Grace Baptist Church, Nokomis, IL.

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I think it was 2013, and the Cardinals were playing the Red Sox in the sixth game of the World Series at Fenway Park. It was the bottom of the 3rd inning, and the score was still 0-0. The Red Sox had the bases loaded and Shane Victorino was up to batt. First pitch, Victorino didn’t swing, ball. Second pitch, Victorino didn’t swing, ball. Third pitch, Victorino didn’t swing, strike one. Fourth pitch, Victorino swings and hits the ball deep into left field. Matt Holiday runs to retrieve the ball, finally catches up to it near the wall, grabs it, sits down, and holds the ball tight in his arms and says, “I’ve got it now, and now it’s mine!”

Do you remember that? No, because it didn’t happen. But if it had, it would would have been all over the news that Matt Holiday had gone nuts, right? I mean, absolutely crazy! Hoarding the ball for himself, he thought the game was all about him, when he was supposed to be all about the game. And the ironic thing about it is that when he’s all about the game, the game is all about him. When he loses himself in the game, he finds himself in the game. You see, everyone loves to come and see people play baseball, not because the game is all about them, but because they love the game, so for Matt Holiday, that meant retrieving the ball, and not clinging to the ball, but throwing it back.

Because we all know that the point of baseball isn’t to get the ball and keep the ball. And yet, in life, sometimes we make that the goal. God must think we’re nuts. Absolutely crazy. We could win the World Series, but we hold onto the ball. We could help a needy family, but we’re more worried about keeping what we have. We could reach our whole town with the gospel, but we don’t feel like doing what’s necessary, or we’re more concerned with keeping our traditions because we like our church the way it is.

But the life that God wants us to live isn’t about what we want, or what we want cling to, but about giving our lives, because Jesus has given us His life. Life isn’t about hoarding God’s blessings, but about giving them away. About losing our things. About losing our lives for the good of those around us, for God’s glory.

It’s like, when you lose your life, you find it.

If you find a life for yourself, doing whatever you want to do, you lose your life because, in the end, you find that you wasted your life. But when you lose your life for the sake of Christ, you truly find it.

Read Luke 6:24-26

A woe, literally, is a grief. So when Jesus said, “Woe to you,” He was saying “You are grieved,” or “You will be grieved” if you fall under one of these descriptions. But it’s more than a grief as we often think about it. It’s more than simply being bummed out. Jesus is using it to signify a much bigger grief. A weightier grief.

In fact, I think Jesus was saying, if you find yourself in these descriptions, you will be eternally grieved, or another way of saying that would be, that you will be cursed by God. So this is a very sobering passage, and one that we should study very carefully.

Because this passage can be misunderstood very easily, I think. There are certain extremes that we need to avoid when it comes to understanding blessings and curses from God. We often think that we get blessed by God if we do all the right things, and we get cursed by God if we do all the wrong things.

But we need to remember that salvation isn’t by our work, but by God’s grace. It’s God’s gift. Our greatest blessing doesn’t come to us by anything that we do, but by simply placing our faith in Jesus Christ. That’s how we’re saved from our sin and hell. Blessing from God has less to do with what we do, and everything to do with who we’re identified with. If we’re identified with Jesus, having Him as our Savior and Lord, then we have all the blessings of God.

So maybe curses work the same way. Maybe we’re not cursed because of what we fail to do, but because of who we’re not identified with. Now, of course, we are cursed because of our sin, and our sin deserves God’s wrath, but all people are sinners. The difference between blessing and cursing from God isn’t our sin, or the degree of our sin, but whether or not our sin has been forgiven by Jesus. Jesus makes all the difference!

And yet, even knowing this, we’re often confused about why God blesses some and curses others. So before I get to what I think this text means, I want to talk about what this text does not mean.

Jesus was not saying that we’re cursed when we experience good times. It’s good to experience good times! In fact, every good thing that we experience is from God. The book of James says, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father.”

Being rich, or well-fed, or laughing, or having a good reputation, these are not bad things in themselves! Woe to you who are rich doesn’t mean that we should be bumming out if we’ve managed to save a few dollars in the bank. Woe to you who are full now doesn’t mean that we should refuse to eat if we have food in the fridge. Or if someone invites us over for dinner. Woe to you who laugh now doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t laugh. That we should always go around crying. Woe to you when all people speak well of you doesn’t mean that it’s horrible to have a good name.

So when life is going well, when you receive blessings from God, rejoice! Thank God for His blessings! It’s good to experience blessings from God, and Jesus wasn’t saying that blessings aren’t good.

However, Jesus is saying that if you make it your goal in life to be rich, and well-fed, to laugh, and for people to speak well of you, if you make it your goal in this life to experience good times in this life, and that’s your purpose for living, you’re going to be greatly disappointed in eternity.

You see, these woes are in contrast to the blessings that Jesus had also just named. Blessed are you who are poor. Blessed are you who are hungry. Blessed are you who weep. Blessed are you when people hate you for the sake of Christ. Because when you recognize that you’re poor in spirit, that you’re spiritually bankrupt, that you have nothing without Jesus, and you’re therefore hungry for righteousness, and you desire Christ and His righteousness, so you weep over your sin, and you’re willing to risk everything to follow Jesus Christ, that’s when you’re blessed. But when you do none of those things, if you’re full of yourself, and full of this life, then you have nothing.

The ironic thing is that every good thing you enjoy is a gift from God. And yet, if you don’t give God the glory for those things, then they become idols in your lives.

That’s what happened to the Israelites. God had given them a great land, a land flowing with milk and honey, with cities they did not build, and vineyards they did not plant, and then after receiving all of these blessings from God, they forgot about God, and ran after false gods.

And I meet so many people who do the exact same thing. They want to come to church when times are hard, because they don’t feel like they have anywhere else to go, so they turn to God, which is awesome! But then when they get back on their feet, they turn back to whatever false gods they desire. Money. Success. Drugs. Even family can distract us from God if we don’t fix our eyes on Jesus.

So be careful when things are going well, lest you put your hope in good times rather than in God.

Jesus says that if your greatest reward in life is things in this life, then woe to you! There are no eternal rewards for pursuing earthly pleasures. According to Matthew 6:19-21, Jesus also said in this sermon, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

So where is your treasure? Is your treasure in this life? Woe to you.

Because the thing is, if you’re living for today, to receive earthly rewards, money, food, laughter, even a good reputation, then at the end of your life, you’ve already received all of your rewards. When your life is over, all you can do is die, and give up all your rewards, because you can’t take them with you. But if you don’t mind being poor, and hungry, and hated for the sake of Christ, then you will receive far greater rewards in eternity.

So let’s get real practical about this.

Teenagers, everyone tells you that your job right now is to have as much fun as you can while you’re young. And to study hard so that you can get a good job. But God is telling you to find your joy not in fun times with friends or in pursuing a high-paying job, but in Jesus Christ, and in serving Him. So as you prepare for your future, make it your goal to pursue God above all things, because woe to you if anything else becomes your purpose in life.

And young adults, as you start a family and get established in your career, be careful not to let your relationship with God suffer. Man, I know what it feels like to be so overwhelmed with all the pressures and worries of family and work, but remember that you’re not just serving man, but God. Press on! You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you.

And older adults, as you get closer to retirement, and being empty-nesters, don’t put your hope in those things. Don’t long merely for a break. Thank God for all the work. Thank God for all the trials.

And seniors, your goal in life at this point is not merely to quit working, relax, and just enjoy life, but to enter into the next stage of serving and sacrificing to the glory of God, in which you may have more time to pour yourself into the next generation, so that they will know the Lord and be encouraged to be faithful to the end.

And to all of us, I know it’s hard. The deceiver tempts us just to find pleasure merely in this world, and it’s hard to press on and pursue the greater joy. And sometimes it just seems like this whole life is a race. And everyone’s clamoring to be first. Everyone’s caught up in winning the rat race. But the problem with the rat race is even if you win the rat race, you’re still a rat. You’re still a dirty, disgusting pest. Don’t make it your goal to gain the world, because you may just lose your soul.

You see, God would rather us weep over things that matter, than rejoice over things that don’t. Don’t pursue financial stability. Don’t pursue man’s approval. Don’t pursue possessions. Don’t pursue all things going well for you. Instead, pursue sorrows. Pursue a hard life. Pursue a life that glorifies God. Pursue fostering a medically fragile child, or any child for that matter, who needs to be shown the love of Jesus. Pursue sacrificing the little money you have you so that you can give more to missions and ministries all over the world. In everything you do, don’t pursue happiness for the sake of happiness, but pursue Christ, and He will fill you with joy.

God blesses us that we might be a blessing. God does not bless us that we might hoard His blessings. Hoarding God’s blessings is kind of like being a baby with a ball. Every baby does this at some point. They’re watching people play with a ball and they see that they’re having a great time, and so they want that ball, right? They get upset, and bummed out, and they start crying for it! And eventually, someone either gives the baby the ball, or else the ball falls to the ground near the baby, and the baby grabs it. And holds it. And runs away with it. And everyone yells to the baby, “Throw it here! Give us the ball back!” Or, if the child is old enough, we’ll even invite him to play with us, “Hey, throw it here and we’ll throw it back!” But the baby wants to keep it, and nobody is going to get that ball from that baby.

But after just a few seconds, especially if you just let the baby keep the ball, and don’t demand it back, the ball suddenly loses its appeal. The baby will just drop it and crawl away to find something else. Why? It’s because the ball really wasn’t that interesting in the first place. The fun thing was the game, not the ball. But the baby got so fixated on the ball that all they wanted was the ball.

And sometimes we get so fixated on the stuff of this life that we run after those things, and we think that those things will make us happy. Money, friends, a good job. But getting those things will not satisfy us. We need to see them not as ends in themselves, but as the blessings God gives us so that we might be a blessing to others. So that we can throw the ball back, and enjoy the game.

So sometimes we get depressed and bummed out because it seems like life isn’t going our way. Because no one will throw you the ball. Rejoice! Because in those moments, you’re reminded that life isn’t about getting what you want. It’s about finding joy in God.

There’s a story about a man who played a beautiful concert on the piano. And he was so good that when he was finished, everyone in the concert hall stood up and clapped. And they were all shouting, “Encore! Encore!” But the man didn’t play an encore. He looked around, stood up, took a bow, and walked off stage. A reporter came up to him afterwards and said, “Why didn’t you play an encore? Everyone was standing, clapping, begging for an encore.”

And the man replied, “Not everyone was standing. There was one man, in the balcony, in the top left corner, who was sitting.” And the reported said, “Who cares about one old man? Everyone else was standing!”

And the man said, “Maybe, but that man was my teacher. And if everyone else in the concert hall was sitting, but he stood, I would have played an encore.”

Jesus often described as sitting in heaven, at the right hand of God the Father, but one time, we see a picture of Jesus standing in heaven, and it’s when Stephen was being stoned to death. God delights in us and cheers us on when we’re faithful, even when it hurts. When we live by faith, when we sacrifice for Jesus, even when it hurts, Jesus stands, and says, “Encore!” “Do it again.”

And so we should be so in love with Jesus that even if everyone around us is cheering us on, we only have our eyes fixed on Jesus, and He’s the one we want to live for.

But just to be abundantly clear about something, I want you to raise your hand in just a moment if any of these things apply to you, and then just keep your hand up.

If you’ve ever wanted to be rich. If you’ve ever thought money would bring you happiness. If you’ve ever desired something that wasn’t yours, raise your hand. My hand is raised.

If you’ve ever had a full stomach. If you’ve ever eaten too much. If you’ve ever , even just for a moment, craved food more than God’s Word, raise your hand. My hand is raised.

If you’ve ever laughed, not because of joy in Christ, but at the expense of someone else, or maybe just because of worldly pleasures, entertainment, raise your hand. My hand is raised.

And if you’ve ever wanted people to like you. If you’ve ever craved validation from others. If you’ve ever wanted everyone to respect you, and you’ve sinned to get it, raise your hand. My hand is raised, too.

Looks like we all deserve to be cursed. Woe is us.

But Jesus lifted the curse. He died for us. And if we die to ourselves, die to this world, Jesus will live in us, and we will live forever in Him.