Losing For Love

Luke 17:33 (main Focus)

Happy Sabbath I’m so happy you’re all here today

Prayer

If you know me you know I love movies

And the other day I was watching a movie with my parents called a knight’s tale

In this movie, Heath Ledger plays William, who is a peasant who is pretending to be a knight so he can compete in these jousting tournaments. (Picture 1)

In doing this he climbs the ranks pretty fast and catches the eye of a princess named Jocelyn. (Picture 2)

They begin to fancy each other and eventually hit a rough patch. She doesn’t show up to some of his tournaments and he writes her this beautiful letter filled with poetry and he asks her to come to his next tournament.

A few moments before the tournament he finds her in the church and they talk. (Picture 3) She isn’t fully convinced that he loves her. She asks him to speak poetry to her and he stumbles, when she begins to walk away he says to her

“I will win this tournament for you. Every knight I defeat, I defeat for you. Th… your beauty will be reflected in the power of my arms, the flanks of my horse.”

“Wow. Really. It’s flanks… I wish to hear poetry, William.”

“Uh… I’m not ready.”

“But I am.”

“Jocelyn, how may I prove my love to you?”

“How? Do you ask in earnest?”

“Yes.”

“If you would prove your love…”

“right…”

“you shall do your worst.”

“My worst… what do you mean?”

“Instead of winning, to honor me with your high reputation… I want you to act against your normal character and do badly.”

“Do badly?”

“Lose!”

“L-losing proves nothing, except that I’m a loser.”

“Wrong! Losing is a much keener test of your love. Losing would contradict your self-love. And losing would show your obedience to your lover and not to yourself!”

“Really?!”

“What is your answer?”

…” I will not lose”

“Then you do not love me.”

Then the tournament starts. The flag is raised and William’s team is cheering him on. He puts his helmet down and starts to gallop.

Then he stops. (Picture 4) He looks at his princess, and the opponent hits him hard. And it happens again and again.

What does it mean to lose yourself for love? This idea stuck with me.

Luke 17:33

“Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it.”

First I think it’s important that we establish a love for Jesus. Why should we love Jesus?

🎶because He first loved me🎶

This guy right here has shown us time and time again what it means to lose ourselves for love.

If you haven’t heard of this Jesus guy before listen up because He’s about to change your life.

The mind of Jesus is very backward when it comes to worldly thinking. We are told to love our enemies and turn the other cheek. If you’re fasting, tithing, or praying do it for God alone, and don’t make a show.

I don’t know about you but I love the spotlight. I remember a time when I fasted and prayed in High school and the hardest part wasn’t not eating, it was not getting in my own head.

Oh man, I’m so hungry right now! Oh, no thank you I’m actually fasting.

If other people don’t know I’m tithing why am I doing it? Why would I give $100 to a homeless person if I can’t post it online?

Back in Luke 17:20, we can find the context of this verse.

Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.”

(In verse 21) He’s cryptic with the Pharisees, which I think is kinda funny. (Repeat dramatically)

“The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.”

Thankfully he opens up more to the disciples, which, side note he always opens up to people who ask Him.

Verse 22-25

And he said to the disciples, “The days are coming when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. And they will say to you, ‘Look, there!’ or ‘Look, here!’ Do not go out or follow them. For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day. But first, he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.

(Expand upon) everyone will see the Lord, but He (the Lord) must first suffer

Verse 26-30

Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man. They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot—they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all— so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed.

Just like the days of Noah and Lot, those obsessed with the world around them are lost

Verse 31

On that day, let the one who is on the housetop, with his goods in the house, not come down to take them away, and likewise let the one who is in the field not turn back.

When the day comes, will you be scrounging for stuff or will you meet up with God? Video game thing

Verse 32

Remember Lot's wife.

Genesis 19:26, “But Lot's wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.”

She turned to salt because looked back. The following verse shows me that Jesus wants us to look forward and leave our world behind. This is shown very prominent in our verse

Verse 33

Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it.

Whoever seeks to preserve his worldly life will lose it spiritually, but whoever loses his worldly life will keep it spiritually.

Verse 34-37

I tell you, in that night there will be two in one bed. One will be taken and the other left. There will be two women grinding together. One will be taken and the other left.” And they said to him, “Where, Lord?” He said to them, “Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.”

Scary. (dangerous). Not in sense of “earning your way” into heaven but more accepting the gift of God and walking forward knowing the truth.

In order to live the truth, we must lose ourselves and what we treasure in this world.

Okay Gavin, does that mean I need to throw out my phone and tv? No, but there’s a difference between having a phone and tv and worshipping it. There’s a difference between eating food for sustenance or for fun and worshipping it. There’s a difference between listening to music and watching movies and worshiping them.

When the time comes, are you going to bring your gods out to the wilderness or will you leave it all behind and follow God home?

What does this mean? Losing yourself for love.

Read with me Luke 9:57

Verse 57-58 (Jesus is very forward, I don’t have a steady home, this isn’t going to be easy)

As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”

Verse 59-60 (let the dead bury the dead, oof)

To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” And Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”

Verse 61-62 (whoever looks back is not fit for the kingdom of God)

Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

This is hard. Imagine Jesus coming to you as soon as a family member has died. Or you’re like me and you love your mom and you want to say bye and tell her you love her.

And Jesus says, that’s not important. I’m here now.

What would you do? What would you do if your child left like that?

If you’re saying that you would do it with no hesitation, you are weird in the eyes of this world.

But think back to the examples from earlier, if you love your enemies, you're weird. If you lock yourself in a quiet place to talk to someone you can’t see, you’re weird. If I’ve done nothing but be nasty to you and you rebuttal with kindness, you are so weird. If you’re sitting next to me on an airplane, and you’re so overwhelmed with joy that you need to tell me, a stranger, you are weird.

It’s scary to be weird. It’s scary to let our guard down. It’s scary to fully commit.

But those of you in relationships know that when you’re in a committed relationship, you are not the same person you are when you’re single.

It’s the same with God.

I’ve heard a lot of people say that “God loves us just the way we are.”

But let me tell you that shouldn’t be what we tell people, that’s not the end

Yes, we fell for our partners when we were both single, but we are not the same.

Yes, God loves you just the way you are, but He loves you too much to leave you that way.

He can’t change us until we lose ourselves

How can I go and make disciples in the name of Jesus if I’m too scared of being weird? How can I testify or comfort those hurting if I’m too scared?

I love to overthink myself out of things. Like when writing this, I overthought myself out of an example.

The answer we said before is from Luke 17, but it’s actually said earlier in Luke 9:23-27.

And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake (Jesus talking) will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. But I tell you truly, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God.”

What does this look like to pick up your cross?

It’s as simple as spreading the message. Now it’s somewhat easier in this setting because you all came here expecting to hear about Jesus. But what about someone who doesn’t know Jesus?

What if we went to our neighbors' houses, and invited them to church? Or if you want to get really personal, ask to pray for them.

The people next to our house have been living there for years now and we’ve never talked about God.

I’m sure you can relate to that too.

Why is that? Is it because we just didn’t have the time? I don’t believe that, they’ve been next to us for years and I never made time.

Is it because we’re scared? Well, that might be the reason. We’re scared of looking like some religious weirdo. It’s intimidating.

Or, if we’re brutally honest, is it because we don’t really care?

I’m just happy I know the truth. Whatever my neighbors end up believing, that’s on them.

I am so grateful that I am not God. I am so grateful that you are not God.

I’m grateful that He is a God who doesn’t give up.

Although I do care for them as people, in my human imperfection I care more about me than I do them.

But why do we feel this way?

For me, I feel closest to God when I am not in the picture.

When I lose my world, I gain my life.

In high school, I used to hate myself. I just wish I was better looking, I wish I had a girlfriend, I wish that I was more charming. And I lived my day-to-day telling myself these things and that I’m not good enough.

People in my life would tell me, you need to speak about yourself better, so I’d try to talk myself up to myself, but that didn’t really help. I was putting a bandaid on a bullet wound.

It wasn’t until one of my teachers challenged me. He told me, “Gavin, it’s not about you. Take yourself out of the equation.”

At that moment, it clicked for me.

Pick up your cross. It’s not till I come to the end of me, that Jesus can take over. I was so busy hogging the steering wheel that the actual pilot couldn’t drive.

This was my Waterloo.

“God I have nothing, but you still want me. I will give you all I have. All of the hate in my heart, my insecurities, my lack of a 6-pack, and the $20 to my name. It’s all yours. I am done.”

Once I lost everything I have, that’s when I won.

To me, that is what it means to lose. To give up your life for Him, because He gave up His for you. For me.

Pray with me.