Jesus came to earth to turn the tables of thinking upside down!  No, I’m not talking about the time He physically overturned the merchant tables at the Temple, I’m talking about how He came to cleanse hearts, renew minds, refresh souls and restore the joy of His salvation at work in the lives of God’s created humans.  This task was beyond doing by Temple leadership.  The current priests, scribes and other teachers of the Law set aside the true intent of The Law to the point of using The Law as just a way to gain power for themselves over the people they were supposed to be guiding, serving, and helping.

These leaders stepped into power by other men based on tradition and generational position in the community.  God no longer looked on these manipulators of His Law as people of authority.  God sent His Son as THE authority to change minds and teach truth because Jesus was Truth.  Jesus proclaimed upside down thinking to these leaders of self-promotion and to His followers listening, “If your first concern is to look after yourself, you’ll never find yourself. But if you forget about yourself and look to me, you’ll find both yourself and me.” 

In other words, real life is not about you, it’s about God.  Life is about what God wants to do in us.  Life is being with God, learning and growing in an intimate loving relationship.  Life is losing and leaving our own agendas in the dust of the world and looking solely to what God wants.  True, real life is a forever life with God and His Son.  This is what it means when Jesus teaches a new thinking, “lose to gain” to his followers.

Jesus began with God’s people but extended this work to all people.  Why?  “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”  (John 3:16) 

God thinks we are all worth His love, mercy and grace!  Listen in as Jesus explains…

Matthew 10, The Message

Forget About Yourself

^29-31 “What’s the price of a pet canary? Some loose change, right? And God cares what happens to it even more than you do. He pays even greater attention to you, down to the last detail—even numbering the hairs on your head! So don’t be intimidated by all this bully talk. You’re worth more than a million canaries.

^32-33 “Stand up for me against world opinion and I’ll stand up for you before my Father in heaven. If you turn tail and run, do you think I’ll cover for you?

^34-37 “Don’t think I’ve come to make life cozy. I’ve come to cut—make a sharp knife-cut between son and father, daughter and mother, bride and mother-in-law—cut through these cozy domestic arrangements and free you for God. Well-meaning family members can be your worst enemies. If you prefer father or mother over me, you don’t deserve me. If you prefer son or daughter over me, you don’t deserve me.

^38-39 “If you don’t go all the way with me, through thick and thin, you don’t deserve me. If your first concern is to look after yourself, you’ll never find yourself. But if you forget about yourself and look to me, you’ll find both yourself and me.

^40-42 “We are intimately linked in this harvest work. Anyone who accepts what you do, accepts me, the One who sent you. Anyone who accepts what I do accepts my Father, who sent me. Accepting a messenger of God is as good as being God’s messenger. Accepting someone’s help is as good as giving someone help. This is a large work I’ve called you into, but don’t be overwhelmed by it. It’s best to start small. Give a cool cup of water to someone who is thirsty, for instance. The smallest act of giving or receiving makes you a true apprentice. You won’t lose out on a thing.”

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

We worth more than a million canaries that God looks after each day!

God pays attention to all the details of our lives!  He even delights in our details.  Nothing we deal with daily goes unnoticed in our lives.  God care for us goes to infinity and beyond!

“We are intimately linked”, says Jesus.  We are together with Him in our lives with God.  “Stand up for me and I’ll stand up for you.”  How many times have we said that to each other but couldn’t hold up our promise to them because of unforeseen circumstances.  We cannot always count on people, even those in our family, but we can ALWAYS count on Jesus. 

Jesus is our advocate to the Father, God.  Jesus is the Way, Truth, and Life.  No one goes the Father without believing, repenting of sins, trusting and obeying Jesus.  The bonus is that Jesus’ power works in us helping us to do what He says!  Wow! Again, life is not about us and what we want but what God wants and what He wants is always the best for us.  If we “go all the way” with Jesus in the lead, undeterred or distracted by the world around us, we will have nothing to lose—but self.  Self gets us into trouble.  Self-desires distract us from God.  Self will be a continual battle, but with Jesus, we can have victory over self!

While on earth Jesus got alone often to communicate with God, asking Him what His will is with direction about what to do next.  The gospel writers witnessed this act of obedience to God and ask Jesus to teach them how to communion with God through prayer.  Jesus readily taught them (and us) how to pray and listen to God.  (See Matthew 6) 

Communion with God, In Jesus Name, never ceasing in praying and listening to God, is “being” while recognizing God in us—the “secret” to real life, as Paul writes when he discovered being before doing.  (Colossians 1:27)  If Jesus went to God first before doing anything significant in His life, who are we not to do the same?  This act of “being” before God help us to know God. The more we know God, them the more we know what God wants.

Being with God in prayer, worship, and listening removes self as we lean into what God wants.  He even removes self-doubt!

Overwhelmed by God and what He asks us to be and do?  Not to worry, Jesus explains the simplicity of losing to gain by beginning small.  Offer a glass of water to a thirsty soul. We can’t lose anything but self and have everything to gain by trusting and obeying what Jesus says is the way to God, the Truth of His love with eternal Life with God. 

Proof that beginning small can work in our world today reminds me of the young man who was bullied in school.  He decided to start small in relating to others in a better, more positive way.  Josh Yandt explains that after his father died, he became depressed and felt alone. To make matters worse he was bullied at school for missing his father. At first he didn’t know what to do, but one day he decided to stand up to his bullies by opening doors.

“I was sick and tired of being a no one. I wanted to be someone. And I wanted to reach out to people and show who I was,” Josh says in the video. He began holding the doors open for his classmates and greeting them. The simple act not only changed his whole life, it also had a positive effect on the entire school.

“And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. “Glory to God!” Angels and saints alike have uttered these words. They encapsulate much of why we exist. We exist to glorify God in and through our lives.”  Colossians 3:17 in another translation – “Let every detail in your lives – words, actions, whatever – be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way.”  Yes!

Jesus’ message is clear.  THIS is what it means to lose ourselves, forgetting what we think we want, to gain knowledge of what God wants to do in and through us.  So, open a door, offer a cup of water, pick up trash, look into the eyes of people with compassion, setting aside our own interests for theirs…all with a loving smile because of Jesus in us.  Be different.  Be a Kingdom thinker and doer.

Lord,

Your words are easy to understand and essential for growing in your character as I strive to become more like you.  Now we must act on what you have taught us.  May all the details of my life be done in your Name for your glory.  May your Kingdom come and monopolize my thinking.  May your will be done in my behaviors. 

In Jesus Name, Amen