Losses and Gains

Pray for our nation!!!!!!

When I was in college the first time, years ago at UT, I majored in Marketing. And so, as a business major, I had to take different classes that dealt with all aspects of business. Classes like statistics, finance, logistics and transportation, economics and accounting, not just Marketing specific coursework. That way, a person would be well rounded and more adapt to everything within the business world!

And of those classes just that I just mentioned, the class of accounting was of great importance, because it taught someone how to understand the ledger part of running a business. Or more specifically, how to understand debits and credits in the business world.

Everything financially that takes place within a business, as far as accounting is concerned, has to be reconciled on the ledger. In other words, whatever operations take place from within a business, there has to be a listing for those operations in the ledger for the business. And those entries into the ledgers, have to be made as either debits, or credits.

Now it really becomes a lot more involved and difficult than simply just saying you record debits and credits. And it's because of this difficulty in the whole process, that I squeaked through accounting with a glorious “C”!

But the point that I’m wanting to make to you right now, is that there are debits and credits in the natural business world. That is, there are plus’ and minuses. You could also say that there are assets and liabilities, or gains and losses when you are looking at the operations of a business.

You have either acquired something of value that adds to you and your business and its operations, or you have suffered the loss of something because of what you have done.

I’m not an accounting aficionado by any stretch of the imagination, nor am I the person who should try and explain these things to you, but does everyone understand the basic concept of debits and credits, gains and losses? That basically we're talking about retaining something that is of value to you and the operation of whatever it is that you are looking at, or it is the opposite and thus the losing/letting go of something that you call non-valuable to you, right?

So, right now, I want to ask you all to do something for me. On the little sheet of green paper that you all picked up while you were down here a few minutes ago, I want you to draw a line through the center of the front of that sheet of paper.

After you have done that, I want you to right the word “gains” on the left hand column of the paper and then write “losses” on the right side. Does everyone understand what I’m asking you to do?

This is your life ledger for the operations of your life in the business year, 2020. Once you have written down “gains” on the left side of the paper and “losses” on the right side, I want you to take a couple of minutes and enter into your life ledger everything that you can think of, off of the top of your head, that would either be considered a gain, or a loss to your own personal life for the year 2020.

Now, these things can be physical gains and losses, emotional gains and losses, spiritual gains and losses, and everything in between. We’re going to take about 3-4 minutes so that you can list out on your ledger everything that you can think of for me and then we’ll move forward. (If you're married, I want this to be filled out as individually as possible. In other words, this is not an assessment for how you did as a couple, but just for your own life.)

WAIT FOR ABOUT 3 MINUTES AND THEN MOVE FORWARD!

Does everyone have their 2020 ledgers of gains and losses listed out?

Good! You know, every year at CWC, somewhere around the latter part of the first quarter of the year, we have the annual business meeting, which is where we discuss the finances and the operations of the church for the year prior. So, sometime before the end of the first quarter of this new year, we will be holding our annual business meeting. This is a pretty standard practice in the, “natural/business” world, right?

Well, this is kind of what I have asked you to do right now. You are assessing your gains and losses for your own life, for the year 2020. How do you feel that you did over the last year? Do you think that your sheet was balanced, or were there more items on the ledger, one way or the other?

I don’t want a show of hands, but I am going to ask you, “How many of you seem to have been in the red over the last fiscal year, that is, you’re negative on your ledger? In other words, there were more losses than gains For your life.

Regardless of how you feel that you personally did on your little makeshift 2020 life ledger, please understand this, that there countless millions all across this nation right now who would say that they are deep “in the red” for the year. Unlike any other time in their life! Many within our own city and county!

People have suffered loss in their lives throughout this past year in seemingly immeasurable amounts, as we have navigated our way through the pandemic as a nation.

In a current study that I just read, there have been losses recorded in multiple ways, including:

Loss of connection with others through closed borders (An emotional loss)

A loss of independence, as the study showed that for the first time since at least the Great Depression, a majority of young adults in the U.S. were living with their parents this year, having moved back home due to the effects as well as fears over the virus. (Not to mention the loss of independence in the ability to assemble for social gatherings and festivities anod especially the crackdown on the people’s freedom to assemble for worship!)

Loss of trust in our government both going into and coming out of the presidential elections.

Major financial losses this year, as some 42% of American adults in this country reported back in August that someone in their family had either been laid off from work, or had taken a cut in their job pay.

More than half of Americans personally know someone who has been hospitalized or died due to COVID-19 this past year.

The study showed that overwhelmingly in this country there has been a loss of unity in the people across many different levels of society (ranging from socio-economic, to political, to religious, to governmental, etc.) , as factions have risen and that people have suffered loss in their core values that they once held!

And there has been of course, those who have lost their faith or understanding in God during the past year, as many have asked the question, “Where is God during all of this?”

As numerous churches have either closed, or gone to virtual churches, many people have lost their connection with the body of Christ and others in true fellowship.

And not all of these closings and virtual church establishments were due to necessity, unfortunately, as there have been those who found that virtual churches could provide steady online giving, while allowing the pastor the ability to not have to do as much work for their pulpit ministry!

And there are still other ways that people have suffered loss throughout this past year.

The point that I wanted to make and for everyone, is that if you feel like you have had more losses than gains throughout this past year, then you are by far, NOT ALONE!

So, I want to talk with you this morning about the issue of “gains and losses” in our lives. And some of what I am going to show you, is going to involve us looking through the lens of the Biblical perspective as to how we are to view what is truly a “gain”, or a “loss” in our walk with the Lord.

Last week, I challenged you with a message that asked you to decide what you were going to do with what God has entrusted to you and what were you going to do with the gospel message that He has handed over to you.

This week is kind of in line with that same message, as we are looking at how we did over the past year within the kingdom of God as stewards. Did we find more gains, or losses.

Let me just stress to everyone, that when it comes to accounting and numbers, our God, the ONE TRUE GOD, is most definitely, HUGE on numbers and accuracy with everything that He does!

When you read through the Old Testament and of how God structured and set up everything with Moses and that of the tabernacle and of all of its implementations and the precision of size and dimensions and materials and colors and so on.

You will quickly see that God is precise.

God didn't leave Noah hanging when He told him to build a boat. He gave Noah the exact dimensions for building that boat. Basically, God handed over the first blue-print for building something.

And if you have ever, or should you ever decide to study the laws of physics and chemistry and math, there is such amazing precision in everything that God has created, that there is no possibility of chance and evolution having any part in the creation of this world!!!!

OUR GOD IS A GOD OF DETAIL AND PRECISION IN EVERYTHING THAT HE DOES!

And that includes what He has done for you and I and what He is still doing in us and through us!

In order for us to understand what is truly a “gain” in this life, we need to look at it through the lens of the Bible and not our own natural understanding. You see, we have been given wealth in an immeasurable amount in this life and especially in the life to come, but it’s hard for many people to see it, because they only look through their natural eyes and their limited understanding of who they are in Christ Jesus!

Peter wrote to us and said this about what we have been given as believers in 2 Peter 1:3-4, “By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.”

The creator of the universe and everything within it, has given to you and I great and precious promises, that guarantee that we will share in His divine nature!

And all of God’s promises to us are always a positive and confirmed “YES”; that is, they are definite and going to happen!

Paul emphasized this to the church in Corinth, when we wrote in II Corinthians 1:19-20, “For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not Yes and No, but in Him it is always Yes. For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.”

Because of the great price that Jesus paid for each one of us, He became the guarantee for our entrance into the kingdom and through Him, we have the promises of God; both for eternity with Him, but also for here and now!

The reason that many Christians don’t recognize or see the great wealth in Christ that we have received and have access to, through God’s great and special promises, is because they don’t understand who they are in Christ and because we try marginalize everything and reduce it down to our own natural sense of values!

We try to see everything in the natural/material sense in order to see its value and in doing so, we are completely missing the vast wealth, or great GAINS, that we have as God’s children.

Please don’t get me wrong, there are literal/actual “gains” in this life that people will acquire through serving Jesus, but in order to receive these “gains” they must first suffer the “loss” of other things in their life. This is contrary to the way our natural minds are wired. We don’t like being told to “give up”, or “let go” (a.k.a. “LOSE”) anything in or natural lives. In fact, we are taught to amass more and more, to continually try to “gain” things, not to “lose” them!

I heard a “so called” preacher one time says that the reason that he keeps acquiring more and more money and mateial things, is because his faith in God requires it of him!

He boasted about having the largest house of any other preacher in this nation and he said that his faith in God demanded that he keep gaining more and more in this life and that he is only rehearsing what he will have in heaven one day!

Friends, this is warped and false understanding of who and what we are as God’s children here on earth.

Our faith in God will demand us to release and let go of the things of this world, not gather more and more of them, in order to serve God!

Jesus said, “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?”

You see “gains and losses” are different in the kingdom of God.

If you DESIRE to gain more of the world, then you will lose everything else that truly matters!

If, however, you desire to truly serve Jesus in this life and in doing so, it requires you to let go of your material things and relationships in this life (what we call “losses”), then Jesus said the following about such a situation in Mark 10:29-31, where He said, “And I assure you that everyone who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or property, for my sake and for the Good News, will receive now in return a hundred times as many houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and property—along with persecution. And in the world to come that person will have eternal life. But many who are the greatest now will be least important then, and those who seem least important now will be the greatest then.”

Jesus isn't saying to us that if we “lose” (freely give up) our house in serving Him, that He will give us another house, one that is 100x greater in size and value than the one that we lost!

But there are those who teach that if you will freely give up certain things to God (“lose” them for His name’s sake), then God will bless you with much, much more in return.

Like I have heard certain ministers say that if you will sacrifice and give to him/her your car, then God is going to bless you with a brand new one, that is worth much more and is much nicer!

This is a perversion of what Jesus was teaching.

Jesus was showing us, that in our heart’s desire to release and let go of the things in this life, we would gain above and beyond those things as members of His kingdom here

For instance, if you were told to sell your house by God and use the money to help someone else in need, God would take care of your need . And as a member of His kingdom here on earth, God would bless you 100x over with other people in the body of Christ, who would do the same to take care of you.

In other words, in His body here on earth, Jesus is saying that the many will always use their resources to take care of the others. So, if you “lose” your house for His name’s sake, you will ultimately gain the blessing of 100 other people’s houses and resources.

If you have to go over seas and serve God, and in doing so, you have to be away from your spouse and family, then while you are there, you will “gain” 100x more family from within the kingdom of God!

God through His prophets made it known and clear that He observed the greed in the hearts of those who were supposedly His servants and that He did not approve of their desires for “gain”.

In Jeremiah 6:13-14. God said through the prophet,

Jeremiah 6:13–14 ESV

“For from the least to the greatest of them, everyone is greedy for unjust gain; and from prophet to priest, everyone deals falsely. They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace.

And then, just 2 verses later, God says, “Thus says the Lord: Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls.”

The ancient paths, that is, His ways, the eternal ways that never change, will lead you to true and lasting peace and rest for your soul!

How many of you today can say that you would love to have PEACE and REST for your souls?

Because PEACE and REST in God, are but two of the promised GAINS that we receive when we become His children!

And the key to understanding having this PEACE and REST for your soul, is that you must become CONTENT with what you have and with where God has you right now.

You will never have true and lasting PEACE and REST, as long as your hearts desire to try and “gain” more and more of this life and the things of this world!!

In I Timothy 6:5-8, Paul said this about what it truly means to “gain” in the kingdom of God, when he wrote to, “And constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain. But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.”

Do you see what Paul is saying to us?

As long as your are never satisfied with the things that God has given to you and you always desire more and more, bigger and better, then you will never truly be able to look at your life ledger and understand what real “gains” look like.

Being content with what you have, with where you are and who you are, is the key to unlocking the real meaning of “gain” in this kingdom!

The great Puritan preacher, Jeremiah Burroughs, described contentment as “a rare jewel.” Burroughs has great wisdom on how to obtain this jewel, when he wrote, “A Christian comes to contentment, not so much by way of addition as by way of subtraction… Contentment does not come by adding to what you have, but by subtracting from what you desire. The world says that you will find contentment when your possessions rise to meet the level of your desires… The Christian has another way to contentment, that is, he can bring his desires down to his possessions.

Paul went on to say of those who desire riches and wealth in this life, in that same passage in I Timothy 6:9-10, “But people who long to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.”

In fact, the Apostle Paul was the premiere writer as found in the Epistles of the New Testament, to explain about what truly counts as a “loss” and as a “gain” for the Christian.

In his letter to the church in Philippi, Paul wrote, “It is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.”

Paul is telling us, that this life and everything in it, is fleeting and temporary and has no real value (in other words, it’s a “loss” on the ledger), because as soon as you die, it dies with you. You can't take it with you when you die, so it has NO ETERNAL VALUE!

BUT, living here in Christ and as Christ and letting Christ rule in your heart is true “gain”in this life and the life to come! That does carry over.

Because, if you're truly “born again” through Jesus, then it should be Him living in you and through you and your life, right?

Isn't that what Paul said in Galatians 2:20, where he said, “My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

True “gain” in this life, truly living in this life, is living your life to serve Jesus.

And the over all real “gain”, the eternal “GAIN”, is to cross over and be with Jesus! That's what Paul meant when he said that “to die is gain”.

Because as soon as you leave this life, you are instantly present with Him in that life!!

And Paul made it very clear that he, better than anyone else, knew and understold about having the “things” of this world. He had power, money, wisdom and an amazing education. He had authority and notoriety and he had a family lineage to boast of. And yet listen to what Paul said of all of these things that he had, in comparison to what he had traded them for in Jesus.

In Philippians 3:7-11, Paul said this, “ But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—  that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.”

Friends, that is what true GAIN is. Jesus.......knowing Jesus and serving Him with everything that we have in this life, is true GAIN!

Paul said that he counted all of things in this life that we naturally count as “gain” (money, power, houses, notoriet, social status, etc), he considered all of these things, “dung, excrement, waste, garbage” (LOSS) when compared to that of knowing Jesus and having a life in Him, which is THE ONLY TRUE GAIN!

Paul went on to say that he was “straining forward” to what lied ahead, that he pressed on toward the goal for the prize.

That is, Paul was living his life in such a way, so as to lay hold of the eternal prize!

And what is the prize? Is it mansions and streets made of gold and fluff?

NO.......absolutely not! Paul said that the true gain, the true eternal prize was none other than being with the Christ for all eternity!

Jesus and our life in Him, is the only true GAIN that we will EVER know, both now and for all eternity!

So, this is what I want you to do right now. I want you to take that life ledger that you filled out earlier and I want you to turn it over to the back and I want you to only make ONE entry this time. There is no need to draw a line and write anything about “losses” or “gains”, because compared to Christ, everything else is a loss.

I want you to simply write one word in large letters on the blank side of that paper. I want you to write the name of JESUS on that paper!

That is now your journal entry for this coming year and it should be the same entry for every year that we have there after. Then, if you can, I want you to bring that new ledger entry up here to the front to the altar and kneel with it and in your own words and in your own way, I want you to dedicate this new year to serving Jesus and in doing so, He will erase the debts, the losses of this past year and replace them with true GAIN!!!! (If you can’t come up, then please do so right where you are from your seat!)