Laying Down Our Lives

We have in mind that we need to turn with me to Mark chapter 10 if you will. We're speaking from today. Mark chapter 10. We're reading the verse reference in Mark chapter 10. It has a few lines in it. Of course, as we've done it before, we've done it. And it's a special time to remember everyone who has given their life in the service of other people. In fact, I think of those in the military first who paid their ultimate sacrifice. And many more people gave their life in other areas of service than just military. But along with them, we have those in the firefighter's office. Many who gave their life in the line of duty of taking the side of other people, risked their lives to rescue others. We have those in the medical profession during the COVID years. And they lost their family members. And they were deported into hospitals. Lost their lives because they didn't know how to serve other people. And we see that we seem to have, as a group, a missed opportunity to respect those who really put themselves in danger and risked their own life just for the sake of someone else. They all did it. I'm too dependent on this. They all did it. So that someone else can experience this life, physical life, health, safety, whether it's financial, whether it's security, being secure in your own home. Sometimes it's to make the best of certain material things. And here we have the opportunity to consider this and take it to an entirely different level. And that's what we're allowed to do. If we recognize the value of someone who voluntarily lays down their life for the sake of others. Let's look at our own life. And let's look at our own relationship to him in regards to this same column. He laid down his life for us. And he calls us to follow that example to lay down our lives for each other and for other people. So let's start on Mark chapter 10. This is a, if you've been listening to the Bible chapter 10, you'll see the context. James and John, the sons of David, they wanted to sit at the right or the left corner of Jesus. They wanted to be primate positions in Jesus' kingdom. But they wanted to be the top dog in his cabinet, you might want to say. And this caused quite a stir amongst the disciples. They were kind of resenting this who's going to be first or who's going to be second attitude. And Jesus began to address this from the start of verse 21. And here he did it. The 10 began to feel indignant at James and John and calling them to himself, Jesus said to them, You know that those who recognize that the rulers of the Gentiles rule over them until it begets danger, until the fire of the weak is caught up in them. It means to move it down, exercising authority on top of others. It means like suppressing, not lifting others up, but holding them down. That's not what leadership should be. It means to move it down over others. And they're going to exercise authority over them again. The authority is down to the point, keeping people in check. And Jesus tells his disciples, but it is not this way among you. Or you could have said, do not let it be this way among you. We are not going to be in leadership in the same way that the world does in leadership. They're going to say, let it be this way to become great among you. Let them be your servants. Let it be this way to be good among you. Let them become the slave of all. They must be divided. For even the Son of Man did not come to be saved, but to serve, and he gave his life, a ransom for many. So Jesus could have had all kinds of amenities, or accolades, or benefits from being Lord. And he believed in his disciples. He wasn't there for the benefit he could get from others. He was there for them. He lived to be the blessing to them, not to get things from them. And this should not be a single person in leadership in a church that is not filled full of God's people. Leadership in any organization is bad when that leadership is there to serve those that he has a responsibility to. Believe me, if you read my book and turn back to Matthew chapter 16, because any time someone is in leadership where there is self-benefit, or self-promotion, or self-adamant, they risk the help of God's community that they're in leadership. So Matthew chapter 16. Follow with me verses 24 and 25. Matthew 16 and 24. In reminding the crowd and his disciples about the purpose of becoming a disciple, Jesus said to his disciples, if anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself. This is the opposite of seeking self fulfillment. Seeking your way, seeking to have your way, seeking to be in a position so that it will be good for you. Follow Jesus Christ in your life and you do not place yourself first. You deny yourself for the sake of others. Matthew, all of Jesus Christ. You deny yourself until you follow me. And then he gives this to you, verse 25. If you ever desire to save his life, you'll lose it. If I just like his mission, you'll lose it too. You want to make sure you're happy, things go well for you, you get what's coming to you, you have a good day, that it's good for you. If that's the life you're trying to live, you're going to lose it. But whoever loses that kind of life, whoever loses the kind of life where they want me to earn my way, what I want and what I want to do, if you lose that and discover it's the life of Jesus Christ, you'll lose it for his sake. Remember, he came not to be saved, but to serve and to give his life to his country for me. If you discover that, then you will really discover the way to live. When you do Jesus' service, there's more pleasure to live than to receive. If you want richer than life, if you want fuller than joy, then start pouring out your life to build others up. And God will start filling you up so you can keep pouring. If you're just seeking God so that you can be happy and life can be good for you, and you can have good joy, forget it. Why should God do it? Give! Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I'm ready to pray right now. I'm shaking together. I'm running over. If God sees that you're giving, you're open. He wants you to have faith to give to others. He'll make sure you never lack the ability to give to others. Even the teacher of our parents. Remember, he didn't just really talk about parents and disciples. We're asking the right man. He taught us that he is an example of a man who had unexpected company and arrived in the middle of the night. And of course, he used to remind children to be cautious. They cut it off, you know. They drink. They need to eat. They need to be refreshed, watch it, and something to eat. But he caught them off guard. He didn't have anything to set forth to eat. He was not satisfied. He didn't get to apologize to them and say, sorry you had to leave in the morning. He went next door in the middle of the night. And he told me why he wanted to leave his house. And he shouted, get up there. I had to sleep. My friends were coming up there to eat. I don't have anything to give to them. The man's blood was inside the house. Go away, man. I'm dead and my kids ain't dead with me. He was not taking no for an answer. It seems to me he was being modest. So that's likely. But you know what he did? He didn't care. He cared what was driving him. It wasn't how he would look. He was being driven by the needs of the people that came to his house. And he wasn't going to take no for an answer. And when we pray that way, when we're asking God to hear it so that we can hold on, when we're asking Him for strength so we can survive it, when we're asking Him to keep us healthy so we can be a blessing to others, God will fulfill that. You'll find the life of God in the life of Jesus Christ. Be discouraged of that. How should we live with that, my friends? 1 John chapter 3. Be with me. 1 John chapter 3. Just get warmed up. Just warm up. 1 John chapter 3. Let's start with this today. 1 John 3. For this is the message which we have clearly been given, that we should not know another name. I can't even give you one that's truly a brother. For we who have been trained to be known as brothers for life. Do not know another name that they will not teach you. We know that there is a path out of death into life. Isn't that interesting? Actually, out of death into life already? Yes, out of the dead body living through yourself. Out of the dead, empty way of life being all up to you, your problems, your circumstances. You know what you tell those people? The first thing they do is they walk up to you. They don't ask you how you're doing. They start spewing everything about themselves. Because you're dead to them. They're not dead to you. As soon as they get the opportunity, they want to tell you, my life is better than ever. It really is. I walked into hell for this. And when they're done, they walk away. They may not ask you about who you are. They may not check on you. They may just grab you a little bit, and they'll help you a little bit longer. They're dead. As far as they can get, they're dead, ready to live. Part of it is about widows. The church has widows and widows. They have to be receptive to be on that list, and they have to have a good reputation. They have to be known for practicing hospitality, walking with people and saints, being around other people. And they say to them, God, we were so little that we live with self-indulgence. He said, the little you live with self-indulgence is dead. Watch this. Little just that watch your sights, and have your snacks, and get it. And those of you that don't know what it means to have no peace and comfort, that's death. We know that we die out of that kind of death. But we live to be a blessing to other people. We use our strength, and our time, and the talents that God has given us for others. We put all of these things out there for them to like. But if they kill you, everyone that is in this building is a murderer. The little kids here, they did not communicate well in English language. Because we think, I can't stand that person talking to me. It is to you, it's respect to be standing by somebody. I don't care for them at all. You can be polite to that person. It's a lack of respect, a lack of honor, a devaluation to believe in someone. To consider them lesser and lesser and further than that. You know the Calvary, when she was a Calvary woman. That's what it means, that's what it means. Everyone who really considers themselves that way is a murderer. And you don't know whether or not you know that thing. But we need to do 16, which is the oldest part of this passage for us. By this you know what? That He, our Lord Jesus, laid down His life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for the world. Now is the moment to watch. We're going to put our lives at risk. And I'm going to talk to us as a family. And I'm going to talk to us on practical ways that we can lay down our lives. Because we need to take this and stop it at that. If we do not take it at that. We need to take it at that. And that means He exactly like Himself on the cross. There's way more to Him laying down His life than just the cross. And that's the only way. Because if He had not laid down His life every step of the way, He would never made it to the cross. And that's the only way. Let me give you just one example. I'll give you how to do it. What I'm talking about. Turn over to 1 Peter chapter 2. 1 Peter chapter 2. Just a couple of minutes back. 1 Peter chapter 2. I'm in verse 21. 1 Peter 2. 21. I'm about to go to verse 20. 1 Peter chapter 2. Verse 21. I'll start there. What credit is there that when you sin and your heart is defeated, you are blessed? But when you do good, 2 Peter 2. And do a good deed, I'll tell you again. In 2 Peter 2. 21. For this you've been called. And Christ also said unto you, You will be an example, that you should follow Him in His steps. You'll get no sin, nor will any deceit find you in His mouth. He's being reviled, but He's not reviled in return. While suffering, He was hungry and He was blessed, but He kept entrusting Himself to Him to judge His righteousness. He Himself bore all sins in His body on a tree, so that having died Himself, He might have the righteousness. And by His wounds, He had healed. In summary, let me say this. Jesus laid down His life. By willing to be constantly wounded by us. And not going back. I should have been back. Thank you. Thank you. Jesus gave up the life to speak His own mind. Are you willing to give up that life? Because I would invite you to do that. I would invite you to give up the life to speak your own mind. Give it up. Jesus said, I only say what my Father tells me to say. He laid down the right to give His own opinion about every matter. Would you and I live all our life like that? He laid down His right to do whatever He wanted to do. He said, He is a Son that hath nothing of Himself. He only does what the Father shows Him to do. Now that's that's changing the form of the servant, isn't it? That's considering yourself to be a slave. I don't live to be a slave. I live to do what my Father tells me to do. Are you and I willing to lay down our right to do what we want to do? When we want to do it, how we want to do it, where we want to do it. He laid down His right. Isn't that right? He laid down His right to point out things and take care of matters that He knew were going on. Jesus knew that Jesus was a thief helping Himself to the money that the disciples were collecting from those who followed them and contributing them to enable them to buy food and travel and do what they were meant to do. Jesus knew from the beginning that Judah was a thief and He gave up the right to him to point it out. He said nothing of that. He let it go out. He gave up the right to expose it. He knew Judah was going to betray Him to the chief priest and He was going to be arrested and everything that was going to happen out there and He gave up the right to do anything about it. Let it happen. He knew it was going to happen. He knew He was going to sell it. He also knew He was going to sell it. So, even at the last supper, even when the disciples were asking Him, He knew it. He was going to give it. He didn't just break it all down. He slipped out before the disciples. He knew about what happened. He gave up His right to be treated fairly. He was arrested, unjustly, while He was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane what His disciples knew. He gave up the right to have His friends defend Him. He gave it up. Actually, what did He try to do to Him? Did He beat Him? Pulled His sword out. He told Him to stop it. Why not? Am I not going to drink the cup that the Father is giving me? Pull it so that I may receive all the riches of the world by my sword. And then, He all of a sudden, trapped Him in the three-and-a-half years, all of them gone. Abandoned Him. He gave up. He laid down His rights to have His friends there fighting in His court. Oh, you and I, we're often fighting in that court, aren't we? When that brother and that sister is accused that for something we haven't done, we want to go to those people right there instead of that man in the street. Not me. And He gave His rights to the other. And they took Him to where the High Priest and all of His disciples, because as soon as Judas was put in place, and the darkness of Judas was lifted into the city, they departed the same way and lived on the night all of the Jewish Sanhedrin. And so when the tide was lifted, they got to that middle of the Sanhedrin and they started an illegal trial. He gave up His rights to have a fair and proper trial. He made no request that it was illegal, it wasn't lawful, it wasn't Jewish law. Not only did He give up the right to a fair trial, He gave up His right to the truth and the dignity. Did you know what those other guys were? Have you read the Bible? These were men who were horrible. They were full of envy. They were so jealous of Him, they were mad at the times they were publicly exposed, they were bleeding, they were hypocrisy, they were contradictions between what they taught and how they lived, and they let it out. They began literally under arrest. They began to spit in His face and hit Him with fists and run toward Him and slap Him on the head and mock Him and say, if I was a man who hit you, then He gave up Your right to own a sacred commandment. This is not right. He didn't say this is not right. He didn't say I will. He didn't say I want my atonement. He gave up His entire right to be even treated fair. And it didn't stop there. These guys were so motivated to find some kind of witnesses to make this thing look legit. And so they placed false witnesses who came forward and said, we heard this guy say that I'm going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days. Is that what Jesus said? Not what He even said, right? It was a twisting of His words. He gave up the right to even set the record straight. Can you all do it that way? Can you all do it that way? Is it okay if someone completely has the wrong story or they're given the wrong story? They're twisting their words and they're using it like a knife in your back. Can you do that? Not saying no to that. No homework? No complaining? He did it now. See, He would have never made it to the cross if He insisted on His rights, because He never even made it there. You don't go in there and give an hour and a half to get a call from your dad, dad, or your father and you can save $20,000 in angels? He gave up the right to call a temple. Do you know When we insist that we always set the record straight, we put others in their place, and we have let anyone say things about us, or do things against us, or mock us. Would you let yourself be mocked? Spirit, that spirit in your face? I hope you have a good imagination. It's real. It happened to Jesus. It didn't happen to Him. They had Him outside. They could all see it from day one. You know what they did it for? They knew who He was. Are you the Son of God? Well, you may see the Son of Man sitting in the Tower of Heaven with the glory of God. And if God is here with His glory, this is blasphemy. They accused Him of all he could have done for blasphemy to tell you the truth. He just let it run into numbers. He let them hang it over to the Romans. And you know what happened to the Romans? You know, you talk to Pilate, and you can read about that. But what did the Roman soldiers do? You know? What happened to them? Scared to his face. Hit him in the face. But they took him on foot. They were enjoying the game. They got to the Romans. They said, Oh, you're supposed to be a king. You need a Roman. Oh, you're a king. You need a crown. They took him on foot. Then they put him back together. You know? I had one with me. So they took it. Oh, you didn't want it? They took it. They took it off his head. And here's what they found. They didn't even snap. They were trying to weave. They made kind of a weave. They snapped a weave. And they left it on the California president's head. They were satisfied. They grabbed the weave from his head and started whizzing it over his head into California. And they were falling down before him off of the mountain. Down into the mountain. Hail to the King of the Jews. Hail to the King of the Jews. He said, The great God is right to be treated with liberty and piety and fairness. You know, some of us we change the hand that we swipe. We get offended if someone doesn't agree with us one way. We get offended if someone commits a cause when we deserve a lot. We deserve that dinner ready when I walk through my door. We deserve our clothes washed and cracked at the door. But we we we He said, That's the life you have to lose if you want to follow the Son of God. And I just want to invite you to do something. I want to invite you to consider Jesus as a Christian. Because he says he says that do you know what he said to Sean? By listening and knowing that he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the Lord. Lay down our lives for the Lord. Now what would that look like in here? What would that look like? If you were to lay down your life for the Lord and you were to lay down your life for the Lord, do you know how much your life for the Lord? Do you know how much you have to lay down your life for the Lord? You are to be careful not to say that you say that I'm going to kill So you have to be able to come and say it next to me. Yeah. I mean, we're laughing. We're laughing. But I'm serious. And I'm saying, I know Jesus. If we don't follow Him, it's time for us to lay down some of our rights. Can I ask you to lay down your rights for giving your opinions about human defense? Can you lay it down? Can you lay down your right to consider someone else's disagreement if you agree with them? Are the Democrats really the enemies of the Republicans? Are the Republicans really the enemies of the Democrats? Is the left really the enemies of the left? No. I think as believers, we need to lay down all those kind of things. I think we need to lay down our opinions. I think we need to lay down our crime. I think we need to lay down our preferences. I think we need to lay down our wanting it our certain way. I think we need to lay it down. And still give our lives for others to be healed. How about you receive that person? Full of piercings and full of tattoos. Are you willing to lay down your rights so that they can be revealed? What do they want to do? What if they are? What if they are? What if they want to come and sit next to you, Judge? Wow. Can you live your life for the entire person, for the entire reason, that other people be revealed to them? Can you bear the sins of others in your life, like the Lord Jesus did? Can you bear their ignorance? Can you bear their lack of social skills? Can you bear their attitudes? Can you bear the things that hurt you and really hurt you? Because you want to see them revealed to others. Can you voluntarily give up the importance of you being comfortable? Of you having mercy? Of you being properly received? Of you being properly respected? Of you being properly recognized? Because the reason you and I are saved is all you did all included in all of that death. Yes. You made it all up. And because you did, you and I did. And that's the example you left for us. Can you, and not just in public, I'm talking about laying it down. You didn't have to lay it down. The only thing that you can tell and matter is that you laid it down all the way from your heart. Lay it down. So that you don't even keep such thoughts in your mind. You do not live by anyone, even in your private thoughts. You live so that other people can live by. That's the way Jesus lived. That's what laying down your life looks like. Why are we being everyone's slave? Who are we? I don't know. We're the children. Use yourself as an example. But for some reason, When I first started working in the kitchen and cooking and everything, I was like, what are you doing in there? What are you doing in there? You're not supposed to be in there. Where did that come from? Where did that come from? Didn't Jesus say, if you want to be first, you're supposed to be the slave of all. So do you know who I am? I am your slave. I'm very happy to be your slave. I find a lot of joy in living my life. That's why I'm here. And that's the example we're supposed to set. That's what leadership is supposed to do. How do you give it up to a God? I don't know. But this is what our life has to do. We see the results of what you have. We reaping the benefits because of what Jesus made there. And now you have the beginning. He brought us out of our slavery. By how he made us step by step by step by step. All the way to the cross. All the way. How about this? How about we do this? As a church. Let's lay down our lives. So that other people out here in our communities in the world can come and be redeemed. Let's lay down our preferences. Let's lay down our credits. Let's lay down our attitude. Let's lay down anything that has insisted on wanting to be our way. To discover this dynamic life. But serving rather than willing to be served. We may. But if we do this. We will be the kind of church that exists to serve our neighbor. To serve our community. To serve those who come here. And when they come. It's not going to depend on what we do to get out of there. But what we're looking to be able to share with them. A family. That's just unity. And it's love. And a safe place. What it's going to take. Is what the scriptures always say it's going to take. You can't do it without this family. So who's the master. The most. My. Master. Master. So. So. So. So. So. So. So. So. So. I'm inviting you to this life. As a Christian. Deny self. Deny the right to say what you think. Deny the right to have your own opinion. Overlooking anyone else. Deny the right to wish it to be your way. And always want it that way. and deny the life that you always lived in your own comfort, and live the way that is more natural to you. And you'll discover, I promise you, if you listen, if you lose that eye, you'll discover a whole new life. A life that is higher than self, than heavenly life. You are His life, and no one lived a better life than the Lord Jesus. No one had more joy than the Lord Jesus. And if we will trust the way He guides us, not the way the Lord is, if we'll trust Him, and follow His order, and believe in our lives like He did, the great experience that I believe that He gave us.