Sermon Title: Lose to Gain5.21.17

Lose to Gain (5.21.17) 1

Old Testament: Micah 6:6-8
6With what shall I come before(A)theLord
and bow down before the exalted God?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
with calves a year old?(B)
7Will theLordbe pleased with thousands of rams,(C)
with ten thousand rivers of olive oil?(D)
Shall I offer my firstborn(E)for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?(F)
8He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does theLordrequire of you?
To act justly(G)and to love mercy
and to walk humbly[a](H)with your God.(I)

Gospel Matthew 5:5, Matthew 11:25-30
(Matthew 5:5) Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.

(Matthew 11:25-30)25At that time Jesus said,“I praise you, Father,(B)Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.(C)26Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do.

27“All things have been committed to me(D)by my Father.(E)No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.(F)

28“Come to me,(G)all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.(H)29Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,(I)for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.(J)30For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”(K)

Special K had an advertisement campaign where they asked random women to weigh themselves in Times Square with the result for everyone to see. Their reactions were interesting, to say the least. The first woman said, "Weighing myself in Times square is a little frightening." The second woman said, "I weight myself naked. So can I take my clothes off?" Finally the third woman covered her eyes and simply said, "I can't look." When they jumped on the scale they were pleasantly surprised not to see a number but things like satisfaction, pazzaz, and joy. At the end of the commercial it asks "What will you gain when you lose?" The point the commercial is making is that we ought to focus less on a number of pounds to lose and more on how good it feels to be healthy.
This commercial stumbled onto a deep truth. When we want to gain something we, often, have to lose something first. This is true when Jesus says, "blessed are the meek for they will inherit the earth." When looking at becoming meek, we often worry about what we are going to lose instead of what we are going to gain.Will we lose our pride?Will we lose our power?Maybe we will even lose our preferences, and our very identity?
To this Jesus would say, yep, yep, and yep. As we continue our series on the Sermon on the Mount, entitled Jesus Manifesto, we will discover how the meek are blessed because they are willing to lose so much in order to inherit the earth. The meek are willing to lose their pride, power, and preferences for the sake of Christ. Losing these will enable them to inherit some very earthy blessings.
To be meek is to lose our pride in order to gain true confidence.
When talking about losing pride we have to recognize that the opposite of pride is humility. Humility is one of those virtues our society outwardly praises but secretly despises. Who gets the most press, the proud or the humble? Dennis Rodman married himself, the definition of prideful arrogance. We hear more about football players hiring choreographers for end zone dances than ones who buy dinner for their teammates whom they depend on to get them there.
Even when people pretend to be modest they are, at times, prideful. A new twitter term I learned is the 'humblebrag.' Who has heard this term? This is when one tweets, or says, something that is supposed to sound humble but they are really bragging. Here are some examples, an American Idol star said, "I may have sung in front of 30 million people on American Idol tonight but now I am in the middle seat of a redeye flight. Staying humble" another is "It's no fun being successful all by yourself! I try to place everyone around me in a better situation if I can," bragging about being successful and helping others in one tweet! True humility is so despised it is faked so our pride can have a way to show.
This aversion many come from worrying that true humility involves humiliating ourselves. I am reminded of a poster showing a young boy putting his face in sand and the caption says, "Humility, knowing when to burry your face in the sand." However, biblical humility does not equal humiliation! Biblical humility is better described this way, "Humility is not thinking less of yourself but it is thinking of yourself less."This is what Paul is getting at in Romans writing: "Honor one another above yourselves.11Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor,serving the Lord.12Be joyful in hope,patient in affliction,faithful in prayer."
However, even with this definition a question still arises. If I am thinking less and less of myself, who will think of me? Who will honor me? Who will love me? This is where many relationships become dysfunctional. Many times we do not love the others for their own sake, but what they can do for us. That is when people start keeping score. I did this for you so you have to do this for me. This is not love, it is a cold, calculated, contract.
Rather than keeping score, trying to find a balance between giving and getting, to be meek is to think less of ourselves because we have already been thought of.
Take the life and ministry of Jesus. It is no mistake that before any of his earth shaking sermons, mighty miracles, atoning death and resurrection He was baptized. Upon being baptized, the Holy Spirit came down on Him and His Heavenly Father said, "This is my son in whom I am well pleased." Jesus did not do His ministry to earn the love of His heavenly Father, He was already a beloved Son. His ministry was an outflow of that identity.
Could you imagine how that would change our lives? No longer having to gain pride in what can do and what we have done, but having an unshakable confidence in who we are and who's we are. Matthew West wrote a song that exemplifies this confidence. The chorus goes like this: "Hello, my name is child of the one true King, I’ve been saved, I’ve been changed, and I have been set free“Amazing Grace” is the song I singHello, my name is child of the one true King." To be meek is to lose our pride so we can gain adoption as sons and daughters of the King of the universe!
Aswe lose our pride to become children of the one true King we gain confidence but lose power. Being meek is to lose power to gain true strength.
We see the ultimate loss of power to gain true strength in Jesus Christ. In the second chapter of Philippines,Paul tells us that Jesus did not grasp at His own power, at His own God-ness. Instead, He laid His divine qualities aside, for a time, humbling himself into the form of a limited human. Not only a limited human, we are told that he humbled himself into the form of a slave. A slave that humbled Himself to the point of death on a cross. It was because He voluntarily lost these things that he gained the name above every name so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord. Sacrificing the ultimate power and inheriting the ultimate strength.
Of course the fear, for me anyway, is that in losing our, physical, political, positional or relational power we will be seen as week. I fear being seen as a doormat. So what is the alternative, become a bully? Physical, emotional, or political bullies throw their power and weight around to get what they want. However, we all know that bullies do not posses true strength. Their display of power is only an attempt to hide insecurities.
Instead, we become meek by losing our power to find true strength.
The only two people described as meek in the bible are Moses and Jesus. Both of them had inner power, strength, and authority. What made them meek is how they used their strength and who they used it for. The Greek word translated 'meek'was used to describe domesticated animals. They were made meek, not because they lacked power, but because that power was disciplined, and not used for their own sake.Just think of a majestic Clydesdale horse, big and powerful, but meek because that power is disciplined and not used for its own sake. Such is the use of strength by Moses, and even more so Jesus.
This is the image Jesus is getting at in the second reading out of Matthew this morning. He thanks God that the gospel has been hidden from the wise and learned and revealed to children, infants really. Those who think they are wise and learned believe they have the power to get what they want and they know what is best. Children, on the other hand, rely on the power and direction of others for their strength. Whether we know it or not, we all put yokes on ourselves. Those who rely on their own wisdom put the yoke of always having to be right, always having to have the power in relationships to get what they want. Others put on yokes like, public opinion, addiction, and the list could go on. These are exhausting because they take and take and never give back.
In contrast, Jesus says "Come to me,all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.29Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.30For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." His yoke is easy and burden light because he will not force us to carry it alone. Instead, by the Holy Spirit, He comes along side us in prayer, reading His word, and through other believers.Unlike other yokes when we give up power to Him, He will not just take and take.
When we surrender power to Him, we gain His purpose for our lives. All of a sudden what we have the power to do doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is what He wants to do through us. What eternal purposes will we gain when we lose our power to Him?
In filling this purpose we become meek. Meek by losing our preferences to gain abundant life.
In the Micah reading we find this, "With what shall I come beforetheLordand bow down before the exalted God?Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,with calves a year old?Will theLordbe pleased with thousands of rams,with ten thousand rivers of olive oil?" In other words, will God be impressed with all my accomplishments? The prophet concludes saying, "He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.And what does theLordrequire of you?To act justlyand to love mercyand to walk humblywith your God."
To discover who God created us to be, to find what it means to act justly and love mercy, we must walk humbly with our God. We will neverfind who we are meant to be by looking into a mirror, at our own preferences. That's why self help books abound, none of them work. If one could help oneself they would not need a book to tell them so. Instead, of looking into a mirror, to our preferences, we will find ourselves when looking to the One for whom we were made, the One who knows us better than we now ourselves.
C.S. Lewis put it better than I could writing:“Your real, new self will not come as long as you are looking for it. It will come when you are looking for Him. Does that sound strange? The same principle holds, you know, for more everyday matters. Even in social life, you will never make a good impression on other people until you stop thinking about what sort of impression you are making. Lose your life and you will save it. Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favorite wishes every day and death of your whole body in the end submit with every fiber of your being, and you will find eternal life. Keep back nothing. Nothing that you have not given away will be really yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in."
It is only when we lose ourselves that we gain our true self. It is only when the preferences of Television, Magazines, those around us, and even our own preferences, lose the ability to define us that we gain abundant life. We gain abundant life when we lose our preferences while seeking Christ. It is scary to give up our hopes, dreams, and our very selves to Christ. It will be scary until we realize, He knows us better than we know ourselves. He only wants us to lose ourselves in meekness so we gain those earthy blessings He has in store for us.
His is an invitation to become a bunch of losers.
Losing our pride to gain true confidence. Losing pride by no longer allowing our self worth to depend on what we can do or have done. Instead gaining true confidence as a child of the one true King.Losing our pursuit of power so we can gain true strength. By giving upthe power of our own preferences, we gain the strength of an eternal purpose.A purpose of losing our lives in search of Christ. Losing, in meekness, our pride, power and preferences. Losing them to gain the earthy blessings of confidence, strength, and abundant life. So what will you gain when you lose?
Let Us Pray. Lord help us become meek so we can inherit the earth. Help us lose our pride, power, and preferences, our very lives, so we gain confidence, strength, and abundant life in you. Amen
Receive this blessing and benediction. Let us go forth a bunch of losers. Losers blessed by gaining confidence, strength, and eternal purpose by the power of the Holy Spirit, for the glory of our heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, His Son our Risen Lord. In God's mighty name, you may go in peace.