What you gain by losing your title
Contents
♡♥♡ What you gain by losing / 1 Kings 17:8-16
*** Introduction
Today is 'Teacher's Day'. The teacher that the church honors does not refer to a person who teaches worldly knowledge, but to a spiritual teacher who teaches the spiritual life and leads to eternal life. The eternal and unique Master is only Jesus Christ. Teacher James exhorted, “My brethren, do not become many teachers, knowing that we who are teachers will receive a greater judgment” (James 3:1), and Jesus said in Matthew 23:8, “You Don't be called Rabbi. You have one teacher, and you are all brothers.” Then in verse 10, “Do not be called leaders either. You have one leader, Christ.” In this way, there is only one true leader and teacher, Jesus Christ.
However, the Lord has asked a few things about those who give these spiritual teachings. 1 Timothy 5:17. “Let the elders who rule well be counted with double respect, especially those who labor in word and teaching.” Galatians 6:6 says, “Those who are taught should share all good things with those who teach the word.” You did. Because they work for eternal spirit life. That is why Hebrews 13:17 says, “Be obedient to those who lead you and be submissive. They watch for your souls as those who will give them accountants. Let them do this with joy and not with sorrow. Otherwise, it is of no benefit to you.”
As this saying says, the best respect for a teacher is sharing and obedience to the teachings. In this time, we want to reaffirm our reverence for the Master as a disciple by looking back at the words taught by the Lord, the true Master.
The Lord's teachings are numerous in the Bible. I can't tell you so much in this short time, but I'll try to find a rule in the Lord's teachings and apply some of them. That law is presented in the title of the Word of this Time. That is, “the law of gaining by losing”.
The Lord showed us concretely and realistically through various words of the New Testament. In this time, let's think about the Lord's teaching through the text in which this law is specifically applied.
1. Gaining by losing is a call to obedience.
Ahab, the 7th king of northern Israel, was the most wicked of all the kings of all time. They strengthened exchanges with a foreign country called Sidon through arranged marriage for the purpose of making the country prosperous. The woman King Ahab brought from Sidon and made her queen was Jezebel. However, this woman brought the god Baal and the goddess Asherah together. Ahab and Jezebel built temples to Baal and Asherah throughout the country, set up priests, and built altars. This stirred the heart of God. Through the prophet Elijah, God notified Ahab that he would discipline him through drought and famine. But the hearts of Ahab and Jezebel did not move. Rather, he tried to kill Elijah. Then God hid Elijah in a cave by a brook. There, Elijah ate and drank from the brook until the brook dried up.
Isn't it amazing to see people for the first time in their lives, even Israelis who are not their own people, asking for water from a plate where a drop of water is precious because of this drought? And apparently he himself said that he had only one loaf of flour to bake with his son for the last time. Still, Elijah told him to put it out. If you do that, the Lord your God will keep the flour and oil from running out until the drought is over. But how can a woman believe that? Moreover, the God of Yahweh was the God of Israel, not of Sidon. So, in verse 12, the woman called “the Lord your God.”
But the woman obeyed. And obedience allowed me to experience a miracle right away. Obedience that transcends circumstances and circumstances is the shortcut to receiving God's grace. That is why God said, “Obedience is better than sacrifice” through the prophet Samuel. In our opinion, obeying God's will seems to lose everything and it seems like a loss, but if we trust and obey God, we will not lose, but will see the result of gaining more valuable things. So the law of gain by losing is God's call to obedience.
2. Gaining by losing is a call to determination.
Elijah did not ask the woman of Zarephath for a drink or some bread. “Please, bring me some water from the bowl and let me drink.” And “Please, bring me a piece of bread in your hand.”
God is not asking us to do anything, to donate, or to take our time. Do what God wants you to do. Or pay a tithe, and a seasonal offering. rescue Do not drink. Don't be angry. Be holy as I am holy. etc. God asks of us. Why? Because everything we have belongs to God. Life, life, material things, and children, everything has been entrusted to us for a while. As in the parable of the talents and minas, these are the things the Lord has entrusted to you to make a profit until you call them for settlement. Therefore, the Lord is not asking us to ask, but is asking us to be bold.
The woman of Zarephath hesitated for a moment at Elijah's difficult request, but soon made a decision. They served their last supper. This is a renunciation of your own and your son's life. The woman did not have faith in God, but she knew how to make a decision at the words of the prophet.
This is the secret to receiving God's mercy and grace. God gives grace to those who make decisions and obey without questioning. Jesus taught that too.
One day, Jesus taught many of his followers about the “way of discipleship.” “He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me, and he who does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me” (Matthew 10:37). -38) said. Then he concluded, saying, “Whoever finds his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 10:39). After a while, on the day of Peter's great confession, he again taught the disciples the way of discipleship. In Matthew 16:24, “Then Jesus said to his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” Then in verse 25, “whoever lays down his life Whoever wants to save will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” This is the attitude of heart that the disciples who follow Jesus must make a decision.
Following Jesus is not about gaining anything. is throwing me away. It is to throw away the body, which was built of the world's perishable dust, and the mind, which has made the world's perishable value. This abandonment is devotion, service, and service. In this way, we have an incorruptible body and eternal life.
Are you wasting your possessions and your body? Do you regret letting go of the things of the world? So, are you hesitant about devotion, service, or service? Then you must give up the path of becoming a disciple of the Lord. You cannot have both the world and God at the same time. You have to decide. Until you give up all the things of the world, you cannot fill them with the eternal things of God.
3. Gaining by losing is God's love.
God prepares and gives better things to those who give up and give up for the Lord. In other words, God's love to give better things to us to give up everything in the world with determination and obedience for the Lord.
In verses 17-24 after the main text, there is recorded the story of another disaster that struck the house of the woman of Zarephath. The widow's only son, who was ill and died. The woman complains to Elijah that you came to our house and killed her son for nothing. Then Elijah went up to the upper room with the dead child in his arms and prayed to God. See verse 20. “O LORD my God, have you also brought calamity upon the widow of the house where I am sojourning, that her son should die?” the prophet Elijah prayed, groaning as he did not understand the word. Then he prayed for the child's life to be restored.
Sometimes we too suffer so much that it can no longer be a tragedy. There may be pain that you cannot understand. But there is nothing without reason for God's people. Behind it is God's greater plan.
God heard Elijah's prayer and spared his son. A woman who has experienced this confesses: “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the LORD in your mouth is true.” This is John 4:42. “He said to the woman, Now we do not believe because of your words, for we have heard it ourselves and know that he is indeed the Savior of the world.” Aren't these two words similar?
God's salvation came to the household of the widow of Zarephath. In other words, God bestowed the greater grace of God's salvation through the death of his Son. Not only their physical life was saved from drought and famine, but the way to their spiritual life was opened.
It is God's will that I no longer be bound by the things of the world to be lost. God's riches will again be bestowed upon the renewed children of God. In the name of the Lord, I pray that the lives of our members will be put away from these things that should be lost and be renewed with eternal things.