Acts Paul Will Not See My Face Again

My aim tonight is to persuade you lot of the truth — or at to the lowest degree open you to the truth — that it is better to lose your life than to waste it. When I spoke at Passion One Day in 2000, I looked out on that sea of students and said, "I could be your father." My oldest grandchild just started college this fall. Then now I look out at yous and say, "I could be your granddaddy," which means that I share some other generation'southward worth of weight inside when I say I don't desire you lot to waste material your life.

Time to Say Goodbye

Let'southward expect at Acts 20 together. Perhaps y'all know what the situation is in this text, simply mayhap not. Paul had spent 3 years in Ephesus (on the due west declension of today'due south Hellenic republic), pedagogy and building up the church. You see this at the finish of the affiliate (verse 31): "For three years I did non terminate night or day to admonish every one with tears." He was and so successful in this ministry that according to Acts xix:10, "all the residents of Asia heard the discussion of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks." Amazing.

"My aim is to persuade you of the truth that it is better to lose your life than to waste it."

He left Ephesus and spent the winter in Corinth in Greece, across the Aegean Bounding main. At present, he is on his way to Jerusalem, hurrying to get back by Pentecost, probably in the yr AD 56. But he wants one more contact with the leaders of the church building of Ephesus. And then, when his boat puts in at Miletus some 20 miles south of Ephesus, he sends for the elders of the church. In Acts 20:18–35 he gives them his last words. Information technology is very moving. The encounter ends similar this:

There was much weeping on the part of all; they embraced Paul and kissed him, existence sorrowful nearly of all because of the discussion he had spoken, that they would non run across his face once more. And they accompanied him to the send. (Acts 20:37–38)

When I encounter a Christian pastor or missionary taking go out of his people, or a begetter taking go out of his family for the final time, I listen very carefully. Because I know, I'grand going to hear words not only from the heart, but likewise words that probably sum up: What has my life been virtually? What has this ministry been for? What'southward the point of it all?

Paul'south Concluding Will and Testament

And so what we have hither in Acts 20:xviii–35 is a kind of last volition and testament of Paul, the bully apostle of Jesus Christ, to a church where he seems to accept worked longer than anywhere else.

This is a very personal discussion from Paul about his deepest convictions — near what information technology means to follow Jesus Christ. And I take to admit that virtually every time I circle back to these words (particularly verses 22–25), they make me want to renounce everything and follow Jesus (Luke fourteen:33). These radical words of Paul brand chills of admiration and longing go up and down my back. They make me want to be utterly out of step with my secular historic period and the typical expression of the "American Dream" — especially for a 71 yr old. This is only a more immediately available version of the dream held out to 22 year olds. Paul'southward words brand me want to be utterly abandoned to the cause of Christ in this world — no matter what.

Press on for the Prize

I would similar you lot to look with me at verses 22–25, with a special focus on verse 24:

And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, non knowing what will happen to me at that place, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions wait me. Simply I do not account my life of whatsoever value nor equally precious to myself, if just I may finish my grade and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to prove to the gospel of the grace of God. And now, behold, I know that none of you among whom I take gone nearly proclaiming the kingdom will come across my face again. (Acts 20:22–25)

"I want to exist utterly abandoned to the cause of Christ in this globe — no matter what."

My summary of these four verses for you is this: improve to lose your life than waste it. Listen again to poesy 24 and encounter if you agree that this is a off-white summary of the verse: "I exercise not business relationship my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may end my class and the ministry building that I received from the Lord Jesus, to show to the gospel of the grace of God."

I don't count my life of any value, or as precious to myself — except for i thing. I accept been given a race to run and ministry to perform; namely, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. This ministry building is like a race that I am running. There is a racecourse. And I am running on information technology. This is why I alive. This is what my life means. Terminate the race, fulfill the ministry. Don't stop. Don't leave the class. Don't go backward. If you lot do, your life is wasted.

So when he says, "I exercise non count my life of whatever value but for this 1 thing," isn't he saying, "Better to be true-blue and die than unfaithful and live"? Or, "Better to lose your life than to waste material it"? My goal is not to stay live. My goal is to stay on class.

The Unwasted Life

Paul volition say this again from prison in Rome in Philippians 3:8:

I count everything as loss considering 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.

Ane of those things that Paul counted as rubbish was staying alive and living eighty years, and making fourscore million dollars, and never having a sick twenty-four hour period — while running through the meadows off the racecourse toward the cliff. That kind of success, he says, is rubbish. Amend to lose your life than waste product it.

He had read it in Psalm 63:3, "Your steadfast love [O Lord] is better than life." There is a path of life that leads to the everlasting enjoyment of the steadfast dear of God. Amend to lose your life than get off of that path. "I do non account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my grade and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God."

V Pictures of What It Looks Similar to Lose Your Life

So, what I would like to practise with y'all tonight is try to answer two questions using these verses as the basis for the answers: (1) What is information technology like to take the mind-fix, "It is amend to lose your life than waste matter information technology"? and (ii) Why is it better to lose your life than to waste it?

First, what is it like to have the mind-set up: "Better to lose your life than waste it"?

one. Information technology is similar being mastered by a Person and a power not your own.

And at present, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained [literally spring] by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there. (Acts xx:22)

A Christian who says, "Better to lose my life than to waste matter it" and who means it for Jesus's sake is not speaking in his own power. He is constrained by the Spirit. This is how we all got started on this race when we were dead in our sins. How did you come to say from your heart, "Jesus is Lord"? Paul tells united states how we came to say that in 1 Corinthians 12:iii: "No ane speaking in the Spirit of God ever says 'Jesus is accursed!' and no 1 can say 'Jesus is Lord' except in the Holy Spirit." Yous would never have said, "Jesus is Lord" unless constrained past the Holy Spirit, overcoming all your fears and all your rebellion. And no Christian ever says, "Meliorate to lose my life than waste information technology," except by the Holy Spirit. This is the testify that he is in y'all.

That's the commencement answer to the question: What is it like to have the mind-ready: "Better to lose your life than waste material it"? It is like existence mastered by a Person and a power non your own. This is the mind-set of the Spirit, not the flesh (Romans 8:5–8). God's Spirit has a agree of you. And your new passion is a life utterly devoted to God'southward racecourse, God's ministry building program.

2. It is being content non to know what tomorrow will bring.

Keep reading in poesy 22:

And at present, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me at that place.

The unwasted life that looks death in the face and says, "Y'all are no threat to me — ameliorate to die than waste product my life," does not need to know what tomorrow may bring.

Every racecourse that God appoints for his children to run disappears over the hill called the future. Every ministry building takes a turn around the corner called futurity and disappears into the unknown. Therefore, the unwasted life is always lived one step from the unknown. This is what faith is for. "By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to leave to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, non knowing where he was going" (Hebrews 11:8). That'due south what religion does.

"I will not alive for the American Dream, not as a college student, or every bit a mid-lifer or every bit a seventy-something."

Meliorate to lose your life on the racecourse of faith than to say, "I've got to know what's coming!" You don't. And y'all never will. But you do know that he will be there with you and for you (Matthew 28:twenty; Romans eight:31).

When I preached on Hebrews 11:eight in 1997, there was a young educatee in the audience wrestling with whether to have his family into the unknown dangers of Bible translation. Ane of his relatives had said the night before the Sunday when I preached, "You're crazy if you have these picayune children overseas like that!" He told me subsequently, "At ane signal during the message you were talking about Abraham's going out not knowing where he is going, and you looked correct at me, and shouted, 'That's crazy! Yep, and absolutely glorious.'" Better to lose your life than to miss that racecourse. He has been in Thailand with his family since he finished his training.

So, the second answer to the question, What is it like to take the mind-prepare: "Better to lose your life than waste matter information technology"? Information technology is being content in faith not to know in detail what tomorrow will bring. Poesy 22: "I am going to Jerusalem, constrained past the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there."

three. It is the courage not to end running when the racecourse leads through suffering.

In the next verse (Acts 20:23), yet, Paul goes on to say that there is 1 matter he does know about his future. He does non know what will happen to him "except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every urban center that imprisonment and afflictions await me."

It's not just that the racecourse disappears over the colina. The Christian racecourse is designed by God to pb through pain.

• Paul said to all his churches according to Acts xiv:22, "Through many tribulations nosotros must enter the kingdom of God." There is one path to sky, and that is the way it goes.

• He wrote to Timothy in 2 Timothy three:12, "Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus volition exist persecuted."

• Jesus said in Matthew x:25, "If they accept called the principal of the house Beelzebul, how much more volition they malign those of his household."

Then, for Paul, the Holy Spirit got even more specific: "The Holy Spirit testifies to me in every metropolis that imprisonment and afflictions await me." So, whether information technology is imprisonment or non for you lot, information technology will be something. The racecourse of the Christian life e'er leads through suffering.

If yous tin honestly say with Paul "Better to lose my life than waste it," it will mean non merely that you can be content with uncertainty about tomorrow, but yous can also exist content with the certainty that some of your tomorrows are going to injure. So "Meliorate to lose your life than waste product it" also means, "Better to live life through suffering than to waste matter it."

"Some of your tomorrows are going to injure, just it'south improve to alive life through suffering than to waste it."

May I say a discussion to you women? My experience of over 40 years of recruiting and shepherding young men and women for radical, run a risk-taking ministry — say, in reaching unreached peoples (merely not only missions) — has taught me that ofttimes, or maybe more frequently, in wedlock (or as singles) the adult female is more than ready for the challenge of missions, more than eager, and less risk-averse than the man.

I don't say that to puff you upwardly. I say information technology lest whatsoever of you retrieve you get a pass on courage. I say information technology to direct your attention to the word of God. Proverbs 31:25: "Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she laughs at the time to come." The time to come, with all its incertitude, and all its sure afflictions — she laughs.

And practise you remember what Peter in his commencement letter says when he ponders these Former Testament women of faith? He says,

This is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their ain husbands, as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. And you are her children, if you exercise good and do not fear anything that is frightening. (i Peter 3:5–6)

You are a daughter of Sarah (and yeah, I could add, men, you are sons of Abraham) "if you do good and do not fear annihilation that is frightening." Better to lose your life than waste product it means being women and men of backbone who do non stop running the race when the racecourse leads through suffering.

4. It is living to brand much of the greatness and the glory of the grace of God in Jesus Christ as our supreme treasure.

I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. (Acts 20:24)

Nosotros don't all take the same course of ministry. But nosotros exercise all have the aforementioned essential goal: to magnify the glory and the greatness of the grace of God in Jesus Christ. This is the racecourse all Christians are running. The turns and the terrain are different. The aim is the same.

Paul said in Ephesians 1:v–6: "God predestined u.s. for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, co-ordinate to the purpose of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace." That is the ultimate meaning of life — the meaning of the race — to alive to make much of the glory of the grace of God. That is the unwasted life.

Therefore, a wasted life is a life that leaves the racecourse of living to magnify the glory of the grace of God. Better to lose your life than to waste it like that.

5. I will non live for the American Dream, neither as a college student, nor as a mid-lifer nor every bit a seventy-something. I am going to Jerusalem.

And at present, behold, I am going to Jerusalem. (Acts twenty:22)

"Merely Paul, you're getting onetime. How 'bout a trivial cottage on the Aegean Sea? You've already done more in your ministry than almost people could exercise in five lifetimes. It's time to residual. Let the final twenty years of your life be travel and golf, shuffleboard and putzing effectually the garage and excavation in the garden. Let Timothy have a chance. He's immature. Don't become to Jerusalem. Agabus the prophet has told yous, they are going to bind your hands and feet and manus you over to the Gentiles (Acts 21:11). And whatever you practise, don't become to Rome. And go out of your head the crazy program of going to Spain at your historic period. You could go yourself killed. It isn't American! It's non the American Dream of 'the sunset years.'"

"The Christian life is not moving toward dark, but toward noon. In that location are no dusk years for the Christian."

You might wonder why I would mention the tragic waste material of the so-chosen dusk years to a crowd of college students. It's because, as I said at 1 Day in 2000, they are spending billions of dollars to make the wasting of the end of your earthly life expect then bonny you will build your whole career around it.

Don't misunderstand. I am just fine with yous retiring from your well-paying job at age 55 or 62 or 67 and giving yourself for the next 20 years to a ministry building that y'all only dreamed about and never had time for. There is no such affair as retirement from ministry building in the Bible.

But the path of the righteous is like the lite of dawn,
which shines brighter and brighter until full solar day. (Proverbs four:18)

The Christian life is not moving toward night, but toward noon. There are no sunset years for the Christian.

Till you lot die, there is a race to exist run and a ministry to be finished. Or, if not, at that place is a life to exist wasted. And it is better to lose your life than to waste information technology.

Why Live for More than Than Yourself?

One concluding question: Why should we embrace this maxim — this watchword over our lives — Better to lose your life than to waste matter information technology?

The reason is this: It is better to lose your life than to waste information technology because, when you lose it, while non wasting it, you don't lose information technology. Y'all gain it. And you lot gain it crowned. The race has been won.

Remember, in poetry 24, Paul speaks of finishing his course. "I do not account my life of whatsoever value nor as precious to myself, if only I may end my form." There is merely one other place where Paul speaks like this with these words (2 Timothy 4:seven–8):

I take fought the good fight, I accept finished the race, I have kept the organized religion. Henceforth there is laid upwardly for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous estimate, will award to me on that day, and non simply to me but too to all who have loved his appearing.

"The crown of righteousness volition exist put on your head past the Male monarch of kings."

Better to lose your life than to waste it because, when y'all lose it, while not wasting it, you go the crown. Everybody who finishes the unwasted life, whether at 22 or 82, wins the crown. And this crown of righteousness will be put on your head by the King of kings. You will share his righteousness. Share his rule. Share his glory. "This light momentary affliction is preparing [or working] for united states of america an eternal weight of celebrity beyond all comparison" (2 Corinthians 4:17).

You will look dorsum and say, after a 1000 temptations, I am so glad — so thankful — I lost my life while I was not wasting information technology.

Don't Waste material Your Life

To sum it up: if the heed-set that says meliorate to lose your life than to waste material it means

• existence under the command of a power not your ain — of the Holy Spirit,
• and being courageous in the face of uncertainty,
• and overcoming fear when the course runs through suffering,
• and living to make much of the glory of the grace of God in Christ as our supreme treasure,
• and putting the pedal to the metal of ministry betwixt the ages of 60 and eighty — and living in sync with that dream between twenty and sixty,

and if losing your life while not wasting it means you don't lose it — but gain information technology with a crown of righteousness — then my simple message to you is: don't waste product your life considering information technology'due south better to lose your life than to waste it.

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Source: https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/better-to-lose-your-life-than-waste-it

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