0455 Give Up To Go Up

Give Up To Go Up

The closer to the cross the fewer people Path to deeper relationship with God doesn’t have a traffic If you’re in the crowd you’re far from the cross

Garden is place of prayer & surrender

If you fail in prayer, you’ll fail in almost everything else. If you succeed in prayer, you’ll succeed in almost everything else When you sleep Judas working, when you pray God is working Wake up your prayer life. Be successful in prayer closet

Prayer has to be a place of surrender not sleeping (JAPAN) Surrender ends the fight. Submit to God and resist and he will flee God takes full responsibility of life of person that’s fully surrendered to Him Jacob fought with God in prayer, and won Hezekiah didn’t surrender, He suffered

What happens after the Garden? Death or Denial? Garden is not final but beginning Surrender has to lead to Sacrifice, not away from Sacrifice

Hold on to God when everything around is falling apart Surrender didn’t bring a crown but chains Hold on to Giver instead of gift of life Seasons will change your clothes, don’t let it change your faith – spiritual allergies

Serve others when you’re hurting the most Minister to people in the rock bottom, learn to serve when you’re in the worse season of your life (Joseph, Job, Ab) Sometimes what you do for others, God will do for you Jesus healed soldier, saved criminal, provided for his mom

Sacrifice is not a wall but a door into a new life Cross makes you unrecognizable Cross makes you overcome limitations – devotions or devotion Sacrifice is the foundation for success. You must give up to go up If you want new level, be willing to let go of old devil America’s Founding Fathers. Church fathers. Jesus as Savior, Judas as sinner, Disciples as saints To run the race you have to give up not only sin but also self….

Sunday morning December 1941 Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. On September 2, 1945 World War II officially ended cause Japan signed complete and unconditional surrender to Allied powers. US – led economic recovery plan. Japan recovered from Hiroshima and Nagasaki and now is of the most productive and peaceful countries in the world.

Fifty-six men signed the Declaration of Independence. Their conviction resulted in untold sufferings for themselves and their families. Of the 56 men, five were captured by the British and tortured before they died. Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. Two lost their sons in the Revolutionary Army. Another had two sons captured. Nine of the fifty-six fought and died from wounds or hardships of the war. Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships sunk by the British navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts and died in poverty. At the battle of Yorktown, the British General Cornwallis had taken over Thomas Nelson's home for his headquarters. Nelson quietly ordered General George Washington to open fire on the Nelson home. The home was destroyed and Nelson died bankrupt. John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was dying. Their thirteen children fled for their lives. His fields and mill were destroyed. For over a year, he lived in forest and caves, returning home only to find his wife dead and his children vanished. A few weeks later, he died from exhaustion.

Around 34 A.D., one year after the crucifixion of Jesus, Stephen was thrown out of Jerusalem and stoned to death. Approximately 2,000 Christians suffered martyrdom in Jerusalem during this period. About 10 years later, James, the son of Zebedee and the elder brother of John, was killed when Herod Agrippa arrived as governor of Judea. Around 54 A.D., Philip, a disciple from Bethsaida, in Galilee, suffered martyrdom at Heliopolis, in Phrygia. He was scourged, thrown into prison, and afterwards crucified. About six years later, Matthew, the tax-collector from Nazareth who wrote his gospel in Hebrew, was preaching in Ethiopia when he suffered martyrdom by the sword.  James, the brother of Jesus, administered the early church in Jerusalem and was the author of an Epistle by his name. At age 94, he was beat and stoned, and finally had his brains bashed out with a fuller's club.  Matthias was the apostle who filled the vacant place of Judas. He was stoned at Jerusalem and then beheaded.  Andrew was the brother of Peter who preached the gospel throughout Asia. On his arrival at Edessa, he was arrested and crucified on a cross, the two ends of which were fixed transversely in the ground (this is where we get the term, St. Andrew's Cross).  Mark was converted to Christianity by Peter, and then transcribed Peter’s account of Jesus in his Gospel. Mark was dragged to pieces by the people of Alexandria in front of Serapis, their pagan idol. It appears Peter was condemned to death and crucified at Rome. Jerome holds that Peter was crucified upside down, at his own request, because he said he was unworthy to be crucified in the same manner as his Lord. Paul suffered in the first persecution under Nero. Paul’s faith was so dramatic in the face of martyrdom, that the authorities removed him to a private place for execution by the sword.  In about 72 A.D., Jude, the brother of James who was commonly called Thaddeus, was crucified at Edessa.  Bartholomew preached in several countries and translated the Gospel of Matthew into the language of India. He was cruelly beaten and then crucified by idolaters there.  Thomas, called Didymus, preached the Gospel in Parthia and India, where exciting the rage of the pagan priests, he was martyred by being thrust through with a spear.  Luke was the author of the Gospel under his name. He traveled with Paul through various countries and is supposed to have been hanged on an olive tree by idolatrous priests in Greece.  Barnabas, of Cyprus, was killed without many known facts in about 73 A.D.  Simon, surnamed Zelotes, preached the Gospel in Mauritania, Africa, and even in Britain, where he was crucified in about 74 A.D.  John, the "beloved disciple," was the brother of James. From Ephesus he was ordered to Rome, where it is affirmed he was cast into a cauldron of boiling oil. He escaped by miracle, without injury. Domitian afterwards banished him to the Isle of Patmos, where he wrote the Book of Revelation. He was the only apostle who escaped a violent death.