In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of living a life that brings glory to God. He encourages young people to move beyond seeking personal pleasure and instead focus on serving Christ. The sermon references John chapter 12, where certain Greeks express their desire to see Jesus. The speaker also highlights the objective work of the cross, emphasizing that our salvation is not based on our own actions, but on what Jesus has done for us. The sermon concludes by referencing Isaiah 53, which speaks of the sacrifice of Jesus for our redemption.

Hello, this is Brother Denny. Welcome to Charity Ministries. Our desire is that your life would be blessed and changed by this message. This message is not copyrighted and is not to be bought or sold. You are welcome to make copies for your friends and neighbors. If you would like additional messages, please go to our website for a complete listing at www.charityministries.org. If you would like a catalog of other sermons, please call 1-800-227-7902 or write to Charity Ministries, 400 West Main Street, Suite 1, EFRA PA 17522. These messages are offered to all without charge by the freewill offerings of God's people. A special thank you to all who support this ministry. We would like to begin our services with, there will be two messages here this morning. The first message is brought to us by Brother David Smith. He is the pastor of the congregation in Brunson, Michigan. We have known David for a few years. He has been among us different times here at Bible School and different functions. We recommend this brother to you as one who loves the Lord. We have asked him to come and have the first message here this morning. God bless you, Brother David. You can come and share it this time. Good morning, everybody. In Psalm 96, David exhorts us, Oh, sing unto the Lord a new song. Sing unto the Lord all the earth. Sing unto the Lord. Bless His name. Show forth His salvation from day to day. Declare His glory among the heathen. His wonders among all people. For the Lord is great and greatly to be praised. He is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the nations are idols. But the Lord made the heavens. Honor and majesty are before Him. Strength and beauty in His sanctuary. Give unto the Lord, O ye kindreds of the people. Give unto the Lord glory and strength. Give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name. Bring an offering and come into His courts. Oh, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. Fear before Him all the earth. Say among the heathen, Let the Lord reigneth. Lord, we declare Your glory right now. We declare that our God reigneth. And Lord, our hearts bow before You to worship You in the beauty of Your holiness, God. It's not our holiness, Father. It's Your holiness, and You are beautiful this morning, Lord. God, open our eyes this morning to behold wondrous things from Your law. Lord, we bless Your name this morning. We ascribe to You glory and strength. For You alone are worthy, Father. I pray for Your blessing upon Your Word, Lord Jesus. Truly, it is life to us, Father. It is not a vain thing. For it is our life. And we cling to You, Lord. In Jesus' name, Amen. Please turn with me to John 12. We're going to start reading in verse 20. But before we do, for some opening thoughts here. You know, with many people this week having come to the cross for the first time, discovering the peace and the joy that their hearts had been longing for, discovering the true rest in their souls that had been lacking, there's a tendency for us to continue dwelling on our personal needs. How we feel about how we're doing. Or to keep seeking a feeling, to pursuing peace. You know, the way to peace is not to be crying out for peace. The way to rest in our souls is not to be crying out for rest in our souls. It's to be looking to the Lord Jesus. And my heart is, as our brother shared this morning, that there'd be something to carry you beyond the exuberance and enthusiasm of this week. And by the grace of God, I desire to point us all in a direction that will carry us beyond an emotional feeling. Because there were some that had stronger emotional feelings than others this week, but that doesn't validate or discount their experience. And you know, in conversion, let's just admit it, there is an inherent sense or aspect of self-preservation. I don't deny that. The drowning person's greatest need is that he get rescued at that moment and all he can think about is himself at that time. And his fear and his despair and hopelessness. Thank God that God gives us an awareness of those personal needs. But you know what? If we're really going to go on in the Christian life, we've got to live for a purpose higher than our own inner sense of wellness or our own feelings. We've got to have a purpose greater than living for one of our own pleasure or satisfaction. And I would like to direct our sights to a higher purpose than those things this morning. Can I just say, I want to exhort us to live on purpose today. Living on purpose. And every step that we take, we want to be gauging against that purpose that is set forth by the Word of God for our lives. And every step we're taking is either taking us closer to that goal or it's steering us to the side or taking us back. There's just no way to stand still in the Christian life. May I suggest, as the psalmist has exhorted us, that we live for the glory of God. And every step that we take, we measure against that goal. Is this step I'm taking, is this thought I'm thinking, is this word I'm saying going to give glory to God? Young people, we need to get past living life for our own pleasure. Whether you're still yet to come to Christ or even if you have come to Christ. We've got to get beyond that. In John 12, we're going to start reading in verse 20. And there were certain Greeks among them that came up to worship at the feast. The same came, therefore, to Philip, which was of Bethsaida of Galilee, and desired him, saying, Sir, we would see Jesus. Philip cometh and telleth Andrew. And again, Andrew and Philip tell Jesus. And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. Now, if I could just stop there and just invite us to put ourselves in the place of the disciples at this point in time. They've just come through the triumphal entry. They've seen what they believe to be the ushering in of their King. And I can just imagine that they're just thinking, as Jesus says these words, now is the time that the Son of Man should be glorified. They're thinking, ah, yes. Our moment is here. And I believe Jesus was even tempted to think when those people were bowing before Him and waving the palm branches and crying, Hosanna, that the devil was tempting Him with this very thought. Ah, yes. Now is the time. And you know, many a zealous young Bible school student full of zeal and full of new life and full of a passion for God and a burden for souls is going to be tempted with this very same thing. As God begins to bless your work and bless the ministry that's in your heart to do, you're going to be tempted to think, ah, yes. Now is my time. But let's keep reading. This is what Jesus meant when He said the hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. He said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. And I can just imagine them wondering, what does He mean by this? So let's meditate on this for a minute. We'll continue. I guess let's just keep reading through the first part of verse 28 and then we'll come back. But Jesus said, He that loveth his life shall lose it. And he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. If any man serve Me, let him follow Me. And where I am, there shall also My servant be. If any man serve Me, him will My Father honor. Now is My soul troubled. And what shall I say? Father, save Me from this hour. But for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify Thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven saying, I have both glorified it and will glorify it again. I'm taking note this morning of Jesus' real disregard for His own fame and His own glory. Oh, brothers and sisters, can we get a grasp of this? Can we truly embrace the humility of the Lord Jesus Christ? That His true and one passion was that the Father would glorify His name. This is how the Son of Man would be glorified. Verse 24, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. This He was speaking of of His death. The work that God was going to fulfill in paying the price for our sins would be the glorification of the Son. This is how the Son would be glorified was through death. And He calls each one of us to take up a cross. You know, we don't just come to the cross one time. We come daily and take it up. And by the way, the cross is something that God doesn't put on us. You know, the cross is something that we voluntarily take up. Let's think for a minute on this glorification of the Son. I will call that, as Watchman Nee has described it, the objective work of the cross. What God has done in Christ in redeeming us. I don't know where I saw it, but in a book, I latched onto a phrase that goes this way, Upon a life, I did not live. Upon a death, I did not die. Another's life, another's death, I stake my whole eternity. Another's life, another's death is the basis for my eternity. It is not what I have done. It is what has been done by the Lord Jesus Christ, that I stake my whole eternity on. We know from Isaiah 53 we won't take the time to turn there. We went back there at certain points earlier in the week. But the reason why I can have confidence likewise as we saw so beautifully opened up to us in the book of Hebrews, why can I have confidence in coming before God? It's because the blood has satisfied God. The blood has satisfied God. The blood of Christ has satisfied God. And therefore, through faith in His blood, I have access to the Father. Amen. Now, in v. 25, He's taking us to look beyond the work of the cross, the objective work of the cross. He's telling us now, can I just suggest that this is the setting here where certain ones came to see Jesus. I'm not sure why they were coming to see Jesus. Maybe they were sincere. I don't know. Maybe they wanted to join the following. And I would invite you to watch for this also in your Bible reading. Whenever you see large crowds following Jesus, whenever there's a movement or some excitement or something, and people are interested, looking, just get ready for something stiff. Get ready for something hard, because there's such a tendency to just want to follow, be a part of some new thing. But let's keep our ears open. So more than just that Christ is going to die and be glorified, He says, now He, it's going just be on Him now. This is anyone else. Anyone else that loves His life. He says, he that loveth his life shall lose it. And he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. And I think this is where we're going to spend the majority of our time this morning with what time I've been given. A timeless eternal truth here is being shared with us. It's sort of a paradoxical truth in the Kingdom of God. The way to life is through death. There's no other way. Let's look at some key words here. Loveth. It's the Greek word phileo. It carries the idea of fondness or affection to kiss or to love. It's a feelings-oriented love. And it speaks of a fondness. It's a natural sort of love. He that loveth life here. He that loves. He that has a fondness or an affection. He's drawn in his emotions towards his life. Now what does that mean? It's just the Greek word psuche. We get our word psychology or psyche from it. And it's translated soul in other places. This speaks of the seat of our affections. It's our soul, our inner unseen self. It speaks of our inner motives and thoughts and desires. So let's think of it this way. If our affections are absorbed in our feelings or in our self, in our thoughts, in our desires, in our feelings and needs, you know what Jesus says? He says you're going to lose it. If your life is consumed in those things, you know the Christian has a choice as to whether he's going to allow himself and his affections to be absorbed in his own thoughts and feelings. Do you see why we've got to get beyond what makes me happy? Am I serving Christ because of what happiness I get out of it? We've got to get beyond that. Because the promise is here. It's a guarantee. You will lose it. You will lose it. This word psuche is translated soul in most of the places you'll find it. However, in the book of James, chapter 3, verse 15, it speaks of the wisdom that comes from the earth or from below as being soulish, earthly, sensual, devilish. And that word sensual is the same word psuche. Sensual. If we're absorbed in our senses, what I'm feeling, what's in it for me? Jesus says you're going to lose it. This word lose here is akin to the name of the king of the destroyer in Hades. Apollyon. It's the same word. And you know, earthly, sensual, when we're absorbed in our feelings, in me, if I'm just continually looking in, what's in it for me? What's going to make me happy? You know what? We're following the ways of the world. We're loving the world. And we're playing right into the hands of the destroyer himself. This word lose has the idea of being destroyed. It's not just, I can't find it. It's the idea of being utterly destroyed. He that loveth his life shall lose it. How might I be found? Let's just get practical here for a couple minutes. How might I be found to be loving my life today? Am I clinging to preserve my right to live life for myself? Am I? According to my plans and my desires. Am I unthankful? Am I complaining? Am I easily offended? Am I pouty? Do I get jealous? Am I impatient or critical? Am I proud? Do I get upset when it seems like people have taken advantage of me? Am I fearful? Do I worry? Am I wanting to take attention to myself? Do I want my opinion to be aired and voiced? Do I get offended when other people are given privileges and I'm overlooked? This quote is attributed to Oswald Chambers concerning the nature of sin. The nature of sin is my claim to my rights to myself. What's the word that shows up so prominently in that phrase? My. My. If I am most consumed with myself, my feelings, my interests, I will lose my life. I will lose my soul. Now, he says that whoever hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. Now, what does this mean? Let's consider this for a minute. And by the way, the tense of this verb, to hate, is the present, ongoing, continuous tense, as also is the tense of the word loveth. He that loves. He that lives to love himself. He that loves and loves and loves his life shall lose it. And likewise, he that hates and hates and continues to hate his life shall find it. How does this happen? How do we live this out? Am I really being called to hate myself? To despise myself? Many people say they hate themselves. And they inflict abuse on themselves and they talk bad about themselves and they just think they're so worthless and everything like this. Can I just suggest that the motive behind that really isn't that you hate yourself. You really do love yourself. All you're thinking about is yourself. You're absorbed with what you think about yourself, what other people think about you. Let's get past that. Let's face reality. You're loving your life. I'm loving my life when I am absorbed in what I think or what people think about me. Many people, they hate their life because they hate the circumstances of their life. That's not what this is talking about. We may hate the circumstances of our life and be utterly miserable, but until we see that we are the problem, we'll never get past it. Until we see that it's not the circumstances of my life that are the problem. Until we see that God is dealing with me. It's my love for my soul that has caused this misery. It's not other people's problems. And you think, let's just think about other youth. And this is something that we all have to deal with. But think about other youth in the Scriptures that have really gone on for God. Think about Daniel. Think about the circumstances that surrounded the youth there in Babylon. Daniel and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They had just come out of and very likely they witnessed some of the most horrible atrocities ever known to man there in Jerusalem when they were under siege. Starvation. Cannibalism. I mean, it was terrible. They might have seen their parents butchered. Their brothers and sisters. How many of you think you've seen bad things in your lifetime? I am sure for the vast majority of us, we've not even come close to seeing this sort of thing. Did they fall into self-pity? Hating their circumstances into despair? No! Hating our life is not self-pity, my friends. Self-pity is as sure a snare and a path to destruction as you'll ever walk. Think about David. David was rejected by his brothers and his father when it came time to find the king. It couldn't be David. They didn't even consider him into the lineup. Well, Samuel says, is there one more? Oh, it's only David. How many of us? And you know, to be the favorite in the family is not a blessing. But neither it is to be rejected. David got past that. We've got to get past that sort of thing. Joseph, likewise, and on and on watched for this. They rose above their circumstances. Even the Lord Jesus Himself. What does it mean to hate our life? I would like to suggest this. Do we see that the root problem is in my heart? It's in my soul. I am the problem. It's seeing my own undone-ness and just stopping the blaming. Blaming other people for my problems and my woes. And just letting God shine the light on me and seeing my own undone-ness and saying, oh God, God, I am undone. I am the problem in this whole thing. My life lived for myself to make myself happy has left me utterly empty and wretched. But it's not because of my circumstances or my environment. It's been a heart problem. God, have mercy on me. God, give me a life. Hating this life that I have created for myself as I have pursued my own will and walked in my own pride. This is the beginning of hating our life. The solution here is just to trash the whole thing. Trash the religion. Trash the self-righteousness. It's left you empty, right? Trash the pride and the pursuit of self-gratification through lust. It's empty also. It's vain. Just trash the whole thing. Accept and embrace the claims of Christ upon my life and accepting His offer for life eternal. That's the only response that God will accept. Unconditional surrender. God, not my will. I've been living my life for myself up until now. I'm yielding now to Your will. I'm surrendering without condition. Not on my terms, God. It's Your terms and I'm willing to do it Your way. The person who's willing to do this and see this, to hate his life in this way, will, lo and behold, discover the secret to life eternal. And by the way, the word life here, when it speaks of life eternal, it's not the same kind of life that the carnal man can enjoy. It's the very life of God and the tragedy of the human condition is we've been alienated from the life of God, walking in the vanity of our minds as other Gentiles do. Oh, may God raise our sights and lay hold of the life that is eternal in Jesus' name. V. 26 So after giving the principle of the way to true life, it's through the death of our self. He says, if any man serve Me... How many young people? How many of us have a desire to serve the Lord Jesus Christ? Amen. You know, that's a good desire. God is blessed when there's a genuine desire to serve Him. But it's a conditional offer. He says, if you want to serve Me, it's going to be on a condition. What's the condition? To follow Him. Many a people, many a man in the name of service to Christ is failing this very principle. He's serving Christ as he would think while yet clinging to his own life and his own reputation. And it can't be. There's only one way to truly serve Christ, and that's to follow Him. And what is the path that He's invited us to follow Him in? It's the cross. There's just no other way. If we're really going to serve God. If any man serve Me, let him follow Me. Let him follow Me. These men came to Jesus. Lord, we want to see Jesus. Amen. That's a good desire. Are we willing to follow Him? Are we willing to see ourselves, our own pursuits as just contradictory to truly serving Christ? Are we willing to let our motives really be examined? Well, praise God, guess what's going to happen if we're willing to do that, if we are willing to follow Him? He says, and where I am, there shall also My servant be. You know, what is the key to life eternal? It's being where Jesus is. It's being with Jesus. When they saw the boldness of Peter and John, it says, they took note of them and they marveled. They took note that they'd been with Jesus. This is what we are longing for anyways, right? It's to be with Jesus. This is the satisfying life that God has extended to us. It's to be in His presence. Is that the single, pure desire of our heart this morning? To be and delight in the presence of God? You know, God did make us with a desire for pleasure. There's nothing wrong with that. But what is wrong is when we corrupt that desire and we live for it according to the impulses and desires of the flesh, when we seek fulfillment of that desire outside of the will of God. That is when it becomes corrupted. But where Jesus is, there also shall the servant be. And if any man serve Me, here it is, him will My Father honor. Many men are seeking honor for themselves, but the one that's truly willing to be a nobody, to just be a humble servant, to just worship the living God with a pure heart, to seek nothing other than to covet the approval and praise and blessing of God, to measure everything by this question, by this test, does it please God? Will this bring glory to God? That person, He says, the Father will honor. Now is My soul troubled, Jesus says in verse 27. And what shall I say? Father, save Me from this hour? You know, there is a price to pay to have the light really shone in our hearts to expose our real motives, our real desires. To have that put to the test and have it shaken to the core to really be faced with how much resistance there still might be to submitting to the will of God. But can we say, God, deliver us from this? Can you and I say, Oh God, do it some other way? There is no other way. How much is it costing you to follow Jesus today, my friends? Everything! Amen! There's no other way. It's got to cost you everything. But for this cause came I unto the hour, Jesus says. Now here again, where we started off. This is the heart motive of the Christ. Father, glorify Thy name. Can I just bring us right back to that? May this be the purpose for which we are living today. Father, glorify Your name. Father, You have bought me. Possessed me wholly. Glorify Your name through my life, through my body, through my spirit. Perfect Your nature in me, God. Glorify Your name. Not for my sake. For Your name's sake, Lord. Can we be done with self-pity, my friends? Can we be done? This is not hating our life. This is loving our life. Can we face our own undone-ness? Do we see that the way of the cross is the way that leads home as the song says? Let's pray. Father in Heaven, glorify Your name. You are worthy, Lord. I bless Your name, Father. I pray that this word would impart life, God. God forbid, God forbid that we would feel condemned, Lord, by Your word. This word is life. It's not a vain thing. It is the way to life, Father God. I ask for Your blessing on these young people, God. God, You know every heart here. You know the circumstances that they're in, Father. I pray that whatever the circumstances they might find themselves in, they could look to You, Lord. That You offer them a path to life. I do pray for Your blessing as they would leave here, Father. That they could keep what You have deposited in them, Father. And that it would be in them and abound. Have Your way through the rest of this service today, Lord. May the worship be true and pure and bring pleasure to You. As we behold Your beauty, in Jesus' name, Amen.