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To Follow Christ - The Blueprint Series
58 Plays1 year ago
In this sermon, Kyle Hess preached about the essence of truly following Christ, emphasizing the necessity of self-denial and prioritizing God's will over personal ambitions. Highlighting passages from Matthew 16 and Luke 9, Hess illustrated the disciples' initial misconceptions about the Messiah and the pivotal role of the cross in salvation. Using personal anecdotes and scriptural insights, he explained the profound significance of taking up one's cross, both figuratively and through the act of baptism, as symbols of dying to one's old self and emerging into a new life in Christ. Hess challenged the congregation to reflect on their commitment to Jesus, urging them to submit to God's will wholeheartedly despite worldly distractions and temptations.
Timestamps:
03:58 Importance of reading Bible and following God's word.
09:37 Disciples acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah.
10:55 Peter tries to save Jesus, ignoring fate.
16:53 The cross symbolizes Christian redemption and grace.
20:32 Baptism symbolizes dying to old self.
21:34 Jesus prepares disciples for his impending sacrifice.
28:03 To follow Jesus, deny self, resist temptations.
31:31 Let go of worldly desires to follow God.
32:39 Encouragement to surrender, worship, and follow Jesus.
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Transcript
Choosing the Sermon Topic
00:00:00
Speaker
I was given the option to teach on Grad Recognition Sunday, and Pastor, he asked me if I wanted to continue on in the Acts series, and this was months ago, if I wanted to continue on in the Acts series, or if I wanted to do a standalone sermon. And I was like, well, I'll do a standalone sermon, but let me see what in Acts I'd be teaching on. And I looked at the schedule, and it was Ananias and Sapphira, and I'm like, people dropping dead, I'll let Pastor handle that one.
00:00:22
Speaker
And I'll do my own thing.
Graduation and Faith Challenges
00:00:24
Speaker
But as I looked and everything around this graduation time is very motivational and inspirational. You go to graduations and the speeches are motivational and inspirational. We're taking our kids and they're flying out of the nest and a lot of them are going on to college or going on to their career. You go down the greeting card aisle at the store and all the cards are very motivational and inspirational. But something we've seen over the years is when students leave the church, oftentimes when they go into the world,
00:00:52
Speaker
their faith will crumble. And so instead of taking a motivational, inspirational sermon today that may fade when adversity comes, I'm gonna do a foundational sermon.
Foundational Sermon on Following Jesus
00:01:05
Speaker
And this foundational sermon isn't just to be applied by those seniors who are graduating and moving on, but by all of us. Every single individual, we're given a choice on whether we wanna follow Jesus or not.
00:01:17
Speaker
And so we as a church, Grove Hill, we prioritize God's word. In fact,
Living by God's Word at Grove Hill Church
00:01:22
Speaker
every single week we proclaim it and say, hey, we're gonna pray over the pastor that's bringing the word because we so much stand alone on the word of God and it's truth that it offers. But if we proclaim that because the sentiment's great, we get amens, everybody loves that, that we stand alone on the word of God. But what it means is as individuals, if we're proclaiming it, that means every time we open God's word and we come across something that he says to do,
00:01:45
Speaker
If we're proclaiming that we're standing on the word of God and the truth of God word, we must put those into action in our own life as a church, as a whole, but more importantly, as an individual. And so we, as a church, we prioritize discipleship because God says, go into all the world and make disciples. And so from a very young age with Miss Lori, the kids get brought up in curriculums that are gospel centered and discipleship centered.
00:02:10
Speaker
When they come into student life in 6th through 12th grade, we are adamant about discipling them in Christ and bringing parents in on that conversation and having parents assist or parents be the primary discipler and assist them in discipling their children. And
Understanding Discipleship
00:02:25
Speaker
then as adults, Pastor John runs discipleship groups of small groups of men and women and life groups and mentorship groups all surrounded around discipleship in Jesus Christ on what this word has to say.
00:02:37
Speaker
But sometimes we hear that word discipleship and we shy away from it because we're like, I don't really know what discipleship is. So instead, I'm just going to kind of do my own thing. Discipleship put easily or put simply is to follow Jesus and help someone else follow Jesus. I was recently at a church in Spring Hill.
00:02:57
Speaker
And to squash the rumor, no, I wasn't shopping around for a church. But I was at a church in Spring Hill, I was there for a class and on the wall in the hallway, there was a poster and it said, who is discipling you? And then right underneath it said, who are you discipling? And there's this assumed position that we must take that we need to find someone that's gonna lead us closer to Christ, someone to disciple us.
00:03:20
Speaker
And then at the same time, we need to be leading someone else closer to Christ. And so whether you like it or not, you are leading people in your life right now. Your children, your people at work, are you leading them towards Christ or are you leading them away from Christ? Discipleship is following Christ and leading people to follow Christ, simply put.
The Cost of Discipleship in Matthew 16
00:03:40
Speaker
So let's turn to Matthew. We're gonna figure out a little bit about what it means to follow Christ. Matthew 16.
00:03:49
Speaker
And the best way to learn how to follow Christ is to listen to Christ himself on how to follow him. Turn your Bibles there. If you don't have your Bible, bring your Bible. If you don't have a Bible, come see me and I'll get you a Bible. But it's important that we read from the paper version of the Bible because these luxuries may not be here someday, and this will be what we have to feed off of God's word. Matthew 16, verse 24.
00:04:22
Speaker
Then Jesus said to his disciples, if anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world and yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?
00:04:50
Speaker
For the son of man is going to come with his father's glory, with his angels, and he will reward each person according to what he has done.
Human Desires vs. God's Will
00:04:59
Speaker
Father, thank you for the word and scripture that's going to be read this morning. And as we bring other verses into this, I just ask that you reveal to us what you want us to do. And I pray that we don't take that command and leave it on the table, but that we apply it to our lives and live it out for you.
00:05:19
Speaker
Thank you, Jesus, amen. So we are going to look at a few things before we dive into this passage. One is context. We wanna know why Jesus was telling the disciples to deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow me. It does us no good to really understand that if we don't know what conversation happened before that, leading up to that. And so we're gonna look at context, but before we do, we're gonna acknowledge something in that our thoughts are different from God's thoughts.
00:05:46
Speaker
and our ways are different than God's ways. See, we have a will for our life. We have a will for our life and usually it entails comfort, prosperity, longevity, and that's our will. God has a will for our life and it's much different. So Peter had a will for Jesus that we're gonna read and Peter's will for Jesus was that he lived and God's will for Jesus was that he died.
00:06:12
Speaker
And so we need to acknowledge that our thoughts are different than his thoughts. We
Peter's Acknowledgment and Struggles
00:06:16
Speaker
see this throughout scripture. When God created Adam and Eve, he created Adam, he pulled him up out of the dust and breathed life into him. That's creative. I would not have thought of that.
00:06:24
Speaker
And then when he created Eve, he put Adam back to sleep, pulled a rib, and he created Eve from the rib of Adam, again creative. The world goes on, population grows, and it becomes evil, and God decides to destroy the earth, and he destroys it with floodwaters coming from above and below. Super creative, right?
00:06:44
Speaker
And yet 6,000 years later, we could look back and say he did it for a reason because archeologists dig and they find fossils and scientists' only explanation is that there must have been a mass flood. And so God does something creative, but it has a purpose in our life in that it proves the Bible to be true.
00:07:00
Speaker
The biggest example of this is our Savior Jesus Christ. The Jews expected a Savior, but their Savior was someone who's going to come in a political manner, in a militaristic manner with a sword. He was going to defeat the enemy. He was going to free the Jews, and he was going to elevate them. That was their idea of a Savior.
00:07:21
Speaker
And yet God sent Jesus on a quiet night in a lowly manger in a back country town to a virgin. Again, He does things differently. His will is different than our flesh and our self. And so we need to acknowledge that God does things differently. Next context, let's look at the context of this verse. So still in Matthew 16, and we're gonna jump all the way back to verse 13.
00:07:51
Speaker
When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, who do people say the son of man is? They replied, some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and still Jeremiah or other prophets. But what about you, he asked, who do you say I am? Simon Peter answered, he said, you are the Christ, the son of the living God.
00:08:15
Speaker
Jesus replied, blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah. For this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter. And on this rock I will build my church. And the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Then he warned his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ. Verse 21.
00:08:45
Speaker
For the time came that Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests, and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. Never, Lord, he said, this shall never happen to you.
00:09:08
Speaker
Jesus turned and said to Peter, get behind me, Satan. You are a stumbling block to me. You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men. And then this is when Jesus says to his disciples, if anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.
00:09:27
Speaker
And so this interaction between Jesus and Peter starts with Jesus saying, hey Peter, who do you say I am? And God revealed to Peter who Christ was and he said, you are the Messiah, you are the Savior. And so this was the first accounted time that the disciples acknowledged Jesus as the Messiah or the Christ.
00:09:46
Speaker
but they still had their idea of what the Messiah of the Christ was. And that was this guy who was going to come and wipe out the adversary and help them pull them out of their slavery and help them reign in a higher position than everybody else. And so they still had that mindset of Christ.
00:10:03
Speaker
And so when Jesus goes and says, hey, I'm gonna tell you something, and he's preparing their hearts for what's gonna happen, he says, I'm gonna have to go into Jerusalem, and I'm gonna suffer at the hands of men, the high priest, the teachers of the law. I'm gonna suffer greatly, many things, so much so that I'm going to die.
00:10:20
Speaker
Peter jumps instantly. He didn't even let Jesus basically finish the sentence. Cause Jesus said three days later, I will come to life. But Peter jumped in and it said, he rebuked Jesus. Now I'm all about standing up and trying not to let Jesus die, but to rebuke Jesus, I would have been more like, Hey, Jesus, come here. Let me talk to you about something. But Jesus, it said, it said, never, this will not happen. I will not let it happen.
00:10:43
Speaker
Now I don't blame Peter because I agree. Like I would sit there and be like, hey, this is my friend, this is my teacher, my rabbi, I've been with him for years, and now he's saying that he's gonna go suffer at the hands of many and die. And so yes, I would even wanna protect him. Secondly, they had just identified him as the savior, as the Messiah, the one who was gonna come and save them, and now he's right around turning around and saying, I'm gonna go suffer at the hands of many and die.
00:11:10
Speaker
And so Peter would naturally take that position of being the hero to save the savior from sure death. And so he's absolutely gonna chime in and say something. And third thing is a personal investment in Jesus is because if Jesus went to the cross and died, Peter as a follower of Jesus was likely to be associated with him and be put to death on a cross. Because Jesus was going to cross because they were calling him blasphemous because he was claiming to be God. And Peter was a follower, so he was likely to experience the same death.
00:11:40
Speaker
And so Peter absolutely jumped in, but what he was doing, he was inflicting his will on Jesus' life and not listening to the Lord's will. In fact, Jesus says, get behind me, Satan, you are a stumbling block to me. You do not have the mind of things of God, but of things of man. So he was putting his will on the situation, not God's will. Get behind me, Satan, very harsh words.
00:12:05
Speaker
Jesus is not putting Peter in the position of the devil or Lucifer. Satan is not a name, it's a title, and it means adversary. And so anything opposed to the will of God is an adversary to God, and so it would be Satan or satanic.
00:12:22
Speaker
And so we shy
The Meaning of Self-Denial and Baptism
00:12:23
Speaker
away from that word Satan or satanic or we shy away from demonic and things like that. But what in our life are we enforcing our will instead of God's will, which is an opposition to God's will.
00:12:39
Speaker
And so in your current state right now in the things that you're doing, would God stand beside you and say, Hey, thanks for following my will, or would he say, get behind me, say, and you're in the way of what I want to do in your life because you're holding onto the things that you want to hold onto. And so this all brings us to the point where Jesus says, deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me. This all gets us to the point to where Jesus is going to show what it means to follow him.
00:13:08
Speaker
So the first thing we must do is deny ourself. To denounce or disown our flesh. So scripture makes it very clear there's two sides of the story. There's the sin nature that we're born into and the flesh and the selfish desires.
00:13:27
Speaker
And then there's the spirit, when we come to know Christ, that we live by the spirit that is His will and His desires. And in Galatians 5, you can stay in Matthew, because I'm just going to bounce real quick to Galatians 5 and 16 and 17. So I say, live by the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires is what is contrary to the spirit, and the spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature.
00:13:57
Speaker
They're in conflict with each other so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the spirit, you are not under the law. And so there's this battle between the flesh and the spirit. And Jesus is saying, you're gonna have to deny yourself. What he's saying is you cannot follow me and hold on to something of the flesh at the same time. So if you're holding on to something in your life that is not of him,
00:14:24
Speaker
You don't have the ability to follow him. He's saying, deny yourself.
00:14:31
Speaker
Next is to disassociate with our natural self. And you say, okay, that sounds a lot like the first point, and you're right. The Bible repeats something, what's important, so I'm gonna repeat something when it's important, is we need to deny ourself. Again, to disassociate with ourself. The word deny that's used in deny yourself is the same word that was used when Peter denied Jesus when Jesus was going to the cross. And what that looked like was people, numerous people came up to Peter and said, hey, I saw you with him, you know him. And he said, I have nothing to do with that man, I don't know what you're talking about.
00:15:01
Speaker
He no longer associated with Jesus and he didn't claim him as his friend. He denied him. And so Jesus is asking us not to do that to him, but do that to our flesh or ourself, to have no association with our natural self. And so the desires that we were born with, the sinful desires we were born with, our sinful will for our own life, Jesus wants us to disassociate, not associate with that life anymore and focus fully on him.
00:15:32
Speaker
Next thing we must do is take up your cross. Why is the cross so important? Is the cross important? The cross is very important. It is the one standing essential for the salvation that we have in Jesus Christ, is the cross. So we could look and we could believe that God created the earth.
00:15:53
Speaker
We could believe that God performed miracles in the Old Testament. We could believe that He sent Jesus to live on this earth. We could believe that Jesus performed the miracles. And we could believe that Jesus is gonna return someday. But if we leave the cross out of that, we have nothing. We have no salvation. And so the cross is what the whole Old Testament, pastor said this last week, the whole Old Testament points to the cross. The cross occurs and everything in the New Testament points back to the cross and says, this is where you found your salvation.
00:16:21
Speaker
I heard a story when I was a kid and it's stuck with me ever since. It's a silly little story, but it makes a lot of sense. There was this little boy, a young boy, five or six years old and he was lost.
00:16:30
Speaker
And so the law came and they said, hey, can we help you find your parents? And he's sitting on the curb crying. And he said, do you know your parents name? So they punch parents name into the computer and nothing came up in the system. He said, well, do you know your address? And he said, I don't know my address. Do you know your phone number? No. He's like, is there anything in your neighborhood you could identify that would help us get you home? He said, no. And then out of sure joy, he jumps in the backseat and he's like, I know how to get home. And I said, you remembered your address? And he said, no.
00:16:54
Speaker
He goes, on the edge of my neighborhood, I could see it from my house as a church. And on top of the church is a steeple, and on top of the steeple is the cross. If you can get me to that cross, I can get home. And so we as Christians, we have a goal, and that's to reveal the cross to people.
00:17:11
Speaker
to say that Jesus did this for me in my life, this is who I was, and this is who I am now because of the cross, and he could do the same for you. So the cross is incredibly important to us, so much so that we love it. We put it on our T-shirts, we hang it on our walls, we put it on necklaces, we put the cross on earrings, well I don't, but Taylor Gentry does. You're welcome.
00:17:36
Speaker
But we love the cross because to us it's a it's a symbol of salvation, redemption, mercy and grace. It has some suffering in there. But to us, the cross is this this beautiful picture of the redemption of Jesus Christ. When Jesus said this to the disciples, it meant one thing in that day. It meant death. The crucifixion was used by the Romans and people knew that if it was a cross, it meant death.
00:18:07
Speaker
And so Jesus said, hey, I'm gonna go suffer at the hands of many and I'm gonna die. And Peter, you have a problem with that? But I say this, if you're gonna come after me, you're gonna have to deny yourself and take up your cross and follow me. He was asking them to die to themselves.
00:18:26
Speaker
Now, it looks differently for different people because he's asking us to take up our cross, and for Peter, for Peter that meant to die to himself and to proclaim the name of Jesus Christ until his own death on his own cross. Peter, the one who fought for Jesus and said, no, I'm not gonna let you die, later proclaimed the name of Jesus and was crucified on the cross. And so we may never encounter that, but we must die to ourselves, and so we identify with Christ in his death.
00:18:58
Speaker
We identify with Christ in his death and we must die to ourself.
Undivided Focus in Following Jesus
00:19:04
Speaker
We get to see a beautiful picture of this every single Sunday morning that we have a baptism.
00:19:11
Speaker
Every single time we have this tank up here and someone gets dipped in the water is a picture of this. And I'm going to explain this because I think it's been misunderstood a lot and I've said it. You've probably heard me say it, but the baptism is not the salvation. The salvation is when we acknowledge our sin in front of the savior who died on the cross and was buried and rose again. That is the salvation. The baptism is this beautiful picture of what happened in our heart when that took place.
00:19:38
Speaker
And he says, deny yourself, take up your cross, die to yourself and follow me. So I wanna read you something out of Romans that gives us this picture and it's Romans six, four through five. And it says, we were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. If we have been united with him in his death, then certainly we are also united with him in his resurrection
00:20:09
Speaker
For we know that our old self was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin, because anyone who has died has been freed from sin." And so think of that as that picture of baptism when we dunk someone, we lay them down and they're identifying in the death of Christ and they're being buried. Fortunately, we do not hold you down for three days.
00:20:35
Speaker
But then you are being born to a new life. As you emerge from the water, you are stepping into a new life in Christ, the living side of things. That's why it's such a joyous occasion when someone comes up out of that water, because it's symbolizing that they are dying to their old self and leaving that in the past and denying themselves. And they no longer want to be associated with the flesh and the will and the desires of our own heart. And we are now identifying with the life of Christ.
00:21:06
Speaker
And so if you see me cheering and crying when people get baptized, that's why, because it's such a glorious thing to know that this happened inside someone's heart, and then they're willing to step up and say, I did this in front of you. I love it.
00:21:21
Speaker
Next, we're gonna look at the actual part of following Jesus. We must deny self, we must take up our cross, and we must follow Jesus. For looking at follow Jesus, we're all gonna turn to Luke nine. So go ahead and grab your Bibles again and turn to Luke nine.
00:21:45
Speaker
As you're turning there, I'm gonna set the context a little bit, and you guys could go to 957, Luke nine, verse 57, but I'm gonna set the context a bit by reading a few verses, and in verse 22 it says, the son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and the teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. I'm just showing you that at this point in Luke, we're kinda sistering the time in Matthew that we were just reading, that we're around the same timeframe,
00:22:14
Speaker
And in verse 44 it says, listen carefully to what I'm about to tell you. The son of man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. So Jesus is constantly trying to break them into the idea that he's going to have to go to the cross. Break them into the idea that he has to die for them. And at this point they still didn't get it. And in verse 57 we come up with this situation and it says, as they were walking along the road, a man said to him, I will follow you wherever you go.
00:22:42
Speaker
And Jesus replied, foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the son of man has no place to lay his head. He said to another man, this time Jesus does the invitation and he says, follow me. But the man replied, Lord, first let me go bury my father. Jesus said to him, let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God. Still another said, I will follow you, but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.
00:23:13
Speaker
Jesus replied, no one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God. And so this passage is really hard for a lot of people because they struggle with it. Cause they say they think it takes Jesus out of his character. Cause they say Jesus is a loving God. So why would he tell someone in order to follow me? You can't go bury your dad. You can't go to your dad's funeral. That's not what he's saying.
00:23:37
Speaker
He's speaking to each person individually into their life. Just like Jesus spoke of the rich young ruler, he knew that money was going to be a hang up in following God. And so he said, you cannot serve both God and money. No man can have two masters. And so that's what he's doing is speaking individually to each one of these people. And let's look at each one of these people. And the first one.
00:24:02
Speaker
Jesus wants this guy to know that following him involves a significant cost. As they were walking on the road, a man said, I will follow you wherever you go. And so this guy was eager to follow Jesus. We don't know any backstory on this guy, but it's likely that he was following the crowds. He was watching Jesus perform miracles. He was watching him teach. He was caught up in the hype of things. Maybe he watched someone get baptized and he got emotional and he was excited. He said, I want to follow Jesus.
00:24:29
Speaker
And Jesus brought some reality. Me personally, I would have been like, come on man, let's go, follow me. Try to gain more followers. But Jesus said, I want you to count the cost before you follow me. See, foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head. He wanted that man to count the cost before he jumped in on following Jesus. And the cost is to deny self, take up your cross and die to self and follow him.
00:24:58
Speaker
The next man, Jesus actually extends the invitation to and he says, points someone out and says, follow me. But the man replied, Lord, first let me go bury my father. Jesus said to him, let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God. Jesus is not just number one, he's the only one. This situation had nothing to do with some man wanting to bury his father or attend the funeral of his father.
00:25:26
Speaker
It had to do with a man whose focus was split on following Jesus and something else. And so I'm guilty of this. I like to say, Hey, my priorities are God first, my wife, Kelly second, and my kids third. And Jesus in this passage is saying, I don't share the podium with anybody. There's no first, second, third. I'm the only one.
00:25:51
Speaker
You must deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me. And once we do that, once we submit to his will, then he brings us in and he's like, Kyle, I gotta talk to you about something. This is your priority. You need to take care of your wife and love her like I love the church. Your kids are your priority because you are the primary discipler to them and you need to raise them up in the Lord. It's likely knowing Jesus's character that if this man would have said, yes, Lord, I will follow you,
00:26:18
Speaker
His first order of business was to pull this man aside and say, hey, now that you're following me wholeheartedly, undivided attention, go take care of your stuff at home and bury your father. But the point was that this man's focus was broken between two things and we can't have our mind set on Christ and things of the world and expect to be following Jesus. Following Jesus requires no looking back.
00:26:45
Speaker
This third man, again, he chimed up and said, I will follow you, Lord, but let me first, and that's his issue. He's added the button there. I will follow you, but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family. And Jesus replied, no one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the service of the kingdom of God.
00:27:04
Speaker
The best way to resolve these three situations with these three men who are following Jesus, I'm gonna sound like a parent when I say this, but when it comes to following Jesus, there's no ifs, ands, or buts about it. There's no going, hey Jesus, I will follow you if you don't require me to leave my home. I will follow you if you don't require me to go plant a different church.
00:27:29
Speaker
I'll follow you if you don't require me to sacrifice anything, if you don't require me to leave my job. Or, God, I will follow you and I want to hold on to this area of my life. God, I want to follow you, but I do want to pursue my dreams wholeheartedly. Or, God, I will follow you, but let me first bury my father.
00:27:51
Speaker
or God, I will follow you, but let me first convince my wife that it's a good idea to follow you and then I'll follow you. There's no ifs ands or buts following about Jesus. It's you follow Jesus or you don't. And Jesus made it clear by saying, if you were going to come after me, you need to deny all your selfish desires, take up your cross and follow me.
00:28:17
Speaker
how this looks in application to some of our students who are graduating as seniors and moving on, there's this poll, right? You go and you have teachers and professors and even professors at Christian colleges, a lot of them are gonna say something that's contrary to God's word.
00:28:35
Speaker
or they're gonna be teamed up with a roommate that is doing illegal things, or one of their friends in their class is gonna try to lure them into partying and getting drunk, and another one's gonna convince you that it's okay to sleep around, and all these things are temptations that are coming from the world, and this is why Jesus structures this way, it says, if you're gonna follow me, you must deny yourself, you must take up your cross, die to your selfly desires, and follow me.
00:29:02
Speaker
Because when we do that, it's much easier to say yes to the primary position in our life than it is to say no to all the temptation that's around us. And when we're focusing on trying to figure out all the temptation by ourselves, we don't have the willpower to do that. And most of the times we succumb to that temptation.
00:29:21
Speaker
And so by putting God first, He elevates us and we identify with Him and He calls us set apart and holy and loved and justified. And we start taking on these characteristics of God rather than the characteristics of our flesh. I'm gonna close by reading my life verse. It's not my favorite verse, but it's my life verse. It's been around for a long time and it just keeps coming back. It's Galatians 2.20.
00:29:55
Speaker
It says, I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith and in the son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your love for us and we thank you for your example. Lord, you didn't ask us to do anything that you didn't do yourself.
00:30:21
Speaker
You ask us to take up our cross, but you went to the cross first. Father, there's so many promises on the other side of that, that we can find comfort in. And so Lord, that I just ask that as we submit to you, that you show us where we need to live our life and we follow you, not our will or not our pleasures. Father, we thank you and praise you in Jesus name, amen.
00:30:49
Speaker
I wanna do something different this morning. Normally we would have this as our closing song of worship, but something I do often in the youth is instead of just worshiping and then walking out of here and forgetting what we heard, is to just sit and contemplate what scripture said today. And so really you're left with a choice, like those three men, whether you're gonna follow Jesus or whether you're gonna not follow Jesus. There's only two options.
00:31:15
Speaker
You're like, well, I'm not going to decide today. By not deciding, you decide that you're not going to follow Jesus today. And so I want you to sit and just reflect on what Christ said in these that says, if you are going to come after me, you're going to deny yourself. You're going to take up your cross and you're going to follow me. And I believe that the majority of you in this room are followers of Christ.
00:31:36
Speaker
And yet maybe you're still holding onto something that you're not willing to let go, a part of your flesh, or maybe something creeped back into your life and it's become the primary in your life. It doesn't even have to be sin. It could be a spouse, or it could be prioritizing your children over Jesus. In preparation for the sermon, I came across this story numerous times, and I tried to research whether it was true or not, but I couldn't ever find it. But the Knights Templar, before they would go to battle, they would go to the church to get baptized.
00:32:07
Speaker
And they would get baptized, and the symbolization of baptism was that they were dying to themselves, and yet the knights would hold their arm above the water with the sword in their hand, signifying that they were dying to every single area of their life except the sword, because they knew what they had to do with it in the battlefield.
00:32:29
Speaker
And so what is it that you died to every other area of your life, but there's still that one thing in the flesh, that one desire, that one will of yours. It may be your pocketbook, your wife, your kids. It may be a deep dark sin that you don't tell anybody about, but what is it that you're not giving up to God? That you're not completely dying to yourself and handing it over to you.
00:32:49
Speaker
And so as the girls sing the song, I just encourage you to sit in your chairs. If you want to stand and worship, you can. If you want to come up to the altar and pray, or if you want to decide to follow Jesus for the first time in your life and commit your life to following Him, we'll be up here to pray with you.