Wrong Life

Welcome! Today is our third and final message in this series on common mistakes that Christians of all ages and maturities can make in their lives. Our first message was entitled “Wrong House,” and we looked at how people can have misconceptions about the Christian life that lead them to go to the wrong “house”, the wrong spiritual “place” that they think God wants them to inhabit. Three such wrong houses we looked at were (1) the idea of adding rules and requirements to live by beyond the principles of the New Testament, (2) the idea of focusing on outward actions to the degree that a lukewarm heart towards God is not addressed in one’s life, and (3) the idea that is OK to live out the Christian life apart from seeking and maintaining deep interdependent relationships with other Christians.

Last week’s message was entitled “Wrong Name,” and we focused on how we define ourselves using names that contradict what the Bible says is our identity in Christ. We looked at how God’s changing of names is a theme that runs through all of Scripture, and that we too, as believers in Christ, because of Jesus’ willing death on the cross, have new names and titles that He has purchased for us, names that have to do with our new relationship with Him. These new names, if we really contemplate and reflect on them, should have transformative power in our lives. They emphasize that we have entered an entirely new way of life, and that we should not and indeed cannot go back to what we were.

Wrong names include names we have placed on ourselves as well as names others have fixed on us. Names like “ugly,” “stupid,” “failure,” “unlovable.” Last week each person who was here wrote a couple of wrong such names on small pieces of paper and ripped them up, because these are not who we are. These are not who God says we are, and that’s all that matters. I encouraged you last week that when you start to fall back into thinking about these wrong names to say, “That’s not who I am anymore. That’s not who I am in Christ.”

And so who are we? What are God’s names for us? Here are just some of God’s names for us: God’s possession, God’s children, God’s elect, God’s chosen, God’s beloved, God’s heirs, God’s temple, God’s soldiers, God’s ambassadors, God’s witnesses, God’s workmen, and God’s workmanship. We are the adopted ones, the justified ones, the purchased ones, the sprinkled ones, the redeemed ones, the washed ones, the cleansed ones, the sanctified ones, the rescued ones, the bought ones, the ones made alive, the ones raised, the ones seated, the ones predestined, the ones chosen, the ones forgiven, the ones given the Spirit, the ones indwelt by the Spirit, the ones sealed by the Spirit. And Revelations 2 tells us that we also will have personalized new names, written individually by God to each of us. How exciting!

Well, today’s message is entitled “Wrong Life.” As we will see, there is indeed a wrong life to live, but there is also a right life.

I want to start with Jesus’ own words in the Gospels. The following verses in Matthew, Mark, and Luke are similar but each is slightly different. I think it is quite instructive to look at them together:

Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for My sake will find it. – Matthew 10:39

For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for Me will find it. – Matthew 16:25

For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for Me and for the gospel will save it. – Mark 8:35

For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for Me will save it. – Luke 9:24

Whoever tries to keep their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life will preserve it. – Luke 17:33

Let’s start by talking about the similarities. Each of these verses is talking about two lives. The first life described in each of these verses is the “wrong” life. If you find this wrong life, you will lose it. If you want to save this wrong life, you will also lose it. And if you try to keep this wrong life, you will, once again, lose it.

What is this wrong life? It is a life primarily concerned about the pleasures of this world. This is the life that is constantly portrayed on TV and the Internet and in movies. This is the life that advertisers appeal to. This is the life that secular guidance counselors appeal to. It’s about money and possessions, but not just money and possessions. It’s also about wanting the perfect, wonderfully satisfying career. It’s about wanting the ideal Mr. or Mrs. Right, about wanting to be head over heels in love. It’s about wanting to have the perfect idealized family. It’s about striving to have the perfect appearance, or the highest level of fitness. It’s even about wanting the perfect church to go to.

Many of the things I’ve described are not necessarily bad in and of themselves. These verses don’t say these things are bad. What they say is that these things are fleeting. They may be nice, but they won’t last. And often, even when they are achieved, you find they aren’t anywhere near as satisfying as you thought they would be, and the degree to which you find happiness and satisfaction from them is even more fleeting than the things themselves. And sooner or later (but definitely sooner in the eternal scheme of things), you will lose these things altogether. Even if you manage to obtain everything you desire, you won’t have them for long.

There are no exceptions to this rule. “Whoever” means “everyone.” The things aren’t necessarily bad, but wanting to lay hold of them (find them) and wanting to hold on to them once you have laid hold of them is the stuff of Greek tragedy. You are “fated.” You can’t keep them. Nobody can. There is absolutely nothing you can do to change this.

Most people know this, deep down, but they block it out. They focus on the next thing, or the newest thing, because there is always a next thing, there is always a newest thing. Our entire economy seems to be built on this idea. If a large enough group of people decided they were truly content, the entire economy would crash to a level never seen before.

I’ve only talked about the stuff that isn’t necessarily bad in and of itself. But in this category are also many things that are bad. Some things are bad in themselves: illicit relationships, illicit drugs, illicit activities like gambling and pornography, and much more. Other things become bad in excess: excess time spent on entertainment, excess eating of unhealthy foods (or food in general), excess activities to feed one’s ego, and so on. These things tend to lead to addiction and can be even more fleeting in terms of the satisfaction they bring.

What about the second half of these verses? They are talking about the “right” life. These statements are worded in a clever, hidden way (much like a parable) that forces you to think for awhile before you really grasp the meaning. This “hiding” of meaning is intentional. Jesus wants His listeners (and you) to stop and think. This is almost the exact opposite of our modern entertainment-driven culture. Years ago, I would watch the late local news to get the weather forecast (this was before modern cell phones were a thing). They would hint at the upcoming forecast all through the 30-minute show until near the end, and then they would cut to a long commercial break before showing the forecast. The problem was that the commercials would put me into such a “zombie” state (after hearing/seeing the same commercials for the 100^th time) that I wouldn’t snap out of it until after the forecast, and sometimes the entire show, was over! I never did learn what the weather was going to do! (But I probably could still recite some of the commercials to you today.)

We all want to find the right life. How do we do so? These verses say we must “lose” our wrong life. How do we do this?

The truth is that we make the goals of the wrong life our gods, but we can only worship one “god” at a time. We don’t necessarily have to give up all the benefits of our lives, but we do need to give up seeking/having/keeping these benefits the primary goals of our lives. The right life is one that drops all this in a moment if and when Christ says “come.”

But how do we know when Christ says this? It is not usually an audible message. The right life is one that learns to continually seek God and His purposes. It is one that learns to continually live in this world but not be “of” it. It is one that accepts the pleasures that this life brings but does not turn the desire of them into false gods. It is one that lives like how Paul describes in Galatians 2:20, in my personal opinion the “deepest,” most challenging verse in all of Paul’s writings:

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. – Galatians 2:20

This is the essence of “right life” living. It’s one thing to “have” faith in Christ, but it is another to “live by” faith in Christ. Faith in Christ becomes your food, your drink, the air you breathe. This life sees all pleasures as gifts of God and as opportunities to worship God. This life lives every moment in communion with God. This life doesn’t battle the old self but slays it. The old writers used a now almost forgotten word to describe this: mortification.

I wish that I lived this verse continually, but I still have a long way to go. The humblest, most godly people I have ever known have all said this verse was a “life verse” for them, so early in my Christian walk I told people this was a life verse for me too. But too often I feel like a pretender. Yet this verse holds a powerful attraction to me; I know that living the “mortified” dead-to-self and alive-in-Christ life will make me become the “me” that God intends for me to become. And this is true for all of us.

What does this dead-to-self alive-in-Christ look like? Additional scriptures give us guidance.

For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and was raised again. – 2 Corinthians 5:14-15

Yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live. – I Corinthians 8:6

This is how God showed His love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. – I John 4:9

When it comes to “living through” Christ, I like an analogy used by a professor from our department who has since passed away.  Many years ago, this person had a heart so diseased that he needed a heart transplant. After a long wait, he received this transplant. He told me that he was now living “through” the donor. He explained that during the surgery where they replaced his heart, he was dead, and following the surgery he was alive only through that new heart. The new heart kept him alive every single moment of the many remaining years of his life. So are we alive through Christ, and so shall we be throughout eternity!

Some additional verses:

Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. – James 3:13

Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. – Ephesians 5:15-16

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. – Colossians 3:23-24

Whoever pursues righteousness and love finds life, prosperity and honor. – Proverbs 21:21

Although living the new life is through Christ, it also takes work, it takes wisdom, it requires action. We don’t just sit idly by. We choose the right life every moment of every day.

For we live by faith, not by sight. – 2 Corinthians 5:7

Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. – Galatians 5:25

The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. – Romans 8:6

These verses together remind us that although we have an essentially role to play in living the right life, it also requires absolute dependence on God. In ourselves, we are utterly devoid of the power to live the right life. We need faith, and the power of God’s Spirit.

For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. – Philippians 1:21

If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. – Romans 14:8

However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace. – Acts 20:24

As these verses illustrate, another principle we see in Scripture is that someone living the right life is so unconcerned with the pleasures of the old life that he or she is even OK with dying if that is what following the Lord’s will leads to. Truly those who lose their lives will find them!

I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. – John 14:6b

Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. – I John 5:12

I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. – John 8:12b

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. – John 10:10

These verses are tremendously encouraging! Jesus understands all about the wrong versus the right life, and He promises that if we follow Him He will lead us into the abundant (right) life. Non-Christians sometimes have the idea that the “right” life is restrictive, unrewarding, no fun. But the opposite is true – the wrong life is the one whose pleasures are fleeting; the right life is one in which we experience intimacy with God and whose (far greater) pleasures are eternal! This is why Jesus came – to give us this life!

This life did not come without a great cost – Jesus had to die on the cross for our sin so that we could be reconciled with Him and have this abundant life with Him. He instructed us two thousand years ago to remember these events with the bread and the cup, to do so in an appropriate manner, discerning what the symbols actually signify.

In a few moments we will take of the bread and cup individually. Spend time with Jesus in prayer. Think about the wrong life versus the right life and how Jesus died to give us the right life. Thank Him for what He has done, and when you are ready, take the bread, remembering how His body was broken for you, and take the cup, remembering how His blood was shed for you.  I want to close with two final verses that, taken together, speak of the cross, the wrong life, and the right life.

For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. – I Peter 1:18-19

This is what the Lord says to Israel: Seek Me and live. – Amos 5:4