We Must Say
“No!”
to Ourselves
Sermon for August 28, 2005
1. Good Morning! Let’s Pray. O Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing to You O Lord our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
2.
Opening
Comments: What does the life of a real Christian look like?
What does the life of one totally sold out to God look like?
This is what we’re going to be reflecting upon this morning!
I’m going to read something
and I want you to tell me if this sounds like a totally sold out person:
Jer. 20:7 You pushed me into
this, GOD, and I let you do it.
You
were too much for me.
And
now I’m a public joke.
They
all poke fun at me.
8 Every time I open my mouth
I’m
shouting, “Murder!” or “Rape!”
And
all I get for my GOD warnings
are insults and contempt.
Does this sound like a sold out Christian? Yes? No?
Well actually it really is. It’s
actually the anguished cry of the prophet Jeremiah! He was trying to resist His prophetic calling
by being silent. He didn’t want any more
to proclaim to his people words of “violence and ruin” but rather he wanted
respite from his prophetic calling. But
the more he resisted his calling the more he felt “a fire burning in his
heart!”
The Lord had “pushed” him
into a relationship and a vocation from which there seemed to be no
escape. Can’t you hear desperation in
his cry, “You have pushed me into
this, GOD, and I let you do it!”
Yet he couldn’t deny God nor his calling and we hear this desperate resignation in the words,
But if I say, “Forget it!
No
more GOD Messages from me!”
The
words are fire in my belly,
a burning in my bones.
I’m
worn out trying to hold it in.
I can’t do it any longer!
O yes this one is “sold
out” to God but he’s decrying the terrible cost of his commitment and his
calling! But still he can’t deny God nor God’s calling upon his life. Certainly Jeremiah was a most unlikely
candidate of God’s choosing wasn’t he?
He was sold out but profoundly weary In his
calling!
OK! Back to our question:
What does the life of one totally sold
out to God look like?
Let me read someone else’s words and I want you to tell me if this person sounds like someone totally sold out to God . . . OK?
Psa. 63:2
My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.
O God, you are my God whom
I seek;
For you my flesh pines and
my soul thirsts
Like the earth, parched,
lifeless and without water.
My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.
Thus have I gazed toward
you in the sanctuary
To see your power and your
glory,
For your kindness is a
greater good than life;
My lips shall glorify you.
My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.
Thus will I bless you
while I life;
Lifting up my hands, I
will call upon your name.
As with the riches of a
banquet shall my soul be satisfied,
And with exultant lips my
mouth shall praise you.
My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.
You are my help,
And in the shadow of your
wings I should for joy.
My soul clings fast to
you;
Your right hand upholds
me.
My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.
Now, I think you’d all
agree that these are the words of someone totally sold out to God don’t you
think?
There’s no ambiguity
here! They’re not complaining about the
cost of their discipleship but rather there’s a reveling in all that God has
given them! They are thirsting for God!
3. The Hard Question. Now let me ask you a hard question – which one do you sound most like?
A whining prophet? or
A thirsting disciple?
You know I really don’t
think God would mind if you sounded like either of these for, I’m convinced,
that both of them are sold out aren’t they?
They’re compelled to turn to God and to follow after Him!
It’s Ok you know to complain WHILE you’re following closely after the Lord!
4. So how do we get to the place that we look and feel just like one or the other or of them or both of them?
Please turn with me now to Romans 12:1-2. I’ll be reading again from the Message for the most part:
Rom. 12:1
So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary
life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it
before God as an offering - holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual
worship.
2 Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.
This is how we become more and more like Jeremiah and the Psalmist – we offer our everyday life to God – not our Sunday life or our “good impression” life but our everyday inside and outside life!
We mustn’t become so well-adjusted to our culture that we fit into it without even thinking. But instead, we must fix our attention on God and God alone and in doing this we’ll be changed from the inside out AND THEN we’ll be able to discern for ourselves what God wants of us – what He wants us to be and to do.
5. The Gospel
Matt. 16:21 Then Jesus made it clear to his disciples that it was now
necessary for him to go to Jerusalem, submit to an ordeal of suffering at the
hands of the religious leaders, be killed, and then on the third day be raised
up alive. 22 Peter took him in hand,
protesting, “Impossible, Master! That can never be!”
Matt. 16:23 But Jesus didn’t swerve. “Peter, get out of my way. Satan,
get lost. You have no idea how God works.”
Matt. 16:24 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. 25
Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding
yourself, your true self. 26 What
kind of deal is it to get everything you want but lose yourself? What could you
ever trade your soul for?
Matt. 16:27 “Don’t be in such a hurry to go into business for yourself. Before you know it the Son of Man will arrive with all the splendor of his Father, accompanied by an army of angels. You’ll get everything you have coming to you, a personal gift.
Now let’s focus in a little more tightly on verses 24 and 25 and this time I want to use the NIV translation:
Matt. 16:24
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny
himself and take up his cross and follow me.
25 For whoever wants to save his life
will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
Ah! Now we’ve touched on the very essence of what it is to become a truly sold-out – faithful – disciple of Jesus Christ ! We must deny – we must say “No!” to ourselves and say “Yes!” to Jesus Christ and take up our cross and follow after Him!
Listen once again to how the Message translation puts it:
“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. 25 Self-help is no help at all.
Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self.
Let’s dig into this a bit shall we?
To become truly great disciples of Jesus Christ we must FIRST say “No!” to ourselves and always say “Yes!” to what
Jesus is calling us to do.
As He only did what He saw the Father doing so too must we only do what
Jesus tells us to do! And it’s in the
trying to do what Jesus wants us to do that He will “step by step” let us know
what we’re to do next.
It’s not a guessing game. Jesus
doesn’t leave us “ but rather He will lead us onto the path that He wants us on!
Now what’s “denying myself” all about?
. . . Denying myself???? It’s
saying “No” to anything that I want beyond what my Lord wants for me.
Let me put that another way,
“It’s saying
NO to anything that Jesus doesn’t want for me!” In other words,
my will and His will are in perfect harmony.
When He says “Yes!” I say “Amen!” When He says “No!” I
say “No way!”
This is so hard isn’t it – so hard for all of us?
The advertisers are fighting against this with all of the resources of
Wall Street and Madison Avenue at their disposal! They’re trying to convince us that we need
everything from a certain brand of toothpaste to a certain brand of hemmeroidal cream!
Their perpetual harangues are constantly assaulting us from every
side! And to this unholy cacophony Jesus
tells us to say “NO! I don’t need
them! I NEED only what Jesus wants for
me!
What are you saying “Yes” to today that you should be saying “No!” to tomorrow or even better right now! What is there in your life to which a “NO!” needs to be said and the sooner the better!
And FINALLY we must take up our
cross and follow Him! Why is this? Because for “whoever wants
to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find
it!”
What does Jesus mean by the words, “pick up your cross and follow me?”
Jesus chose the Cross! Yes He
did. In the council of the Holy Trinity
– Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Jesus chose the way of the cross. He picked up His cross. What cross is God calling you to pick up
right now?
The one thing we can be sure of is that your cross is designed for the good of others! Jesus’ cross brought life – eternal life - to
all who would follow Him. He climbed
upon the terrible cross for us!
For us to pick up OUR CROSS
is to sacrifice our self-desire! In
other words, to pick it up is counterintuitive.
It goes against the grain! It
doesn’t feel good but rather it feels bad!
And the people of the world about you are going to think you’ve gone
mad. For to them it just doesn’t make any
sense at all!
Just as Jesus chose His cross so too must we choose our cross!
What do you need to pick up for another and follow Jesus in self-denying love?
What cross do you need to pick up that will benefit others?
What could it be?
· Could it be to pick up another’s burdens for a season,
· Could it be to pick up another’s disdain and carry it rather than rejecting it and punishing the other for their offense against you!
· Could it be to live with someone who doesn’t know how to love you but to love them anyway? This sounds like something that Jesus would do.
What could your cross be? The truth is that it needs to be picked up and carried as you follow your beloved Jesus throughout your life.