UPSIDE DOWN SPIRITUAL GIFTS The Gift of Loss Mark 14:32-42

LOSS … A girl? His health? Hope? A fortune? A reputation?

"Like anyone else in my situation, I just kept going "Like anyone else in my situation, I just kept going. You have to deal with it, because you have no choice”

Loss has a partner ….. “I reckon ….” Romans 8:18 Philippians 3:7,8 James 1:2

perspective (Romans 8:18)

“What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet lose their life? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their life?”

“What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet lose their life? How to catch a monkey …

“Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.”

INVESTMENT COMPROMISE? Salvation - for him or for us? Damnation - for him or for us?

LOSS: full equality with God, Father & Spirit perfect joy of heaven total freedom of the Spirit unspoilt intimacy with the Father & Spirit eternal glory since before the world’s foundation NOW! PROFIT: the world’s salvation the Father’s will the Father’s words “Well done!” the worship of the angels the joy set before him equality, joy, freedom, intimacy, glory …. THEN!

 Jesus’ bottom line  “Abba, Father!”

“For my own part, I have never ceased to rejoice that God has appointed me to such an office. People talk of the sacrifice I have made in spending so much of my life in Africa. Is that a sacrifice which brings its own blest reward in healthful activity, the consciousness of doing good, peace of mind, and a bright hope of a glorious destiny hereafter? Away with the word in such a view, and with such a thought! It is emphatically no sacrifice. Say rather it is a privilege. Anxiety, sickness, suffering, or danger, now and then, with a foregoing of the common conveniences and charities of this life, may make us pause, and cause the spirit to waver, and the soul to sink; but let this only be for a moment. All these are nothing when compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us and for us. I never made a sacrifice.” David Livingstone

Her faith has been important Her faith has been important. “Being a New Testament Christian I have found very grounding. It helped to think I had been given Ivan as a gift to look after.”

IS LOSS A GIFT? it depends … if you follow Jesus’ example - if you offer it to your Father in heaven - if you look for profit beyond the loss - if you get the comparison right - if you grow stronger the bottom line …