and now in Christ a new creation. And metanoeo means to agree with this assessment of yourself. Repentance in this regard involves changing your mind, but it involves much more. It's not just a changing your mind. It's not just going back and saying, yes, I messed up. I was having lunch with a beloved friend this week who even said,
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  Mental assent is not obedience. Simply understanding the truth does not mean that you obey the truth and merely looking back and admitting that you did it wrong is a step of repentance, sure, but it's not the only step. The second step, the second word translated repent in the New Testament is metamelomai. And again, you find that word meta, there's a change, but this one is a change of heart. It's a changing of purpose, which emphasizes regret.
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  Not only do you look backward and say, yes, I messed up that mental ascent. Yes, I agree that was wrong. But now you've actually broken your heart over it. Once you've changed your mind, metamelemi says that your heart becomes engaged. It's a recognition of your sin, which causes remorse. It's not just saying I messed up. It's apologizing for that mistake. I messed up.
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  And I'm sorry, but there's a third dimension of repentance as well. And it's the Greek word epistrefomai, epistrefomai, and it means to change your direction in life. In other words, it means it kind of engages and involves your will. So true repentance, if you were to look at all three words, like all three colors, red, green, and blue, begins in your mind, it activates your heart, and it reverses your will. Let me tell you how that sounds in a prayer.
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  Okay? All three of these. Let me tell you how it would sound. Lord, I messed up. I'm sorry. And I won't do it again. That's genuine repentance. I messed up. Right? I understand that I blew it. I'm sorry. My heart is broken over it. There's remorse. And I won't do it again. I'm going to change my life. I'm going to change my direction. I'm going to change my will so that I will succeed in the future rather than fail. Listen to how D.A. Carson describes.
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  repentance. He says it is not merely an intellectual change of mind or mere grief. That would involve the first two, but a radical transformation of the entire person, a fundamental turnaround involving mind and action and including overtones of grief, which result in spiritual fruit. Let's go back now to Luke 9, 24. Whoever would save his life, he says, will lose it. Now, here's the key, but whoever loses his life
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  will save it. Whoever loses his life, that is repentance. Losing your life is a mental ascent. It's true. It does involve the brain. It involves the mind. I blew it. It's a recognition and confession. It's a broken and contrite heart. I'm sorry. And then it's saying, I will change my life direction. Losing your life. But there's a caveat. He continued. There's one little phrase, and you may have noticed that I skipped it.
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  He says, but whoever loses his life, now here is the phrase, for my sake, for my sake, we'll save it. It's important to note here that Christ does not endorse throwing one's life away. Perhaps the most fundamental of all of God's gifts, perhaps the one that is most taken for granted is life itself. It is absolutely possible to wear out your life and in the end have nothing to show for it.
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  There are plenty of causes, plenty of clubs, a myriad of things that you can devote your life to which are a complete waste of time and which will make no difference for eternity and which when you reach the end of your days, you will look back at with regret. My two younger sons, Zach and Chase, got into a mild argument this week. Zach said, Chase, you can't just sit around all day and watch TV.
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  If you knew my middle son, Zach, you would understand the irony of that statement because there is nothing more that he enjoys than sitting around and watching TV or playing video games. But in this instance, he was the one rebuking his younger brother. Chase then said, sitting around and watching TV all day, that sounds like a great way to spend a day. You can hear how much Calvin and Hobbes Chase has been reading.
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  Zach then said, well, sitting around and staring at a screen is not what we were designed to do. And then Chase, who is 10 years old, said, well, that's true. We were designed to go out and preach the gospel. But if we aren't doing that, we might as well watch TV. What a great conversation. I could hear this conversation happening on the other side of the house. Man, it made me laugh. I thought that was so funny.
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  It is possible, church, to use your life, your strength, your talent, your resources for his name and come away with joy rather than regret. The kingdom is not a worthless cause. The kingdom is not the spiritual equivalent of sitting around and watching TV all day. You can become incredible on the Xbox. That will make no difference for eternity at all.
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  None. There are causes which are a waste of time. Jesus says, for my name's sake is not a waste of time. Jesus says, yes, lose your life for my sake, but don't waste your life. That's first. The true discipleship is paradoxical. It's a paradox. Lose your life to save it. But second, your soul is your most valuable possession.
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  Your soul is your most valuable possession. You want to understand true discipleship, understand that everything in this life that you need for joy, satisfaction, to live a life without regret, everything you need, you already possess. Look at verse 25. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? I've heard it said that you do not have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body.
• 24:48
  And what do you possess that is more valuable than your soul? Most of us probably had to, at some point in high school, read some version of an old German fable called Faust. In the story, Faust, who is kind of the main character of the story, becomes bored with life. And so he makes a bargain with the devil, Faust.
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  exchanges his own soul for wisdom and riches and even the use of magic. In the end, despite all of his begging and wishing, and despite even the wishing of his family and friends, the devil carries his soul off to hell. In the end, Faust, who has exchanged his soul for all of these gifts, uses those gifts, expends those gifts, but in the end regrets that decision. And it says the devil carries his soul off to hell. It's a pretty dark story.
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  Now, listen, church, I know none of us will be making any deals with the devil this week. None of us will ever sign over our souls to the devil by using some eternal contract. That's not how it works. We know that that's not how it works. But by our actions and by our schedules and by our passions and pursuits, are we not declaring value?
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  over what we devote our lives to. Whatever we devote our lives to is what we feel like is most valuable. And so, church, let me ask, are you willing to lay your soul down upon the altar of money or the altar of possessions or the altar of...
• 26:35
  power or the altar of education. I'm shocked at how many Christian families so value a secular education that they're willing to sacrifice their kids in order for them to achieve that. As I've said, Hallie and I dropped off Pearson at school this week. He's going to a Christian university here not far away. The evening that we dropped him off, this last Wednesday evening, the school hosted what they call
• 27:03
  A call to community service. And you guys, it was so cool. I've never seen a school do this. The school prayed together. They preached. They worshiped. They invited the incoming students to join what they called their distinctly Christian community. Several hundred other older students even made a huge circle around the 500 incoming freshmen. They lifted them up in prayer. It was really a neat event. And during that event, the president of the school,
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  preached about the necessity of Christian education, Christian liberal arts. He said that most secular schools will tell you that the reason, the only reason, the number one reason that you need a college degree, that you should send your kid to their school, is so that they can land a good paying job. That's it. And the president of the school said, really? That money? I mean, is that all there is? Really?
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  Humanity has become manic in our pursuit of money, our pursuit of health. Man, health. Probably right now, church, health is the biggest idol in America. That is what we are laying our lives down in front of. That is the idol that we are bowing before is health, the idol of power.
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  The pursuit of fame or popularity or influence or dominance. We've become manic in our pursuit of those things. And here in verse 25, Christ uses hyperbole, like extreme exaggeration, to prove a point. He says, let's say, for argument's sake, let's just say that all of the earth's wealth was yours. Everything on earth belonged to you. You owned the globe.
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  He says it still wouldn't be worth the loss of your eternal soul. Your soul is worth more than all the money in the world. That's what he says in verse 25. That's it. Jim Elliott, famous missionary with MAF, said this, he is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.
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  Give up, he says, all of the wealth, the popularity, the power, the fame, the influence, the dominance, the health. Even give up the health. He was actually martyred as a relatively young man. In his 20s, he was martyred. He says, you're not a fool if you give up what you can't keep anyway. In order to gain that which you will never lose, eternal life. It's much more valuable in beloved church. Don't pursue wealth.
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  At the expense of your soul. You've heard me say this before. There's nothing wrong with wealth. God blesses people with money. It's a blessing. But the love of it is also the root of all evil. So be careful with it. Don't pursue wealth at the expense of your soul. Don't pursue health at the expense of your soul. Your health is not worth your soul. Popularity, friendships, power are not worth your...
• 30:21
  soul. That's what Jesus says in verse 25. And let me end with this, just a simple question. How do we know that this works? How do we know that these statements, if you lose your life, you'll save it, and your soul is worth more than all the money in the world? How do we know if that's actually true? Is there a way to test Christ's words? How do I know if spending my life this way ends in the most joy and the least regret?
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  And the answer, and it may come as a little bit of a surprise, but the answer is biography. That's how you know. I had a college professor who one time said that biography is our greatest means of grace. In other words, he said one of the greatest gifts the Lord has given Christians is other Christians. Look at the lives of others. And I don't often give homework at the end of sermons, but I'm going to this morning. Some homework. Sometime this afternoon, read Hebrews 11.
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  The hall of faith. By faith, Abraham. By faith, Enoch. By faith, Moses. By faith, Rahab. By faith, all of these people who live by faith and really meditate upon Hebrews 11, verses 24 to 26. 24 to 26, this is where Moses disregards the pleasures of Pharaoh's house. He could have grown up there and instead counted himself among the Hebrews who were castoffs and slaves.
• 31:48
  Because he said what they were going to enjoy was better than what Pharaoh could provide. As you read Hebrews 11 sometime today, ask yourself, do you think they regretted living by faith? Do you think they regretted that? Sometime this month. So that's a daily one. That's today. Sometime read Hebrews 11. But sometime this month, I would encourage you to speak to as many older Christians as you can find and ask them this question. What things in your life do you most regret? And were any of them...
• 32:19
  decisions of faith. Do you ever regret looking back over your life? You're 40, 60, 80, 90 years old. Do you look back and say, you know, the decisions that I made to follow the Lord, those are the ones I regret. Or is it not true that the decisions I made that were in rebellion to the Lord, those are the ones I regret. Church, you will not find, you will not find an older person who loves the Lord.
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  who would say, I wish that I had disregarded the Bible earlier. I wish that I could go back now and live in sin. I wish that I could. You will not find one sometime this month. Do that. Speak to an older Christian and ask them that question. What things in your life do you most regret? Sometime this year, and over the course of this year, I'm going to give you a book to read by Warren Wiersbe. Sometime this year, read this book. 50 people.
• 33:12
  Every Christian should know. 50 people, each of these, you know, it's 50 little mini biographies. They range in kind of three to 10 pages, somewhere in there, easy to read. And just go through all of these famous missionaries, preachers, pastors, and whatever, and just ask yourself, do you think they regretted the decisions that they made? I would encourage you, church, put these biographies to the test. See if they don't prove to be true, that the life without regret
• 33:42
  is the life that is lost for the kingdom. And let me pray. Lord, thank you. Thank you for Jesus's words. God, I pray that we would live a life without regret, a life that we would be willing to lose for your kingdom, for your name's sake. Lord, we don't want to throw away our lives. Rather, we want to find the most fulfillment and the most joy. And we know that that can only come in faithful service and obedience to you. And so thank you, Lord, for telling us the truth.
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  And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.