Choosing Dying To Self

After the service we're going to have a baptism and before we have the baptism Krista is going to come up and share her testimony and then we'll make our way. We'll have a couple songs and a baptism for Krista. Let's pray.

Lord grateful for another day that you've given us. Lord this is a day that you have made. We choose to rejoice and be glad in it.

Let's pray you would open up the scriptures even yet further. We would reach down into our hearts to put your finger on something that is not right. That you've been putting your finger on for a while and we've skirted around it.

So that we can move forward in our walk with you and grow spiritually in Jesus name. Amen. So baptism is all about not only a decision to say I've decided to follow Jesus no turning back.

But is it's the second verse the world behind me in the cross before me. It's saying you know what I'm going to have a change of course in my life. I'm no longer going to live for myself.

I'm going to love the Lord with all my heart. And the course of the journey is a struggle. Because throughout the journey there's times when you're going to realize that you've been doing so many different things for yourself and self-interest.

Self preservation, self-pleasure. And the Lord will put his finger on things throughout your life and show you that this isn't the way that you should be living. This isn't the way you should walk.

And you have to come to your own revelation and faith to say you know what I'm going to leave this worldliness behind and I'm going to take a change in my life. The world behind me the cross before me. Baptism isn't just a public confession of your faith.

In the in the Old Testament it was circumcision. God called the people of God to be circumcised whereas all the other nations were not circumcised. In the new covenant is no longer circumcision but baptism.

It's not a cutting away of the of the fleshly desires so to speak. But it's a death to self. It's a death to those desires.

It's denying of self. You know in the old days when a man was going to be crucified it was a gruesome death. Suffocation.

And I heard this said by Leonard Ravenhill. He said you knew one thing that the man who was carrying a cross he wasn't coming back. He was going one direction and he wasn't coming back.

Baptism is about. Though none go with me still I'll follow. So you know what I'm leaving the old life behind and all those things I once held dear and built my life upon.

Spent and worthless now compared to this knowing you. Jesus. There is no greater thing.

A lot of people think that they can add Jesus to their life. I was one of them. I didn't understand the cross.

I didn't understand baptism. I didn't understand what it was gonna look like. The narrow path that he would lead me down.

I thought all my friends were gonna get saved. I thought the revival is gonna break out. And I began to realize I started to lose all my friends.

Played fast pitch in those days. I didn't get joy out of it anymore. Because afterwards you always go to the pub.

And in all the foolish talk and everything I realized there's not a place for me. So those things I once enjoyed I found the Lord separating me from and asking me are you willing to follow me out of this. It's not the activity.

It's the fellowship. I want to read a passage in Mark in chapter 12 verse 28. Mark chapter 12 verse 28.

Then one of the scribes in Jesus day came. Having heard them reasoning together perceiving that Jesus had answered the people there well. And he asked Jesus a question.

Usually when people are asking Jesus a question they're trying to trick him. They're trying to corner him and they're trying to trap him. They're not sincere.

And this is the question he says. Which is the first commandment of all? What's the greatest commandment? And Jesus answered him. The first commandment of all is this.

And he quotes from Deuteronomy. I think it's in chapter 4. Hear O Israel the Lord I God the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart.

You should love the Lord your God with all your soul. Making a distinction there. You should love the Lord and you should love the Lord with all your strength.

This is the first commandment. To love God with all your heart. What is the one of the ten commandments? Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

Sometimes we love other things and we love the Lord. But we have to get the order right. We can like other things but our devotion and love is for Christ.

And you can find out what is important to a man or to a girl because of the things that are coming out of their mouth. Because out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. You can find out if someone loves money.

When you get around all they're talking about is the drip of the world. You can find out if they love their vehicle. You can find out if they love women, the created things.

Or if they're infatuated with boys. You can find out if if they love sport. You can find out what they love.

The scripture says in 1st John in chapter 2 verse 15. Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world the love of God is not in them.

We're to love God with all our heart. You can't love God and the world. It doesn't work.

You're gonna love one hate the other. So what does that look like? Well for many years we've had church in our home. And almost every Sunday except this Sunday those who are playing baseball are with us.

This Sunday. But every other Sunday at least one is missing. At least one.

Our devotion has to be for Christ first. To seek first his kingdom and his righteousness. And he adds other things to us.

You say well is it wrong to to play sport on a Sunday? Well to some it was wrong. That runner from Chariots of Fire to him it was wrong to compete on Sunday. And he chose not to compete and God honored him for a day.

Because this is what he said. God honors those who honor him. It's not about Saturday and it's not about Sunday.

It's about loving the Lord with all your heart. You can make a decision not to play on Sunday and you can be as worldly as anything all the other days. That's not what God is looking for.

He's looking for those who will love him. And part of that comes with obeying convictions from the Holy Spirit. To love him with all the heart.

What's in your heart will come out of your mouth. We used to have a brother who came and fellowship with us. And one day he came to me and he said we're having a nice conversation.

He said oh by the way just so you know I record all conversations. You record all conversations. Yes I record.

So just so you know I just want to lay that out. Wow. Maybe what we should do is we should put a recorder in our pocket and then in the evening we could go back and listen to all the things that we talked about.

I'm not suggesting anyone do this. In fact I don't think it's a good practice at all. It's demonic.

But what it is is it gives us an understanding of the things that come out of the heart when you're not aware. And then you say did I really say that? Was I really laughing at that? Was I participating in that? This is what we have to guard against. This is what we need light on.

So we can see the things that are in our heart. So we can confess them to the Lord. We can renounce them and turn from them.

There's foolishness in the heart. We seek attention from people. And we seek to get attention.

This is not godly. This is not the character of Christ. Jesus did not seek attention for himself.

He glorified his father. To love the Lord with all your mind and your soul. What does that look like? It says as a man thinks so is he.

What do you think about? Where do your thoughts go? I think about how I can get rich. I think about how I'm gonna get a better job. I think about how I can manipulate circumstances so it can go my way.

David says I meditate on your word day and night. Do you think on the word? When you wake up in the morning what is going through your thoughts? Do you think about the day? About all the things you have to do? The cares of life? The deceitfulness of riches? The desire for other things? These are the things Dan talked about the the thorns. They choke the Word of God out of your life.

To love the Lord with all your mind. To meditate on things that are lovely and pure and of good report. Yesterday Katie told me that there's a diseases on the pear trees and I put it off for a while because I don't like using those chemicals.

But I went and put my sprayer in my in my lift and I went up there and I was spraying these trees. I had extra left and I thought okay these raspberries I'm gonna spray one side and the other ones I'm not gonna spray. Do a test and see if maybe the bugs are killing them because there's some kill there.

And as I was going through and I'm spraying with my mask and my stuff and I'm looking and I see in the midst of those beautiful bushes thorns that are flowering this tall. Dozens of them are there choking the fruit. Well you can't see them and I couldn't see them because when I look I just see all the beautiful raspberry plants and the bushes and the fruit that's coming.

But those thick stalks on those those thistles are sapping. Some of those plants are withering. They're going brown and I thought it was from bugs.

But you can start well in your walk with the Lord. You could be bearing fruit and you can come to a time when the Lord blesses you and and he wants to bless his children. Any good father wants to bless their children.

But what do we find? In seeking for the blessing we forget the giver of the gift. We forget where the blessing came from. And all of a sudden the cares of life, the thorns, the deceitfulness of wealth they come and all of a sudden our love for the Lord is waxing cold.

We're not bearing the fruit of love. Our love for the brothers is waxing cold. Our desire to serve and to give and to lay our life down for others is waxing cold because the thorns are there to love the Lord with our soul.

There is a battle for our souls. The devil wants your soul and the Lord wants us to surrender our souls to him. The way that there the battle is won for the soul it says since you have purified your souls in 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 22 through obeying the truth through the Word of God.

The reason we read the Word of God is to get conviction and to get light. It's not for us to text our buddy and tell him oh this verse is for you. It's for us to obey.

Our souls need purifying, sanctifying since you've purified your souls through obeying the truth. So when I read here and I look in the mirror this is God's mirror. We look into the perfect law of liberty.

We look into the mirror and we see the kind of man and woman we're supposed to be. And then we can easily become forgetful hearers and we go out there and we laugh at things that the world laughs at. And we look at things on social media that the world looks at.

You know recently I was trying to track some of my children and so I have never done it but in the last month or two I got on Instagram and I put an alias name in there and I started to track some of my children. And my son called me and he said you're following some lady, some thing. And I thought I'm following some lady, something.

And immediately I got my wife because I had deleted it all. I got my wife to get on it and to find out who I'm following and I unfollowed everybody and I deleted it. How did that happen? You just become careless and you just start clicking, clicking, clicking, clicking and all of a sudden you'll find yourself in the weeds.

You'll find yourself into things you never expected to get into. And so I don't know what I was looking at or what I was doing but somehow inadvertently I got on it and my son exhorted me. He said dad I can see you're following some exercise person.

I said I am? I said this has to get rectified. We need to course-correct. How did it happen? Well we need to purify our souls don't we? Not just clean the internet but we need to purify our souls in obeying the truth through the Word of God.

So back on it again so we can unclick on things so we can clear that up and stay off of it. We don't need to follow our children to see what kind of mess they're getting into. We can pray.

Prayer changes things. To love the Lord with all our strengths. What does that look like? You know what it says? There's a passage it says in I believe it's let's see if we can find it here.

Do not give your strength to women to that which destroys Kings. Proverbs 30 31 to love the Lord with all your strength. Proverbs 31.

Proverbs 31 is known about the kind of woman that you want to become. The kind of woman that you want to marry if you're unmarried. But the first part of it talks about Kings.

You say well I'm not a king. Well in the New Testament God has made us a kingdom of priests unto our God in Revelation chapter 1. He said you are kings and priests unto God if you're born again. He is the king of kings and the Lord of lords.

He is Christ and we are Christians Christlike. We bear his name and we're to bear his image. So with that in mind you can put your name in there.

Proverbs 31 verse 1 the words of King Lemuel the utterance which his mother taught him. You know what our moms can teach us some good things if they love the Lord. We need to take heed to the things that our mothers and our fathers teach us when they are Christians specifically.

My son what is this my son of my womb the son of my vows. Verse 3 do not give your strength to women nor your ways to that which destroys kings. The number one downfall for men is a woman.

The number one downfall. Even men in the ministry get caught up in sin because of these things. What are some of the things that destroy kings.

You lose your judgment when people start drinking. You lose your convictions when people start using substances. This is biblical teaching now it says in verse 4 it is not for kings O Lemuel it is not for kings to drink wine it is not for princes intoxicating drink.

Lest they drink and forget the Word of God and they begin to pervert justice. Give strong drink to those who are perishing. Does that mean that we should tell people who have problems that they should drink? Well one thing we know and this is one thing I know is that when I was not walking with the Lord and I had walked away from the church I had stepped down from teaching Sunday school and the cares of life became too difficult for me.

I went to my doctor one time and I asked him for depression pills anti-anxiety medication because I could not cope with the pressures of the work that I was under. I was building apartment building at that time the first time I had a hundred men under me it was overwhelming for me and I didn't want to start drinking. We were drinking socially in those days I didn't want to start drinking to cope.

So I asked for depression pills and anti-anxiety medication and my doctor started asking a series of questions he was not a believer. He said well you have did your wife leave you? I said no no no wife didn't leave. So what did you get fired you lose your job? I said no no that's the problem I have too much work.

Well he said are your children sick? I said no. He said you're your wife sick? No. And he got angry.

He's at that time the ill he said I want you go to the fourth floor of the MSA Hospital and you go into those medication you need to get out of here because you have life so good and he went out walked out didn't say goodbye and he closed the door. And I got so offended and angry in my heart towards this man bitter resentful I even used some bad language I didn't obviously go to the fourth floor went back to work but we started drinking drinking drinking drinking drinking to cope with stress drinking to cope with problems because I would not seeking the Lord anymore I was seeking money fame fortune and under that load of sin that came with all that I was perishing and this passage says give strong drink to him who perishes and wine to those who are bitter in their heart let him drink and forget his poverty and remember his misery no more now to finish that story one thing that I realized later that year my doctor passed away because you see he had I think something called leukemia or something like that he was terminally ill and he was dying but he hadn't told anyone and when he heard me wanting to self-medicate to kind of numb out because of the pressures and the demonic influences I was under so that I didn't have to feel he would have give anything to extend his life then I understood why he spoke to me that way now that didn't change my life Jesus changed my life when Jesus comes into your life you don't have to self-medicate and so what we find is a lot of people after they come to the Lord the substances start to go by the wayside because Jesus makes them free to love the Lord with all your strength not to give your strength to women's getting in fights doing stuff that's unclean now we use our hands to serve our feet which used to take us to unclean places to the pub and to cause trouble now these feet go to serve to help to be a blessing I'll finish in this passage before we hear from Krista Matthew chapter 16 verse 24 baptism is about dying to self it's not a public declaration it's death to self it's a funeral it's a funeral procession forgetting what lays behind as brother shared and moving forward with what lies ahead Matthew 16 verse 24 then Jesus said to his disciples if anyone desires to come after me let him deny himself pick up his cross and follow me if you want to be a follower of Jesus you have to say no to the self life and you need to start to say yes to the things of Jesus now had we kept reading and reading in that other passage what we would have heard is Jesus tell this scribe because the scribe said you've answered correctly and Jesus told him something you're not far from the kingdom of God you're not far from the kingdom you can know all these things but it's not real in your life you can see that's the way that you should live and that's the way you should walk but you haven't surrendered these areas to the Lordship of Christ you're not far from the kingdom even this morning you're not far from the kingdom of God Jesus said the kingdom of heaven is at hand he was there just like this morning Jesus is here he's with us but he wants to indwell us this is where it comes from asking Jesus to be Lord of your life let Jesus come into your life let him expose those thorns let him expose those things that are not good and rather than be offended when he exposes something just like my son called me and he told me this I was not offended I was thankful because even though it was shameful I was able to course-correct we have to be willing to course-correct when someone in love comes and points out even if they don't come in love even if the enemy uses it to shame you say thank you Lord it's good that I was afflicted because I was going astray but now I want to keep your work Jesus helped me it's a very simple prayer you say what do I do what do I do repent say Lord I'm sorry it's my fault that's what repentance is it's not my dad's fault it's not my uncle's fault it's not it's not my doctor's fault it's not my wife's fault it's not my husband's fault it's my fault I took bad decisions I walked on unholy land and I need you to have mercy on me help me I can't do this without your help and you know what you're inviting him to take control he's not a force himself you have to ask him the one who comes to him he's not gonna kick out if anyone wants to come after me you have a desire to go after Jesus you have to say no to self besides the devil the biggest enemy that you have is the old you our desires come from within they come from within it says in James each man is tempted James 1 verse 13 when he is drawn away by his own desires he's enticed or she's enticed you're tempted because there are desires there temptation is not sin but giving in to them can become sin and if you continue on that road it brings forth death that death separates you from God it's not Jesus leaving you it's you walking away from him just like I did I remember a time in my life I shared this not long ago when I was building homes I had a desire to make a name for myself to stake my claim in this world and I knew that I was not living the right way I was teaching Sunday school at that time and I came to a crossroads rather I was gonna have to change my way or change my conduct and I decided to step down from teaching Sunday school that was the wrong decision and it led me on a course that almost cost me my marriage and my family but the Lord had mercy on me in 1998 and he drew me back to himself and some of us have made bad choices but the Lord can draw us back to himself we just have to humble ourself we have to say Lord I don't know how but I know I need to deny self because when I leave things up to myself I do bad things I get myself into a world of trouble I take dumb decisions so Lord I am picking up my cross I'm gonna die to my will and to my ways this is what Romans 6 is all about being buried with him in baptism into death so also we can be raised in the likeness of his resurrection those who walk not after the sinful nature after the flesh nature but according to the spirit for the law of the spirit of life which is in Jesus is what makes me free from this law of sin and death it's like gravity sin pulls you down Jesus lifts you up for whoever seeks to save his life will lose it but whoever loses his life for Jesus sake will find it if you hang on to a drowning man trying to save him you wanna know what will happen to him he's gonna pull you down that's why it says don't be unequally yoked with unbelievers you say oh they're not unbelievers they're Christians I was a Christian living like a devil so what is that to Jesus it's not you know I see a sheep out there and I and I and I call it something else I see a wolf and I call it something else no no no we call it what it is be honest let's call it what it is you will know them by their fruits it's your conduct that gives you away not what you call yourself not the promises you claim it's the life you live to be honest and not deceiving ourselves because it says do not be deceived God is not mocked what a man sows to the sinful nature we are going to reap we are going to eat all of the fruit that from the seeds that we put into the ground and if the seed is bad we're going to reap bad fruit the consequences of our actions that's why we need a fear of God to course correct while there is time if you seek to grab and to save your life you'll lose it there's a man in the Old Testament his name was Jacob he was called of God the problem is he was a surplanter and he was a deceiver and he got the birthright from his corrupt brother and he got the blessing from him and when it was time for him to get a wife he said well Laban his uncle said or the ladies uncle said his mom's uncle said listen you can have this this girl but you got to work seven years seven years okay let's do it he worked seven years and then on wedding night they didn't have lights in those days they had lanterns everything he got the wrong lady he got the older sister seven years of hard labor it seemed like just a few days all of a sudden he's married now to the wrong lady the deceiver got deceived and then his whole family ended up in disarray the guy ended up wanting only one wife ended up with four wives and 12 children from four different wives this kind of a thing can happen when we not walking right with the Lord but that's not how the Lord left him the Lord kept working in his life and he wrestled with God and prevailed and God blessed him in the end so brothers it's not how we start sisters it's how we finish there's a way that seems right to a man but that end is destruction let's go through with God if you seek to save your life in this world you will lose it but if you forfeit your life if you deny yourself and say Lord not my will but yours be done as Jesus prayed in the garden nevertheless not my will he didn't want to go to the cross but he yielded himself to the way of the cross because his father asked him to do it for who for you and for me so that we could go free so that we could find forgiveness of sins he went into Sheol and he suffered there and took the keys of death and Hades with him so you and I don't have to go there he did it for you and for me if you seek to save your life you'll lose it but if you lose your life for the sake of Christ you'll find it what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world that was my thought I'll step down from Sunday school so that I can gain wealth that I can make a name for myself what will a man give in exchange for his soul we read that God want us to purify our souls in obeying the truth here's a man exchanging his soul for wealth and honor and fame this was one of the temptations Jesus experienced in the wilderness he showed him all the kingdoms and he said I'll give all these things to you because they've been given to me if you'll worship me so I would never worship the devil we do that when we don't worship God you just worship self you're worshiping the devil you just glorify yourself that's giving the devil praise because that is what you you died to that is what baptism is you made a decision I've decided to follow Jesus I'm dying to my old life my old ways I'm not going back but you know what somehow we we keep a little something just like a can hit a little something under his tent he wasn't ready to get rid of it his sin found him out we're not ready to get rid of our new age stuff we're not ready to get rid of some of that those dark things we just just keep them there in case you know what the Lord sees you weren't wholehearted in your decision you had a little backup plan God's not with backup plans he's with total surrender to Christ last verse in 27 for the Son of Man will come in the glory of his father and with his angels and he will reward each one according to their works you know we are in the last hours the last minutes of the last days even as we see war breaking out in Israel and the nations trying to get involved not really sure how it's gonna go it's sitting on a powder keg Armageddon is not too far away we don't know which direction it's gonna go and then the Lord's gonna come he said he's gonna destroy the world with fire this time not with a flood and he's gonna come and gather his people and his reward is with him are you ready to meet the Lord well we're busy doing our own thing and sticking our head in the sand trying to forget about what's really going on it's all setting itself up for the return of Jesus are you ready let's pray Heavenly Father thank you for your word we thank you for conviction we thank you for the message of the cross it's foolishness to those who are perishing but to us who are being saved it is the power of God because we know that we can't by trying it's only in letting go and letting God that we can overcome I pray father that even some here that are not right with you would get right with you they could humble themselves and pray seek your face and turn from wicked ways you're quick to pardon sin