Are You Investing Your Life the Right Way?
There are millions of Americans who have money invested in the Stock Market and who follow what the market does every day including some of you. If it goes up, people are happy; when it goes down people are sad or angry. Financial advisors advocate for diversifying your portfolio across several stocks or financial tools to reduce your risk because investors can lose everything they invested in a company that goes out of business and loses all of its value. My dad follows the market closely and he also enjoys watching the sermon previews we post on the church’s Facebook page every week. He called me after he saw the one for today in which I spoke about investing and he shared about how the Chinese stock market has lost a great deal of value and some people have even taken their own lives in their despondency over losing all they invested. As painful or upsetting as it is to lose money we’ve invested, it’s far worse to invest our life in a way that ultimately has no value and leaves us feeling bankrupt and empty.
August 9, 2015
Mark 8:31-38, Are You Investing Your Life the Right Way?
Pastor Doug Scalise, Brewster Baptist Church
Audio only[powerpress]
On Thursday and Friday about three dozen of us from BBC attend The Global Leadership Summit simulcast in Pembroke. We heard Bill Hybels of Willow Creek Community Church speak about the Five Intangibles of Leadership. Author Jim Collins gave us seven questions to ponder regarding our life, service, growth and the idea we only succeed by helping others. Ed Catmull the Co-Founder of Pixar spoke about creativity, honesty, and candor. Horst Schulze who leads one of the most prestigious hotel companies in the world spoke about creating excellence through service and caring from the heart. We heard many speakers from a variety of Christian and business perspectives, but in a sense there was a common theme in every talk, interview, and video we saw: Are You Investing Your Life the Right Way? Are you investing your life in way that pleases God, serves others, and makes you feel good?
In addressing that subject from a variety of angles the speakers simply did what Jesus did – they challenged us to think about how we’re investing our life. That’s what we see Jesus doing in all the Gospels in his encounters with his disciples and everyone else. He does it again in today’s passage Mark 8:31-38. “31 He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. 32 He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33 But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”
34 Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. 36 What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? 37 Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? 38 If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”
Jesus asks all who are listening two important questions (Mark 8:36-37), “What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? 37 Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?” To lose my soul means I no longer have a healthy center that organizes and guides my life. We can lose our soul even before we die. John Ortberg in his book Soul Keeping writes, “You soul is what integrates your will (your intentions), your mind (your thoughts and feelings, your values and conscience), and your body (your face, body language, and actions) into a single life. A soul is healthy – well-ordered – when there is harmony between these three entities.” None of us wants to spend our life climbing what we think is a ladder of success only to find when we reach the top that it was leaning against the wrong wall the whole time. Many people lose or squander their soul and life on things that are of little or no eternal consequence. It isn’t fun or enjoyable to lose something; whether keys, a bill, or more valuable things like a purse or wallet or a piece of jewelry or money. The more valuable something is, like time, the more it hurts to lose it. Nothing is more valuable than one’s soul so we certainly don’t want to lose that and nothing is more important than how we invest the only soul and life we have.
A paradox of life is that the true way to self-fulfillment is to invest our life in the way of self-surrender. The Apostle Paul understood this and wrote to the Galatians (2:19b-20), “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God,who loved me and gave himself for me.”
Reformation leader John Calvin understood losing our life for Christ’s sake and investing our life in God. He wrote, “We are not our own; therefore neither our reason nor our will should predominate in our deliberations and actions.
We are not our own; therefore let us not propose it as our end, to seek what may be expedient for us according to the flesh.
We are not our own; therefore let us, as far as possible, forget ourselves and all things that are ours. On the contrary, we are God’s; to him, therefore, let us live and die.
We are God’s; therefore let his wisdom and will preside in all our actions.
We are God’s; towards him, therefore, as our only legitimate end, let every part of our lives be directed. (Institutes III, 7.)
The ancient tradition is that Mark’s gospel reflects the “memoirs” of Peter (who is mentioned 17 times) and that it appeared shortly after his martyrdom, at a time of terrible suffering among the Christians in Rome where the first great persecution of Christians took place in 64 A.D. under Roman Emperor Nero. Mark appears to be written for a community that feels profoundly threatened and increasingly helpless. Mark doesn’t include any of Jesus’ teaching on discipleship until after this first explanation of his own suffering. The implication is the signs of genuine discipleship are the path of servanthood, suffering, and the cross that Jesus experienced. In Mark 8 Jesus gives the first of three predictions of his passion. All three of these passion predictions are misunderstood by the disciples. Their lack of comprehension gives Jesus the opportunity to teach them and us about what it means to be his follower.
Upon hearing Jesus talk openly about what was going to happen to him in Jerusalem, “Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.” The language here is like that of a parent taking a child who has misbehaved and of a superior correcting an inferior. Jesus looked at the other disciples and was concerned about their reaction to Peter’s words so he rebukes Peter in the strongest possible terms, ““Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.” Jesus says this because it is a temptation of the Adversary to take a path that doesn’t include self-surrender and suffering. Jesus says that Peter’s rejection of the path God has laid out is based on thinking about life from a human point of view rather than from God’s perspective. After all, humanly speaking who would ever choose suffering? Mark wants to fix our attention squarely on the importance of Jesus’ death on the cross. Jesus doesn’t preach a prosperity gospel; he preaches a gospel of self-surrender, service, and suffering. That is how he wants us to invest our life.
Taking up the cross, in our time, still means for thousands of Christians literally giving up their lives. Whether it is as victims of ISIS or other terrorist groups, or victims of shootings in churches here in the US, Christians are still being persecuted and killed in alarming numbers around the world and we need to remember them in prayer and seek to help them where we can including putting pressure on our government to stand up for religious freedom around the world.
Investing one’s life in self-surrender is not something that is advocated a lot in our culture; there seem to be far more fans of self-indulgence than self-denial or self-surrender. How many commercials can you think of that feature self-denial? Dietrich Bonhoeffer grasped what Jesus was saying in these key verses and that’s why he wrote, “When Jesus calls a man, he bids him come and die”[1] Jesus was on a journey from Galilee to Jerusalem, it was a dangerous trip, and he invited his friends to travel with him. How much better it is for us to have the option of traveling the road of life with Jesus. The ancient Greek philosopher Epictetus wrote, “When a traveler starts on a trip along a road which is under the threat of robbers, he does not go alone. He waits for a friend, someone to be his escort, and then he follows him and so is protected from robbers. A wise man lives his life the same way. But there are so many troubles in this world. How can we stand all of them? What kind of friend or escort will we find on our way, so that we may pass through life without fear? Where should we turn? There is only one answer, only one real friend. That is God. If you follow God everywhere, you will steer clear of trouble. To follow God is to want what He wants, and not to want what He does not want. How to achieve this? You have to understand and follow his laws.” After Epictetus
As Christians investing our lives the right way means we’re willing to surrender ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Jesus in our time and place. Choosing to be a disciple on Jesus’ terms is something we all have to decide for ourselves. In our own lives these are good questions for us to ask ourselves, how can I trust God more? How can I surrender more? Eugene Peterson in his paraphrase The Message expresses today’s scripture this way, “Then Jesus went to work on his disciples. “Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You’re not in the driver’s seat; I am. Don’t run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I’ll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self. What kind of deal is it to get everything you want but lose yourself?”
Leo Tolstoy wrote, “The right path in life is very narrow, but it is important to find it. You can understand it, as well as we can understand it, as a walkway of wood built across a swamp; if you step off it, you will plunge into a swamp of misunderstanding and evil. A wise man returns to the true path at once, but a weak man plunges further and further into the swamp, and it becomes more and more difficult for him to get out.”
The walkway of wood built across the swamp of life is the way of the cross, and it’s one we all choose whether or not we will follow.
The great Christian preacher and leader John Wesley was asked what religion he preached and what it was good for. He replied: “I do preach to as many as desire to hear, every night and morning. You ask, what I would do with them: I would make them virtuous and happy, easy in themselves, and useful to others. Whither would I lead them? To heaven; to God the Judge, the Lover of all, and to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant. What religion do I preach? The religion of love; the law of kindness brought to light by the gospel. What is this good for? To make all who receive it enjoy God and themselves: to make them feel like God; lovers of all; contented in their lives; and crying out at their death in calm assurance, “O grave, where is thy victory! Thanks be unto God, who giveth me the victory, through my Lord Jesus Christ.”
John Wesley knew he was investing his life the right way. How about you? Losing our self-centered life in order to follow Jesus on a cross-centered life requires humbly submitting to and depending upon God. The question is will we take the risk of making that investment. Financial advisors recommend a diverse portfolio, a Christian spiritual advisor advocates for putting everything we have in one solitary investment – following Jesus. While there may be pain from time to time in the short term, the long term return is out of this world.
How are we investing our
Energy –
Time –
Emotions – in our relationships
Resources –
Name – our reputation
Intellect –
Talents –
Your Soul –
Questions for Discussion or Reflection:
Why do you think Peter began to rebuke Jesus when he spoke of undergoing great suffering, rejection, and being killed?
Why do you think Jesus rebuked Peter and responded so strongly?
What do you think Jesus means when he says to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”
How can we or do we set our mind on human things rather than divine things?
In what ways have you and can you “leave self behind” and unreservedly surrender yourself to Jesus?
What does this saying of Jesus mean to you? Does it shape your life in anyway? “For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.”
Regardless of where you are in life, how can you go forward investing your life wisely as Jesus would desire?
Point to Ponder: Discipleship is the active taking up of what could be avoided for the sake of Jesus and the gospel.